Backyard Baseball Remastered Without Original Source Code

Backyard Baseball Remastered Without Original Source Code

Backyard Baseball 1997 is back, and it’s sliding onto Steam like Pablo Sanchez stealing a base. However, before Mega Cat Studios could remaster the cult favorite PC game, founder James Deighan had to sift through almost thirty years of detritus.

Rebuilding from Scratch
The original source code for the game was missing, and Deighan had to rely on a copy of the disc of Baseball ’97 to start the remastering process. Luke Usher, an engineer who specializes in emulators, worked with Deighan to modify the game to run on modern systems. They also met John Simon, an engineer who had been modding the Backyard Sports games for fun.

Modifying Assets and Scripts

Simon used ScummVM, an open source interpreter of the game engine, to modify assets and scripts from Backyard Baseball. However, Mega Cat still had the problem of getting the retooled Backyard Baseball to run on modern devices. Usher built a framework that could hijack the game and apply patches, make changes, and fix bugs.

A Dream Project

The team at Mega Cat spent a lot of time working on the remaster, but they didn’t lose sight of the joy of bringing Backyard Baseball back to life. The game has an enduring fanbase, and the team decided to keep the game true to its original version. They added Steam achievements for players who want an extra challenge.

What’s Next

Backyard Baseball 1997 is now available on Steam, and Mega Cat’s work isn’t done. They will also be remastering other games in the Backyard Sports series, including Backyard Soccer ’98, Backyard Football ’99, and more.