US 4,372,557 AGranted

Electronic baseball game

AssigneeMattel, Inc.

InventorsRobert M. Del Principe, David A. Reichert

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Abstract

An electronic baseball game which includes a housing mounting a display centrally on an upper surface. On either side of the display are operator consoles for controlling a visiting team and a home team. At least one operator selects two lineups of players based on batting averages, throwing abilities, and the like. The operator controlling the team at bat selects when to hit by depressing keys which select different swings and controls runners in the attempt to reach and to steal bases. On defense, an operator controls the pitches thrown by the pitcher and the bases to which defensive fielders throw the ball in attempting to throw out the runners. An operator may also substitute in his batting order to obtain pinch hitters or relief pitchers. A special feature of the invention is that the results of each phase of the game depend on the characteristics of the players involved.

Claims5

Dependent claims

An electronic baseball game comprising a display having indicia representing a ball, a pitcher pitching the ball, and a batter swinging a bat;

first input means responsive to operator control for assigning predetermined pitcher characteristics and for causing the pitcher to pitch the ball;
second input means responsive to operator control for causing the batter to swing at the ball;
and control means responsive to the first and second input means and including means for controlling the display indicia to simulate pitching, batting and movement of the ball, contact determining means for determining if the batter's swing causes the bat to contact the pitched ball, pitcher control means responsive to the contact determining means for altering one of the predetermined pitcher characteristics if the ball is contacted by the bat said characteristic including pitcher arm strength, and hit control means for determining the probability that the contacted ball is a successful hit as a function of the altered pitcher characteristic.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.