Other Japanese RBI games

[nightwulf]

I can't believe no one's posted about these before. There's three Japanese Family Stadium ROMs that have similar gameplay as RBI.

Family Stadium
Family Stadium '87
Family Stadium '88

Family Stadium '87 is what I've been looking at before as the "Japanese RBI," but actually Family Stadium is a closer match. There are only ten teams, and no password system. I believe that's the game that our RBI Baseball is based from.

Family Stadium '88 is a major overhaul. There are 14 playable teams with 6 pitchers instead of 4. You can change the order of the lineup, and there's even a "Team Edit" feature, although I'm not sure how that relates to the 14 base teams. There are also 4 selectable stadiums to play in. The gameplay is slightly different too. This is definitely not "RBI 2," but there's minor changes to the engine. The computer-controlled fielders move much faster, and the ball doesn't roll forever like it does in our RBI. It's definitely worth checking out.

Nightwulf

[Gantry]

You're on fire today nightwulf...

I've never been able to find the original Family Stadium ROM when I look, though admittedly it's been awhile.  I'll give her a whirl and try it out...

Some serious updating to the site will have to come out of all this Japanese research...

[Gantry]

It only took two innings for me to realize Family Stadium was the original codebase for RBI Baseball.  Though it did have a password feature (make sure you are only doing one-player mode nightwulf) they hit like regular RBI'ers and the computer throws more like the computer RBI...

More power and less curve with the pitchers...

Can you do the stat breakdown for Family Stadium into a text file nightwulf?  Wonder if they still use 4-byte names and the other conventions of Family Stadium 87...

Jesus, just when you think you know everything there is to know about this game...

[nightwulf]

Though it did have a password feature (make sure you are only doing one-player mode nightwulf)

My fault; didn't spend much time with it. I probably was in 2p the whole time.

Can you do the stat breakdown for Family Stadium into a text file nightwulf?  Wonder if they still use 4-byte names and the other conventions of Family Stadium 87...

Yep. I did take a quick glance in a hex editor and it looks even more identical to RBI than Family Stadium '87. The four-byte names are still used though.

FS88 is quite different, and at a glance I didn't see anything recognizable. I'll play with it more later.

Nightwulf

[Gantry]

Just played two innings of Family Stadium 88, looks like the best featured version of authentic RBI out there.  I didn't look at the mode to edit teams or whatever, but from a gameplay standpoint it is pretty much an evolutionary release.  A few noticeable differences.

1)  Some goofy cheering graphic at the beginning of each inning

2)  The batter wiggles his bat before the swing

3)  Much faster fielders when running to a base

4)  The fielders have a slight hitch  when they thow, making the throws slower.  Possibly to eliminate the ground out to RF?  

5) Distance reading with dingers, in meters of course

6)  Diving and jumping in the field!  Wow...  Though the "diving" is pretty weak, the dude just lies down, no real sliding effect.  See attached pics...

7)  The ball doesn't roll forever...

Even though I only played two innings, you want to know what is the same?  

1)  Wallzies are alive and well...

Some FCE snapshots...

[Gantry]

Snap two, too lazy to upload...

[Gantry]

Snap three

[nightwulf]

Can you do the stat breakdown for Family Stadium into a text file nightwulf?

http://nightwulf.rbicentral.com/Family_Stadium.txt

No, "RariiX" (8th player, team N) isn't a typo. I'm guessing that "N" is another "Namco Stars" team, and they're referring to "Rally X."

Nightwulf

[BeefMaster]

Looks like the creators of Baseball Simulator 1.000 played a lot of Family Stadium '88.  The crappy diving (I wasn't able to get a FS guy to jump) is pretty much the same in Baseball Simulator.  Same for the choice of stadiums (Baseball Simulator's appear to have more variety, though, and there are 6 instead of 4), pitcher sweating then panting when he gets tired, and even the hitch in the throws.  

[Gantry]

Jumping is a bit tricky, I pretty much had to hit "A" after being completely behind a ground ball..

[JoeDirt]

Nightwulf:

Pardon my ignorance, but is it possible to take some of the cool features of Family Stadium 88 (bat wiggle, stadium selection, pitcher huffing, etc.) to the American version of RBI?

For example, it'd be like playing the original NES version, but with the above features...

[nightwulf]

Ok, spent some time with Family Stadium '88. There are 15 total teams, but only 14 show on the team select screen. The last team (N) is replaced with the user-edited team (Y) if you've made any changes to the default edited team.

Stat breakdown: http://nightwulf.rbicentral.com/Family_Stadium_88.txt

There were several changes made to the player data format used in FS, FS87, and our RBI. The player data now starts at offset 65552 (10010 hex) if you'd like to play with it.
- Player names: 5 characters are now used
- Batting averages: the value stored in the ROM is doubled, and then 150 is added, giving a range of .150 (0 in ROM) to .660 (255 in ROM).
- ERAs: the value stored in the ROM is multiplied by 5, giving a range of 0.00 (0 in ROM) to 9.95 (199 in ROM).
- Power: batter "power" is now a one-byte field (0-255).
- Pitcher unknowns: GONE! *cheer*

The "Team Edit" feature is interesting.

I'm not yet sure exactly what the hell "RUN" is. I'm also curious if changing player batting averages and/or ERAs makes changes to the stats. More playing needs to be done.

Edit: I take that back. ("RUN" times 2) + 112 = player speed as stored in the ROM.

Pardon my ignorance, but is it possible to take some of the cool features of Family Stadium 88 (bat wiggle, stadium selection, pitcher huffing, etc.) to the American version of RBI?

Not really, without rewriting the entire RBI game engine. The closest I could come to this would be importing RBI player data into FS88.

Nightwulf

[ultimate7]

OK FS '88 is what RBI 2 should have been.  They still didn't fix the CPU play though (I hit 4 Inside the Park HR in the first inning).  Other things are pretty cool.  The fielders run to the bases way too fast, though.

[Gantry]

I also got an absurd number of inside-the-park homers while only playing a few innings...

[hort22]

anyway to edit the japanese game and put in our mlb teams or anything like that...

[hort22]

so i take it there is no way to edit this game...anyone??? i mean like the rbi editor....how much work would it take to get it done on this game?

[Gantry]

My guess is that it would be quite a bit of work to put English letters in the Japanese ROM.  I'll let nightwulf handle the answer though, since he's the one-man (or entity, depending on who you ask) RBI Editing crew...

[Beanball]

I'm going to mess with it when I get free time and at least swap the characters so there's lower case english.  Scoreboard and box score swaps as well.

In my first game my pitcher cranked one out 96 meters, easily over the left-center wall in the little park (4).  Lots of teeth shattering bops as well.

But frankly, I have a throbbing hard-on for jumping and levitating in the air to make show-off catches on flys and pop-ups.  I will use this method to humiliate my opponents.  Even the computer will be hurt by this.

[hort22]

how do you even begin to start  to work on the rom....hell yes the jumping and diving as well as the home run distances make this a nice compliment to usa rbi...

[Gantry]

That would be great, nice to have someone but poor nightwulf doing all the work.  I of course am too lazy, but character swaps to english would be fantastic.  Though I suspect it's going to be quite difficult...