Super Baseball 2020: SNES Version Strategy Guide by GJ (Greg Colombo) Copyright Greg Colombo, 2000 (cubbies984@yahoo.com) 9/17/00 Version 1.0 I. Introduction II. Revision History III. The Rules of Super Baseball IV. Robots V. Money VI. Basic Baseball Strategy and Terminology VII. Offensive Strategy/Tips VIII. Defensive Strategy/Tips IX. Submissions ----------------------------------------------------------------------- I. Introduction Super Baseball 2020 is a baseball game that takes place in the future, presumably in the year 2020, hence its name. This game encompasses the old rules of baseball, plus new rules and such features as robotic players and cash. This document is a tips guide for Super Baseball 2020. *THESE TIPS ONLY APPLY TO THE SNES VERSION OF THE GAME*. You could theoretically use it on the Genesis or Neo-Geo versions of the game, but some features may be different. Your mileage may vary with any other system. This document is copyright Greg Colombo, 2000, with all rights reserved. What that means is that you can't use it for anything outside of personal use without my permission. "Personal use" is printing out a copy for you to use with this game. Please don't ask me for the location of a ROM for this game. Get one yourself, or buy the game used; that way, I don't have to have a guilty conscience. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- II. Revision History Version 1.1 - After an adventure in how to get my text to wrap 72 to the line, I finally got a chance to start writing. Here's what I added: -Added miscellaneous information to the "money" section. -Added an entirely new section about baseball strategy for people new to baseball in general. Version 1.0 - The first version, and I hope it's the only one. But I've probably left some stuff out of here because I'm writing from memory. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- III. The Rules of Super Baseball Generally, the rules of Super Baseball are the same as the ones of today's baseball, but with a few exceptions regarding home runs and foul balls. The most important rule is that the ball can bounce off the tops of the stands and it is still in play. Remember this, as it leads into the first rule: A home run is only a home run when it hits the scoreboard in center field. No exceptions. The foul ball zone is behind the plate but it doesn't extend across the entire field. If a ball lands in this zone or any of the stands behind it, it's foul and is treated as it would be normally. A red line divides the fair and foul ball areas of the field in the stands. There are also two special kinds of zones on the field: jump zones and stop zones. The only jump zone on the field is in front of the center field scoreboard. If you push the A button while standing on this zone, your fielder will jump extra-high. The only real purpose of this zone is to try and save a home run. There are two stop zones, both of which are in right-center field, but not terribly deep. If a ball touches one of these zones, it immediately stops moving. The idea here is to keep a player from getting a triple because the ball is being chased. Additionally, the seventh inning is considered "lucky". During the seventh inning, both teams receive a major offensive boost that makes them faster and better hitters. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- IV. Robots Robots are one of the most interesting parts of this game. They are players, but with special properties - superhuman ones, actually. Robots are supercharged players with extremely good abilities. They can all hit well and they are quite fast. Most teams have a few robots on them. The American Dreams and the Battle Heroes don't have any robots, and the Taiwan Megapowers and the Mechanical Brains are entirely robots (except for the starting center fielder on the Brains.) These superhuman abilities are great, but there is a caveat: like all machines, robots will inevitably break down. Regular play of the game will cause a robot to tire out. Making good plays in the field (diving or jumping) and running for extra bases wear a robot out faster. For pitching robots, throwing extra hard with lots of break wears out the robot's arm. As a robot grows progressively more tired, it will begin to spark and then to flash with small explosions. Eventually it will break with a "thud" and turn gray to show that it is broken. When a robot breaks, its abilities all fall to zero. They aren't totally worthless members of your team, but they're not very good either. Robots cannot be repaired in the course of the game (with one exception which we will get to in the next section.) They will, however, be repaired in between games. Usually you can get 4-7 innings of life out of a robot before it breaks down. Since broken robots can still hit with minimal power, keep them in the game until the late innings before you sub in for them (unless you're really desperate.) This doesn't apply to pitching robots; you get four of them, so it's best to sub in as soon as one breaks (since they all get repaired at the end of the game anyway.) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- V. Money Money is one of the other interesting aspects of the game. As you play the game, you gain and lose money. Money has one purpose: purchasing upgrades (more on this in a minute.) You earn money with virtually every event (except negative ones, for which you lose money.) Here is a limited table of events and their effects: Table 5.1: Money Earned/Lost for Game Events /-------------------------------------------\ | Event | Hitting Team | Pitching Team| |--------------+--------------+--------------| |Thrown strike*| -10 | +100 | |Strikeout | -100 | +1000 | |Walk/HBP | +1000 | -1000 | |Fly out | -50 | +800 | |Jumping catch | -50? | +1000 | |Diving catch | -50? | +1500 | |Groundout | -50? | +1000 | |Single | +300 | 0 | |Double | +500 | 0 | |Triple | +800 | 0 | |Inside park HR| ? | ? | |Out-of-park HR| ** | ? | \--------------------------------------------/ Entries marked with "?" I don't know or aren't sure about. * - If a player hits a foul ball, nobody gains or loses any money. ** - The amount of money varies with the players on base. There are a couple of bugs in this system which you can exploit. If somebody hits a pop fly ball, get under it and jump just before it reaches the fielder's glove. You will be given credit for a jumping catch and two hundred dollars bonus. If you hit a foul pop-up and it is catchable, but nobody catches it, and you reach first base before it touches the ground, the game gives you credit for a single. (This is pretty rare, and I've only done it once - usually the catcher and first/third basemen are pretty good at getting to the ball before it drops.) As far as I can