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Batter Up! Backyard Baseball is Available Now on Steam

Old School Gamer — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 12:11:39 +0000

Grab Your Gloves! It’s Game Time!

The neighborhood baseball classic is back in action! Backyard Baseballis now available on Steam with more ways to play than ever before.

Mega Cat Studios and Playground Productions invite you to take the field in 11 remastered stadiums, build your dream team from 30 Backyard kids, and explore six unique game modes packed with unlockable characters, achievements, collectible rewards, and backyard fun. No matter how you play, one thing never changes: it’s always more fun when you Play Like a Kid.

STEP UP TO THE PLATE ON STEAM.

https://www.backyardbaseball.com/

The first pitch is almost here, but every coach knows the game starts long before anyone steps onto the field.

Drafting your team is where every great season begins. Choose from 30 beloved Backyard kids, mix and match your lineup, and see who becomes your team’s MVP.

Your Backyard. Your Rules.

Take your first swings in T-ball, warm up in Batting Practice, or jump into one of six unique game modes. Backyard Baseball welcomes players of all ages and skill levels with tutorials, accessibility features, and customizable settings that make the game easy to pick up and even harder to put down.

Whether you’re chasing achievements, unlocking new characters, or earning collectible rewards, there’s always another reason to head back onto the field. The Backyard has always been a place where everyone gets a chance to play.

And Here’s the Pitch…

Forget everything you know about ordinary baseball. Unleash blazing FIRE BALLS, CRAZY BALLS, and FREEZEBALLS. Catch your opponents off guard with CRAZY BUNTS and UNDERGROUNDERS, then send the ball flying with the legendary ALUMINUM POWER BAT. You never know what’s coming next. That’s half the fun.

Chase the Championship

Some of the best baseball memories begin with a simple game in the neighborhood, and the all-new Backyard Baseball is ready to help you create a few more. Pick your team, head to the sandlot, and make every game count. You might bring home the championship. You’ll definitely come away with a few great stories.

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Thrilling Machine – by Noah LaPointe

Old School Gamer — Tue, 07 Jul 2026 11:37:42 +0000

When imagining the environmental sounds George Gomez must be used to, it may explain why he doesn’t rest: the erratic flicking of a pinball table’s flippers, the raucous ricocheting of a metal ball desperately trying to escape its containment, and electronic symphonies cheering players on to their next high score. That’s only part of the chaos that’s accompanied Gomez through his diverse career from the ‘80s arcade scene, to the home market, and now, back to where it all began. An industrial designer by trade, not resting on one’s laurels may as well be part of Gomez’s job description. He’s carried his penchant for game design and hardware innovation to the modern day, recently applying his mind to..

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Brett’s Bargain Bin – by Brett Weiss

Brett Weiss — Sun, 05 Jul 2026 11:34:08 +0000

When it comes to cheap yet worthwhile Atari 2600 games, the usual suspects like Asteroids, Missile Command, and Space Invaders tend to dominate the conversation. And for good reason: they’re iconic, easy to find, and still offer plenty of arcade fun. In fact, many of the system’s most common cartridges are inexpensive precisely because they sell so well. On the flip side, many of the rarer titles command higher prices despite being mediocre or downright bad games, making popularity and quality a better guide than scarcity when building a fun, affordable collection.

This list highlights eight under the-radar gems, games that are both entertaining and easy on the wallet, yet often overlooked compared to the big names. Price estimates are based on data from PriceCharting.com, though you can…

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Arcade Spotlight – by Steve Juon

Steve Juon — Fri, 03 Jul 2026 11:31:52 +0000

“I got a pocket full of quarters, and I’m headed to the arcade.” The song Pac-Man Fever embodied my childhood, but the times have changed. Physical arcades are becoming harder to find, and the ones that do exist face numerous challenges: The cost of electricity to keep them running, the ever-growing list of repairs on vintage cabs from the last century, and a generation of mobile and console gamers who may not see the appeal because they didn’t grow up immersed in it. There’s an arcade in my city that hopes to bridge the generational gap while keeping the neon-lit dreams of many old gamers alive. I spoke to Shawn McGovern from…

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INNOVATIVE LEISURE: A HISTORY OF ATARI – by Leonard Herman

