This is pretty great. I wish it were longer. There's a million things that could be done with this.

PEOPLE.

YOU MUST WATCH THIS.

GOLD IN EVERY SECOND.

Wow, I'm with Dock Ellis: I'd watch an hour of this. It's awesome. It's a "Final Fantasy"-style parody. Doesn't make a single misstep.

I literally cannot recommend this highly enough. I actually posted #2 before I'd finished watching it...and it actually got even better at the end, after recruiting Lawrie to the party ("whatever, bro") and facing off against the big boss, a traitorous back-stabbing John Farrell. That fight alone...nerd genius.

Yeah, me too. I was so excited, I was already passing the links to friends as soon as Jose Reyes joined the party.

Yeah, me too. I was so excited, I was already passing the links to friends as soon as Jose Reyes joined the party.

For me it was the moment the "White Sock" enemy made a devastating Artificial Turf attack on Reyes, resulting in his instant death.

Dock and Eso are absolutely right. This is extremely well executed.

I hope this inspires imitations. You could conceivably make a full-length game with just about any team.

i only have a vague recollection of the boys playing nintendo and even i found moments to amuse me. though i am sure there were 20 inside video game jokes that were missed

I found the lack of R.A. Dickey and Joey Bats disappointing. Otherwise excellent.

very aweseome!

Eh, I'm not a fan of this. For one thing, it is listed as a 'Nintendo' when its really a Final Fantasy one. There's no sound effects, or back ground music, and the original sprites that he does have are not good. And before anyone says "Of course it looks like crap, its supposed to be 8 bits!" There's a lot of 8 bit stuff being made right now that looks great like Half-minute hero, Fez, or Super Meat Boy.

There's no sound effects, or back ground music,

You might want to check your computer settings, because I heard music and sound effects in the video.

I would have gone for a video of double that length.

JoeyBats and his BoosterJuice!
Dickey and the confounding pitch!
Buerhle and his dog!
Wall-climbing Davis!

I didn't think much of it either until halfway through the video, when I noticed the level of the jokes. There's Gregg Zaun's launching an "ignorant tweet' attack while at Hemingways, Rasmus summoning his dad (major damage), Melky as the potion dealer (including 'fake website to cover use of banned substances' option), Farrell's long bland pre-fight speech and 'confidence shake' attack on Rasmus, Lind's 'hit lefty' option resulting in the attack missing all the time, Lawrie's helmet toss / 4 game suspension combo, and the other stuff people mentioned. It's clearly made by someone who loves baseball.

Also: there is sound and background music. It's pretty bad, like the graphics, but I'm willing to cut it some slack because the script was perfect.

You might want to check your computer settings, because I heard music and sound effects in the video.

You're right, there is BGM, but I had my speakers up to full and its still hard to hear. That's an issue with the video.

You're right, there is BGM, but I had my speakers up to full and its still hard to hear. That's an issue with the video.

Erm, actually I'm 100% certain it's an issue with your speakers (or perhaps the volume control you have toggled for your browser). The music and sound effects are, if anything, OVERWHELMINGLY loud in that typical old-school Nintendo-y 8-bit way, where you have to turn the YouTube volume down a lot so it's not overbearing.

Seriously Tripon -- something's wrong with your computer or your speakers.

Ah, who cares if the sprites are off? It's a 3-minute parody video and it's someone who hits all the Blue Jays jokes spot-on.

Yeah... complaining that something explicitly intended to emulate the Nintendo era doesn't have sprites as pretty as the some of the most well made current independent games is... let's just say not well thought out, beyond that it is just a brief parody video and the sprites look designed by hand. Also the complaint that it should be labeled Final Fantasy just shows an ignorance of video games in general.

Agree with the positive comments. What makes this is not the Nintendo references but baseball and Blue Jay references. You had John gibbons incomprehensible mumbling (Jay fans used to call him boomhauer) and Gregg zaun in a tie (he is an execrable analyst between innings) the John Farrell references, Adam Lind missing every time etc etc. There were a ton of jokes packed into a short video and it was clearly made by someone who follows the team closely.

