Super World Stadium/Walkthrough

Once you have inserted a coin into the cabinet of Namco's Japan-only 1991 arcade game Super World Stadium the text "PUSH 1P OR 2P" will appear upon the screen (as with its three predecessors, it allowed two players to play on one credit); you will then have to press either the 1 Player Start Button or the 2 Player Start Button to proceed to the new team selection screen as the introductory theme starts to be heard from the Yamaha YM-2151. You will then be given forty-two seconds (which is three less than in those three NS1-era games) to select one of the game's sixteen teams (ten of which are returning favourites from that NS1 era, but six of which are new for this NS2 era) by pushing the joystick up, down, left, and right, before pressing the first button to confirm your choice - and as in all three of the NS1-era titles, if you had only pressed that 1 Player Start Button, you will now have to select another team for the CPU to predetermine the behaviour of, but if you pressed the 2 Player Start Button, the second player will now have to pick another team to take control of (which, as in all three NS1-era titles, is too bad if the first player happened to have chosen the team he wanted to take control of).

The game will then proceed to the new-for-NS2-era position selection screen as the timer in the bottom-right corner of the screen continues counting down; it displays the logos of both of your chosen teams, with the two Kanji characters senkō (先攻), which means "batting first", below them, along with a player from the first player's chosen team in his first outfit and another player from the second player's chosen team in his second outfit; either player can push their joystick to the right, to change the player from the first player's team into his second outfit and the player from the second player's team into his first outfit, and push it back to the left after doing so to change them back to how they were before, then press the first button to confirm their choice. The first of the two Kanji characters that are above the player who is in his team's second outfit will then change to read as kōkō (後攻), which means "after the attack" - and the game will then proceed to the new team lineups screen. The name of your chosen team's manager will be shown to the right of their logo and under the two Kanji characters kantoku (監督), which means "director"; each of the 128 players' names also have either the Kanji character hidari (左), migi (右) or ryō (両) next to them, which indicates whether they will bat while standing on the left or right side of the catcher's plate (however, the new Kanji of ryō means "both"), but the name next to the number 9 will now always be picchā (ピッチャー), which means "pitcher", with a question mark next to it, given that the game has not proceeded to the pitcher selection screen yet. However, when it does so, the timer in the bottom-right corner of the screen will still continue counting down - and you will now have to select one of your chosen team's six pitchers (the static images and ERA of whom will be displayed upon the screen, as you push your joystick up and down to highlight them), and if you had only pressed that 1 Player Start Button, the CPU will create the illusion of randomly selecting one of its team's six pitchers to predetermine the behaviour of (but it will always stop on the second one). All of the 96 pitchers' names will again have either the Kanji character hidari (左), migi (右) or ryō (両) next to them, but this time it indicates whether they will pitch while facing to the left, to the right, or straight ahead; the game will then proceed to the new stadium selection screen. You will now have to select from one of this game's four stadiums for your match to take place in (the second of which is the only one to make it into the NS2 era and had already undergone the transition from 5121 to 8192 colours in Taito Corporation's Ā Eikō no Kōshien in 1990) - and they all have different "left", "centre", and "right" measurements (given in metres for the first three, but in feet for the last):

Once you have pressed the first button to confirm your choice, the theme that you have been hearing from the Yamaha YM-2151 since you had pressed either the 1 or 2 Player Start Button will fade out as the image of your chosen stadium moves into the centre of the screen and the camera zooms in on it as the unseen 46000-, 55000-, 30000- or 56001-strong crowd cheer from the C140 before zooming out on a view of your chosen stadium's scoreboard...

...as the match's opening jingle is heard from that Yamaha YM-2151; the camera will also pan downwards for the Kōshien Stadium's scoreboard, and to the right for the Seaside Stadium's. The Dome and Kōshien Stadiums' scoreboards also (still, in the case of the latter) have clocks on them, but they are (now, in the case of the latter) both broken at 6:00, and will not (or no longer, in the case of the latter) advance as the match progresses. The sky behind the Kōshien Stadium's scoreboard, however, will darken after three full innings have been played, and again after six full innings have been played - and the Seaside Stadium's scoreboard may also have a digital clock under the word "TIME", but this is also broken and does not display anything as a result.

