BASEBALL SIMULATOR 1.000 FAQ v1.0 Written by Sean Shannon -- sean@seanshannon.org Copyright (c) 2002 Sean Shannon, all rights reserved This FAQ is exclusive to GameFAQs.com and seanshannon.org. You are free to print this FAQ out for your own personal reference. Any other reproduction, redistribution or alteration of this FAQ without previous written permission from Sean Shannon is a violation of copyright law and will be pursued diligently, ESPECIALLY if anyone tries to profit off of this FAQ. Dedicated to C., L. and J., the three best friends I could ever ask for. ------------------- | TABLE OF CONTENTS | ------------------- Note the Z-CODEs listed to the left of each heading; you can use the Find feature in your Web browser or word processor to quickly "Zip" to the given topic by entering "Z." (minus the quotation marks) plus the four-digit Z-CODE. For example, if you wanted to jump to Widgets and Widgets had the number 0050 next to it, you would enter Z.0050 as your search string and it would take you straight to Widgets. Z.CODE HEADING 0100 Version History 0200 Foreword 0300 Introduction 0400 Note on Conventions 0500 Controls 0510 In Menus 0520 On Offence/While Batting 0530 On Defence/While Pitching 0600 Modes of Play 0700 Exhibition/Basic Play 0710 On Offence 0720 On Defence 0730 Miscellaneous 0800 Ultra Play 0810 Ultra Pitches 0820 Ultra Hits 0830 Ultra Fielding 0900 Season 0910 Starting a Season 0920 Running a Season 1000 Edit Mode 1010 Editing Batters 1020 Editing Pitchers 1030 Editing Ultra Plays 1100 New League 1200 Team Stats 1210 Atlantic League 1220 Northern League 1230 Ultra League 1300 Game Genie Codes 1400 Acknowledgments 1500 Final Words ----------------- | VERSION HISTORY | [ Z.0100 ] ----------------- v1.0 -- Released 2002.08.07 Everything's new. :) ---------- | FOREWORD | [ Z.0200 ] ---------- Welcome to my first ever FAQ. (And after doing one of these, I've gained a newfound respect for the people who've written all the other FAQs I've downloaded. Really, you should try writing one yourself sometime, these things are not easy.) I was browsing around GameFAQs "Help Wanted" section, and saw this game listed fairly high up on the NES charts. No one had bothered to write a FAQ for it yet, and I figured that since I was on summer break, I might as well give it a go. I'd wanted to get into FAQ-writing for a while, and luckily enough I was able to break in with one of my favourite NES games of all time. (I'm a total sucker for nearly every Culture Brain game in existence.) So, here we go. Oh, and if you want to know more about me, visit my Website at http://www.seanshannon.org/ if you would. I could use the company. -------------- | INTRODUCTION | [ Z.0300 ] -------------- Baseball Simulator 1.000 was released by Culture Brain in Japan in 1989 under the name Choujin Ultra Baseball, and came over to the United States shortly thereafter. Aside from SNK’s Baseball Stars, Baseball Simulator 1.000 was the only baseball game for the NES that allowed you to create your own team from scratch, naming players and giving them statistics that would be followed in gameplay. In addition, Baseball Simulator 1.000 allowed you to run a full season within a six-team league of your choice, from 5 to 165 games in length, and kept track of detailed player and team statistics through battery backup. Those features alone made Baseball Simulator 1.000 one of the best baseball games for the NES, if not the best. But Culture Brain didn’t stop there; in addition to playing regular baseball, you could also play baseball with "Ultra Plays." These plays included pitches that would snake left and right as they went to the plate, hits that would explode whenever they were caught, and fielders who could leap thirty feet in the air to rob batters of home runs, among others. However, each Ultra Play would cost Ultra Points, and when you ran out of Ultra Points, you could no longer use Ultra Plays. A regular baseball game on Baseball Simulator 1.000 was fun enough, but playing with Ultra Plays just made the game a blast. Indeed, one may be able to trace back the whole "wacky sports" genre to Baseball Simulator 1.000. Looking at later console games like Base Wars for the NES (which came out just after Baseball Simulator 1.000) and Electronic Arts’ Mutant League Sports series for the Genesis, and arcade games like NBA Jam and NFL Blitz, it’s easy to see traces of Baseball Simulator 1.000 in all of them. However, none really seem to capture the same sense of style, or finesse, as Baseball Simulator 1.000. Maybe it’s because other sports don’t lend themselves to "super powers" like baseball does. Maybe it’s because none of the other games offer the same variety of plays that Baseball Simulator 1.000 has. Or maybe it’s just because Baseball Simulator 1.000 was that well designed a game that it still stands up today, much like the original Legend of Zelda and Metroid. Who knows. A Super NES sequel, appropriately titled Super Baseball Simulator 1.000, came out the same year that the Super NES hit American shores, and offers even more Ultra Plays, better stat tracking and improvements all over the board. Unfortunately, the battery in my copy died just months after buying it, and I’ve never replaced it. (By point of comparison, I have games older than most of you reading this right now that have battery backups still holding up; Super Baseball Simulator 1.000 is the only game I’ve had where the battery has died on me.) Super Baseball Simulator 1.000 wound up being the last game Culture Brain released in the United States, which really upset me because I was dying for a 16-bit sequel to Magic of Scheherazade, the greatest game you’ve never played. Culture Brain still develops games in Japan, but none have been released in America for over a decade now. As for how to get a copy of Baseball Simulator 1.000, as of the time of this writing, copies were going on eBay (http://www.ebay.com/) for $2-$6, and FuncoLand (http://www.gamestop.com/) was selling the game for $7.99 on their Website; lower prices may be available at your local FuncoLand store. I’m sure there must be ROMs of the game on the ‘net somewhere, but REAL PLAYERS DON’T USE ROMs. At least not unless the real deal can be procured easily, and I’ve given you two sources there; try garage sales, too. The only time I’ve ever used a ROM was for an old arcade game from my childhood that was never translated to a home system (Atari’s Peter Packrat), and I dumped that ROM off my hard disk a long time ago. (And the hard disk crashed months later anyway.) Come on, five to ten bucks isn’t too much to ask for a game of this quality, plus you get the authentic NES experience that you just can’t duplicate with a computer monitor and controller. --------------------- | NOTE ON CONVENTIONS | [ Z.0400 ] --------------------- Some of my writing conventions may seem a bit strange, so I figured I should mention them here before we get too much farther into the FAQ. First of all, I use UK English when I write; when I first got on the Internet back in 1994, one of the first things I did was join a Björk mailing list (Blue- Eyed-Pop, still very much active today), and the majority of people there were from the UK and thus used "The Queen’s English." I adopted the style myself to "fit in" there, and yes, I even use it outside of Internet communication. So I spell defense "defence", offense "offence", color "colour" and so on. (My style for dates, however, is the Japanese style, because I’m a Japanophile.) Secondly, you will note that I do not refer to the baseball players within the game as males; there is no way to select player gender in the game, and the player sprites certainly look ambiguous enough. One of the things that frustrates me to no end in modern video games is that no matter how good the create-a-player mode is, all the players are still male, and referred to as "he" and "him" by the announcers. I mean, we’ve got the WNBA proving women got game just as good as the men, we’ve had female goaltenders in the NHL, and now we even have female college football players. Is it that hard to add a gender toggle, and get the announcers to record a couple of extra sound tracks? Sorry, didn’t mean to go off like that, but it really does bug me sometimes. Finally, I do try to give a bit of explanation of the rules of baseball in here, because I’m not necessarily sure everyone who reads this FAQ knows the rules of baseball. The old story goes that the British can never understand the rules of baseball, while Americans can never understand the rules of cricket. (Although I picked up the rules of cricket fairly quickly.) If anyone needs help understanding the basic rules of baseball, e-mail me and I may include such rules in a later version of the FAQ. ---------- | CONTROLS | [ Z.0500 ] ---------- This is a basic summary of what the controller does during the game; in the sections below, controls will be re-explained in a more context-sensitive manner. IN MENUS [ Z.0510 ] -------- Control Pad -- Move cursor up, down, left or right. A Button -- Make a selection. B Button -- Go back a screen. (Note: in some situations, like when viewing team stats under Edit mode, you may have to press Start to exit.) ON OFFENCE/WHILE BATTING [ Z.0520 ] ------------------------ Control Pad -- While batting, used to move batter within batter's box. After batting, used to indicate base for runner to move to. Right = First Base Up = Second Base Left = Third Base Down = Home Plate A Button -- While batting, press down to swing; tap to bunt. After batting, used along with Control Pad to direct baserunner to return to base. E.g., hold Right and press A to tell a runner advancing to second base to return to first base. Does not work if a runner is already sliding. B Button -- While batting, press before pitch is thrown to activate Ultra Hit for that batter (if s/he has one). While batting, press while holding a direction on the Control Pad to attempt a steal on that base. E.g., hold Up and press B to make the runner on first base attempt to steal second base. After batting, used along with Control Pad to direct baserunner to advance a base, using same method as stealing. Start -- Pauses/unpauses the game. While paused, press A to bring up a menu of available pinch-hitters. Move the cursor to the pinch-hitter you want and press A to insert him/her in the current batter's position, or press B to return to the game. ON DEFENCE/WHILE PITCHING [ Z.0530 ] ------------------------- Control Pad -- Before pitch, used to move pitcher from left to right on the mound. If pitcher has Ultra Pitches, press Up twice to enter Ultra Pitch mode, then press Up and Down to cycle through available pitches. During windup, use to select pitch. Down = Fastball Up = Forkball (Slowball) Left = Curve to the left Right = Curve to the right While the pitch is heading to the plate, press to control the ball's trajectory. After the ball is hit (or while attempting to pick off runners), used to move fielders, and also to indicate base to run to/throw to as with offence. A Button -- Before pitch, press to begin pitch. After the ball is hit, if no one has the ball, press A by itself to make fielders leap up for the ball, or press A with a direction on the Control Pad to make fielders dive for the ball. If a defencive player has the ball, press A with a direction on the Control Pad to make the player throw to the indicated base. B Button -- Before pitch, if an Ultra Pitch has been selected, press to cancel. If an Ultra Pitch has not been selected, pressing B will exit the batting screen so the pitcher can attempt to pick off a runner. After the ball has been hit, if no one has the ball, pressing B will cause the player closest to the ball to use an Ultra Fielding. If a defencive player has the ball, press B along with a direction on the Control Pad to make the player run to the indicated base. Start -- Pauses/unpauses the game. While paused, press A to enter defencive options. CHANGE: Change any of the players out on the field, including the pitcher. Note that the game will NOT ask for confirmation when changing any player other than the pitcher, so be warned. MOVE: Move the positioning of fielders (except pitcher and catcher). Use the control pad to move the arrow over a fielder, press A to select that fielder, move the fielder with the control pad, then press A to de-select the fielder, or B to return the fielder to his/her original spot. END: Returns to the game. --------------- | MODES OF PLAY | [ Z.0600 ] --------------- These are the options that are available to you once you start up the game. EXHIBITION -- A contest held just for the fun of it, no long-term implications. 1PLAYER -- One player against the computer, one game. 2PLAYERS -- Two humans against each other. You can either play a single game, or continue after the first game into a best-of-seven contest. SEASON -- Play a full season, with as many players as you want participating. (Before each game, you can choose which teams are computer- controlled and which are player-controlled, so you can "switch off" controllers between games.) PLAY -- Start a new season, or continue the one currently in the battery backup. ERASE -- Erase the currently-stored season from the battery backup. The game will ask for confirmation before doing this. STANDINGS -- View the compiled statistics of the current season. EDIT -- Edit up to six of the teams in the game, changing names, statistics or Ultra Plays. ENTER -- Select a team and edit it to your heart's content. ERASE -- Erase an edited team. The game will ask for confirmation before doing this. DISPLAY -- Display the programmed statistics for any team, even the built-in teams. NEW LEAGUE -- Edit the "Original League" to include any six teams you want, from any preset league. NOTE: If a season is currently in progress, this option cannot be performed without first deleting the current season. The game will ask for confirmation before doing this. WATCH -- Select two teams and let the computer play them both. Note that if you leave the game on the title screen long enough, the game will play itself, breaking between half-innings to return to the title screen. ----------------------- | EXHIBITION/BASIC PLAY | [ Z.0700 ] ----------------------- In exhibition, Player One will automatically bat first/be the "away team", while Player Two (or the computer in a one-player game) will be the "home team." There are no difficulty settings in the game; the best way to simulate difficulty is to create weak or strong teams yourself, because all the teams in the game are pretty balanced, with the exception of the Ultra Teams being stronger than the regular teams. After making the 1PLAYER or 2PLAYERS selection, you will be moved to the Team Select screen. Note that even if you have edited teams, the original teams will still be available on this menu. Move the "I" cursor over the team Player I wants to be, and press A. If this is a one-player game, the "II" cursor will then appear to select the computer team; otherwise the "II" cursor will be on the screen from the beginning. Note that the same team cannot be selected twice. After the teams are selected, you will then be asked to select from the six available stadiums. DOME: Fairly deep outfield and big foul areas. When you hit a home run, the camera doesn't pan up, and there are no fireworks. (The game was made before indoor fireworks were in wide-spread use.) If you hit a home run into the scoreboard, you’ll see that part of the scoreboard "break" (then automatically get healed right up) and hear an appropriate sound effect. TOWN: Smallish outfield and foul areas. The infield is all dirt, although this doesn’t seem to affect the physics of the ball (come on, this is an 8-bit game, what do you expect). When you hit a home run, the camera pans up to skyscrapers, and fireworks different from the other fireworks in the game go off. (They’re bigger and don’t "shoot up" from the ground above.) SPACE: Short outfield and almost no foul areas. When you hit a home run, the camera pans up to the stars, the zero-gravity stands and the nearby satellites, and fireworks go off. GRASS: Average sized outfield and small foul areas. Dirt infield, despite the name. When you hit a home run, the camera pans up to Russian-style cathedral spires, and fireworks go off. HARBOR: Average sized outfield and big foul areas. When you hit a home run, the camera pans up to the water and ship overhead (?), then Town Stadium-style fireworks go off. If you hit the ball into the lower part of the "water", you’ll see it splash in and hear an appropriate sound effect; sometimes you’ll head the sound effect even if you hit a homer that goes off the left or right edge of the screen. BROWN: Average sized outfield and foul areas. Dirt infield and foul lines. When you hit a home run, the camera pans up to Russian-style cathedral spires, and fireworks go off. (This doesn’t seem much different from the Grass Stadium.) Note that in a two-player exhibition, successive games will be played in different stadiums, selected by the computer. Once the stadium has been selected, the matchup screen will appear. Just press Start here, there's really nothing to see. From here, you will be asked to select your starting pitcher. Note that the top four pitchers are intended to be starters, while the bottom two are intended to be relievers, so it would be a good idea to pick one of the top four pitchers. After that, there's just one more screen to go, the batting order and position screen. Select USE if you want to go straight to the game, or CHANGE if you want to change your batting order. If you select CHANGE, the player names will appear to the right of the lineup; move your cursor to the player you want to bat first, then press A, then move your cursor to the player you want to bat second, then press A, and so on. After selecting the batting lineup, the positions will appear to the right of the names; move your cursor to the position you want the first batter to play, then press A, then move your cursor to the position you want the second batter to play, then press A, and so on. Note that you will not be able to look at player statistics while doing this, unless you use the Player Stats section found later in this FAQ. Once that's done, the game begins. For the sake of simplicity, I'm assuming you are Player One, and thus batting first. Also, use of Ultra Plays will be saved until the next section. ON OFFENCE [ Z.0710 ] ---------- After the "Play Ball" screen (note the Culture Brain game ads on the scoreboard), you will be taken to the Batting Screen. The camera angle will be from behind home plate, facing the pitcher, as most games from this time frame were. Although the ground colour will vary depending on the stadium you’re in, the bleachers will all look the