Play TV Baseball

Another Christmas goodie --- I thought this one was going to be a bust. But Play TV Baseball is actually a great game! It's easy to set up, just plug it into the wall and into the RCA input jacks on your TV. Our living room TV is an old Mitsubishi but it does have a few different input channels, so we can leave it plugged in.

Play TV is best as a two-player game (although it's ok for one as well). The batter has a plastic bat and actually swings it as the ball comes over the plate. There is some kind of accelerometer or something that senses the swing and sends it wirelessly to the base unit. You can also bunt or steal using buttons on the bat. The pitcher holds a ball which is connected by cable to the base unit. You use a directional pad on the ball to locate your pitch, then hold down a combination of three pitch type buttons (one combination means fastball, one for a curve, one for a knuckleball, etc.), and finally make a throwing motion --- don't let go of the ball! The same kind of sensor recognizes how fast the ball was "thrown" and it shows up on the TV.

Sounds complicated, but it's really easy to get down and the game just "feels" right. It's definitely worth the relatively low cost.