Baseball

  Microsoft Complete Baseball Guide 1994

  If statistics, trivia, and baseball are your thing, then you are going to love Microsoft's Complete Baseball Guide 1994. There are enough facts and figures and baseball information in this package to keep you looking at the screen for months, perhaps years. The CD-ROM is not fancy, it is really a reference book which becomes awesome. Entering the program, you can choose how you would like to look at the information. For example, it can be delivered through the players. When you choose that option, you get a pretty decent biography, excellent color or black and white photographs and lots of statistics. If you don't know what an acronym means, there is a glossary to provide an explanation.
  The Almanac option lets you look at the history and story of baseball. You can get a season summary, look at awards and honors, All Star Games, league honors, post season play and final standings. Throughout the text, anything in red is a hypertext link that when clicked takes you to that person, event, place, or whatever. Returning to the point of departure is easy just click on the baseball.
  If you want to know about who holds what record, then go to the Records option. Once there you can learn about a player's career or a season. The same is true for a team. The write-up don't pull any punches. The entry on Pete Rose was quite balanced given the good and bad of this baseball superstar. If following a team is what gets your juices flowing, then the Team option should be the path of choice. You can get a summary, a complete history, rosters, statistics, team leaders, and a schedule of games. I learned that the Atlanta Braves were originally established in 1871 in Boston where they were called the Boston Red Stockings. Furthermore, they won a World Series Title in 1914 against the Philadelphia Athletics, but didn't win another World Series until 1957 (they beat the New York Yankees).
  Assuming you have absorbed great quantities of data, you can test you knowledge in the All-Star Trivia Challenge. There are eight categories including baseball characters, rules and statistics, teams and cities. There are two modes of play: the Pregame warm up lets you learn as you go and the All Star Challenge offers you one chance to select the correct answer. The Pregame mode is a pretty good way to learn and also have some fun. There are more than 900 questions, so it can keep you busy for awhile, and of course, the game keeps you score.
  The pictures and text can be printed and copied. The CD-ROM is low on action, but big on sounds. You can have random sound available, and while you are browsing, you will hear baseball announcers, ball game noises and music.
  To run Complete Baseball Guide 1994 requires a Multimedia PC or compatible with a 386SX or higher processor, 4 MB of RAM, at least 2 MB of hard disk space, CD-ROM drive, audio, VGA+ or higher resolution display for 256 color support, MS-DOS 3.1 or later, Windows 3.1 or later, mouse, and audio output. 1994, Microsoft, Ages 9 up, Reviewer: Marilyn Courtot