Hardball 5 modded

[Devlin]

17 hours ago, Yankee4Life said:

It is ok. If it is not all 1929 then that is fine. What I am going to do is when I finish I am going to mail you the new 1929.lgd and have you look at it before I let these guys have it. I am all done with the four teams you did not put players in. Now I am going to inspect my work in all of the sixteen team and then I will mail it to you.

 

Great! If there are no portrait requests, I would turn my attention to this one.

 

You don't need to send it to me first. I’m just happy someone other than me finished it! 😀 For a release it’s always better to have accurate rosters for one year or those playing it wonder why it’s seems to be such a mess. Some of it also had practical reasons. Like making sure, that good photos of the new players were available, as I planned to create portraits for all of them. And I figured out very late in my HB5 modding carrer how to expand the league to 16 teams. That’s why Willie Kamm played for the Indians. I simply had no White Sox back then but wanted the player to be included. I also kept the original 1924 Senators because I was happy about every portrait I don't had to create. And it’s a damn good team I’d like to face too. Only one question comes to my mind: What source did you use to decide on which pitches pitchers throw?

 

17 hours ago, Yankee4Life said:

How would we import these new portraits? They look great.

 

It’s very easy to share. I’ll write a little instruction and upload it later this week along with the new portraits. It does not affect a season already under way. At least not if you don’t mind importing 10 players manually.

 

17 hours ago, Yankee4Life said:

But now I have a question about you. I see you’ve been here since 2010. In the last few days you’ve made wonderful contributions in here. I want to thank you for this but if you wanted to you could have posted about your work earlier. There is a good number of classic gaming fans in here that even I am not aware of. I have been playing Larussa 2 for over thirty years.

 

Well, that’s not easy to answer. Various factors came together. The main reason simply is that I'm a notoriously shy person and feel very, very uncomfortable writing in forums and stuff like that (especially in another language). I am an introvert. That was the main hurdle all the way. Still is, to be honest. I am also always very busy and try to keep everything else to a minimum.

 

And then some contributing factors:

 

It’s unfinished and I originally really did not want to release it in this state. Ask ballfour about his 98 MVP mod. It’s probably the same. It has been a very long process. Sometimes I touched it not for a whole year only to make 30 portraits at once and abandon it for some months or another year. I never worked towards a release. I always worked on a part that was enjoyable for me.

 

I also was in contact with the guy who made the modern day rosters. I uploaded everything I had made to this point to dropbox and sent him the link, but he never reached back out. So I thought that if he’s not showing any enthusiasm about it, nobody will. You very rarely see anybody mentioning this game at all and I honestly thought radio silence was the answer I would get if I opened a thread about it. You made portraits for such an old game? Congratulations for wasting your time!

 

I made the last big progress during the Corona lockdown, but it was also the time I discovered Out of the Park Baseball. I stayed with it and HB5 stayed unfinished.

 

And finally, for some years I really did not want to contribute anything to this very forum.

I made a mod for 2k12. During a short vacation I tried to figure out Blender and spent countless hours on the first few faces, uploaded them finally and a couple days later another user uploaded some models of it in a mod of his own without any credit at all. Considered the time I spent on it, I was pretty upset. The years after it, I did not want to contribute anything here, because of it, to be honest. I’m over it. It’s forgotten. But it was a factor back then. And just to make it clear: 2k12 wasn’t my cup of tea. Sold it a long time ago and haven’t made anything else for it.

 

But if I really had wanted it, it would always have been possible to upload the mods elsewhere. So it probably comes down to me avoiding to post in a foreign language forum.  It’s way out of my comfort zone. It needed my wife in the end to convince me. After I told her, that you mentioned the game favorably and that it could be a good way to finally find out if somebody is interested in my mods for it, but that I was not sure bla, bla, she was the one pushing me to let the cat out of the bag. I would be so lost without her. 😁 Long story short: I’m just a very shy guy with a wonderful wife who worked very long on a very old game only very few people still enjoy.

