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Almost a year ago, RBI Two Baseball arrived on the Amiga scene to mixed reactions. It wasn't that the game wasn't up to scratch. Everyone agreed that it covered the sport of baseball fairly comprehensively and was on the whole (ignoring a few gameplay niggles) a thoroughly professional and well-produced package.

The problem was with the sport itself. Don't get me wrong, no one was of the opinion that baseball was the pitiful C5 of sports, but there was a strong tide of feeling that the game simply isn't suited to a home computer. The people who felt this most strongly argued that the thrill of baseball is in getting out in the fresh air, having a slog with your mates in the summertime and generally - well, getting physical. Playing baseball on the computer is like trying to fly a computerised kite - a pale, shadow of the real thing that totally misses the point of doing it.

On the other hand though, there were those baseball afficienados who waved two fingers at such poncy theologists and thoroughly enjoyed playing RBI Two Baseball on their Amiga all the same. OK, so this is all ancient history, but the arguments have resurfaced with the emergence TV Sports Baseball from Mindscape.

Now it must be said at this point that I find baseball great fun to play in the park, but find the thought of sluggish out a long season at home a tad daunting - and not just a little boring. Sorry, but there you go.

Having said that, however, I was pretty impressed with the range of options, choices and decisions that you're given here. That they're so extensive isn't so surprising, however, when you realise that you're in fact lumbered with not only the coach's job, but also those of batter, pitcher and fielder. In fact it would seem that the only job you don't get to have a go at is selling the hot dogs to the crowd at half time - sorry, in between each of the nine innings.

So assuming all of us know roughly what baseball is all about, let's take a look at what you actually get to do under the guises of your four different roles.

Well, firstly (as coach) you have to decide what sort of game you're going to play. Set up a one-off tournament match or enter the league and win the championships, it's up to you. Nothing too taxing there really.

But as head coach it's also your job to pick your team from the squad available to you and then work out the batting and pitching order. Each player has his own stats evaluating skill, stamina and particular abilities, and using these you must select your ball-breaking team. Some teams are better than others, but with 26 of them to choose from you should be able to pick a fairly useful bunch of jocks. However good they are, though, players tire quickly when playing, so the rigours of team selection boil down to striking a balance between skill and stamina.

Into the game itself, and as soon as play starts you slap on your cap and climb the pitcher's mound with a hardball in your hard. It's your aim to throw a fair ball past the batter without him hitting it, and to do that three times. There's only one fly in the ointment - the computerised batsmen are really quite good, dammit. Luckily, in two-player mode the opposition is slightly less on the ball (my little joke there) and pitching heroics are rather more likely. You can throw fast balls, slow balls and bendy balls - they're all just a couple of button taps away.

When (and I mean when, not if - at least in the one player game) the batter connects, you become the fielder nearest the ball's estimated destination. A dot on the pitch indicates where the ball will land, and you must try and get there before the ball does. If you're successful, you'll make the catch and the crowd will go wild. If the ball hits the ground, however, you must pick it up and lob it to whichever base has got a batter running to it. If the ball gets to the base before the batter, he's out. There's not much skill involved, and really everything's decided the second ball makes hits with bat.

Eventually (depending how good your pitching was) it will be your turn to bat. You swagger onto the diamond (in the guise of whoever it was you chose to be your opening batsman) and attempt to slug each pitch out of the ball park. You can bunt (tap) or slug the ball, but getting used to the timing is difficult. The direction, height and strength of the swipe is seemingly completely random, so really you've just got to hope that your Amiga's feeling generous. Running between bases is automatic, but you can sneak bases.

And so it goes. After three batsmen are out, it's time to pitch again. Then bat again. Then pitch again. Then bat again. Then - well, you get the picture.

So what did I make of it all? Well, the two player mode TV Sports Baseball is lots of fun, in a beered-up, after the pubs shut, with your mates, kinda way. However, the fact has to be faced that in one player mode this game seriously drags. Monotonous is the word. Really.

So, back to the argument at the beginning of this review, and you could quite easily say that this dullness isn't really the game's fault, more that of computerised baseball as a whole. Or at least, you could if it wasn't the case that RBI Two Baseball offered slightly more excitement, including comedy scoreboards and natty jingles to accompany the action - superficial novelties maybe, but they sure helped jolly the game along. In RBI Two Baseball the gameplay itself was also more varied, offering more hands-on excitement - it has to be seen as the better of the pair.

Which all leaves TV Sports Baseball a bit lost really. It's a competent but ultimately tedious game that really can only be recommended to die hard baseball nuts who fancy wallowing in a whole season's worth of stats, player rosters and limited action. In short, baseball should be confined to the park. There, I've said it.

Uppers: Fairly competently put together, and, since there really only are two decent baseball games on the Amiga (and this is one of them) you could do a lot worse than buy this...

Downers: However, baseball can get very tedious on the Amiga (especially in one player mode) and, all told, chief rival RBI Two Baseball is really the better game.

It's all very well put together - and all very tedious after an hour or so. If you're seriously into the sport and have a like-minded buddy, then, er, buy RBI Two Baseball instead.