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pawptart
Always love to see new baseball visualizations. Not necessarily a big fan of AI art, but it's cool how dynamic it is. Some constructive criticism: I think using a real pixel font and maybe writing a deterministic downsampling algo for the images instead of relying on AI would go a long way to make this look better.
Not to hijack your thread but in case anyone's interested in a physical scoreboard built on top of the same APIs using Raspberry Pis, I have a project as well. We also support software emulation if you don't want to buy parts.
https://github.com/MLB-LED-Scoreboard/mlb-led-scoreboard
You can see it in action here:
tcbawo
I was somewhere recently where the World Cup games were on the TV, but the current score was also on what appeared to be a split-flap board mounted to the wall. Seeing your post had me look up commercial availability of these (it seems they exist, but are pricy). Serving up baseball scores in that kind of display would be pretty cool.
mc3301
I've seen a few 3d printed projects that did similar, displaying some live API-received number on a 3d-printed split-flap board.
leejoramo
Very fun. I have used the cli ’playball’ in the past, but this retro 8-bit is delightful
This morning I think I found a minor bug is the installable PWA web app. chromium, Brave and I expect other browsers show a white bar with the URL at the top of the PWA
I believe this is due to the manifest specifying the path ‘/watch/‘ with a trailing slash and not the path we get redirected to without ‘/watch’
brownrout
Thanks! Fixing
daynthelife
I love this! If I were to suggest any improvements:
- Have a play-by-play view so users can see plays they missed
- Make the "between innings" tabs clickable rather than forcing users to wait for the cycle (cycle by default, pin if user clicked a tab)
- show glove on right hand for outfielders that throw LH
- maybe show baserunners taking leads rather than keeping a foot on the base
elicash
> Have a play-by-play view so users can see plays they missed
I'd like this not as a timeline scrub but as a back button.
brownrout
This is gold - thanks for taking the time try it out and write this up.
dole
Suggestion to make the Upcoming Games tiles fade out as a group or rotate and show games past the initial five of the day. Also, team W-L records where pertinent and real estate might allow?
One thing that stuck with me is the font rendering of the flashing "Mid 5th" screen banner on the game field view, was displayed as Helvetica/Arial vs one of the in-game fonts.
brownrout
Thanks for the ideas - will take a look at this today.
mjd
Best of luck with this. About twenty years ago there was a website that displayed play-by-play of games in progress with a much more minimal display than yours: just a scoreboard, balls and strikes count, and an indication of who was on base.
MLB crushed them with a copyright infringement lawsuit, claiming copyright over the plain factual description of the play-by-play. It was bullshit, of course, since simple factual descriptions aren't protected by copyright. But website guy couldn't fight MLB in federal court.
Sorry I don't remember the name of the site. I hope it turns out better for you than it did for them.
kodablah
My guess is this is leveraging GDX same as "Gameday" uses (or used to use). https://gdx.mlb.com/components/copyright.txt states
> Only individual, non-commercial, non-bulk use of the Materials is permitted
Unsure if this falls within. I have written my own scripts against the XML regularly updated there, but am unsure if they allow it to be used on a shared site.
bosunknows
plaintextsports.com has been doing this for a long time. It has always been free. ie 'non-commercial'.
https://plaintextsports.com/mlb/2026-06-17/tb-lad#play-by-pl...
edit: typo
Urgo
I'm not a sports person and other then going to a superbowl party really don't watch anything but this is really cool. I even put a game on the tv and was comparing it to the site. Very well done :) If there was some way to have live audio streaming in to hear what was going on while the screen animated it that'd make this perfect but I imagine that isn't really a thing that can be done.
Either way though, great job on this!
mc3301
For superbowl, I'd love to go to a sports bar, and on one of the 35 screens, this 8-bit version of the same game is playing. Maybe with hilarious "Mutant League Hockey" style animations on tackles or something.
We'd all be cheering at the same time, at similar things.
e28eta
I don’t watch baseball (maybe a couple games a year), but I think it could use some sound / audio, so you can have it running while doing something else.
IDK if there’s an easy way for the average person to get a live audio broadcast feed from games, so maybe your target market would be listening to that instead.
I’m thinking it could use some sound effects, for balls, strikes, hits, etc. I only tuned in for a couple pitches and then it was between innings, so maybe the more significant events already have something, and I just wasn’t patient enough to experience them.
I was looking away when the last out of the inning happened (or maybe changing views?). Is there a display of what caused the out, and maybe an animation of the fielders coming into the dugout, or does it flash up the “between innings” screen pretty quickly?
It might be nice to have a significant event summary available somewhere. It feels hard to believe that this would catch someone’s attention well enough that they’re watching the whole thing, and without audio cues / replays, I know I wouldn’t be interested in watching it for any length of time.
brownrout
Couldn't find a live audio broadcast to embed, but that would be ideal. Will add some sound effects soon, and also like the idea for key plays/events recap in case you miss anything.
xp84
I'd love to see you grab the sound effects from something like the Super Batter Up for SNES. Somehow I think Bandai Namco is not monitoring the Internet for those samples -- at the very least MLB will be coming to ruin things before that happens anyway.
I can still hear those sound samples in my head, they have voice samples for: Play ball! Foul. Strike. Y'rOUT! Out. Safe! Home run!
