Exactly 27 years after it debuted, Backyard Baseball ’97 will be available again on October 10. Playground Productions has revealed the remaster of the original Backyard Sports game, which will cost $10 on Steam.
The re-release of Backyard Baseball ’97 apparently wasn’t easy. Playground notes the original source code was “lost in the years since the 1997 release.” As such, the company teamed up with Mega Cat Studios to remaster the sports game, which teamed up with diehard Backyard Sports fans in “hacking the original CD-ROM and developing new game builds.” The developer previously worked on titles like WrestleQuest and Five Nights at Freddy’s: Into the Pit.
“This was my favorite game growing up,” said Playground founder and CEO Lindsay Barnett. “While we’re already hard at work on the future of Backyard Sports, we first want to honor the past by restoring the games that started it all for me and so many others–beginning with Backyard Baseball ’97.”
Last month, Playground announced that Backyard Sports was back but didn’t get into details. Now, it’s clear everything starts with Backyard Baseball ’97. From there, the company plans to work with Mega Cat to expand the franchise on multiple platforms.
The Backyard Sports franchise originally began with Backyard Baseball in 1997 and then included games like Backyard Soccer, Backyard Basketball, and Backyard Football–which the Kelce brothers wanted to revive. The series seemingly ended in 2015 until Playground announced this new relaunch.
Backyard Baseball ’97 is now available to wishlist on Steam.
