Super World Stadium '99/Walkthrough

Once you have inserted a coin into the cabinet of Namco's Japan-only 1999 arcade game Super World Stadium '99 the text of "PUSH START" will appear upon that screen (much like its ten predecessors, it allows 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 80 seconds to select one of three new three-script texts: 1-ri de play (1人でPLAY), which means "play by one person", 2-ri de play (2人でPLAY), which means "play by two people", and tōnamento (トーナメント), which means "tournament" (also, if the arcade operator has set the "FAVORITE TEAM" option to "NONE" which is the default setting it will display the flags of the Central and Pacific Leagues on the left and right sides of the screen, but if he has set it to any of the twelve real-life teams, it will display two of the selected favoured team's flags on the left and right sides of the screen). The game will now proceed to the final team selection screen - and that timer at the top of the screen will continue counting down as you to select one of the thirteen returning and five new teams by pushing the joystick up, down, left and right, before pressing the first button to confirm your choice. As in all ten of the previous games, if you had only pressed that 1 Player Start Button, you will now have to select another team for that CPU to predetermine the behaviour of, but if you pressed that 2 Player Start Button, that second player will now have to pick another team to take control of (which, much like all ten previous games, is too bad if the first player happened to have chosen the team he wanted to take control of); twelve of the returning teams are also real, and their namings now reflect their 1998 lineups (even though, as with 1994, there was no WS game for that year). The USA All-Stars team (who were originally known as the "USA"), is entirely fictional, and was created specifically for Super World Stadium '96 - but the Central League, Pacific League, Namco Stars, Nikotama Gals and User Team were created specifically for this final game. The first two of these teams are comprised of a total of twenty-eight of the Central and Pacific Leagues' best players from their 1998 season, but the third and fourth ones are comprised of a total of twenty-three of Namco's most famous characters (however, the pitchers for the Namco Stars are merely named after five others).

The game will then proceed to the new mode selection screen, as that timer up at the top of the screen continues counting down; both of the players will now have to select one of three new three-script texts otegaru play (お手軽PLAY), which means "handy play", tsūjō play (通常PLAY), which means "a normal play", and tatsujin play (達人PLAY), which means "guru play". If you pressed the 1 Player Start Button, the CPU will create the illusion of randomly selecting one of these modes, but it will always stop on the second one - and you will then have to select one of two more new three-script texts: Shiai kashi (試合開始) which means "start game", and jibun de kimeru (自分で決める) which means "decide for oneself"; if you select that first one, the game will automatically decide: which player's team is batting first, which of their pitchers has been selected, and what stadium the match will take place in, but if you select that second one, you will have to select one of three more new three-script texts: P1 senkō (P1先攻), which means "P1 batting first", omakase (おまかせ), which means "a random", and P2 senkō (P2先攻), which means "P2 batting first". Therefore, if you select that second one, the CPU will randomly decide which player's team is batting first, before proceeding to the team lineups screen - and all of the 225 players' names will have two Kanji characters next to their left side: yūgeki (遊撃), which means "short-stop", chūken (中堅), which, you may remember from the NS2 and NB-1 eras means "centre-field", sayoku (左翼), which means: "left-field", nirui (二塁), which means: "second-base", ichirui (一塁), which means: "first-base", uyoku (右翼), which means "right-field", hoshu (捕手), which means "catcher", tōshu (投手), which means "pitcher", and for non-Central-League teams, "DH", which means "defensive-half". The game will then proceed to the pitcher selection screen; you will now have to select one of your chosen team's five pitchers (again, if you had only pressed the 1 Player Start Button, the CPU will create the illusion of randomly selecting one of its team's pitchers to predetermine the behaviour of but it will always stop on the third one). If you cannot decide which pitcher to select (given that they no longer have the Kanji characters hidari or migi or even the letters "L" or "R" next to their names), the omakase (おまかせ) option is again present which will allow the CPU to randomly decide which of your chosen team's pitchers is selected - and you will now have to select one of the game's twelve new stadiums for your match to take place in (the fourth of which was originally known as "Kōshien" from 1988-1993).