Ken Griffey Jr. Presents Major League Baseball (SNES)

Ken Griffey Jr. Presents Major League Baseball

Platform: SNES Year: 1994 Developer: Software Creations

Ken Griffey Jr. Presents Major League Baseball is one of many baseball simulation games for the SNES. The game features the MLB player Ken Griffey Jr. The game features the Major League teams, as well as over 700 players to play as, and all the respective stadiums. You can play a Single Player game, All-Star, World Series, and Season.

The game was developed by Software Creations (though the staff were taken to Seattle, Washington to develop the game), and published by Nintendo themselves.

The game was later ported to the Game Boy.

The SNES version of the game received positive reviews from critics for the game's smooth controls, gameplay, graphics, and music.

Screenshots

The title screen. The main menu. Selecting a team. Playing a game of baseball. The field view. Home Run!.

Music

Ken Griffey Jr. Presents Major League Baseball has a short amount of music. The music has a rock feel to it, and also captures the grungy sound from Seattle at the time. There are only three full songs, with the rest being jingles. All the game's audio was done by Matthew Cannon and Chris Jojo. This was Chris's first game.

According to Chris Jojo, he and Matthew worked on the title (Ken Griffey Jr's Theme) and in-game (Play Ball!) tunes, though they were mostly written by Chris. Matthew had taught Chris how to create music data for the SNES. According to Jojo, one of his inspirations for the title music was George Lynch. Chris also said that he wrote the ending music (World Series Champions). Chris said that the game's producer, Brian Ulrich, told the composers what kind of music he wanted in the game. While most of the development team was in Seattle during the game's development, Chris and Matthew did all the game's audio in England. Chris also pointed out the "Aw, come on!" voice sample heard in the game is taken from the movie The Man with One Red Shoe. Chris explains:

“

Ken Griffey was my first project for Software Creations, Matt did indeed train me when I started. Matt wrote the front end music, and an in-game tune as I recall. I did all of the sfx and the end credits music. We both worked with Producer Brian Ulrich who was very specific about what he wanted. I had to write the closing credits on New Years Eve (An eleventh hour addition) I was locked in 4 Park Place with a jug of coffee in Mike Webb's office and came out at 8am and went straight to bed!

„

Chris used both instrument samples from Tim Follin, as well as creating his own from various synthesizers.

According to Matthew:

“

I wrote the title music for Ken Griffey on SNES. Chris Jojo had just started at Creations and he sat with me to learn about the process.

„

Though Cannon took credit for the title music, Chris Jojo explained that he was in fact the main composer while Cannon assisted him. Jojo said the title track was inspired by George Lynch.

To create the music, the composers wrote the music in 65C816 assembly language in Software Creation's sound driver by Mike Webb.

Recording

#	Title	Composer	Arranger	Length	Listen	Download
01	Ken Griffey Jr's Theme	Chris Jojo, Matthew Cannon	Chris Jojo, Matthew Cannon	3:18		Download
02	Play Ball!	Chris Jojo, Matthew Cannon	Chris Jojo, Matthew Cannon	3:41		Download
03	World Series Champions	Chris Jojo	Chris Jojo	4:08		Download
04	American National Anthem	John Stafford Smith	Chris Jojo, Matthew Cannon	0:11		Download
05	Canadian National Anthem	Calixa Lavallée	Chris Jojo, Matthew Cannon	0:10		Download
06	Seventh Inning Stretch	Chris Jojo, Matthew Cannon	Chris Jojo, Matthew Cannon	0:07		Download
07	Baseball Fanfare 1	Chris Jojo, Matthew Cannon	Chris Jojo, Matthew Cannon	0:04		Download
08	Baseball Fanfare 2	Chris Jojo, Matthew Cannon	Chris Jojo, Matthew Cannon	0:06		Download
09	Baseball Fanfare 3	Chris Jojo, Matthew Cannon	Chris Jojo, Matthew Cannon	0:30		Download

Credits

• Ripper: YK
• Recorder: Doommaster1994
• Game Credits
  • MUSIC & SOUND: Chris Jojo
  • MUSIC & SOUND: Paul Tonge
  • MUSIC & SOUND: Matthew Cannon
  • MUSIC & SOUND: Tim Follin
  • MUSIC & SOUND: Geoff Follin

(Source)

The credits are displayed after beating the game. Interestingly, there are five sound designers credited. However, according to two of the sound designers, Chris Jojo and Matthew Cannon, both said they did all of the game's music and sound effects. Paul Tonge doesn't remember the project, but said it's possible he contributed sound effects. The game's programmer, Kevin Edwards, speculates that the reason Tim and Geoff were credited was probably due to the sound driver used in the game being designed by them. Chris also said that he used some of their instrument samples, so the Follins may have been credited for that. Tim also said the same in an interview (around the 1:08:00 mark).

Game Rip

Format	Download

Audio Devices

The game uses the S-SMP of the SNES. It uses the Mike Webb's sound driver.

Releases

USA Title: Ken Griffey Jr. Presents Major League Baseball Platform: SNES Released: 1994-03-?? Publisher: Nintendo Co., Ltd.

Links

• gamefaqs.gamespot.com/snes/588416-ken-griffey-jr-presents-major-league-baseball - GameFAQs.
• mobygames.com/game/snes/ken-griffey-jr-presents-major-league-baseball - MobyGames.