World Series: The Season

World Series: The Season represented a dramatic leap in audio/visual effects for baseball arcade games in 1985. The rather unique control method was a revelation for gamers used to joysticks and buttons. The offensive team utilized a spring-loaded "bat" on the left side of the cabinet. The batter would pull back on the "bat" and raise or lower the angle in a 180-degree arc to position if he wanted to swing high, low or in the middle of the strike zone. A similar spring-loaded controller on the right side of the cabinet was utilized by the defensive team to aim the pitch while determining the pitch direction and velocity. The umpire called balls and strikes, growled "You're Out!" or "Safe!" and the crowd cheers. Another innovation building upon the "High Score" table was the use of a statistics key, which offered the ability to track your personal in-game statistics by entering your initials and birthdate before the start of each game.