[Yankee4Life]

6 hours ago, Devlin said:

You don't need to send it to me first. I’m just happy someone other than me finished it! 😀 For a release it’s always better to have accurate rosters for one year or those playing it wonder why it’s seems to be such a mess. Some of it also had practical reasons. Like making sure, that good photos of the new players were available, as I planned to create portraits for all of them. And I figured out very late in my HB5 modding carrer how to expand the league to 16 teams. That’s why Willie Kamm played for the Indians. I simply had no White Sox back then but wanted the player to be included. I also kept the original 1924 Senators because I was happy about every portrait I don't had to create. And it’s a damn good team I’d like to face too. Only one question comes to my mind: What source did you use to decide on which pitches pitchers throw?

 

 

Of all things, 1930's Who's Who in baseball versions. However there were some players I used to fill the Red Sox or Browns roster that only pitched a few innings of ball and were out of baseball soon after. Those people I had to improvise. The good thing is that if someone knows what so-and-so threw they can easily edit it and upload a new version of the 1929.LGD

 

6 hours ago, Devlin said:

 

Well, that’s not easy to answer. Various factors came together. The main reason simply is that I'm a notoriously shy person and feel very, very uncomfortable writing in forums and stuff like that (especially in another language). I am an introvert. That was the main hurdle all the way. Still is, to be honest. I am also always very busy and try to keep everything else to a minimum.

 

 

My God if you met me in real life we could probably be related. No kidding.

 

What is your native language? Because I have to tell you that you communicate very well. Extremely well.

 

6 hours ago, Devlin said:

It’s unfinished and I originally really did not want to release it in this state. Ask ballfour about his 98 MVP mod. It’s probably the same. It has been a very long process. Sometimes I touched it not for a whole year only to make 30 portraits at once and abandon it for some months or another year. I never worked towards a release. I always worked on a part that was enjoyable for me.

 

I also was in contact with the guy who made the modern day rosters. I uploaded everything I had made to this point to dropbox and sent him the link, but he never reached back out. So I thought that if he’s not showing any enthusiasm about it, nobody will. You very rarely see anybody mentioning this game at all and I honestly thought radio silence was the answer I would get if I opened a thread about it. You made portraits for such an old game? Congratulations for wasting your time!

 

 

While I obviously have not worked with him on his 1998 mod I do appreciate what he has been doing on that mod. Good mods take time. I like to give two examples of this. the guy who made the 1994 season mod (one of our best by the way) took eighteen months to make it and it took OTBJoel three years to make the Legends of the Booth mod. Look how good they turned out.

 

I am very happy to tell you that there is quite an interest in your work as well as you can see.

 

6 hours ago, Devlin said:

 

And finally, for some years I really did not want to contribute anything to this very forum.

I made a mod for 2k12. During a short vacation I tried to figure out Blender and spent countless hours on the first few faces, uploaded them finally and a couple days later another user uploaded some models of it in a mod of his own without any credit at all. Considered the time I spent on it, I was pretty upset. The years after it, I did not want to contribute anything here, because of it, to be honest. I’m over it. It’s forgotten. But it was a factor back then. And just to make it clear: 2k12 wasn’t my cup of tea. Sold it a long time ago and haven’t made anything else for it.

 

 

I really, really wish I had known about this because I would have helped you. We have two groups out there that steal mods and use them like they were the ones who made them. There are some Korean modders and Latino modders who do this.

 

i don't blame you for being upset and again I wish I could have helped. I don't care for 2k12 either.

7 hours ago, Devlin said:

But if I really had wanted it, it would always have been possible to upload the mods elsewhere. So it probably comes down to me avoiding to post in a foreign language forum.  It’s way out of my comfort zone. It needed my wife in the end to convince me. After I told her, that you mentioned the game favorably and that it could be a good way to finally find out if somebody is interested in my mods for it, but that I was not sure bla, bla, she was the one pushing me to let the cat out of the bag. I would be so lost without her.  Long story short: I’m just a very shy guy with a wonderful wife who worked very long on a very old game only very few people still enjoy.

 

Please thank your wife for giving you that push to upload your work. She was right, people respect your work as well as you personally. So thank you Mrs. Devlin!

[sabugo]

Just came in here to say that this is some incredibly cool work. And I don't even play Hardball 5.

Like I said many times before, I also do mods, but for myself. And I have this terrible problem where by the end of whatever mod I'm working on, I find something that should have been done better or that I'm doing different. I have a bunch of unfinished mods because of that. Sometimes I just learned about something new about the game itself and it throws all my previous work into question. Still, I have a lot of fun with it.