Are you kidding me, The original sprite animation and overworld art he drew he did do is simply not good. Fine, you want a 'good' parody of 8 bit 3 minute videos that aren't the 'best' indie games out there, here might be an better example of 8-bit animation. Just because something is retro does not excuse poor artwork.

And saying that its not Final Fantasy inspired is just trolling. The battle system is ripped directly from FF1, the overview map he has shown mimicking follows the layout from the NES Final Fantasy games as well. I see no Mario, Fire Emblem, Metroid, or any other NES references. The sprites he did rip off are directly from FF1 as well. There wasn't even a ####### Kung Fu reference.

I feel like I'm being trolled here, and if I am, you ####### win because yes, imad.

10 years reading primer, and that is the strangest post I have ever seen.

And saying that its not Final Fantasy inspired is just trolling. The battle system is ripped directly from FF1, the overview map he has shown mimicking follows the layout from the NES Final Fantasy games as well. I see no Mario, Fire Emblem, Metroid, or any other NES references. The sprites he did rip off are directly from FF1 as well. There wasn't even a ####### Kung Fu reference.

The CBS story is the one that calls it 'Nintendo'. I linked to it because I wasn't sure if it's acceptable to submit a link to a youtube video. The actual video description just says "I think it was included on some Nintendo 90 games on one cartridge collection."

CBS and/or Dayn Perry probably labelled it as Nintendo because of that comment, and because more baseball fans would recognize "baseball" than "Final Fantasy".

As for other NES (or SNES) references, The Gregg Zaun fight reminded me of fights from Earthbound (in terms of attack selection, not graphics or menus or anything). He's like an updated version of Earthbound's "Annoying Reveler" with Zaun's insensitive tweet attack replacing the annoying reveler's grumbling about today's youth and lecturing attacks.

Seriously Tripon -- something's wrong with your computer or your speakers.

Or, perhaps, something else.

You're right, there is BGM, but I had my speakers up to full and its still hard to hear. That's an issue with the video.

I had to turn down the sound on YouTube because it was so loud. Definitely check your computer set up.
Or, as PF says, maybe your ears.

Is Hemingway's a famous bar?

I only lasted 3 seconds watching this, even though I'm a huge fan of 8-bit era and Final Fantasy. Some of you guys hyped this up too much.

#19 is one of the more unwittingly revealing posts I've ever read on Primer.

As for other NES (or SNES) references, The Gregg Zaun fight reminded me of fights from Earthbound (in terms of attack selection, not graphics or menus or anything). He's like an updated version of Earthbound's "Annoying Reveler" with Zaun's insensitive tweet attack replacing the annoying reveler's grumbling about today's youth and lecturing attacks.

Great catch! Yes, that's exactly right.

Gosh, Earthbound (the SNES one is the only one I know) was such a loopily inspired game.

Are we to believe this is some sort of magic xylophone?

Is Hemingway's a famous bar?

Seconded, can any Jays fans summarize the Zaun stuff?

Seconded, can any Jays fans summarize the Zaun stuff?

The link in #13 tells you what you need to know.

As others have pointed out Tripon, Earthbound/Mother is a closer fit to the style of game emulated here if you had to pick one but I would not even do that. Final Fantasy is not short for "retro jrpg," you are not being trolled and again, this is a joke video made on a lark by an individual. Your insistence on trashing it for not having professional production values quite unseemly. If it is so simple to make something more professional looking than do so but I suspect more time and effort went into making this already than you would care to devote to anything of the sort.

If this is going to become an Earthbound discussion, then I want in.

Not a Jays fan nor do I possess much knowledge of early-Nintendo (raised on NBA-Jam NHL '94-era Sega Genesis) but this was obviously very funny. And from an objective outsider position, post #19 is weird; that link is boring and clearly the Blue Jays guy was trying to do something very different.

And from an objective outsider position, post #19 is weird; that link is boring and clearly the Blue Jays guy was trying to do something very different.

