CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · General Reference

Baseball (Intellivision video game)

1980 multiplayer sports video game from Mattel

Cross-disciplinary reference desk with index cards, atlas, dictionary and catalogue
General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 5, 2026
Entity authorityQ4866420 ↗
Source-derived summary

Baseball (originally released as Major League Baseball) is a baseball video game produced by Mattel and released for its Intellivision console in 1980. As the best-selling game in the console's history, with more than a million copies sold, Baseball put players in control of a nine-man baseball team competing in a standard nine-inning game. When first released, Mattel obtained a license from Major League Baseball, though the only trademarked item used is the MLB logo on the box art. No official team names or player names are in the game. It was later released by the INTV Corporation as Big League Baseball.

Gameplay

The game consists of nine innings on a simplified baseball diamond. The team that scores the most runs wins.

Player 1 is always the visiting team and bats at the top of the innings, with Player 2 as the home team and batting at the bottom of the innings. The pitching player selects a pitch by pushing the controller in one of eight cardinal directions, each representing a different speed and direction. The batting player then attempts to hit the ball into play and reach the base, so that subsequent batters can move to home plate and thus score a run.

Editorial summary

“Baseball (Intellivision video game)” enters the record as 1980 multiplayer sports video game from Mattel. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Baseball, Intellivision and video can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1980—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1980. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Baseball, Intellivision and video.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Baseball (Intellivision video game)” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Baseball, Intellivision and video provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 5, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4866420. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1980.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Baseball (Intellivision video game)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Baseball (Intellivision video game) primary sources, Baseball (Intellivision video game) archive and Baseball research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Baseball (Intellivision video game)”?
  2. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
  3. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Baseball (Intellivision video game)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.