Leonard Herman — Wed, 01 Jul 2026 11:22:19 +0000

When Jack Tramiel left Commodore in January 1984, he started a new company called Tramel Technology with several ex Commodore employees, and his three sons in top executive positions, with the goal of selling a new home computer. When Warner Communications announced on May 8 its intention to sell its Atari division, Tramiel then began negotiating with Warner to obtain Atari’s overseas manufacturing and worldwide distribution network. In July, Tramiel purchased Atari’s consumer division, which included the video game consoles and home computers, and merged it into Tramel Technology, which was then renamed Atari Corporation. The 900 employees of the former consumer division were not included in the sale. Tramiel rehired 100 of
them…

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The Music of JRPGs – by William Schwartz

William Schwartz — Tue, 30 Jun 2026 11:19:29 +0000

The story of JRPG music begins in that same ironic place so many JRPG stories begin, with Final Fantasy for the NES in 1987. After initially being thrown into the game without much explanation, the four warriors of light are rewarded with a bridge to take them further on their quest. But it’s not just a bridge.
Players are also treated to a crude, chiptune narrative crawl, a convenient excuse to show credits alongside the game’s now iconic logo. But unlike most of the music that had characterized gaming up until that point, Final Fantasy’s opening crawl was genuinely epic, embracing a story-driven aesthetic that served to define JRPGs as distinct from the more worldbuilding-focused CRPGs in the decades to come….

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The Retro RPGs that Inspired – by Matt Owen

Matthew Owen — Sun, 28 Jun 2026 12:28:59 +0000

Every now and then, a truly great game will emerge, revitalizing a beloved genre and reminding us why we fell in love with it in the first place. In 2025, that game was Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, a turn-based RPG developed by Sandfall Interactive, which wears its inspiration on its sleeve, yet still stands strong as a stunning, original work that appeals to both genre newcomers and seasoned veterans. Thanks to its extremely compelling narrative, easy-to- pick-up but hard to master battle system, and an excellent feeling of progress and adventure, Expedition 33 was quickly showered with acclaim from fans
and critics alike. In addition to selling millions of copies in just a few days, the game shattered several records, including the most award wins at the prestigious 2025 Game Awards.

To call it a success is quite an understatement. Yet, for as entertaining and engrossing as Expedition 33 is, it would not be nearly as good were it not for the games that came before it. Across the experience, the game mashes up the best parts of RPGs from the past..

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RPGS on the NES – by Mat Bradley-Tschirgi

Old School Gamer — Fri, 26 Jun 2026 12:26:17 +0000

JRPGs are a genre that didn’t always take off in popularity on the NES the way Japanese developers had hoped. Despite all this, several titles were still localized over the years, so let’s give a gander at a few of the most notable ones. For the purposes of this article, we’re excluding Japanese-developed RPGs that were ports of Western RPGs (Ultima, Wizardry, etc.). This list of JRPGs features games that feature turn-based and/or real-time combat. (Note that the Dragon Warrior titles listed here are referred to by the original Japanese titles of Dragon Quest.) Now that the rules are set, it…

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Bizzare JRPGS – by Matthew Floyd

Matthew Floyd — Wed, 24 Jun 2026 12:23:38 +0000

People who play Japanese role-playing games, such as myself, have become somewhat desensitized to the strangeness that these games can evoke. After all, there are very few genres where pre-teen kids are frequently flung into life-threatening circumstances, and all their parents have to say is “have fun, sweetie!” by Matthew Floyd

While definitely not “retro” by the standards of Old School Gamer, we bent the rules a little bit so we could talk about Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE, because it is both one of the coolest crossover titles as well as one of the strangest. However, even among the endless number of school aged mercenary stories that are common in JRPGs, there are those games that are truly bizarre. From Japanese Idols possessed by ghosts to a dungeon-crawling condom salesman, the following is a sample of some of the weirdest games that this already unique genre has to offer.

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Chrono Trigger: The Dream Project – by Steve Juon

Steve Juon — Mon, 22 Jun 2026 12:19:38 +0000

So you’re thinking about playing Chrono Trigger. Your friends and peers have already told you it’s the greatest JRPG ever made, but you were born
too late to experience it in its heyday on Super Nintendo. It only gets worse if you decide you want to live that experience for yourself. You can get an SNES or a clone system somewhat affordably, but a loose cartridge will cost you more than the console, while a boxed edition will cost you more than a PS5.

Thankfully, we live in a world filled with options. Not only has the game been re-released on multiple platforms over the years, but you can also currently
buy the game on Steam and play it on your computer of choice. Then, of course…

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