TITLE
Baseball’s Lost “NBA Jam” Revealed
AUTHOR
Frank Cifaldi
PUBLICATION
Video Game History Foundation
YEAR
2021
ARTICLE TYPE
Interview
FROM THE ARTICLE
In 1993, Midway Games released the monstrously successful NBA Jam. This was the first time the company had worked with a professional sports organization, and it ushered in a brief period of quasi-sequels in 90s arcades, with games utilizing names and faces from the National Football League, the World Wrestling Federation, and even the National Hockey League.In the decades that have followed, baseball fans have been scratching their heads, wondering why they didn’t get their own “MLB Jam.” To this day there are references to fantasy versions of what the game might be.
What very few realize is that Midway had indeed been working on a baseball game in the Jam lineage behind the scenes. The game used the same photo capture technology as Jam, had similarly exaggerated movement, and a charismatic announcer of its own (in this case, White Sox legend “Hawk” Harrelson). It was a collaboration between NBA Jam creator Midway Games and Golden Tee Golf creator Incredible Technologies, attempting to combine the best of both worlds.
Cabinets were made and put out for test briefly in the Chicago area before the game was quietly canceled, and with the exception of those few players who happened to play it at the time, the game was never seen, relegated to the occasional rumor or whisper online. Until now.
For the first time since 1996, by way of our Video Game Source Project, here’s Power-Up Baseball.
COMPANIES MENTIONED
Incredible Technologies
Midway
GAMES MENTIONED
Power-Up Baseball
PEOPLE MENTIONED
John Newcomer
Alan Noon
Chris Oberth
Roger Sharpe
Brian Smolik
TOPICS MENTIONED
Canceled Games