The first mod I did for NBA 2K14 was the 95-96 Euroleague (I have a thing for classics). Anyway, 10 years have passed, and I'm pretty much redoing all the stuff. Basically I woke up last week and decided to revisit this.  It's amazing how much I've learned, and how much better the mod looks now. That one was 95% completed the first time over. 10 years working on something like this might be a world record, or not!

Anyway, this is awesome. I'll be following this thread.

[Devlin]

17 hours ago, Yankee4Life said:

 

Of all things, 1930's Who's Who in baseball versions.

 

I never heard of it before. Found it on ebay. Looks gorgeous! I use the “Neyer/James Guide to Pitchers”. There are also mainly the more well-known ones in there.

 

17 hours ago, Yankee4Life said:

 

What is your native language? Because I have to tell you that you communicate very well. Extremely well.

It’s German. Well, I am an avid reader and a writer. That probably helps me out a bit (google translate doesn't hurt either). I still can recite most of Poe’s “Raven”, “Annabel Lee” and Keats “Ode to a nightingale” in English. But this doesn't get you very far these days. Alas!

 

17 hours ago, Yankee4Life said:

 

I like to give two examples of this. the guy who made the 1994 season mod (one of our best by the way) took eighteen months to make it and it took OTBJoel three years to make the Legends of the Booth mod.

 

Must have been a crazy amount of work. I still have my MVP disc, but unfortunately I never really found a datafile that worked for me. I win far too many games on the highest difficulty. It’s one of the reasons I always returned to HB5. The last time I played a season it was with my 1995 Jays. I started the season 10-18. And I enjoyed it. Well, I got a bit frustrated by the end … 😄

 

17 hours ago, Yankee4Life said:

 

I really, really wish I had known about this because I would have helped you.

 

Thanks! Well, you can’t have your eyes everywhere. It’s in the past. But there was a point in time, where I actually played with the idea to open a thread. If only things had gone a little more smoothly with the 2k mod …

 

17 hours ago, Yankee4Life said:

 

Please thank your wife for giving you that push to upload your work. She was right, people respect your work as well as you personally. So thank you Mrs. Devlin!

 

I told her. At first she was confused and then laughed at the fact that she was mentioned in a US baseball forum. She said: "Gern geschehen." It's propably best translated with: My pleasure!

 

Back to the game: I just replaced the color palette of Fenway Park with the one of Sportsman’s Park, to give the former a bit of a vintage look. Just copy & paste. This worked much better than I had hoped. Here’s a comparison:

[Devlin]

49 minutes ago, sabugo said:

Just came in here to say that this is some incredibly cool work. And I don't even play Hardball 5.
 

 

Thank you, that's very kind of you!

 

49 minutes ago, sabugo said:

Like I said many times before, I also do mods, but for myself. And I have this terrible problem where by the end of whatever mod I'm working on, I find something that should have been done better or that I'm doing different. I have a bunch of unfinished mods because of that. Sometimes I just learned about something new about the game itself and it throws all my previous work into question. Still, I have a lot of fun with it.

 

I feel the same way. For me the game is also childhood and youth. Every time I work on it, I recapture some of the magic I felt back then. I also have many unfinished stuff ...

 

49 minutes ago, sabugo said:

The first mod I did for NBA 2K14 was the 95-96 Euroleague (I have a thing for classics). Anyway, 10 years have passed, and I'm pretty much redoing all the stuff. Basically I woke up last week and decided to revisit this.  It's amazing how much I've learned, and how much better the mod looks now. That one was 95% completed the first time over. 10 years working on something like this might be a world record, or not!

 

I still have 2k14 installed just to play with the mid-90s Knicks every now and then.

 

49 minutes ago, sabugo said:

10 years working on something like this might be a world record, or not!

 

Well, I am working since 2012 on this Hardball thing. 😆 

[sabugo]

I'll take the silver medal then 😅

[Jim825]

When I was setting proper pitch types on my Total Classics mods, I got them from a simulation game called Baseball Mogul:

 

https://www.sportsmogul.com/baseballmogul.html

 

It has a full database of players and their attributes (like pitch type) going all the way back to 1901. While the 2024 version is $39.99, previous versions are less and the 2021 and earlier versions are actually free!

