Super World Stadium '96/Walkthrough

Once you have inserted a coin into the cabinet of Namco's Japan-only 1996 arcade game Super World Stadium '96 the text "PUSH 1P OR 2P" will appear upon the screen (as with its eight predecessors, it allowed two players to play on one credit); regardless of which Start Button you press, the game will proceed to a menu from which you will have twenty-nine seconds to select one of four new three-script texts: 1-ri de asobu (1人で遊ぶ), which means: "one person plays", 2-ri de asobu (2人で遊ぶ), which means: "two people play", 1-ri de asobu kōshiki-sen (1人で遊ぶ公式戦), which means "one person plays official game", and 1-ri de asobu tōnamento (1人で遊ぶトーナメント), which means "one person plays tournament", before proceeding to the team selection screen. You will then have forty-four seconds to select one of the twelve returning (and five new) teams by pushing the joystick up, down, left and right, before pressing the first button to confirm your choice - and like all eight of the previous games, 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 that 2 Player Start Button, the second player will now have to pick another team to take control of (which, as in all eight previous games, is too bad if that first player happened to have chosen the team he wanted to take control of). The twelve returning teams are also real, and their namings now reflect their 1995 lineups; however, the five new teams are fictitious and were created specifically for this game, which makes the game the first World Stadium title to feature fictitious teams since 1991.

The game will then proceed to the new position selection screen, as the timer in the top-right corner of the screen continues counting down; it displays the Kanji texts senkō (先攻), which means batting first (1P), and kōkō (後攻), which means after the attack (2P) with one player from the first player's chosen team in his first outfit (holding his bat) and another player from the second player's chosen team in his second outfit (wearing his mitt) below them; either player can push their joystick to the right, to change that player from the first player's team into his second outfit (swapping his bat for a mitt), and the other player from the second player's team into his first outfit (swapping his mitt for a bat, the two Kanji texts will also swap positions), then push it back to the left after doing that to change them back to how they were before, before pressing the first button to confirm their choices. The game will then proceed onto its new team lineups screen - and all of the 136 players' names also have their positions abbreviations next to them, but that name next to the number 9 will once again always be tōshu (投手), which means "pitcher", with a "P" next to it, given that the game has not proceeded to the new pitcher selection screen yet. However, when it does, the timer in the top-right corner of the screen will still continue its counting down - and you will now have to select one of your chosen team's five pitchers (the static images of whom will no longer be displayed upon the screen, as you push your joystick up and down to highlight them), and if you had only pressed the 1 Player Start Button, the CPU will automatically select the first of its team's five pitchers to predetermine the behaviour of (it is not bothering to create the illusion of its random selection any more); the 100 pitchers' names, for that second time since 1991, also have either the Kanji characters hidari (左) or migi (右) next to them which indicates whether they will pitch while facing to the left or the right. The game will then proceed to the stadium selection screen - and you now have to select one of the game's six stadiums for your match to take place in (the third one was known as "Kōshien" from 1988-93, and the fifth one was known as just "Dome" from 1991-93), which again have different "centre" and "both wings" measurements (given in metres for all six of them)...

...and once you have pressed the first button to confirm your choice, the screen will fade out before fading back into a shot of the sky above your chosen stadium. The camera will then pan down to the field of the stadium as all eighteen players (and all six umpires) run out and take their positions on it, and both of your chosen teams' logos will then fly into view from the left and right sides of the screen, as a "VS" appears between them; that Hillside Stadium features an advertisement for Starblade, that Trad Stadium features two advertisements for Mappy, a third for Pac-Land, and two murals of a Pooka and a Fygar from Dig Dug, that Urban (Kōshien for old players) Stadium features six advertisements for Great Sluggers, Outfoxies, Tekken, Xevious, Mappy, and Dig Dug (however, back in the NS2 era, it featured an advertisement for SOS) and that Kaihei Dome Stadium features advertisements for Pac-Man, Ace Driver, Galaga, Outfoxies, Mach Breakers, Tekken, and Midway Games' first unauthorised Pac-Man sequel Ms. Pac-Man. The match will then start.