Front Page Sports Baseball

Front Page Sports Baseball is a series of baseball simulation games developed by Dynamix during the mid-to-late 1990s. Its simulation engine remains widely used for online leagues.

The first title, *Front Page Sports: Baseball* (1994), was released for DOS. It was followed by *Front Page Sports: Baseball Pro '96* on June 30, 1996, and *Front Page Sports: Baseball Pro '98* in 1998.

In batter/pitcher mode, the game uses a 2D view, switching to 3D when the ball is in play. Team colors can be adjusted, but uniforms lack logos. Each team holds 50 players: 25 on the active roster, 15 in AAA, and 10 in the low minors.

A reviewer for *Next Generation* gave *Baseball '94* four out of five stars, praising its ability to control every aspect of the game to recreate any historical baseball game. They noted that injuries, recovery time, weather, and amateur and free-agent draft options created a realistic management experience, while multiple camera angles, joystick and mouse controls, and crisp VGA graphics kept arcade play fresh.

Tasos Kaiafas of *Computer Game Review* called *Baseball Pro '96* "not much of a step up from the last."

Stephen Poole of *GameSpot* rated *Baseball Pro '98* an 8 out of 10, stating that arcade-style play was not the game’s strong point. He noted that graphics from the batter-pitcher perspective were decent, but there was no pitcher-batter perspective, and all players looked generic aside from skin tone. On the positive side, he highlighted a variety of managerial options in hands-on mode, extensive control over pitching (type, location, speed) and batting (swing type and pitch location), and realistic animations and ball physics.

The pb.ini file is a standard Windows configuration file. Each section affects gameplay, though some physical factors cannot be altered unrealistically—for example, pitch breaks can be adjusted, but a "Bugs Bunny" changeup or unrealistic curveball cannot be created. However, the file can be tweaked to make a pitcher throw 200 mph or a batter hit a ball 1,000 feet. Turf resistance, bounce, altitude, and temperature effects can also be changed. Pitching behavior depends on the count and game situation. All player-related factors in the pb.ini file use player ratings or a percentage of them. Most factors have a base number, with a percentage of the player’s rating added.