Oh, and the ending bars of the US and Canadian national anthems. Which you could totally play just before the "Play Ball!" :)
goodmythical
Would also be neat to have public renditions of team songs played while the live crowd is singing.
"Go cubs go", "take me out to the ball game", etc
brownrout
Yes! Will check this out for inspiration.
Slothrop99
I'm listening to the Giants on the radio, and it looks like the data feed is about one pitch behind. (I suppose for gambling reason.) It would be neat if there was some way to sync a stream with the animation.
vitorbaptistaa
Amazing project! I'd love to see something like this for the football world cup. Maybe a FIFA 97 style?
I wonder if some kind of filter would work or we would need some data source. Looks much harder given the fast-paced nature of the game.
dylan604
The thing that works for baseball is how slow the game is. There's plenty of time in between pitches to make the animation simple. With sports with constant movement like a WC match would require a lot more resources. Might as well be a game engine at that point.
Watching one of these live just brings home exactly how low activity a baseball match is. You can easily miss a pitch if you're not actively watching it and keep your attention span on it. It also brings to mind how much the commentary during a game keeps the viewer engaged. Live video and a good director cutting to different cameras also helps. Radio with out the color would be insanely boring:
Here's the pitch, low and outside.Ball 1.
30 secs of silence.
Here's the pitch, fast ball down the middle. Swing and a miss. Count is now 1-1.
30 secs of silence.
brownrout
For sure. And agree it wouldn't work as well for active sports like soccer or basketball.
Have some ideas on how to make this a bit more engaging for baseball, still. But ultimately it isn't really made for active viewing or to replace a live broadcast. I think of this more for the fan who wants to keep it on in the background or on the TV while they work or multitask.
brewdad
Perfect to have on while you are on a call or otherwise can’t have audio playing. If the audio isn’t a distraction, I’d rather put the radio on or a tv game with the audio lower than I’d have it if I were actively watching.
But I love this idea and it brings back memories of my first baseball video games. Someone else mentioned Earl Weaver. My friends and I spent an entire summer playing almost nothing else.
ghostbrainalpha
Football MIGHT be slow enough that you could animate the plays Techmo Bowl style.
It would certainly be fun to attempt it. You might have to mix in some pre-defined animations for "run up the middle", that could do minimal updates like Jersey numbers.
dylan604
The gamecast from places like ESPN already have a good enough version for American Throwball games. It works because it is slow enough so they can show play by play with animation showing the progress of each play. While it's not pixel art it is more than sufficient to have in a window to have open in the background.
vunderba
Only if we can watch historical games from the late 80s of the LA Raiders, and then 5% of the time, it animates Bo Jackson running actual circles around the defense.
devrundown
This is really cool! Would love a technical breakdown on how you put this together.
THansenite
Agreed. As a developer, I'd love to see how this was done or if you have it out on Github.
jonshariat
+1 even if its vibe coded, would love to hear how you tackled the project. Great stuff!
netsec1989
Super cool! Makes me nostalgic for my Earl Weaver Baseball fix.
The pace of events will always be a challenge with baseball (delays between pitches, missing when they do happen).
Some other mode like the Youtube TV: Catch up with Highlights, would be fantastic. Quickly replay the big events (runs scored, bases loaded strikeout to end inning. Maybe every hit and third out). It becomes a rapid-fire view. Or, similar thought, a rapid replay mode -- start from the beginning, replay each change with minimal delays between them.
mysterydip
Love the look of this! Enjoyed watching a bit, will definitely have it on later.
One comment is, during “in between innings” when it was showing around the league and other stats, the text was really small on my phone. If possible I’d rather have it scrolling or switching between pages of data than trying to fit it on one screen. I get that on a tv or pc it’s probably the right size, so not sure if you’d want to spend the effort to have a separate view for small screens.
dang
(this and Urgo's comments were posted to https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48377493 a week ago, but since that thread didn't get much attention, I've moved them hither)
kridsdale3
PEDANT ALERT:
This is clearly 16 bit.
aidenn0
Yes, it definitely gave me TG-16 (PC Engine) feels.
ghostbrainalpha
This is Hacker News where we appreciate these types comments.
ant6n
Looks like 256 color style imagery. It’s not perfect, but clearly based on that VGA style.
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Hey HN, I built a website to watch live baseball games in an 8-bit broadcast. It takes live MLB data streams and converts them into near real-time pixel art gamecasts.
Been waiting to share this for when there’s actually a good slate of games happening since the site is pretty bare otherwise.
Here is today's schedule:
Mets @ Reds - 9:40am PDT https://ribbie.tv/watch/game/824503
Royals @ Nationals - 10:05am PDT https://ribbie.tv/watch/game/822721
Marlins @ Phillies - 10:05am PDT https://ribbie.tv/watch/game/823450
Tigers @ Astros - 11:10am PDT https://ribbie.tv/watch/game/824178
Padres @ Cardinals - 11:15am PDT https://ribbie.tv/watch/game/823044
..and another 14 games throughout the later day.
I'm still early on in this project, but I've tried to add little details with actual stadiums, day and night modes, between inning graphics and interstitials, live scoreboards, etc.
Would love any feedback and ideas. Thanks for checking it out!