same, even though the bleachers in the Grass Stadium look a lot different than, say, the Space Stadium. In addition to this view, you will have four inset windows: MIDDLE-LEFT WINDOW: Displays ball (B), strike (S) and out (O) count. BOTTOM-LEFT WINDOW: The top line displays the first two letters of the defencive team’s name, followed by the number of Ultra Points the team has. (If the team is not an Ultra Team, there will be no number.) The second line displays the current pitcher’s name, and the third line will display the number of pitches that pitcher has thrown in the game. If the pitcher is in a "pinch", the PINCH indicator will be at the bottom of the window. (More on "pinch" later.) MIDDLE-RIGHT WINDOW: The top line displays the current inning, the second line displays the "Away" team’s first two letters and current score, and the third line displays the "Home" team’s first two letters and current score. BOTTOM-RIGHT WINDOW: The top line displays the first two letters of the batting team’s name, followed by the number of Ultra Points the team has. (If the team is not an Ultra Team, there will be no number.) The second line displays the position in the batting order of the current batter, followed by the current batter’s name. The third line displays the batter’s batting average, while the last line displays the number of home runs the current batter has. If the batter has selected an Ultra Hit, it will be displayed to the left of the Home Run count. Note that four other objects may exist on the Batting Screen, depending on the situation of the game. If there is a runner on first base, there will be an inset window depicting the baserunner above the middle-right window; likewise, if there is a runner on third base, there will be an inset window depicting the baserunner above the middle-left window. If there is a runner on second base, the baserunner can be seen behind the pitcher. Finally, if the pitcher has selected an Ultra Pitch, it will appear on the right-hand side of the mound. Okay, so now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, let’s get to batting. Before (and even during) the pitch, you can use the Control Pad to move the batter around the batter’s box. Tap A to bunt (although you have to tap it just right or else you’ll be stuck in "check swing" position), or hold it down to swing. One of the things you will notice is that there is a very small "sweet spot" on the bat where you can hit the ball; if the ball passes through the end tip of the third of the bat closest to the batter, it won’t make contact. This results in far fewer foul tips than are usually found in a baseball video game (or, indeed, a baseball game). Also, while there is no visible height control for the ball, if the sound made while the pitch is thrown is low, be careful for a "bloop" sound just before the ball reaches the plate; this indicates that the ball hit the ground, and you can’t hit it. (If you didn’t swing, it will count as a ball.) Let’s assume that you hit the ball. The screen will then change to the Fielding Screen, which shows the playing field from above, with centre field being at the top of the screen and home plate being at the bottom. If the ball reaches far enough into the outfield, an inset showing the current baserunners will appear in the bottom-centre of the screen, enabling you to advance or pull back runners as you wish. Let’s assume you then get a runner on base. When you return to the Batting Screen, anytime after the pitcher begins his windup, you can steal a base by holding the Control Pad in the direction of the base you want stolen, then pressing B. (Note that, if you’re playing with Ultra Plays, pressing B without a direction will turn on that batter’s Ultra Hit, if s/he has one, and the Ultra Hit cannot be turned off.) One quick note here: anytime you score, the current game score will be displayed in the centre of the screen. Note that this score conforms to Japanese scoring conventions, where the away team is always mentioned first and the home team is always mentioned second. So if you score a run after your opponent has scored two, the score will read " 1-2 ". Assuming you want to insert a pitch-hitter, before a pitch press Start to pause the game, then press A. Move your cursor to the pinch-hitter you want to insert and press A to insert the hitter in (note you will not get confirmation before this), or press B to cancel back to the game in progress. There are no pinch- runners in the game. Quick trick when playing against the computer: if you ever have runners on first and third, and the opposing third baseman doesn’t have the ball, move the runner on third to home. (If the third baseman has the ball, move the runner on first to second to get the computer to throw to second, then move the runner back to first.) When the computer throws the ball to home, move the first base runner to second and motion the runner heading home back to third. The computer will let the runner on first take second unopposed. Works every time. Also, the computer is horrible about run-downs; just run away from the guy with the ball, and he won’t bother throwing it to the fielder stationed where you’re headed. ON DEFENCE [ Z.0720 ] ---------- Okay, now let’s assume you ground into a double play and strike out to end the inning, so we can cover the defencive controls. (Note the detailed stats on the bottom of the screen between half-innings.) Now you are in control of the pitcher; press left or right to move the pitcher on the mound. (Pressing up twice will activate the pitcher’s Ultra Pitches, if s/he has any.) To start a pitch, hold down if you want a fastball, up if you want a forkball/slowball, left or right if you want a curve in that direction, or nothing at all if you want a "regular pitch", then press A. During the windup, you can hold left or right to add more curve to the pitch; you can even control the pitch while it’s heading to the mound in this manner, although not by much. Let’s say that the batter hits an infield grounder. Assuming a player has caught the ball (you can move fielders around with the Control Pad), you can then hold a direction and then press A to have the player throw to that base, or hold a direction and then press B to have the player run to that base. You can also move around with the Control Pad in an attempt to tag out a baserunner, but you don’t move as fast as a B-button run. Also note that whenever you throw the ball, ANY of your players in the way of that ball will catch it. I mention this because unless you’re careful, a batter who has grounded to third may be safe because the pitcher catches the relay to the first baseman. (To avoid this, after starting the throw to first base, immediately hold up or down to move the pitcher out of the way.) Also note that the ball doesn’t tend to slow down that much during a throw, and it takes a while for someone who has caught a relay to throw it again, so catching relays generally isn’t worthwhile unless you’ve changed your mind on which base you want to throw to. But now let’s say that your infielder commits an error. You’ll know whenever someone commits an error because s/he will squat over and have sweat coming out of his/her forehead for a couple of seconds, and be unable to move. (Note that each of these automatically count as an error in the game’s scoring, unlike in Major League Baseball where the error will generally be ignored if it didn’t contribute to a runner advancing further than s/he normally would had the ball been properly handled.) There’s not much you can do about errors, and because player fatigue/luck isn’t simulated in this game, there’s no real point in substituting fielders unless you’re REALLY nervous about an error being committed at some point. Substituting fielders is covered below. Now let’s say that the next batter gets one into the outfield, and you need to make a stretch to get the ball. (If the ball is in the air, you can judge where it’s going to go by its shadow on the ground.) If you need to dive for the ball, hold the Control Pad in the direction you want to dive and press A; if you need to jump for the ball, take your thumb off the Control Pad and press A. Note that if you fail, you will have about a one-second window where your fielder is motionless, and the jump and slide don’t cover much distance to start with, so use these options wisely. MISCELLANEOUS [ Z.0730 ] ------------- Okay, now let’s get to the later innings of the game, where your pitchers may get tired. You can tell a pitcher’s level of tiredness by its animation on the mound before a pitch; if a pitcher is motionless, the pitcher is not tired. If a pitcher is sweating, the pitcher is starting to get tired. If the pitcher’s shoulders start to move up and down, the pitcher is tired, and if the pitcher is sweating AND his/her shoulders are moving up and down, the pitcher is VERY tired and should be replaced immediately. To replace a pitcher, press Start before a pitch to pause the game, then press A. Select CHANGE from the menu and then press A, then press A while the cursor is over the pitcher’s position on the field. You will be taken to a screen showing the pitchers warming up; select a pitcher and press A, and you will be shown the pitcher’s current statistics. You’ll also see a picture of the pitcher’s face; a smile means the pitcher is healthy, no expression means the pitcher is somewhat tired, and a frown