 

Since the Total Classics mods I work on are for older seasons, the copy of Baseball Mogul I got in 2007 still meets all my needs. 
 

For proper player rosters, I look at  https://www.retrosheet.org and for jersey numbers, I look at https://www.baseball-almanac.com

[Yankee4Life]

I played a game today and I have to admit I am terrible. Forget the final score. I struck out over ten times.

 

Mule Haas is about to cross the plate after his two-run home run in the first inning.

 

Lefty Grove is zeroed in on a Boston batter. Let's see what happens.

 

Hey, look at that! Another Boston batter goes down. This time from a fastball by Mr. Lefty Grove.

 

Philadelphia had a seven-run seventh inning to win 10 - 0.

[Devlin]

14 hours ago, Jim825 said:

When I was setting proper pitch types on my Total Classics mods, I got them from a simulation game called Baseball Mogul:

 

Thanks for the tip! I tried Baseball Mogul but ultimately ended up with Out of the Park. I checked the pitchers and their arsenals in it and the pitches given to them are the same as in the Neyer/James book I have. Haven’t created a player since playing OotP, but if I ever return to it, this will save a lot of time! The batting splits in the deadball era I run were balanced, however. But it’s all in baseball reference.

[Devlin]

9 hours ago, Yankee4Life said:

I played a game today and I have to admit I am terrible. Forget the final score. I struck out over ten times.

 

The moment I read that batters were hit, I thought I had uploaded an hb5.exe by mistake that I changed a bit, to get rid of the pinpoint command. But that does not seem to be the case. I tested the exe-file I uploaded. Works fine for me. Anybody else having that problem? How many batters were hit?

 

In exhibition games, sometimes the scores seem to be rather high. Within a season it’s much more balanced. Do you have pitching crosshair for both teams enabled? I have it on, only to identify borderline pitches better and get at least a few walks per game. It needs some getting used to, hitting without it. Especially against a pitcher with a 99 rated fastball like Lefty Grove. Pitches rated that high are very hard to hit with success in this game. And about that 7-run inning: Did you change pitchers without warming them up?

[Devlin]

A little update to the 1950s season:

- 20 new portraits

- minor changes to lineups

- a more classic looking Fenway stadium

If you haven’t started a season yet, simply replace the port.bin, the 1950s.lgd and the hardball.bin (to change Fenway Park) in your 1950s game folder. If you already started a season, please read the instructions in the zip file first and do not replace the 1950s.lgd!

 

Have a nice weekend! 😊

1950s Update.zip

[Yankee4Life]

On 8/17/2024 at 3:39 AM, Devlin said:

 

The moment I read that batters were hit, I thought I had uploaded an hb5.exe by mistake that I changed a bit, to get rid of the pinpoint command. But that does not seem to be the case. I tested the exe-file I uploaded. Works fine for me. Anybody else having that problem? How many batters were hit?

 

 

 

Sad to say only one Red Sox batter was hit. That I am very happy to say is my signature move in any baseball video game I have ever played.

 

On 8/17/2024 at 3:39 AM, Devlin said:

In exhibition games, sometimes the scores seem to be rather high. Within a season it’s much more balanced. Do you have pitching crosshair for both teams enabled? I have it on, only to identify borderline pitches better and get at least a few walks per game. It needs some getting used to, hitting without it. Especially against a pitcher with a 99 rated fastball like Lefty Grove. Pitches rated that high are very hard to hit with success in this game. And about that 7-run inning: Did you change pitchers without warming them up?

 

Crosshairs were enabled for both teams. I did not change pitchers because I was playing as Philadelpia.

[Devlin]

Then I misunderstood. I have to admit that the Box Score surprised me and made me a little nervous. I very rarely get results like this. Normally it's more those 4-3, 4-6 scores with 8-12 hits for both teams. Of course it also depends on the difficulty settings. But the reason I got nervous was because one of the last things I worked on was changing game play values. One resulted in up to 10-12 Ks against the CPU per game and at least 3 hit batters. 😉 Anyway, I just wanted to make sure I didn't accidentally put this in circulation.

[Yankee4Life]

Another game. I still can't hit. Those fastballs from the CPU are unhittable.

