Link (http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/878/878355p1.html)
Wow, awesome news. You figure they have to spice it up with more teams, don't ya? Hell, they should have hired nightwulf and myself - we would have found a way to get 50 teams in there.
This means its only a matter of time before Im beating someone's ass in RBI over the xbox live.
No bandwidth issues with XBox live on the re-released NES games? This could be HUGE
there are no re-released NES games on xbox live...they are all on the wii. i bet that this is either an arcade port or an updated version of the original. i am hoping for an updated version with (please god) season mode...but we shall see.
I'd prefer the authentic version so we can all play online. I'd buy an XBox 360 for this reason alone...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Xbox_Live_Arcade_games
a quick review of the list of games already offered on xbox 360 live make the idea of owning one quite titilating. most of the desireable games are 400 points, which i believe equates to five dollars. some gems that have already been released:
Doom
Double Dragon (arcade)
Tempest
Warlords
Super Puzzle Fighter (i used to play the hell out of this when i was 16/17, great puzzle game)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade
Gauntlet
gantry and i played a hell of a lot of gauntlet the day before we left for Rdub's wedding, i think we played through TMNT as well. we also played through some natty ice and some other truly foul beers.
But I'm still concerned about how authentic RBI will be based on the other XBox games released. This is really the first NES game or NES arcade game?
yes, which is why i think it will be an arcade port. double dragon and contra are on the list of released xbox live games, but they are arcade ports
Well the arcade port of RBI was literally the NES engine for the most part. I'm pretty sure the other games are completely different beasts in the arcade realm...
either way this goes, do you think it will be possible to edit the rom/software?
I have no idea how the XBox live internals work, but I doubt it. I don't think the 360 is as hackable as the original XBox and I'd have to assume that the XBox Live does checksums to the original games to make sure folks don't cheat. That being said, I've never played with it but as soon as RBI is available on the 360 and it's not a scam I'll be buying a system.
so, pretty much yes or no?
the article may have mentioned this and I'm too lazy to go look again, but when is this supposed to take place?
I don't know, somebody re-read the article and tell us!
The only thing it says is that it's rated E for Everyone (it was discovered by someone finding it in the ESRB's database), and that it's being published by Six Degrees Games. I checked out their website (http://www.sixdegreesgames.com/index.php), and it's pretty much useless. I entered an email address on the main page, and I'll also send an email to their "Contact Us" address to see if maybe I can track down some more information.
The platform is quite disappointing, as I just got a Wii and have zero desire to get a 360 (I hate XBox controllers, I don't game enough to have two new systems, and I am not interested in a monthly fee for online gaming like XBox Live has). I was kind of hoping RBI would make Nintendo's Virtual Console, even though I know there's virtually zero chance of that happening since Tengen no longer exists and was not exactly best friends of Nintendo for making unlicensed cartridges.
Tengen is technically owned by somebody, I think Williams gaming bought them out?
According to Wiki, they were a subsidiary of Atari, and the name was dropped when Atari was bought out by Time Warner. I was unaware of this (although I should've guessed the Atari link, seeing as how Atari published the arcade version).
Tengen was a subsidiary of Atari Games which was spunoff from Atari proper. Then Atari Games was bought out by Time Warner, at least I think that's how it went.
I just sent an email to the Six Degrees Games contact address asking if they had any more information for us... I'll let you all know if I hear anything back.
FAGABEEFE!
I've received a reply:
Jarid,
I'm a senior producer at Six Degrees Games and ultimately responsible for R.B.I. Baseball, currently being developed for Xbox LIVE.
We're not really responding to formal inquiries about the game at this time, but as R.B.I. Baseball fans, we relate to you in a big way. It's that same love for R.B.I. Baseball that made us sidetrack from the development of our virtual world (Action AllStars for young sports enthusiasts) in order to remake this awesome game for LIVE.
It's not a port, but the re-write is being done by people who were members of the old R.B.I. Baseball development team, and so a lot of the old nuances are being preserved. It's still easy, fast and fun baseball that doesn't require a complicated control scheme and it will feature the present day MLB teams and players.
