Manager's Choice Baseball

NABU Network, 1984 — restored 2026

You are the manager. Set the batting order, choose when to steal, bunt or squeeze, draw the infield in, warm up the bullpen and decide when the starter has had enough. The dice and the player cards decide the rest.

Manager's Choice Baseball was being developed for the NABU Network in the fall of 1984. Most of it was lost. This version rebuilds the missing parts around the original code, graphics and data formats that survived.

Where it came from

The surviving material is a folder of MACRO-80 assembly source, written on a NABU 1100 development machine. The files are dated August to November 1984. The source names L. Binkowski, and refers to "Pat", who was writing the game engine. There are also a few compiled test segments.

What survived was the manager's side of the game:

• Batting order substitution (MB530): designated hitter, lineups, positions
• Pitcher warmup (MB560): warm up and sit down relievers
• Player statistics (MB550): each player's card ratings
• Game statistics (MB600): box score and line score on the television or a printer
• The icons, character set and box-drawing graphics, the option menu, and the 128-byte player record format

Everything else was gone: the game engine, the play-result tables, the field and game screen, field placement, instant replay, the team rosters, the menus and any way to save. A test program in the source shows the missing engine's routines by name (initialise, display screen, initialise play, play routine), but their code was never in the archive. Parts of the surviving files were damaged too.

What was restored

The game is rebuilt in C with NABU-LIB and runs as a homebrew program from the NABU Internet Adapter.

Ported from the 1984 code

• The four management screens keep their original layouts and messages. You still choose spots and players by typing numbers ("ENTER 000 TO 999"), and wrong entries still get the original "rude noise".
• The original font, the sixteen 1984 icons (play, glove, bat, pitcher warmup, sit down, stop, instant replay and more) and the box-drawing line score
• Player records use the original layout. Each card holds A, B and C dice rolls against left- and right-handed opponents, plus at-bats, average, home runs, stolen bases, running and stealing speed, bunting, batter type, and up to four positions with field rating, range and clutch. Pitcher cards add ERA, wins, losses, strikeouts, innings, power factor, and starter and relief ratings for effectiveness, pickoff, warmups needed and throwing hand.

Rebuilt from scratch

• The game engine. Every plate appearance rolls the dice the way the original's variables describe: an A/B/C column, a number from 0 to 9, and whether the batter's or the pitcher's card is read. Range checks, errors and clutch defense use the fielders' ratings. A tired pitcher hands the batter's card more of the rolls.
• The cards. They are built from each player's stats, so a .300 hitter hits about .300 and a power hitter hits home runs. Over thousands of test games the league plays like real baseball: about 9 runs, 2 home runs and a .260 batting average per game.
• The game screen. It has an inning-by-inning line score, a diamond with your fielders and animated runners, the batter and pitcher with their numbers, the last dice roll, and a play-by-play.
• Field placement, instant replay, offense and defense options, help, and a computer manager that can run either team.
• A league of eight teams with season standings, batting and pitching leaders, a team editor, and saving to the Internet Adapter.

How to play

Pick the visiting and home teams, and choose for each whether you or the NABU manages it. Answer the designated hitter question, then adjust the lineup the NABU suggests, or just press PLAY.

Before every pitch, the managers take turns on the icon bar at the bottom of the screen: defense first, then offense. Move with the arrow keys or joystick, and press GO to choose.

Manager's tips

• Warm up a reliever before you bring him in. A pitcher who comes in cold tires fast.
• Watch the pitcher's stamina on the game screen: FRESH, TIRED, WEARY, DONE.
• Drawing the infield in keeps the runner on third from scoring on a grounder, but more ground balls get through.
• Players you take out of the game can't come back.

At the end of the game, see the box score on the television or send it to the printer through the Internet Adapter. The results go into the season standings and player statistics.

Saving

Everything is kept in the MCBASE folder of your Internet Adapter's RetroNET store:

• TEAM1.DAT to TEAM8.DAT are the league teams, with season statistics. They are created the first time you play.
• SAVEGAME.DAT is a game you stopped with SAVE AND QUIT. Pick RESUME SAVED GAME from the main menu to carry on.

START A NEW LEAGUE in the main menu builds a fresh league and clears the season.

Running it

The original game was loaded from the NABU Network in separate segments. This one works the same way: a main program plus three overlay files (menus, the game, and the management screens), loaded from the Internet Adapter as they are needed.

• Managers Baseball.nabu: the program
• MCB1.OVL, MCB2.OVL, MCB3.OVL: these go in the MCBASE folder of the Internet Adapter's RetroNET store

Coming soon

Real teams downloaded from nabu.ca, so every NABU plays with the same players.

Credits

• Original 1984 NABU development: L. Binkowski, "Pat" and the NABU team. Their source code, graphics and data design are the base of this restoration.
• The MEGALOSERS, managed by Leo Binkowski, use the test roster from the original source.
• Restored in 2026 with NABU-LIB and Claude.