Exactly, it's deeply, almost disturbingly weird. One of those moments where you realize that one of the people in the conversation is telephoning in from another planet.

EDIT: And the nerd in me wants to point out that the link offered by Tripon is alarmingly non-responsive too, because it's not actually 8-bit. It's a modern, high-res graphical production with an 8-bit sprite plunked down in the middle of it. It's not an actual recreation of a notional NES game, like this Blue Jays game is.

That was amazing and hilarious.

I do have a quibble with Dayn's lead-in though:

Regardless of how the 2013 season plays out, this year's Blue Jays model will be foremost among our thoughts -- either as the "it" team for the campaign to come or as the most conspicuous flop in recent memory.

Have we already forgotten the 2011, winners of the off-season, universally picked by every single ESPN predictor (which is like 40 people) to win the AL East, Red Sox?

jyjjy, you are clearly joking. I don't see the Earthbound reference, and as I have to be a professional to criticize something is just ridiculous. If that's true, you might as well shut down this site and the about 80% of the internet because the purpose of the internet outside porn is allow people to share their thoughts. I didn't like it and I gave my reasons why. Fine, you disagree with it, but claiming I'm suffering from some mental disorder and I'm from another planet is just juvenile.

And Esoteric, I posted that link to show what one can do with wanting to do 'retro' pixel art. That you didn't get it is my fault because I didn't make it clear enough. I'll be frank, if you're trying to reference 8-bit like the original video is trying to do, DON'T HALF ASS IT, or you'll get called on it. Which I think the Blue Jays video did.

or as the most conspicuous flop in recent memory

Damn that's short memory. When the Jays have their season opener the Lakers will still be playing out the string before they give away their lottery pick.

(raised on NBA-Jam NHL '94-era Sega Genesis)

I was raised on NHL 94 (my brother and I still have an active league running using NHL 94 that I believe is in its 13th season), and enjoyed NBA Jam. But NBA Live 95, and to a lesser extent NBA 96 were great games on Genesis. My brother and I made a 6 team fictional league using the made up teams. I forget the names, but going by memory there were the Jammers, the Slammers, the Stealers...stumped on the others. It was great, we played no fouls called, slow motion dunks...some guys were 7'5 perimeter shooters (Meatball Head was the best of that class), others were 5'3, 300 pound guards with max dunking capabilities (Santa Klaws was the best of those). It was a rough and tumble league, plenty of body checking and the slow motion dunks allowed for all kinds of mid-air tackles.

Our household didn't often have one up on friends, but the one time I did pity others in the neighbourhoods is when they had SNES. Genesis was just so much better for sports games.

some guys were 7'5 perimeter shooters (Meatball Head was the best of that class), others were 5'3, 300 pound guards with max dunking capabilities

That was fun to create such freaks. My favorite player, A$$wipe Johnson, was a 7 foot 6, 200 pound point guard. He was maxed out everywhere, expect for shooting, which he was terrible at. He could get me quadruple doubles (rebounds, assists, steals, blocks) while scoring under 10.

The 7 foot perimeter shooter - I remember the day that Jack Sikma first ventured out to 3 point land. I thought it was insane, a laughable concept. Sure started a trend though.

Oh, and to be clear, that is pronounced Oz-wee-pay.

If this is going to become an Earthbound discussion, then I want in.

I vividly remember excitedly following news about the upcoming Earthbound game that was going to be released for the Nintendo 64 DD. Ever since then, it's been impossible for me to get excited about games before they're released. I don't even look at previews anymore. Come to think of it, I also remember reading countless "Why the #### hasn't Nintendo released Earthbound for the Wii's Virtual Console?" conversations online.

I still try to play the original every year. The only thing that bothers me is you get the bicycle (and it's awesome theme music , then pretty soon after that Paula joins your party and you can't use the bike. Other that that, it's easily my favourite game of all time.

Genesis was just so much better for sports games.