tell, driving in a run does not score any extra points. Singles/doubles/triples only apply to the player who hit the ball; a baserunner taking an extra base does not gain any additional money. On the other hand, if the hitter advances to the next base on the throw to get the lead runner, you do earn money if the hitter is safe. There's only one purpose for money: buying upgrades! Upgrades improve the performance of your players at bat, throwing, and in the field. I'm not sure of the exact prices, but they range from two to thirty thousand dollars apiece: Table 5.2: Cost of Upgrades /-----------------------------------------\ |*| HITTING | PITCHING | FIELDING | ROBOT | |-+---------+----------+----------+-------| |A| 2000 | 10,000 | 1000 | 5K | |B| 5000 | 15,000 | 3000 | 10K | |C| 10,000 | 20,000 | 10,000 | 30K | \-----------------------------------------/ Table 5.3: Percent Effect of Upgrades /-----------------------------------------\ |*| HITTING | PITCHING | FIELDING | ROBOT | |-+---------+----------+----------+-------| |A| 15% | 14% | 12% | 40% | |B| 25% | 26% | 25% | 60% | |C| 40% | 45% | 42% | 80% | \-----------------------------------------/ These special "armors" eventually break down like robots, but the player keeps all of his original abilities. You can also buy special "Robot" armor. This turns a human player into a robot for the duration of the game and acts as an all-around improvement for a robot; robots can, logically, only have robot armor. THIS IS THE ONLY WAY TO RESTORE A BROKEN ROBOT. It will turn gray again when its armor breaks. Note that if you give a robot armor, when the armor breaks, the robot will turn gray whether it was gray before you bought the armor or not. It's usually a good idea to buy robot armor in the late innings (besides, that might be the only time you can afford it!) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- VI. Basic Baseball Strategy and Terminology This section is for total newbies to baseball who are in need of the help. For now, it's just some terms that are beyond the concept of "bases", "bat", "ball", "pitcher", and so on. -Fly balls are dangerous to baserunners. You cannot run immediately on fly ball, because of the rules about TAGGING UP. TAGGING UP is touching the base on a fly ball after it is caught, which you must do before you can run to the next base. -Sacrifice fly balls occur when somebody hits a fly ball deep into the outfield and it is caught for an out. The runner on third tags up and uses the large throwing distance from the outfield to home plate to run home and score. -Sacrifice bunts are bunts where the batter sacrifices himself for an out to advance his man to the next base. The idea is that the only runner the defense can possibly get out is the one running to first. Usually, incapable hitters (like pitchers in major league baseball) are the ones who lay bunts down. -A sacrifice squeeze bunt is a dangerous form of the sacrifice bunt where the runner trying to advance starts on third base. In almost all video games, the computer makes it altogether too easy to pull off a sacrifice squeeze. -The infield fly rule is not enforced in Super Baseball 2020, but I'll go ahead and explain it anyway. With a runner on first or runners on first and second and less than two out, a pop fly hit to the infield is called an "infield fly". The batter is out and the runners do not advance. The purpose of this rule is to prevent an infielder from purposely dropping the ball to get a double play. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- VII. Offensive Strategy and Tips These tips apply to matches against the computer and are basic tips. -The pitcher's location on the mound usually coincides with the location they are going to throw the ball to; if a pitcher stands on the left part of the mound, the ball will go to the left part of the plate. -If a pitcher stands on the extreme edge of the mound, you can draw a hit-by-pitch call if you're standing on the same side. Just move in towards the plate as much as possible. (This works best against pitchers with submarine [or underhand] deliveries.) -It's not really a good idea to try and challenge the arms of the fielding players. Only take an extra base if you're sure you can make it. -The stolen base doesn't really have much of an effect in this game. You get only marginal amounts of cash, and more likely than not you will be thrown out (unless you're playing with the Ninja Black Sox, in which case stealing might give you a good return on the investment.) -The computer's baserunning AI isn't very smart. With less than two out, it will not run until either a) the ball touches the ground, or b) you give it the command to do so. This can be annoying, as the ball could be deep to left field and your runners won't run. With two out, the runners go automatically whether you tell them to or not. -The sacrifice fly is usually the only aspect of baserunning that works well in this game. If a ball is hit deep to the outfield, you can tag up and come home with a good success rate. As always, it helps to have a speedy player on third base. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- VIII. Defensive Strategy and Tips -You can absolutely murder the computer with a left-handed overhand pitcher. For right-handed batters, stand on the extreme right of the mound and throw the pitch. After it travels down a little bit, press and hold the left directional button. The pitch should break just out of reach of the bat. -For left-handed batters, stand near the extreme left of the mound and throw. As soon as the ball is released, hold to the right. The player should only be able to tap the ball for a grounder. If the ball breaks sharply to the right for a ball, you're pushing right too soon. -As I said in the money section, jumping just before catching a fly ball gets you 200 extra dollars - but it also wears down robot players much faster. -Be sure that your player actually has the ball in his/her hand before you try and throw it. You might accidentally end up diving for the ball instead and missing the catch. -There's a bug in the fielding engine where if you meet the ball in mid-dive it is not an out. This is why your fielder 'holds' in the diving position at the end of the dive. Watch your timing. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- IX. Submissions Information submissions can go to cubbies984@yahoo.com. Please write "Super Baseball 2020" in the subject header so I know what the letter is about. Thanks ----------------------------------------------------------------------- CLOSING COPYRIGHT: This document is copyright Greg Colombo, 2000, with all rights reserved. You must have permission from the author before using this document outside of personal use.