We're having a ball testing it! The feedback from external groups is really positive, and I hope you can wait just a little longer while we put the final tuning on the game. There's not much more I can say than that, and I won't be able to answer any direct questions at this time.
Best regards,
Jason Ray
Sr. Producer
Six Degrees Games
Darrell Evans for MVP!
---
I asked him for permission to post his email here, and he ended that reply with "PS. I hope you'll someday update the drinking game rules for the 2008 version of RBI..."
This is outstanding news. Great work, Beef. Would it be acceptable to use this information at Your Face?
awesome work beef
and thanks to Jason for responding
sounds like it will not quite be the same game but having people who were on board for the original RBI can't be bad
The PS is the best part. Pat on the back to Jason.
We need to start a letter writing campaign to make sure there's no diving/leaping skinny players.
I am officially pumped for this, but a rewrite may lose some of the luster to us "take the game too seriously" players. The confusing part of that email is the
"the re-write is being done by people who were members of the old R.B.I. Baseball development team"
Because as far as I know, Peter Lipson was the only guy who ported RBI from Family Stadium. Though perhaps it means guys on the RBI 2&3 coding, not sure. Either way, these guys have their hearts in the right place so I think it'll be a success.
Will Gantry be the only person in the world that buys an XBOX 360 to play a re-make of a 23 year old game? I think yes.
well, it's only a 21 year old game...and i have been on the fence regarding buying a 360 for a while now, this may be the thing that puts me over the edge.
it's really cool that it is being updated, but for the love of god, PLEASE LET IT HAVE A SEASON MODE WITH STAT TRACKING!
You know that this game will never pass any of your standards and you'll all be disappointed. Also realize, you'll have to buy a 360 and then buy XBOX LIVE which is an extra $50/year.
Quote from: John Kreese on 06/03/08, 11:02:11 PM
You know that this game will never pass any of your standards and you'll all be disappointed. Also realize, you'll have to buy a 360 and then buy XBOX LIVE which is an extra $50/year.
Have no fear. Even that milk addict Gerlost can afford that $50 a year. He may have to cut down to 1% though.
Quote from: fightonusc on 06/03/08, 05:42:43 PM
This is outstanding news. Great work, Beef. Would it be acceptable to use this information at Your Face?
I checked with Jason just to make sure, and he pointed out that if he wanted to keep the info confidential, he'd have ignored me in the first place. Fire away.
I demand that the blogosphere posts long and hard about this updated RBI.
fighton would never let you down, Gantry. (http://www.yourfaceisasportsblog.com/2008/06/rbi-baseball-its-backofficially.html)
Quote from: Gantry on 06/03/08, 09:32:44 PM
Because as far as I know, Peter Lipson was the only guy who ported RBI from Family Stadium. Though perhaps it means guys on the RBI 2&3 coding, not sure. Either way, these guys have their hearts in the right place so I think it'll be a success.
Considering that the NES game was essentially a translation of a port of a Japanese arcade game, I don't see how the original devs could be involved. I'm not really excited about a remake, but I'll find a way to check it out.
That's why I mentioned parts 2&3, I think they are basically US developed...
Quote from: Gantry on 06/05/08, 06:46:36 AM
That's why I mentioned parts 2&3, I think they are basically US developed...
I made a similar comment on fighton's blog - there was a decent-sized credit list for those, and I think it was all done in America, since the changes in the sequels never made it back into the Family Stadium series.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/extramustard/06/05/hotclicks.0605/index.html
Quote from: BeefMaster on 06/05/08, 07:02:07 AM
Quote from: Gantry on 06/05/08, 06:46:36 AM
That's why I mentioned parts 2&3, I think they are basically US developed...
I made a similar comment on fighton's blog - there was a decent-sized credit list for those, and I think it was all done in America, since the changes in the sequels never made it back into the Family Stadium series.
I love that Beefmaster is a loyal reader of Your Face.
Quote from: fightonusc on 06/05/08, 12:05:09 PM
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/extramustard/06/05/hotclicks.0605/index.html
I hope this "LA Dick" guy will join the forums, seems like a good guy
i hope kissie comes back with the design team.
humm baby!