means the pitcher is tired. You will be asked to confirm the pitcher be inserted into the game before you return. Substituting fielders also works through the CHANGE menu in much the same way; after selecting CHANGE, simply move the cursor to the position you want to substitute in, press A, and select an available player. Note that the game will NOT ask for confirmation before doing this, so use this option wisely. The MOVE option below CHANGE can also be used to move fielders around on the field before a pitch, but this is rarely of any use within the game. If you want to use it, simply move the cursor over the fielder you want to move, press A and then use the Control Pad to move the fielder around. Press A to lock the fielder in that spot, or press B to move the fielder to his/her standard position. END simply returns to the game. Not all pitcher fatigue is due to how long a pitcher has been in the game, though. Whenever there are runners on second and third, there is a chance (seemingly a greater chance if the bases are loaded) that the pitcher will enter "pinch" mode. You will know if the pitcher is in pinch mode because the background music will change, and the word "PINCH" will appear in the lower-left window. In pinch mode, pitchers who are tired may suddenly gain all their energy back, and pitchers who shouldn’t be tired may suddenly appear, and perform, as though they are very tired. How a pitcher reacts to pinch mode seems to vary from pitcher to pitcher and from game to game; it just seems to be a matter of chance as to how the computer decides to place the pitcher. Whenever a run is scored, the crowd flashes rapidly and you get a sound effect. The sound effect changes into something more triumphant-sounding after the tenth run. If someone hit a home run, in addition to all the special effects with each stadium, you may also be treated to a quick animation of that player high- tenning everyone on his bench, inset on the scoreboard screen. (It’s a really bad animation, though.) If you enter the seventh inning of a game, the game will display "Lucky 7" before each half of the inning. It’s unknown exactly what happens in the game during the seventh inning, but from my own observations it appears as though everyone’s stats are boosted; both the batting and pitching teams seem to perform better, get more strikeouts and home runs and what have you. Or it could just be a silly graphic they put on the screen. Who knows. The triggers for the end of a game are like Major League Baseball, except with one hitch: if the away team is ahead by ten or more runs at the end of an inning, or the home team is ahead by ten or more runs at any point, the game will automatically be awarded to the team in the lead. After a game, you’ll get a brief shot of the game’s stats, then you will be thrown to the "Sports News" set, featuring the ugliest anchor in the history of video games about sports. I normally like Culture Brain’s character designs, but this one is just ... ugh. Anyway, the screen will display the box score for the game (though not hits and errors), the winning and losing pitchers and, if applicable, the pitcher who gets the save. (Although the game seems to give these awards out at random, and not according to standard baseball rules.) From there, press A and either select NEXT GAME to begin a new exhibition game, or END to end the game. Note that if you choose to end the game, you won’t go back to the main menu; you’ll get a message warning you to hold in the Reset button while powering off the console, and you’ll have to do that (or else press Reset) to go back to the start of the game. ------------ | ULTRA PLAY | [ Z.0800 ] ------------ If you’ve selected a team from the Ultra League, or an edited team based on an Ultra League team, then Ultra Plays will be available to you throughout the game. Any team with Ultra Plays starts with a certain amount of Ultra Points, which can be spent on various Ultra Plays. (Each Ultra Pitch or Ultra Hit costs three points, each Ultra Fielding costs five points.) Ultra Points cannot be gained during a game, but are replenished at the start of every game during a season/playoff. Because Ultra Points are limited, it’s a good idea not to use them on every play. (Unless you’ve activated unlimited Ultra Points on a Game Genie or something, in which case go to town.) Especially with pitches, the occasional Ultra Pitch will fool the computer, but throw more than two in a row and all of a sudden the computer will get a hit off of one. ULTRA PITCHES [ Z.0810 ] ------------- Pitchers can have up to four Ultra Pitches; to use an Ultra Pitch, before throwing press up twice on the Control Pad to display the Ultra Pitches menu to the right of the mound; press up and down to cycle through available pitches, then press A to throw that pitch; press B to cancel out of the Ultra Pitches menu. SNAKE BALL: "Snakes" from side to side as it goes to the plate. Good against both human and computer opponents, but increases the chance of beaning the batter. (Icon: White ball with a black "S" on top, on a blue background.) STOPPER BALL: After throwing, press A once to stop the ball. With the right timing, easily fools computer opponents; not so effective against human opponents. (Icon: Light blue "STOP" sign on a black background.) MIRACLE BALL: Random Ultra Pitch. Throws pitches even the pitcher doesn’t have in his/her repertoire. Useful, and risky, for obvious reasons. (Icon: Black question mark on a light blue background.) FAN BALL: Moves from side to side as it goes to the plate. Doesn’t seem much different from Snake Ball. As with Snake Ball, good against both human and computer opponents, but has a tendency to cause more beanballs. (Icon: White ball with a white halo over it on a black background and something light blue I can’t quite make out.) SPEEDER BALL: After it’s thrown, you can press up and down on the Control Pad to slow down or speed up the ball. Also tends to make strikes out of what look like hits. Good against human opponents, less useful against the computer. (Icon: Two white balls in the lower corners of the icon and a light blue left-right arrow between them, on a black background.) FIRE BALL: Increases in speed as it gets to the plate, then lights on fire. Like the Speeder Ball, turns some sure hits into strikes. Fairly useful against human opponents, less so against the computer. (Icon: White ball with black flame surrounding it on a light blue background.) PHANTOM BALL: The ball disappears as it goes over the plate. Hard to hit because you shouldn’t hit it when you normally would; hitting it just as it disappears seems to be more effective. Fairly useful against the computer, but human opponents adapt to it easily. (Icon: Black "sparkle" lines on a light blue background.) PHOTON BALL: Faster-than-fast ball. Increases fastball speed by about 25%. Somewhat useful against the computer, but human opponents will soon adapt to it and at least get foul tips. (Icon: White ball in lower-left hand corner with three light blue lines above it, and two white arrows to the right, on a black background.) IRON BALL: Ball turns to iron. Slow as heck, but unless the batter hits it with the exact middle of the bat, gets a strike. Useful against both human and computer opponents. (Icon: Black ball on a white background.) NINJA BALL: The ball spins in a very tight arc as it goes to the plate, and is much harder to hit. Useful against human opponents, but the computer gets a lot of hits off of it. (Icon: Seven white balls in a hexagonal shape.) Note that for many Ultra Pitches, if the batter swings and misses, s/he rotates around wildly until it’s time to throw the next pitch. Also note that sometimes the batter’s hat seems to fly off, but the spinning animation still shows a hat on the batter’s head! ULTRA HITS [ Z.0820 ] ---------- Each batter can have only one Ultra Hit; pitchers cannot have Ultra Hits. Select an Ultra Hit by pressing B before swinging; note that you can select an Ultra Hit while the pitch is coming to you. Also note, however, that Ultra Hits cannot be canceled out of; if you’ve selected an Ultra Hit, the only way not to spend Ultra Points on it is to not swing at the pitch. In addition, each time you swing while an Ultra Hit is selected, you lose three Ultra Points, so don’t take any "practice swings" before the ball is thrown. HYPER HIT: Doubles batting power. After selecting, the batter will spin around in place in the batter’s box. Shallow outfield flyouts become home runs, but groundouts remain groundouts. Somewhat useful in this regard, but creating a high-home run hitter may be simpler (and not cost Ultra Points or Ultra Hitting slots). (Icon: Light blue bat with two white arrows to the right pointing to it, on a black background.) METEOR HIT: Bat fragments surround the ball as it flies through the air, knocking out any fielder who tries to catch it. Ground balls don’t seem to be affected. Not too useful. (Icon: What looks to be a black television set with the glass punched out, on a light blue background.) SHADOW HIT: Causes many other shadows to surround the ball as it flies in the air. Ground balls aren’t affected. Fools the computer easily, but not human opponents. Limited usefulness in that regard. (Icon: White ball with black shadows surrounding it, on a dark blue background.) MISSILE HIT: Hit becomes a very slow line drive that "catches" any fielders