 

A nice double play to end the first inning.

 

Vern Stephens triples down the right field line in the fifth inning with none out. He did not score.

 

My obligatory hit batter occurred in the eighth inning when Dom Dimaggio was hit. If you look close

where the ball is you can see the crosshairs that helps you locate the pitches. This is very helpful in this

game when you want to knock someone down.

 

Yankees win 3 - 1. Still not a good game because I once again struck out too much. Either I was swinging

too early or too late.

[Devlin]

On 9/2/2024 at 5:16 PM, Yankee4Life said:

Another game. I still can't hit. Those fastballs from the CPU are unhittable.

 

Those fastballs with an exclamation mark are very hard to hit, if you’re not ready for it. If the pitcher has one of those, I always look for it, but do recognize most of the times, if it’s something else. Sometimes I am way early on a changeup, but that’s the name of the game. With the strike zone enabled, I rarely strike out. Definitely some more, if it’s off, but mostly because I am at least trying to work the count and it’s something the game unfortunately wasn’t made for.

 

If a pitcher has a sinker and a changeup it gives me the most trouble. Both pitches look almost identical, but are thrown at different speeds.

 

You could give a pitcher a 95 plus fastball only and try to time it in practice mode. There is also an option named "pitch to center" or something like that, so you can concentrate on timing only.

 

McDermott's ERA is way too low, by the way. Just checked his ratings: Nothing that stands out except his 96 rated fastball and the 64 against left-handed hitters. So he should have success against them, but struggle a bit against right-handers. It’s obviously not working. I simmed a season and his ERA was much too low again. 2.79 against lefties and 1.06 (!) against righties. 😕

 

I never simmed a season, to fine-tune those ratings and it seems that those in the Legends League generate more pitcher-friendly results (compared to the default 1995 League). How about that?

 

With some of those ratings that you can change in the player editor, I'm not even sure if they work at all or are just there to pretend more depth. Like "home" or "clutch". Others however, like "streak", seem to work very well.

[acunaMatata]

This is incredible!! I'd like to try my hand at modding this game as well. Are portraits done with hex editing?

[Yankee4Life]

On 9/28/2024 at 12:33 AM, acunaMatata said:

This is incredible!! I'd like to try my hand at modding this game as well. Are portraits done with hex editing?

 

Did you read the first post in here?

[Devlin]

On 9/28/2024 at 6:33 AM, acunaMatata said:

Are portraits done with hex editing?

 

You can create portraits in any good image editor, but you need a hex-editor to get them into the game. At least until someone more skilled than me comes along and writes a tool that makes life easier. But I wouldn't hope for that.

 

Are you familiar with editing 256 color images (and hex-editing)?

[freem]

First off, you've done some great work here. I'm really glad to see someone else is working on hacking Hardball 5. I've tried to make some sense of it in the past, but I didn't have enough knowledge back then, so my attempts always fizzled out shortly after.

 

However, earlier this year, I finally managed to start figuring some things out. The filename scrambling, team logo data (as well as import/export support, plus being able to use colors not found in the logo editor), player and team exports... Most everything was looking up! Then I started looking into the MSH files and ran into multiple stumbling blocks.

 

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I have questions, but I don't even know what to begin to ask!

 

This brings me to my other point.

 

On 9/30/2024 at 11:01 AM, Devlin said:

 

At least until someone more skilled than me comes along and writes a tool that makes life easier. But I wouldn't hope for that.

 

It's funny you should say that, because 4 months from the original post date, I had finally released a "proof of concept" of a Hardball 5 tool (similar to work I've done for AKI Corporation's wrestling games on the N64). Parts of it need to be restructured, though. It was originally meant to work with player and team exports, and league data + support for other files was kind of "bolted in".

 

Current tool progress & source code can be found here: https://github.com/freem/HB5Tool

[Devlin]

Well, Christmas came early this year!  I had to pinch myself to make sure it was real. 😃

 

I wouldn't have thought it possible for someone to pull something like that out of a hat. I am very impressed. To take it that far … Wow! Thanks for sharing! It's so great to see that there are still people out there who care about this game.

 

21 hours ago, freem said:

 

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I have questions, but I don't even know what to begin to ask!

 

 

Just try one by one. But I don't know if I can be of much help to you since you're obviously in a different league.

