Backyard Baseball '97 has been announced for PC

Publisher Playground Productions and developer Mega Cat Studios announced Garden Baseball '97Remastered version released in 1997 Backyard Baseball. It will be released for PC via Steam on October 10th.

“This was my favorite game growing up,” Lindsay Barnett, CEO and founder of Playground Productions, said in a press release. “However, we are working hard on our future Yard Sportswe want to honor the past by restoring the games that started it all for me and many others in the first place. Backyard baseball 1997.”

Playground Productions Chief Product Officer Chris Waters added: “This is just the beginning Yard and Mega Cat. We are proud of the engineers who work long hours and overcome many obstacles to deliver Garden Baseball '97 back to the gaming community.”

Here's a review of the game via the Steam page:

Play like it's 1997

Relive the game that started it all! The original Backyard Baseball '97 has now been upgraded to run on Steam. Whether you're rooting for your dream team, hitting home runs, or just here for a witty joke, come back to the backyard and experience the game that makes baseball fun for everyone!

Play pick-up games, take batting practice, track stats, compete in single games or the entire season – you can even set the rules! Backyard Baseball '97 features all the realism and statistics of adult baseball games, but with simple, intuitive controls that anyone can master.

Batter Up, Playground Style

Field Baseball rules are a hybrid of Major and Little League rules:

  • No take away
  • No injuries
  • Bunting is allowed
  • Tagging is allowed
  • You can also practice kicking

Pick a batter to get into the swing of things and take on Mr. Clanky for some batting practice. Here you will learn when to click to hit the batter of your choice!

A nation under Pablo

For many fans, this is the game that debuted one of the most popular video game characters of the 90s or any era – the legend himself, Pablo Sanchez. Build a roster from the cast of 30 hilarious kid athletes that made Backyard Baseball a cult classic.

Game modes

  • Random pickup – Fast way to jump right in! The computer chooses a random team for you and itself, and the game starts immediately.
  • Single Game – You alternate with the computer by choosing a player from a random pool of characters.
  • The season – You create a team and manage the team through a series of 14 games. Competing teams are generated by the computer. At the end of the season, the top two teams advance to the BBL playoffs (best of three). The playoff winner advances to the championship series, which consists of the Super All-Nation Tournament (best of three) and then the Universe Series Ultra Grand Championship (best of five)!

Global leaderboard

Compete globally! Steam's Leaderboard system lets you compete with friends and players around the world. Track your home runs, strikeouts, grand slams, season wins and more in real time. See how you stack up and try to reach the top!

Basically, we are not primarily fans of video games, but also fans of the Backyard Sports franchise. Fans have asked for accessible and legal ways to play the original Backyard titles for years, and we're happy to deliver.

Without access to the source code, there are severe limits to the experience we can create. As an example, we cannot support gamepads or Steam decks on these original titles. We can't use the original 32-bit code to support modern macOS, because even with an incredibly clever wrapper, macOS can't execute binaries.

We can make the game run smoothly, integrate it with Steam achievements to test your mettle, and give you the chance to compete on the Steam Global Leaderboard for Home Runs. Baseball 1997 works well, looks better than ever, and creates a new installation for digital preservation within the backyard sports catalog, allowing the next generation of fans to fall in love with the title that started it all.

Development

With the original source code lost in the years following its 1997 release, Playground Productions teamed up with Mega Cat Studios to remaster the original titles and bring them to modern devices. Building a team of avid gamers and Yard Sports fans, Mega Cat has pulled off an almost impossible feat by cracking the original CD-ROM and developing new game builds to be compatible with today's generation of PCs. It was a meticulous process that required considerable time and effort to bring the game to life. Given the subtleties in this remaster, Garden Baseball '97 is currently only compatible with PC devices, but both Mega Cat and Playground Productions are working hard to provide. Yard Sports becoming available on multiple platforms moving forward.

Watch the announcement trailer below. Check out some screenshots in the gallery.

Steam announced the trailer

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