Chapter 20: Let's Get Real

“WOOHOO!” shouts Charlie, throwing dollar bills into the air, and doing a jig as they flutter down. Melvin whispers in your ear. “I’m kind of worried about him.” A robot attendant collects up the loose money, collates it into a neat pile, and hands it to Charlie.

“Well, Player, you did it!” Charlie says, “five hundred smackers!”

“So,” says Melvin, “we can play in the Realsports™ game now?”

“Oh,” says Charlie, suddenly coming back to reality, “Yes, right… the Realsports™ game.” He furrows his brow a little. “Let’s head over.”

The Home Run stadium seems dinky compared to this one. You change into a red uniform, and see that the locker room is filled with robots, all standing perfectly still. They stare straight ahead, eerily. “Why so many base runners, Melvin? Are they spares?”

“No way, Player! This is your team!”

You stare at the inert robots. “If I have a robot team, do I have to do anything? Do I have to control the ball like before?”

“You can’t control the ball in the Realsports™ league,” says Melvin. “I mean, it will still be me, but there’s none of that waving around. You’ll have to do actual pitching – fastballs, sinkers, risers, all that stuff.”

“Yikes, sounds tricky. But I just have to pitch?”

“No, no,” says Melvin. “You have to control the whole team. It’s like before, but you control them, instead of me. Try it now. Stare at one of them, and get him to move around.” You try staring at the robot on the end, and imagine it running back and forth in the locker room. And the robot starts doing it!

“Melvin, this is really creepy.”

“Well, get used to it. And speaking of creepy…”

Charlie walks in. “Getting used to the robots, eh? You’ll have the hang of it in no time. Which is good, because the game is about to start!” The robots spontaneously all run out onto the ball field. “Good luck, kid – I know you can do it! At least, I hope so – I got a lot riding on this game!”

Melvin flies into your mitt, and you trot out onto the pitcher’s mound. The field seems huge, and the stadium is full of fans. Melvin peeks out of your mitt at the stands and whistles. Then he looks up at you. “Don’t worry, you can do it. Just remember one thing.”

“What?”

“No spitballs! It’s gross!” says Melvin. You chuckle, and wind up, as a yellow robot steps up at the plate.

Put the Realsports™ Baseball cartridge into your Atari 2600. Choose game select 4. Play until you win the game. Post a link to a video in the comments section of yourself completing the challenge.