This might be true, I never owned a Genesis or really played emulated versions of the games. That being said, the SNES had Super Baseball Simulator 1.000 and Super Baseball 2020. Both of those were awesome baseball games, assuming you're okay with having players capable of running at light speed (bunt infield double? Yes!) or pitchers who can turn the baseball into a fireball or a leaf that gently floats past the batter. Super Baseball 2020 had more normal gameplay (if you ignore the "everything past the infield is fair, there's glass covering the crowd so the ball just bounces back, home runs only count to center" rules) and the robotic upgrades were great.

The SNES also had Ken Griffey Jr's baseball game. If you were willing to look up the players and insert their real names into the game, it probably was the best licensed console baseball game of that generation.

Mega Man Soccer was pretty fun too, especially with the superkicks / goaltender immunity combos.

I really wish someone would make a good non-licensed arcade sports game. I thought it might happen when NFL Blitz lost its license, but other than that the closest thing I've seen is the Nintendo line of Mario Tennis / Golf / Baseball, and that's not quite the same.

I remember Baseball Simulator for NES. That was one of the great all time games. I'm sure the SNES version was excellent as well, sorry I never played it.

Speaking of Genesis games...probably my favourite video game of all time is Shining Force...I must have played that game through at least 100 times. Maxing out Arthur (the crappiest character by far) was quite a test. I played Shining Force 2 on emulator once. I was facing the final boss with only my party leader left, and I was about to die, but instead of casting Egress I figured I'd just take one more swing at the boss. I needed a stunning attack, followed by a bonus attack which also had to be stunning, in order to win...and it actually happened! My single greatest video gaming moment in my life. So I've never played it again since I'll never top that.

Among recent games X-Com reminded me of Shining Force. I'd love a version of that that focused more narrowly on the combat and had more customization/level upping of characters.

Really I could just play Shining Force forever if they just added more battles.

EDIT: I think I came off as more denigrating to SNES than I meant to. Growing up we had Genesis and my next door neighbour had SNES. Our families more or less had a "open door" policy. So it was the best of both worlds. I'll take your word for Ken Griffey baseball. Triple Play Baseball for Genesis was ok, but not great. My SNES friend had Cal Ripken baseball, which was truly awful. I think I'd take Baseball Stars over anything from the SNES/Genesis generation, though I admit I haven't played Griffey.

I guess this is a good place to ask the computer game nerds out there.

Is there a modern turn-based, large (8-15 member) combat RPG game out there like Shining Force?

NBA Live 95 - yes
Baseball Simulator for NES - holy crap, yes

These plus Madden Football absorbed a ridiculous amount of my time. And L'Empereur for NES.

These plus Madden Football absorbed a ridiculous amount of my time. And L'Empereur for NES.

My brother was really annoying in Madden 94 in that he was a Cowboys fan. Emmitt Smith could run back to his own goal line, draw the entire defence to one side of the field, then run up the other side and get a touch down every time. My scrambling John Elway was fun as well, but less effective. (EDIT: I still to this day have Madden's description of Buffalo's defence from the pre-game banter, "bend-but-not-break" seared into my brain).

Anyone ever played Give Me Libery or Give Me Death? That was a fun Genesis game (to betray my love for turn based combat again). The true beauty of that one was that you could play both sides simultaneously.

Is there a modern turn-based, large (8-15 member) combat RPG game out there like Shining Force?

Fire Emblem for the 3DS is essentially this, although with perma death.

X Com is very different, and only 6 member, but it's amazing.

Did anybody else ever play Earl Weaver baseball or Pea Shootin' Pete on the PC back in about 1990?

I wish I played Earthbound. Some years ago I was looking through my old things at my parents house and came across my old SNES and a bunch of games. I don't remember acquiring Earthbound (perhaps a friend lent it to me and I never played it and he never asked for it back) but there it was. I sold the games on ebay for a few bucks apiece, but imagine my surprise when Earthbound went for a cool $80.

Did anybody else ever play Earl Weaver baseball or Pea Shootin' Pete on the PC back in about 1990?