in its' way and drives them to the wall with it. Once the ball hits the wall, it drops and falls in front, and any fielders that were in its’ trajectory are unable to move for a couple of seconds. VERY USEFUL, as any fair ball is a guaranteed hit, probably for at least two bases, and this hit can even get home runs in stadiums with low outfield fences (like Space Stadium). (Icon: White slash going from the upper-left to the lower-right corner of the box, on a dark blue background.) BOMB HIT: If the ball is a fly ball, any fielder who tries to catch it is knocked unconscious for a few seconds when it falls to the ground. If a ground ball, after its first bounce it explodes and then falls down the screen, towards the catcher. Useful, and the computer fielders fall for it every time. For some reason, I tend to get a lot of home runs with this Ultra Hit, so maybe it increases batting power as well. (Icon: "BOMB" in light blue letters on top of a white explosion graphic, on a black background.) MIRACLE HIT: A randomly selected Ultra Hit. Useful and dangerous for obvious reasons. The batters starts swinging around wildly as with Hyper Hit after this is selected, but this doesn’t necessarily mean that the computer has selected Hyper Hit. (Icon: Black question mark on a light blue background.) TREMOR HIT: If a fly ball, no effect (unless it drops before being caught). If a ground ball, the moment it touches the ground the screen starts to shake, and the fielders are stunned for a couple of seconds while baserunners can run as normal. Combined with enough running power, this guarantees singles almost every time (even for infield grounders), and so this is useful. (Icon: What looks to be a black pot with the lid partway open on a light blue background.) CANNON HIT: If a ground ball, no effect. If a fly ball, the shadow of the ball spins around, and it seems to fall prematurely. Human players will adapt to it easily, but computer opponents are always fooled by it. Somewhat useful. (Icon: White ball with black lines behind it in the upper-right corner, black-and-white circle in the lower-left corner, on a light blue background.) FREAK HIT: If a fly ball, no effect. If a ground ball, changes trajectory with every bounce. Too random to be of any good (it’ll sometimes bounce right into the hands of a fielder); barely useful. (Icon: White ball with a black zig-zag underneath it, on a dark blue background.) SPINNER HIT: If a fly ball, no effect. If a ground ball, rotates around as it rolls on the ground. Fielders seem to have a hard time picking it up until it hits the outfield fence. Somewhat useful. (Icon: Light blue baseball with black eyes and a dark blue sneer, on a dark blue background.) ULTRA FIELDING [ Z.0830 ] -------------- Each fielder, except the pitcher, can have one Ultra Fielding. To use an Ultra Fielding, when the ball is near a fielder, press B to activate it. Even if you don’t use it, the five points are lost anyway. Note that these tend to be very error-prone and difficult to use properly; I usually don’t use them at all, especially since you have to remember which player has which Ultra Fielding, without benefit of icons, and they cost so many Ultra Points. ROCKET JUMP: Allows fielder to leap about thirty feet in the air. If you can position yourself right, you can rob some homers this way, but triangulating the ball’s trajectory with the leaping fielder is just more trouble than it’s worth. (Icon: White player with light blue lines underneath, on a dark blue background.) HYPER THROW: After catching the ball, the fielder throws it at double regular speed. Somewhat useful for outfielders, I guess, to catch runners at the plate. (Icon: A light blue home plate turned sideways, with two white arrows pointing at it, on a black background.) SUPER SLIDE: Increases slide distance about threefold. But slides tend to be spur-of-the-moment decisions anyway, so by the time you press B to activate the Super Slide, it’s too late to be of any real use. (Icon: What looks like a bear’s footprint, in white, turned to the side, on a dark blue background. Hard to describe.) SUPER CHARGER: Increases running speed of fielder. I could see this as useful for some infielders, but only very rarely. (Icon: A black kleat on a dark blue background.) MIRACLE CATCH: Allows fielder to catch Ultra Hits that normally can’t be caught. Works a bit odd, though, because if you catch a Missile Hit it doesn't count as an out, even though it’s a line drive. (Icon: A ghost-looking creature in white and black, with five light blue triangles surrounding it, on a dark blue background.) -------- | SEASON | [ Z.0900 ] -------- STARTING A SEASON [ Z.0910 ] ----------------- To start a season, select SEASON from the main menu, then PLAY. You will then be asked to select a league from the season; either the Atlantic League, the Northern League, the Ultra League or the Original League you can create with the New League option described below. (Sorry, no interleague play.) Highlight the league you want by pressing up and down on the Control Pad, then press A to select it. From there, you will be asked to assign each team a home stadium; teams cannot share a home stadium. If you agree with the choices, select NO, otherwise select YES and a cursor will appear that you can move around the team names. Select one with the A button, then the cursor will shift to stadiums. Press A again to move the selected team to the stadium; the team that formerly had that stadium will automatically move to the stadium the other team occupied. When you are satisfied, press B to return to the NO/YES prompt and select NO. From here you will be asked to select a season; seasons can be 5 games, 30 games, 60 games or 165 games long. In a five-game season, each team will face each other team once; in longer seasons, teams will face each other in three- game series, and after two series all the teams get a day off. Move your cursor to the length of season you want and press A, and a schedule showing the first few games (all of them in a five-game season) will appear to the left. If for some reason you want to change the order of games, just re-select the same length of season and you will get a different order. When you are satisfied with the order of games and length of season, press Start to continue. From here a menu showing all six teams will appear with the options MANUAL and AUTO to the right of each team. You will be asked to select MANUAL (player- controlled) or AUTO (computer-controlled) for the first team; note that you can change this later on a game-to-game basis. After selecting the option for the first team on the list, the cursor will move down to the second team. Once you get to the end, select END to begin the season or RETRY to reassign MANUAL/AUTO to each team. RUNNING A SEASON [ Z.0920 ] ---------------- The moment you begin the season, you will be taken to the first game. Here you will be given the option of changing control of the teams from the default settings you just specified. If either team is set on MANUAL, you will go straight to the game; if both teams are set to AUTO, you will be given the option to either WATCH the game, or SKIP it and have the computer simulate it. However, computer simulations still take 6-10 minutes, while watching a game takes about 25-30 minutes, so either way you’d better go make yourself a sandwich or something. (And if you choose to skip the game, you’re forced to look at the Sports News screen, and anchor, the whole time, while the box score sloooooooowly gets posted.) Also, if both teams are set to AUTO, and twenty seconds goes by on the pre-game screen without anything happening, the computer will automatically start the game in WATCH mode. There are a couple of changes from an exhibition game you need to be aware of. First of all, instead of displaying the pre-programmed statistics in the bottom corners of the Batting Screen, it will display current season statistics, updated all the way to the last at-bat. The big change comes with pitchers, however. Starting pitchers who have pitched in the previous game will carry over that fatigue to the next game, so you have to have a pitching rotation. (Relievers don’t carry over fatigue.) The standard rotation in Baseball Simulator 1.000 is to go from the top down to the fourth and start again; if the starter has a bad outing, substitute with the one who won’t be pitching for two days. (E.g., if the top-listed pitcher is doing a bad job, substitute the pitcher third from the top in his/her place.) Note that complete games, shutouts and no-hitters aren’t kept track of by the game, so there’s no point in leaving a pitcher in there longer than is absolutely necessary. Also, if a team is leading the league by five or more games over the second-place team, EVERY PITCHER ON THAT TEAM WILL BE EXHAUSTED. The pitchers may not look exhausted in their portraits or on the mound, but they will act like it. This is supposed to help balance the game out, but it doesn’t really do that good a job of it. After a game is over, you will be taken to the Sports News screen, just as with an exhibition game. The only change is that the people who have hit home runs are listed in the bottom-left corner. Once you get past the box score, though, you will be presented with a new menu. NEXT GAME -- Automatically moves to the next game of the season. STANDINGS -- Allows you to view win/loss, player