Scrapping project for my own 2k9. :(
Somehow this is the first time I am reading this thread, and while there was some initial excitement, I am a bit concerned about the rewrite. I will not be the first to dish out the money to test it, but if others like it I may make the plunge and get my first new game system since I got a GameCube so my wife could continue with the Zelda series (was it 8 years ago?)
Beef built a rapport with the developer, I vote that he send a follow-up e-mail to make sure this is on track.
Done.
:-\
Just curious, Beefy...what'd you say? Did you get a response?
Haven't heard anything back yet.
I basically just asked if there was any news he was at liberty to share about the new RBI, or if it had been delayed/canceled.
Wow I forgot I had an account on here! Good thing I remembered my password.
I did find an achievements page for RBI Baseball on XBLA, so presumably it's still ongoing, unless there was a last minute abort.
http://www.achieve360points.com/game/rbibaseball/
Interesting (and challenging!) achievements! Note the icon which uses classic graphics. Also note these achievements are pasted elsewhere in other sites: my best guess is that they were leaked, or released under the notion the game would come out earlier but was instead delayed.
In fact, IGN notes that RBI may have been delayed because of another similar game out already (Stickball). They have a small section of RBI Baseball down here:
http://xboxlive.ign.com/articles/947/947225p2.html
It looks like 'TBA 2009' which is not really specific but at least it's this year for sure and at very least, from how I'm looking at things, it's not canned either.
Interesting... Take Two bought the publishing rights. Maybe this is why that developer never got back to me - they're under the thumb of a big publishing house now, with a tighter flow of information. That is a good sign from a "will this have real players?" perspective - Take Two owns 2K Sports, which has an exclusive MLB/MLBPA license (although I don't know what it means for the classic NES teams).
I'd still love to see a WiiWare release, but I probably shouldn't hold out too much hope, even though it makes sense, since the original was released on the NES. I would also feel more comfortable believing this was real if they'd released so much as a screenshot.
It does make a lot of sense, getting those sports licenses are tough, and nowadays it's usually only one or two companies that hold them.
I still think it's better off on XBLA, because it has a MUCH more robust online scheme than the Wii: if this has some good online play, it'll be miles ahead of any WiiWare version (imagine trying to wade through all those annoying friend codes if it had that!).
I know it doesn't seem to 'fit', since the original is an NES game (although I'm fairly sure we're not dealing with NES graphics in this version anyway), but it hasn't stopped developers from doing stuff like this before, such as Megaman 9's release on XBLA.
Quote from: chicobo329 on 02/12/09, 02:22:32 PM
It does make a lot of sense, getting those sports licenses are tough, and nowadays it's usually only one or two companies that hold them.
That's why Tecmo Bowl Kickoff, the recent DS game, doesn't have real NFL players (and why the NFL2k series basically died) - EA has an exclusive license with the NFL. 2k basically got the MLB license as spiteful retaliation.
Quote from: chicobo329 on 02/12/09, 02:22:32 PM
I still think it's better off on XBLA, because it has a MUCH more robust online scheme than the Wii: if this has some good online play, it'll be miles ahead of any WiiWare version (imagine trying to wade through all those annoying friend codes if it had that!).
I know it doesn't seem to 'fit', since the original is an NES game (although I'm fairly sure we're not dealing with NES graphics in this version anyway), but it hasn't stopped developers from doing stuff like this before, such as Megaman 9's release on XBLA.
Oh, I know XBox live is a way better multiplayer scheme, but that isn't my concern - I just want it on WiiWare because I have a Wii (and no intention of getting an XBox).
I really hate the monopolization of sports licenses these days, it really kills creativity and healthy competition among the games. I remember on the Genesis, I had four games with licenses MLBPA alone each made by a different company (RBI 3, MLBPA Baseball by EA, World Series Baseball, Hardball '95) and they were each great in their own way.
Agreed. It especially sucks since, from what I'd read (I'd only played the EA games), the company with the inferior game (Madden and MLB 2k) was the one that got the license.