I still have the Earl Weaver baseball floppies... but no way to use them, of course. I also have the Tony LaRussa Baseball floppies.

I loved NHL '94 on Sega -- for some odd reason, I fell in love with the Buffalo Sabres (can't beat that frontline of Alexander Mogilny, Dale Hawerchuk, and Pat LaFontaine.... plus Grant Fuhr and Dominek Hasek as goalies... though Hasek sucked). The only problem was that the guys I played with were huge hockey fans and ridiculously good so -- they'd either toy with me, or, on the rare occasion I beat them -- they'd get seriously pissed and start tossing controllers.


The other real gem from the early/mid 90s Sega was Bill Walsh College Football... Something like 100 NCAA squads plus another 25 or so all-time great teams. In college, a buddy and I used to play BYU v Hawaii with each touchdown costing the defender a shotgunned beer. Even playing 5 minutes quarters -- we had some epic 87-85 games which would equate to us polishing off a whole case of Busch Light (you gasp, but really -- that's only the equivalent of 4 or 5 beers). Even not having played in 15 years -- I bet I could still rip off a deep post for a TD 90% of the time.

The only problem was that the guys I played with were huge hockey fans and ridiculously good so -- they'd either toy with me, or, on the rare occasion I beat them -- they'd get seriously pissed and start tossing controllers.

When my brother and I played we had a rule of no "cheap goals" (ie. walking out through the slot and taking a slap shot, which was always a goal). I'm generally a non-competitive guy so when friends came over I'd sort of screw around and they'd win most of the time. But once we were having a tournament with a bunch of people and my one friend was getting a bit too cocky, so I challenged him to a game, he could be any team and I would be the Ottawa Senators (the worst team in the game). I was beating him 13-0 when we decided to stop playing.

My brother and I had an official season going where we kept track of the stats. We also had injuries - there were in game injuries, either for a game, or a period. Period injuries we ruled to be a week long injury, while game injuries went to a die roll, ranging from anywhere to a week to two months. The guy who injured the player would be suspened for the length of the injury + a game, so the real drama was checking the replay to see who had delivered the hit. One game we were acting as the radio broadcast team, recording with a tape deck (my childhood had many sad moments), and someone on the Islanders delivered a max injury blow, so we turned to the replay to see who would be suspended and after an expectant "it was..." we both screamed out RAY FERRARO!!!!! (somehow Ray Ferraro had been the Islanders best player to that point of the season) and the radio broadcast was drowned out by excited screaming for a few minutes.

I sold the games on ebay for a few bucks apiece, but imagine my surprise when Earthbound went for a cool $80.

I hate to be the guy to break it to you, but unless your cartridge was broken or something, you got ripped off big time.

Man, Earthbound and Fire Emblem in the same thread. I bought Fire Emblem: Awakening, though I don't have a 3DS. I'll get one someday, maybe next year or something.

Holy ####, you're not kidding. $230 for "acceptable" on half.com

Holy ####, you're not kidding. $230 for "acceptable" on half.com

Whoa...

I have two boxes full of old SEGA, NES, and even Atari 2600/5200 cartridges, as well the still functioning consoles... Was never hanging onto them for any particular reason - just seemed a shame to just give 'em away or toss 'em out... I don't even remember all the titles I had - I remember playing Earthbound, but don't recall if I had it or a friend.

Methinks I may be going through some old boxes and checking online tonight...

Fire Emblem for the 3DS is essentially this, although with perma death.

The 3DS game allows you to turn off perma death in any of the modes. Good luck finding it though, Nintendo didn't realize how popular this Fire Emblem was going to be(You can't really blame them, this is the 6th FE they released in America) and they had supply issues just getting it into stores.

I am part of a small but fervent minority that believes that NHL 95 is superior to the prior year version.

I assume you've all seen the Game of Thrones 16-bit parody from last year?

Oh, and Shining Force 1 and 2 are each $1.99 on Steam.

We were fond of Baseball Stars for the NES in my household.