and other standings. (You can also go to this screen directly from the SEASON menu.) Note that pitcher batting statistics are not kept track of. OVERALL: Shows overall league standings. G = Games played W = Wins L = Losses PCT = Winning percentage GB = Games back of first place TEAM W-L: Displays a round-robin scorecard of how teams have fared against each other. The left-hand column represents the team, the topmost row represents the opponent. Within each box, the top number is the number of victories the team has against the opponent, and the bottom number is the number of victories suffered against the opponent. TEAMS: Allows you to select a team to view individual statistics for the season. (See Team Stats section below for a guide to the header codes.) Note that team batting average, home runs, RBIs, ERA, wins, losses and saves are totaled in the line below all the individual stats. AVG: Displays top 10 performers in batting average. HR: Displays top 10 home run hitters. RBI: Displays top 10 runs batted in leaders. WINS: Displays top 10 pitchers by number of wins. ERA: Displays top 10 pitchers by earned run average. SAVES: Displays top 10 pitches by number of saves. SCHEDULE -- Lets you view the upcoming games in the season. (The game with the blinking baseball is the next game to be played.) END -- Ends the game, and reminds you to hold Reset while shutting down the power to save your game to the battery backup. To continue a season, simply select START from the SEASON menu (as you did to begin a season) to resume where you left off. Once the league-leading team comes close to securing first place, it will start to display the "magic number" for that team to clinch. (Every game that team wins, and every game the second-place team loses, reduces the magic number by 1; once the magic number reaches zero, the first-place team is guaranteed of winning the division.) If multiple teams finish at the top of the division, a single-elimination playoff will take place to determine the winner. Note that there are no other playoffs in the game; no best-of-seven championship or anything like that. When a team has clinched the season, you will get a few of the typical sports celebration animations of the time; the team circling and tossing one of its own members into the air, high-fives and things like that. Nothing all that special, but then again this is an 8-bit sports game we’re talking about, not a 32-bit Final Fantasy. The rest of the games in the season will still have to be played, until finally at the end the game will tell you that it will store the statistics for this season until the season is erased. (Select START from the SEASON menu and you’ll go straight to the Sports News screen and be able to select whatever standings you want to see.) ----------- | EDIT MODE | [ Z.1000 ] ----------- To begin Edit Mode, select ENTER after selecting it EDIT from the main menu. You will then be asked to choose a team on which to base the edit; selecting an already-edited team will allow you to re-edit that team. Note that while you can still play as the original team in Exhibition mode, if you have edited a team, the original team will not be available in Season mode. Also note that the edited team will inherit the "base team"’s colours (see Team Stats below for colours for each team) and, for Ultra Teams, the number of Ultra Points per game. EDITING BATTERS [ Z.1010 ] --------------- You will then be taken to the Batters Screen. Your cursor will be at the top of the screen, where you can input the team’s name. Move your cursor left or right to select a letter, then press A to move forward through the alphabet or B to move backward. Team names can be up to ten letters long, but must start with an E. Available characters are all the letters and a space. After selecting the name, move the cursor down to enter the player information. Note that you will start with the base team’s names (NAME), batting side (BAT) and position (P), but you can change these; however, everyone’s statistics will be reduced to a .150 AV (batting average), 0 HR (home runs), 0 R (running ability) and 0 F (fielding ability). However, you will have a certain amount of points you can add to the whole team. If you’re editing a regular team, you’ll have an extra 1.200 AV, 150 HR, 130 R and 200 F to distribute, while Ultra Teams get 2.400 AV, 250 HR, 130 R and 250 F to distribute. (You can’t reduce AV below .150 to gain more points to distribute to other players.) Editing player names works the same as editing the team name. To change batting side, simply press A or B while over the given player’s batting side. To change position, however, first position the cursor over the position you want to give to someone else and press A. Then move the cursor to that player’s row and press A to set the position, or B to cancel out. Note that you cannot re-assign pitch hitter (PH) status. Editing AV, HR, R and F works just like editing names; move the cursor to the digit you want to change, then press A to increase it or B to decrease it. Note that you must select each digit individually; while you can move an AV from .150 to .750 by pressing A 600 times while on the 0, it’s a lot easier to press left twice to put the cursor on the 1, then press A 6 times. Players are limited to a .750 AV, 99 HR, 99 R and 99 F, although anything above 50 in either of the latter two categories is really overkill. In terms of strategy for editing batters, try to keep people balanced; a good strategy is to start out by increasing everyone’s base stats a bit (say, to .200 AV, 5 HR, 3 R and 5 F), then boost them from there. Typical baseball lineup strategy will help you; put your speediest guy as the leadoff hitter, your power hitters third and fourth. In terms of F, your infielders should have higher numbers than your outfielders, simply because they’ll handle the ball more often on defence. Also, be sure you have worthwhile pinch-hitters; make sure you have one high-AV hitter and one high-HR hitter among them, just in case. When you’re happy with your selections, press Start to move on to the Pitchers Screen. EDITING PITCHERS [ Z.1020 ] ---------------- For some reason, you can re-edit your team name on the Pitchers Screen if you want. The controls on the Pitchers menu are roughly the same as those on the Batters Screen; player names (NAME) work the same, throwing style (THR) toggles between the four options (L = left-handed, R = right-handed, O = overhand throw, U = underhand throw). All pitchers start with a base of 0.00 ERA (earned run average), 62 SPD (throwing speed), 0 R (right curve), 0 L (left curve), 0 F (fork) and 0 ST (stamina). Regular teams get 18.00 ERA, 180 SPD, 35 R, 35 L, 20 F and 160 ST to distribute; Ultra Teams get 10.00 ERA, 240 SPD, 45 R, 45 L, 30 F and 180 ST to distribute. (Again, you can’t reduce SPD below 62 and give the extra points to other players.) Note that unlike other stats, you MUST distribute every point of ERA you have; ERA is a negative stat where a lower number is better, so to keep everyone at 0.00 ERA would make them all super-pitchers. (Strangely, in Super Baseball Simulator 1.000, you didn’t have to distribute ERA if you didn’t want to.) SPD can go as high as 124 for an individual pitcher but no higher, and ST is likewise limited to 99; pitchers can receive the entire allotment of R, L or F, but that, again, would be overkill. When editing pitchers, again, balance is key. When you’re just playing against the computer you don’t need much variety, but when playing against human opponents it helps to have a variety of pitchers; one who’s good at throwing curveballs, another who’s a fastball expert, and so on. Keeping a couple of underhand pitchers is a good idea too; for some reason many people, including myself, have a harder time hitting pitches from an underhand pitcher than an overhand pitcher. Also, remember that the last two pitchers on the list are relievers, so they should have lower stamina. (They "eat up" stamina faster within the game anyway.) If you’re done editing pitchers, press Start to have a menu pop up in the upper- right corner. Select BATTER to return to the Batter Screen. If you’re editing a regular team, select END to finish editing the team; if you’re editing an Ultra Team, select ULTRA to go to Ultra Editing. EDITING ULTRA PLAYS [ Z.1030 ] ------------------- Your batters will be listed at the top of the screen in two columns. Note that the columns read from left to right, i.e. the second batter is at the top of the right-handed column, not second from the top on the left-hand column. You will have fifteen Ultra Plays to distribute among your batters, and ten Ultra Pitches to distribute among your pitchers. (Remember that pitchers cannot have Ultra Hits or Ultra Fielding.) To give a player an Ultra Play, move the cursor to the left of that player’s name and press A. For batters, a menu will appear at the bottom of the screen with the Ultra Hits and Ultra Fielding icons; moving the cursor to the left of each one will display the Ultra Play’s name at the bottom of the left-hand window. Note that each player can have only one Ultra Hit and one Ultra Fielding; if you select another Ultra Hit or Ultra Fielding after already selecting one, it will replace the previous selection. Multiple players can have the same Ultra Play; in fact, a team where everyone has Missile Hit is probably the cheapest way to