 

Importing images would be a huge time saver and would make it easier for others to add portraits without having to bother with a hex-editor.

 

So far I was able to exclude the bin-file containing the portraits from the HB5CDROM.bin by simply renaming it’s entry in the hb5.exe (where it’s called pics.bin). Renamed it port.bin and saved the respective data under this name in the games directory. Thankfully it worked. This enabled me to add to the file (instead of just replacing existing images or mess everything else up). Now only 4 values need to be changed when adding a new image. It’s size & position, the new number of all portraits & the new size of the whole file.

 

Considering your skill set, it suddenly seems in the realm of possibility to tackle this one. 🫣

[freem]

I'm gathering some more technical questions to ask later, but I'll start with the portraits.

 

You've done a fantastic job at making your pictures fit in with the existing ones (despite the varying art styles (and I don't just mean modern vs. legends players)). What does your portrait creation process look like? (e.g. What tools you use, any tips/techniques you may want to share, and so on.)

[Yankee4Life]

I thought I'd play another game here in Hardball 5. Yankees visiting Brooklyn.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Devlin]

On 12/2/2024 at 10:29 PM, freem said:

 

You've done a fantastic job at making your pictures fit in with the existing ones (despite the varying art styles (and I don't just mean modern vs. legends players)). What does your portrait creation process look like? (e.g. What tools you use, any tips/techniques you may want to share, and so on.)

 

Thank you, I appreciate it. For some years I used to have the habit of making 1-2 portraits after work to relieve stress. I found it very relaxing at the time. So there is a lot of practice involved.

 

If you really want to get into it, it's probably best if I write a tutorial (using Photoshop), but that will take me some time.

 

Is there a player whose portrait you would particularly like to see? Otherwise, I'll look for someone who doesn't have one yet to illustrate the process. It’s nothing fancy. Actually pretty easy, once you get hold of it, but a bit time consuming, if you pay attention to the details. The minute you start painting with pixels is the moment the clock starts running faster and you end up wondering where the hell the time has gone.

 

22 hours ago, Yankee4Life said:

I thought I'd play another game here in Hardball 5. Yankees visiting Brooklyn.

Good score! I haven’t had the time to play a single game since we last wrote. 😒 My 1908 mod for OTB is also still unfinished, but an end is in sight. 👍

 

By the way, did you finish the 1920s roster for HB5?

Edited December 4 by Devlin

[Yankee4Life]

4 hours ago, Devlin said:

Good score! I haven’t had the time to play a single game since we last wrote.  My 1908 mod for OTB is also still unfinished, but an end is in sight.

 

 

I agree it was a good game but when the computer throws the fastball I have no chance. I scored my runs on the off speed pitches.

 

4 hours ago, Devlin said:

By the way, did you finish the 1920s roster for HB5?

 

Well yes and no. There are a handful of players that I added to the incomplete rosters that you had that when I finished the rosters I found they are now on two different teams. Here is a good example.

 

You have Lu Blue (who is a future candidate to be covered in The Players thread) on the Detroit Tigers where he played from 1921 to 1927 but when I was building up the 1929 Browns I put him on that team by mistake. He played for them from 1928 until 1930. There are about four more players like this and I do not know if I should let it be.

[freem]

On 12/4/2024 at 1:16 PM, Devlin said:

Is there a player whose portrait you would particularly like to see? Otherwise, I'll look for someone who doesn't have one yet to illustrate the process. It’s nothing fancy. Actually pretty easy, once you get hold of it, but a bit time consuming, if you pay attention to the details.

 

 

Probably Dock Ellis. Apologies if you've already converted him; I was only able to look through a few of the mods you've uploaded.

 

On 12/4/2024 at 1:16 PM, Devlin said:

The minute you start painting with pixels is the moment the clock starts running faster and you end up wondering where the hell the time has gone.

 

Ain't that the truth :) I have spent months on certain textures for other games, just trying to get the details "right" (or "close enough", given circumstances).

 

I've made more progress with HB5Tool as well; 8bpp RLE-encoded images can now be exported from MSH files. I've attached a few rips from Yankee Stadium as examples. Problem is, some of the images will need proper colors swapped in... how did you manage to change the stadium-specific colors, anyways?