The view will now change to a shot of the centre of the stadium's field, as the Katakana text purei bōru (プレイボール), which means "play ball", appears on the screen, and the game's first main theme starts to be heard from the Yamaha YM-2151 (if you had selected either the Dome or Kōshien Stadiums, the two main themes will be remixes of those from World Stadium '89 & '90 - but if you had selected either the Seaside or Manhattan Stadiums, the two main themes will be brand-new compositions). The score will be displayed upon the left side of the screen (with the batting team's initial again underlined in red) under the number 1, and the two Kanji characters of kai omote (回表), which again means "front time"; the statistics of the No. 1 from that first player's team will also be displayed in the bottom-left corner of the screen below that team's initial. The statistics of the chosen pitcher from the second player's team will also be displayed in the bottom-right corner of the screen, below the team's initial - that first player must use his joystick to position his batter inside the batting box, and the second player must push his joystick to the left or right to position his pitcher upon the pitcher's mound, then press his first button to throw the ball. He must now push the joystick left if he wants the ball to curve horizontally, down-left to curve vertically, right to shoot horizontally, down-right to shoot vertically, down to fork, and up to be a speed ball - and if the other player's team's current batter failed to hit it, the Katakana text sutoraiku (ストライク), which means "strike", will appear upon the screen with the speed at which the ball travelled in kilometres above it, as a yellow circle appears next to the letter "S" on the right side of the screen. You both then have to repeat the pitching process, but if the other player's team's current batter fails to strike the ball again, that Katakana text sutoraiku (ストライク) will again appear on the screen with the speed at which the ball travelled in kilometres above it, as a second yellow circle appears; you'll both then have to repeat that pitching process again, but if the other player's team's current batter fails to hit that ball once again, the Katakana text battā auto (バッターアウト), which means "batter out", will appear on the screen (with the speed at which the ball had travelled in kilometres above it), as both yellow circles next to the letter "S" disappear and an orange circle appears next to the letter "O" below it and the other player's team's next batter is brought in - who will have different statistics. New secondary themes will also be heard of from the Yamaha YM-2151 when specific players are at bat for each team.

The first player must press the first button to make his batter swing and the second button to make him bunt; once he has struck the ball, the view will change to a shot of your stadium's field as it flies up into the air. If the ball does not land within the white lines, the umpires (of which there are six) will hold their arms up and the Katakana text fauru (ファウル), which means "foul", will appear upon the screen, and it will be counted as a strike - this will also be signified by a yellow circle appearing next to that letter "S", once the view returns to the image you see above. Also, if the current batter hits the ball so hard that it flies out of the stadium, the Katakana text hōmu ran (ホームラン), which means "home run", will appear upon the screen with the distance that the ball travelled in metres next to the Kanji text hikyori (飛距離), which means "flying distance", and the Katakana (or Kanji) text for where the ball landed (レフトスタンド: "left stand", バックスクリーン: "back screen", ライトスタンド: "right stand", ラッキーゾーン: "lucky zones" for the Kōshien Stadium, and 場外: "curb" in all excepting the Dome Stadium) as a dramatic jingle is heard from the Yamaha YM-2151 (if you had selected either the Dome or Kōshien Stadiums, it will be a remix of that of the three NS1-era titles, but if you had selected either the Seaside or Manhattan Stadiums, it will again be a brand-new composition). The current score will then be displayed upon the screen (the teams are now represented by their logos) as a special effect happens in the background; the floodlights will flash on and off for the Dome Stadium, one to nine Namco blimps will fly into view from the left side of the screen for the Kōshien Stadium, a whale will emerge from the ocean and spout water from his blowhole, a galleon will sail into view from the left side of the screen and fire its cannons, three blue jet planes will fly into view from the left side of the screen and skywrite "BRAVO, BRAVO, BRAVO." for the Seaside Stadium as hundreds of balloons are released into the sky, and a spaceship will fly into view from the left side of the screen for the Manhattan Stadium. If the ball landed within the white lines after your chosen team's current batter hit it and one of the other players on your chosen team caught it as it fell back down to the ground, you will have to press the first button to make him throw it to one of the other players while pushing your joystick up and down to indicate which player you want him to throw it to; once you have done so, all the umpires will hold their arms out and the Katakana text sēfu (セーフ), which means "safe", will appear on the screen if the player was safe, or the umpires will hold their right arms up and the different Katakana text auto (アウト), which means "out" will appear upon the screen if he was out (yet again, this will also be counted as an out, and it will be reflected an orange circle appearing next to the letter "O" once the view has returned to that screenshot you see above). The radar of the field which appears at the bottom of the screen shows the positions of the other team's players (they're indicated by the moving hats, which now match the colour of their own) - and when your team's batting and the other player's team is pitching, push the joystick up and press the first button to tag out a runner on the other player's team who's attempting to steal a base (they can be seen in the windows on the left and right sides of the screen now). Once you've done so, the runner will run out of sight from the left side of the screen, as the other player's team's chosen pitcher throws the ball; once your team's current batter has struck the ball the view will again change to a shot of the field as it flies up into the air, but the other player's team's chosen pitcher will then run off the pitcher's mound, and onto the catcher's plate. You will now have to push your joystick to the left and press the first button to make your chosen team's runner start running, then push your joystick up, and press that second button to make him run back again - and once three outs have occurred, the view will cut back to the shot of your chosen stadium's scoreboard, as one of two new organ-like jingles (the one you will hear depends on whether your team has scored any runs or not) is heard from the Yamaha YM-2151 (remember that the clocks are broken, though).