The lack of a league license is an absolute killer for a sports game - I'm much less likely to buy the Wii version of Tecmo Bowl Kickoff if it doesn't have a license (I'd just as soon play an old copy of Tecmo Super Bowl with players and teams I already know), and I don't know of anyone who has even played All-Pro Football or Blitz: The League.
what about for the ps3?
So far it looks like just an XBLA exclusive. Maybe depending on sales of the game, the company may be inclined to make ports to Wii or PS3, but I wouldn't hold your breath.
who's to say they would actually need mlbpa licensing for rbi? they never had it to begin with. they could still change the names to take away a few letters or whatever, but still make the names recognizable.
Quote from: TβG on 02/13/09, 10:46:18 PM
who's to say they would actually need mlbpa licensing for rbi? they never had it to begin with. they could still change the names to take away a few letters or whatever, but still make the names recognizable.
i think they did have MLBPA rights...i distinctly remember the RBI commercial saying "THE ONLY BASEBALL LISCENSED BY THE PROS FOR YOUR NINTENDO!"
you're probably right, but there wasn't notation in the game itself. that's why i don't remember it.
The NES version had an MLBPA license; the arcade version did not. No version of RBI had a MLB license (at least, no NES version; not sure if something like RBI '94 on the SNES had it), which they got around by just using cities and not team names and not having uniforms detailed enough to display anything besides colors.
I don't know what they'd have to do if they wanted to use classic rosters for the new RBI - I would doubt that an MLBPA license covers retired players. They'd probably just go the virtual console Tecmo Bowl route and replace their names with numbers.
I think the old timers have to sign off on using their likeness. Some of the new baseball games have all time greats and some of them are obviously missing.
I happen to own RBI '94 (it's on the Genesis) and it still doesn't have an MLB license, just an MLBPA one.
What the RBI games after 3 did was for old teams, they would just give initials and their position for players that had retired. For example if you choose the '87 Detroit team, you get 'DE. First' instead of Darrell Evans. But you KNOW it's him because it's his initials, it's his position, and he still creams the ball like no other. However, sometimes some players do get the axe, likely on their own request or for other unforeseen reasons: Reggie Jackson is NOT in the '86 California team in RBI 3 and that leaves a depressing, gaping hole in the lineup (his replacement is Miller who has 0 homeruns).
By RBI '94, when most of the players from the vintage teams had retired, there were a LOT of players that followed the initials/position scheme, but they continued to have the same statistics.
My best guess is that if RBI for the 360 contains classic teams, even with an MLBPA license, they'll follow this scheme: proper stats, just initials for the old guys. Let's just hope that if they have the '86 Angels that they put in 'RJ. Right' instead of 'Miller' :^P
i imagine that the reason Reggie Jackson isn't in RBI 3 is because he had his own game on the Sega Master System (Reggie Jackson baseball)...so his name/likeness was probably under license by sega. My guess is that when RBI came out in 1987, nobody really thought that this might create a conflict, given that it was the first console baseball game to have real players. I would bet that Sega/Reggie Jackson's lawyers barked about it for the sequels, and hence, no Reggie Jackson.
That is a very good point, very understandable. Still, would it have been so much trouble just to put in 'RJ. Right' than no Reggie at all? Ah well, no big deal now!
I don't think this has been posted, but the RBI update is mentioned in this ESPN article. The mention is about 2/3 of the way down. I didn't read the rest of the article, so I'm not sure it's worth your time, but there is hope for an updated RBI and 2K Sports has taken the reins apparently. This is good because they have the MLB license, but potentially bad because their reputation for making good baseball games has been damaged.
http://sports.espn.go.com/videogames/news/story?id=4031526
I'm trying to figure out what version of RBI Holliday is talking about - he claims that is favorite team was the A's, and he goes on talking about all the all-stars they had (which would jibe with RBI 2 or 3) but including Reggie Jackson in that list. Best I can figure, he's talking about the arcade version - all the guys he mentions (Rickey, Canseco, McGwire, Jackson, Carney Lansford) are on the arcade A's.
I am still holding out hope that the new RBI will eventually be downloadable for the Wii in addition to the XBox... does anyone know if many downloadable games are multiplatform?