guaranteed victory in the game. To exit out of that player’s Ultra Plays menu, press B. To clear the selections for a player, move the cursor to the left of that player’s name and press B. Selecting Ultra Pitches for pitchers works similarly, although each pitcher can have up to four different Ultra Pitches. Note that you can select the same Ultra Pitch more than once for the same player, although there’s no sense in that because then other pitchers can’t have as many Ultra Pitches. If you’ve already selected four Ultra Pitches for a pitcher, selecting a fifth Ultra Pitch will cause that pitch to replace the fourth one. As with batters, press B when you’re done editing a pitcher’s Ultra Pitches, and press B while the cursor is next to the pitcher’s name to remove all the Ultra Pitches for that player. When you’re done editing, press Start to bring up a menu in the upper-right hand corner; select PITCHER to go back to the Pitchers Screen, or select END to save the team. As for strategy, my advice is to play the game with the preset Ultra Teams a few times, find out what Ultra Plays work best for you, and use them. Try not to assign Ultra Plays that don’t fit with the player’s stats, though; for example, Cannon Hit doesn’t do much for a high-HR hitter, because whenever Cannon Hit is activated, the batter can never generate enough power to get the ball out of the park for a home run. Also, I’d advise just leaving Ultra Fielding alone; it’s rarely of any use, and when you do try to use it, you’ll likely just spend five Ultra Points and fail at what you were trying to do anyway, if not make it worse. ------------ | NEW LEAGUE | [ Z.1100 ] ------------ The New League mode is fairly self-explanatory. You’ll be taken to a screen showing the three pre-set leagues (with edited teams substituted in the place of their base teams if applicable); simply move your cursor around to each team you want in the league, then press A to select that team. Once you’ve selected six teams, select END to set your Original League, or RETRY to start over. ------------ | TEAM STATS | [ Z.1200 ] ------------ These statistics are taken from the cartridge itself, and represent programmed statistics. The first line will give the team’s logo (usually the letters within it), then their full name. (Note that the first two letters of the full name are used in the various statistic-tracking devices in the game, and may differ from the letters in the logo.) The second line gives the team’s colours, and for Ultra Teams, the amount of Ultra Points each team starts with are listed below that. Key to Batters: BA -- Batting Order, or what order the player normally bats in the lineup. Pitchers automatically bat in the ninth spot. (No designated hitter.) PH designates a pinch-hitter. NAME -- Player name. BAT -- Whether the player bats right-handed or left-handed. P -- Position. 1B = First Base 2B = Second Base 3B = Third Base SS = Shortstop C = Catcher LF = Left Field CF = Centre Field RF = Right Field AVG. -- Batting Average, where .000 = the player never gets a hit and 1.000 = the player always gets a hit. E.g., if a player has a batting average of .250, s/he will get a hit one out of every four at-bats. HR -- Number of home runs the player should get over the course of a season. Higher number means more hitting power. R -- Running ability. Higher number means faster movement on the field. F -- Fielding ability. Higher number means fewer errors while on defence. LTRA -- Ultra Hits and Ultra Fielding available (if any). Omitted from non- Ultra Teams to conserve space. Key to Pitchers: NAME -- Player name. TH -- Throwing style. RO = Right-handed, overhand LO = Left-handed, overhand RU = Right-handed, underhand LU = Left-handed, underhand ERA -- Earned runned average. How many earned runs a pitcher should give up for every nine innings pitched. (Thus, lower is better.) Lower number means higher overall pitching quality. SPD -- Maximum pitching speed. (This is more theoretical; higher speeds than those listed can be achieved during gameplay.) R -- Right curve. Higher number means curveballs will curve more to the right after being pitched. L -- Left curve. Higher number means curveballs will curve more to the left after being pitched. F -- Fork ball. Higher number means slower slow ball. ST -- Stamina. Higher number means the pitcher can throw more pitches without getting tired. LTRA -- Ultra Pitches available (if any). Omitted from non-Ultra Teams to conserve space. Note that pitchers do not have listed batting stats; all pitchers automatically receive the following offensive stats (from manual): AVG. HR R F .150 0 7 16 ATLANTIC LEAGUE [ Z.1210 ] --------------- * BOS (BOSTON) * DET (DETROIT) Blue/Light gray Black/Light blue Batters Batters BA NAME BAT P AVG. HR R F BA NAME BAT P AVG. HR R F 1 GLEN L 3B .367 6 20 29 1 JOE R CF .211 2 19 24 2 HRLD R 2B .284 2 18 17 2 KURT R 1B .254 4 17 8 3 JNTN R CF .295 20 17 15 3 LON L 2B .276 24 10 30 4 KIRK L LF .324 32 12 12 4 TOM R SS .312 27 12 18 5 LES R RF .294 20 11 12 5 LUIS L LF .254 24 12 14 6 MART R 1B .242 16 10 16 6 RDNY R RF .265 18 8 13 7 OZZY R SS .294 1 9 24 7 STAN L C .250 16 9 10 8 PETR R C .230 7 11 20 8 VINC R 3B .236 1 10 9 PH RDLF R PH .236 8 9 15 PH ANDY R PH .253 10 8 11 PH SMON R PH .261 4 15 15 PH BOBY L PH .250 6 10 7 PH TONY L PH .238 11 13 17 PH CLIF R PH .242 4 9 8 PH ADRE R PH .250 3 14 28 PH DAVD R PH .272 7 9 12 Pitchers Pitchers NAME TH ERA SPD R L F ST NAME TH ERA SPD R L F ST JOSE RO 2.94 97 08 07 08 36 ENRC RO 3.95 85 10 7 7 38 CHUK LO 2.62 92 06 03 03 36 GRLD RO 2.98 88 8 4 9 40 DARN RO 5.32 87 13 00 15 36 JOEL RO 4.30 87 6 1 2 38 EMAN LO 3.02 88 08 02 12 32 LON LU 4.20 88 6 6 7 38 FRNK LO 3.06 87 10 01 02 15 MAUR LO 3.05 81 7 9 8 15 GREG RO 5.96 95 05 05 05 20 PHLP RO 1.86 88 12 6 13 15 * TOR (TORONTO) * OAK (OAKLAND) Red/White Blue/White Batters Batters BA NAME BAT P AVG. HR R F BA NAME BAT P AVG. HR R F 1 REG L 2B .275 0 23 34 1 PHIL R 3B .280 6 18 19 2 STNL R CF .305 12 16 14 2 JUAN L LF .290 1 16 12 3 ANTH L RF .260 12 10 16 3 MGEL R CF .305 20 16 11 4 BRET R LF .251 34 10 9 4 RICK R RF .308 44 24 23 5 CRLS L SS .240 20 11 11 5 ART R 1B .259 30 10 20 6 NATE L 1B .211 5 12 13 6 BRY R C .264 8 13 9 7 ERIC R 3B .311 9 25 19 7 CURT R 2B .208 1 15 18 8 NTHN L C .243 3 13 12 8 DENY L SS .252 3 12 33 PH LOU L PH .268 10 15 20 PH DICK R PH .242 7 16 27 PH MEL R PH .275 6 11 19 PH JOSH R PH .276 15 13 10 PH RICH R PH .242 4 13 23 PH LUKE R PH .194 5 16 11 PH STRM R PH .273 3 16 19 PH MICK L PH .234 4 22 26 Pitchers Pitchers NAME TH ERA SPD R L F ST NAME TH ERA SPD R L F ST ANTN LO 2.49 90 7 14 12 42 KEN RO 3.22 90 18 2 6 46 BRI RO 3.10 86 7 5 11 42 RLPH RO 3.65 86 11 6 3 40 CRAG RO 4.14 87 11 8 6 32 STVE RU 3.77 90 9 3 7 30 DEAN RO 4.70 85 11 9 8 30 BRCE LO 4.10 87 10 1 8 30 ERIK LO 4.06 84 9 9 6 12 JRGE LO 1.82 85 12 5 3 15 DNIS LO 2.42 91 9 6 8 18 MLVN RO 2.34 87 10 10 10 18 * MINN. (MINNESOTA) * KC (KANSASCITY) Blue/Light blue Black/Gray Batters Batters BA NAME BAT P AVG. HR R F BA NAME BAT P AVG. HR R F 1 MORS L 2B .302 0 22 24 1 RON L CF .263 0 21 15 2 RNLD R LF .270 10 18 20 2 ENRQ R 3B .303 4 24 9 3 DON R CF .358 25 10 25 3 MAX L 1B .305 25 11 27 4 MATT L 1B .313 27 9 18 4 ROBT R RF .275 31 9 9 5 MRIO R 3B .300 27 11 29 5 ABE R LF .245 24 16 17 6 ROD L RF .262 13 12 11 6 BEN R C .294 4 11 19 7 JULI R C .250 12 16 12 7 CLEM R 2B .234 7 11 14 8 MTCH R SS .235 11 13 14 8 DIRK L SS .250 8 10 23 PH NEIL R PH .248 15 17 16 PH ELI R PH .282 6 14 18 PH ROGR R PH .259 4 12 15 PH EMIL R PH .356 20 11 17 PH GRGE L PH .218 5 12 7 PH GUS L PH .263 8 14 18 PH RUSS L PH .203 18 12 11 PH HUGH R PH .193 4 14 15 Pitchers Pitchers NAME TH ERA SPD R L F ST NAME TH ERA SPD R L F ST DONY LO 2.65 93 4 13 10 42 ROSS RO 2.69 95 11 0 11 48 RYAN LO 2.44 92 11 7 5 38 IRA RO 3.78 93 9 8 12 38 DOUG LO 4.16 89 8 8 11 35 JAKE LO 4.32 87 15 3 5 42 JAY RO 4.25 92 12 8 8 38 LEO RO 2.51 88 6 6 6 44 ARTH RO 3.94 90 3 9 8 18 MAC LO 3.18 86 7 3 6 12 RON RO 2.46 92 9 9 10 18 NAT RO 5.16 86 8 8 8 10 NORTHERN LEAGUE [ Z.1220 ] --------------- * N.Y. (NEW YORK) * PIT (PITTSBURGH) Light blue/White Red/Gray Batters Batters BA NAME BAT P AVG. HR R F BA NAME BAT P AVG. HR R F 1 AARN L CF .295 9 21 15 1 TIM L CF .289 20 25 32 2 BARN R 2B .215 0 16 23 2 VANC R 2B .263 3 18 34 3 CAL L 1B .278 22 11 24 3 WADE L 1B .265 9 12 16 4 DALE L RF .270 40 25 20 4 XAVR R 3B .275 32 8 9 5 EARL R LF .287 26 18 30 5 ZACH L LF .285 32 14 13 6 FELP L 3B .320 5 11 19 6 ADRW R RF .269 3 12 14 7 JEFF R C .241 9 10 15 7 BART L C .260 1 10 17 8 HAL L SS .277 12 11 16 8 CARL R SS .212 0 15 18 PH IAN L PH .280 6 16 14 PH DAN L PH .302 24 14 18 PH OREL L PH .219 3 17 16 PH ED R PH .255 16 11 14 PH KARL R PH .268 2 10 15 PH FELX R PH .262 7 16 26 PH LANC R PH .238 10 13 11 PH GENE R PH .283 3 18 8 Pitchers Pitchers NAME TH ERA SPD R L F ST NAME TH ERA SPD R L F ST MACK RO 3.20 93 10 6 12 35 HANK RO 3.06 92 12 4 4 42 NEIL RO 3.25 88 8 4 7 35 IRWN LU 3.24 90 11 4 11 32 OLLY RO 2.20 92 2 10 5 30 JACK RO 2.70 86 9 4 5 30 PAT LO 3.00 88 4 12 8 30 KEN RO 3.95 90 11 4 3 30 RAFL LO 1.71 91 12 2 6 15 LARY RO 3.48 97 8 8 9 17 SAM RO 2.64 92 10 6 12 24 MANL RO 3.02 90 10 10 12 24 * MON (MONTREAL) * LA (LOSANGELES) Peach/Cream Blue/Yellow Batters Batters BA NAME BAT P AVG. HR R F BA NAME BAT P AVG. HR R F 1 NICK R LF .269 10 21 15 1 LEE R 2B .232 3 18 18 2 OLVR L CF .256 7 18 12 2 MANY R 3B .235 5 20 19 3 PAUL R 1B .302 30 10 32 3 NOLN R RF .280 22 10 17 4 RAY R RF .280 32 16 8 4 GARY L 1B .285 34 10 25 5 SAUL L 3B .258 22 11 29 5 PBLO L LF .292 30 22 8 6 TERY L 2B .266 14 10 23 6 REX R CF .264 10 12 12 7 VCTR R C .238 9 15 9 7 SCOT L C .256 2 9 16 8 WALT L SS .260 0 9 16 8 THMS L SS .200 0 11 22 PH ADRN R PH .267 10 10 7 PH VERN L PH .286 7 13 14 PH BERT R PH .222 9 14 18 PH WARN L PH .258 9 14 16 PH CARY L PH .213 3 18 19 PH KETH R PH .270 5 9 15 PH DANA L PH .240 2 16 18 PH BIFF L PH .213 19 19 15 Pitchers Pitchers NAME TH ERA SPD R L F ST NAME TH ERA SPD R L F ST EDDY RO 2.73 90 9 10 10 42 CASY RO 2.25 91 10 4 3 36 FERD RO 2.42 88 3 15 6 42 DANL LO 4.25 90 8 6 6 35 GEOF RO 3.02 84 10 8 6 30 EDWD LO 2.30 95 6 2 8 38 HARY RO 3.42 87 13 8 6 30 VAN RU 2.92 88 6 5 9 32 JERY RO 1.19 88 7 5 7 10 GIAN RO 2.05 86 5 5 3 15 KENT LO 2.84 92 6 6 4 17 HNRY RO 5.08 83 9 3 3 19 * CI (CINCINNATI) * SD (SAN DIEGO) Dark red/Mustard Purple/Light purple Batters Batters BA NAME BAT P AVG. HR R F BA NAME BAT P AVG. HR R F 1 JESS R SS .295 10 20 19 1 JIM R LF .235 19 18 9 2 MARK R 3B .270 12 21 39 2 KEVN L 2B .267 10 24 32 3 LEN R CF .272 28 18 28 3 LENY L CF .312 28 14 22 4 MARC L LF .292 32 15 16 4 TODD R 1B .244 32 10 8 5 PDRO L 1B .255 13 8 10 5 NORM L RF .242 10 12 12 6 REY L RF .251 18 16 12 6 OSCR R C .250 9 17 28 7 SID R C .218 9 9 12 7 PETE R 3B .265 6 13 19 8 BOB R 2B .281 1 10 23 8 RCDO R SS .250 2 9 14 PH VIC R PH .248 6 13 18 PH SKIP R PH .252 5 16 19 PH WILL L PH .237 4 16 16 PH ROY R PH .290 8 9 14 PH ALAN R PH .163 15 10 13 PH VRNN L PH .266 6 14 15 PH BILL R PH .220 4 10 13 PH WLBR L PH .348 1 11 18 Pitchers Pitchers NAME TH ERA SPD R L F ST NAME TH ERA SPD R L F ST CHET LO 2.72 89 10 6 13 34 ALEX RO 3.25 90 12 6 14 36 DANL LO 3.40 89 14 2 4 34 BO LO 3.65 86 8 8 11 32 EDWN RO 2.40 86 11 7 2 30 CHRS LO 2.54 86 8 7 10 34 FRED RO 3.68 86 14 6 6 30 DARL RO 3.76 85 7 2 0 36 GINO LO 1.56 90 5 3 4 12 ELDN LU 3.98 86 12 6 10 15 HOWD RO 1.80 95 11 8 14 20 FRCS LO 2.00 93 8 3 7 22 ULTRA LEAGUE [ Z.1230 ] ------------ * STAR GRAPHIC (ALL STARS) Black/Dull teal 120 Ultra Points/game Batters BA NAME BAT P AVG. HR R F LTRA 1 DAN L LF .325 6 24 28 Spinner Hit 2 PAT L 2B .333 18 10 27 Cannon Hit, Super Slide 3 CARL R 3B .353 44 11 59 Hyper Hit 4 ERIC L 1B .355 55 10 30 Shadow Hit, Super Slide 5 IAN R C .320 35 9 29 Freak Hit, Miracle Catch 6 PAUL R CF .336 30 8 34 Missile Hit 7 BART R RF .303 28 8 26 Cannon Hit 8 CARY L SS .358 7 8 49 Bomb Hit PH JOSH R PH .295 20 7 20 Meteor Hit PH MARC L PH .383 17 15 15 Shadow Hit PH ROSS R PH .329 9 8 15 Miracle Hit PH AL L PH .369 16 9 24 Tremor Hit Pitchers NAME TH ERA SPD R L F ST LTRA BERT RO 2.00 88 30 30 10 30 Speeder Ball, Snake Ball GLEN RO 2.12 92 18 4 6 30 Fire Ball, Stopper Ball JACK RO 1.92 92 8 16 4 30 Phantom Ball, Miracle Ball MARK LO 1.64 90 10 10 10 30 Photon Ball, Fan Ball NEIL RU 2.36 90 16 6 12 15 Iron Ball, Ninja Ball ROY LO 1.44 93 11 9 16 20 Fire Ball, Fan Ball * HOMER (HOMERS) Black/Sky Blue 100 Ultra Points/game Batters BA NAME BAT P AVG. HR R F LTRA 1 ALAN R 2B .340 11 30 38 Shadow Hit 2 EARL L SS .223 16 30 49 Freak Hit, Super Charger 3 GREG R LF .292 38 10 16 Meteor Hit 4 JEFF R 1B .293 45 8 6 Missile Hit, Rocket Jump 5 NICK R 3B .300 36 9 9 Bomb Hit 6 PETE R RF .288 32 10 19 Bomb Hit 7 ALEX R CF .270 17 23 36 Miracle Hit 8 BILL R C .261 6 14 16 Spinner Hit PH ED R PH .254 31 24 36 Hyper Hit PH TIM L PH .316 6 14 49 Cannon Hit PH JESS R PH .267 23 13 24 Meteor Hit PH KARL L PH .289 17 12 27 Tremor Hit Pitchers NAME TH ERA SPD R L F ST LTRA PHIL RO 3.40 90 11 7 8 40 Speeder Ball, Stopper Ball WALT RO 3.76 89 14 8 16 32 Fire Ball, Stopper Ball BOB LO 1.70 92 9 10 10 36 Phantom Ball, Miracle Ball DAVE RO 3.88 88 13 10 12 30 Photon Ball, Fan Ball FRED RO 3.15 89 10 7 13 20 Iron Ball, Ninja Ball JIM RO 1.95 91 12 8 14 22 Fire Ball, Snake Ball * SWEEP (SWEEPERS) Green/Greenish-yellow 100 Ultra Points/game Batters BA NAME BAT P AVG. HR R F LTRA 1 SAM R RF .327 14 23 21 Spinner Hit, Miracle Catch 2 ANDY R SS .277 16 12 8 Freak Hit 3 DEAN R CF .292 38 25 37 Cannon Hit, Rocket Jump 4 HANK R 1B .280 31 9 17 Tremor Hit 5 LOU L LF .311 44 8 4 Bomb Hit 6 SAUL L 3B .326 16 23 29 Missile Hit, Super Slide 7 JOE R 2B .320 7 12 20 Shadow Hit, Super Slide 8 MICK R C .252 11 8 26 Meteor Hit PH RAY R PH .283 21 20 12 Hyper Hit, Super Charger PH TOM L PH .307 34 9 14 Miracle Hit PH DICK R PH .296 22 10 5 Miracle Hit PH JOEL L PH .303 7 26 31 Miracle Hit Pitchers NAME TH ERA SPD R L F ST LTRA LUKE RO 1.60 94 22 10 8 40 Phantom Ball, Fan Ball MIKE RO 2.30 93 16 8 13 37 Iron Ball, Miracle Ball REX LO 1.99 93 12 17 11 35 Photon Ball, Snake Ball TONY LO 2.08 92 13 6 8 38 Iron Ball, Stopper Ball GENE RO 1.69 91 18 8 12 20 Phantom Ball, Stopper Ball MACK RO 2.04 92 19 6 25 25 Speeder Ball, Snake Ball * POWER (POWERS) Red/Light blue 100 Ultra Points/game Batters BA NAME BAT P AVG. HR R F LTRA 1 ROB R SS .289 11 30 9 Hyper Hit, Hyper Throw 2 STU R C .291 12 30 8 Meteor Hit, Miracle Catch 3 CLEM L CF .297 31 21 7 Shadow Hit, Miracle Catch 4 GUS L 1B .337 40 11 6 Missile Hit, Hyper Throw 5 LANC R 2B .327 31 15 10 Bomb Hit, Hyper Throw 6 LEO L 3B .268 38 14 9 Tremor Hit, Miracle Catch 7 SETH L LF .320 28 10 16 Cannon Hit, Super Slide 8 ADAM R RF .308 26 10 16 Freak Hit, Rocket Jump PH DIRK L PH .174 39 13 7 Miracle Hit, Rocket Jump PH GUY L PH .274 5 14 12 Miracle Hit, Hyper Throw PH HUGH R PH .299 23 12 11 Miracle Hit, Super Slide PH MAC L PH .159 20 10 4 Miracle Hit, Super Charger Pitchers NAME TH ERA SPD R L F ST LTRA NOAH RO 2.34 97 10 5 4 35 Speeder Ball, Phantom Ball, Stopper Ball TED RO 3.03 100 8 6 4 38 Fire Ball, Photon Ball, Miracle Ball MAX RO 4.42 94 9 7 4 30 Phantom Ball, Iron Ball, Fan Ball AMOS RO 3.97 92 11 0 4 28 Photon Ball, Miracle Ball, Ninja Ball WAYN RU 2.54 98 10 3 4 15 Iron Ball, Snake Ball IRA RO 3.00 100 8 2 4 23 Speeder Ball, Snake Ball * WIN (WINNERS) Gray/Pink 100 Ultra Points/game Batters BA NAME BAT P AVG. HR R F LTRA 1 MORT R CF .272 16 55 46 Missile Hit, Super Charger 2 MATT L 2B .294 29 34 32 Shadow Hit, Rocket Jump 3 NOEL R SS .309 38 11 28 Bomb Hit, Rocket Jump 4 VAN R 3B .442 52 10 49 Miracle Hit, Rocket Jump 5 ROLF R 1B .361 44 9 21 Meteor Hit, Rocket Jump 6 EMIL R LF .350 28 17 17 Hyper Hit 7 EVAN R RF .326 24 8 18 Tremor Hit, Super Charger 8 JAKE R C .290 19 8 27 Tremor Hit, Super Charger PH OWEN L PH .311 20 10 16 Cannon Hit PH NAT R PH .320 18 25 16 Cannon Hit PH OTTO R PH .294 19 25 16 Freak Hit PH WARD R PH .289 17 10 16 Freak Hit Pitchers NAME TH ERA SPD R L F ST LTRA BEN RO 1.24 105 16 16 14 43 Speeder Ball, Fire Ball, Snake Ball, Stopper Ball EZRA RO 2.36 102 6 22 14 30 Phantom Ball, Photon Ball, Miracle Ball, Fan Ball JAY LO 3.00 101 18 25 20 28 Iron Ball, Snake Ball, Ninja Ball, Speeder Ball NED LO 1.52 98 12 16 10 35 Stopper Ball, Miracle Ball, Fire Ball, Phantom Ball SEAN RO 3.01 97 8 8 12 20 Fan Ball, Ninja Ball, Photon Ball, Iron Ball YALE RO 1.87 106 20 20 20 35 Iron Ball, Photon Ball, Phantom Ball, Fire Ball * SMILING BASEBALL GRAPHIC (HEROES) Blue/Orange 150 Ultra Points/game Batters BA NAME BAT P AVG. HR R F LTRA 1 BOYD L LF .150 0 55 49 Cannon Hit, Rocket Jump 2 JED R 2B .329 19 20 40 Hyper Hit, Super Charger 3 BARN R 1B .401 49 20 29 Missile Hit, Rocket Jump 4 BOBY L C .750 62 10 19 Shadow Hit, Miracle Catch 5 BRET R RF .594 58 10 19 Bomb Hit, Hyper Throw 6 CLIF R 3B .443 18 20 39 Freak Hit, Super Slide 7 DENY R SS .375 21 20 29 Tremor Hit, Super Slide 8 KENT L CF .280 12 31 18 Cannon Hit, Super Charger PH STAN R PH .084 2 12 0 Miracle Hit, Rocket Jump PH JOSE L PH .102 4 10 0 Miracle Hit, Rocket Jump PH CAL R PH .120 3 4 0 Miracle Hit, Rocket Jump PH OREL R PH .000 4 0 0 Miracle Hit, Rocket Jump Pitchers NAME TH ERA SPD R L F ST LTRA SKIP LO 0.65 100 16 30 11 30 Phantom Ball, Photon Ball, Stopper Ball, Fan Ball ROD LO 1.14 97 20 10 15 30 Ninja Ball, Iron Ball, Speeder Ball, Miracle Ball LES LO 1.32 115 13 13 13 30 Speeder Ball, Photon Ball, Fan Ball, Snake Ball EDDY RO 2.44 85 15 15 0 30 Fire Ball, Speeder Ball, Miracle Ball, Fan Ball SCOT LU 2.06 90 10 21 10 20 Snake Ball, Fan Ball, Speeder Ball, Photon Ball SID LO 2.19 97 13 13 3 20 Fire Ball, Photon Ball, Stopper Ball, Miracle Ball ------------------ | GAME GENIE CODES | [ Z.1300 ] ------------------ Here are all the Gane Genie codes I’ve been able to rustle up for Baseball Simulator 1.000. I got one of the first Game Genies, so the codebook that came with it didn’t even have any Baseball Simulator 1.000 codes inside. These are all codes that I’ve found on the Web through my own searches (see Acknowledgments for sources); if you know of any other codes, they’d be greatly appreciated. 001. PESEPTLA 1 strike and you're out 002. ZESEPTLA 2 strikes and you're out 003. IESEPTLA 5 strikes and you're out 004. SZVAYTVT Strikes aren't counted 005. SZNAATVT Balls aren't counted 006. PESALTGA 1 ball and you walk 007. ZESALTGA 2 balls and you walk 008. LESALTGA 3 balls and you walk 009. PESALTGE 9 balls and you walk 010. OXVZITVV Strike outs aren't allowed ----------------- | ACKNOWLEDGMENTS | [ Z.1400 ] ----------------- Some material was taken directly from the Baseball Simulator 1.000 instruction manual, written by Culture Brain. Japanese release data came from GameFAQs (http://www.gamefaqs.com/). Game Genie codes #001-010 came from World of Video Games (http://www.world-of- video-games.com/). ------------- | FINAL WORDS | [ Z.1500 ] ------------- Um ... thanks for reading! Copyright (c) 2002 Sean Shannon, all rights reserved