Cyber Baseball


 * "Robot Baseball in the 21st Century"
 * -Tagline

Cyber Baseball (Working title: Cyber Stadium) is a fanonical arcade sports game created by JustAlex93.

Gameplay
Cyber Baseball is a sports video game centered around the premise of baseball played by robots rather than human players. However, unlike real-world baseball, the number of innings are reduced to speed up the pace of gameplay. In the Major League and Game Breakers modes, money can be earned during play for repairing and upgrade robots.

Gameplay Modes

 * Rookie League - A beginner mode for those who are new to the game. Money is not earned during this mode. Duration per game: Four innings.
 * Major League - Choose a team and an opponent, and earn money for successful plays to repair and upgrade robots. When selected, the player can choose to either play a single game, or a series of three, five, or ten games. For a ten-game series, the difficulty level increases at Game 5, and then again at Game 7, and caps off at Game 9. Duration per game: Six innings.
 * Game Breakers - A situational gameplay mode that tests players on how well they can do under pressure. The player must successfully complete offensive and defensive plays listed out on a clipboard to lower the ante. Successful plays earns the player money for repairing and upgrading robots. Lowering the ante to 0 transitions the player to a new page on the clipboard. The overall goal is to complete all ten pages on the clipboard to win. Making three failed plays results in a game over.
 * Ultra Game Breakers - Ten more pages of even harder situational plays on the clipboard than in the original Game Breakers mode. Under normal circumstances, it cannot be accessed after the player inserts a coin into the cabinet's coin slot. Instead, the player has to insert a special Challenge Coupon (see Cyber Baseball Coupon System) into the cabinet's coupon slot to trigger it. A software update for the game is required to enable this gameplay mode.
 * Batting Cage - Accessible by Challenge Coupon only. The object of this gameplay mode is to hit as many balls as possible within a time limit. A software update for the game is required to enable this mode.

Teams
For the Major League mode, there are ten teams to choose from, whether to play as or against. Each team has its own strengths and weaknesses.


 * New York 'Nihilators
 * Strong Point: TBD
 * Weakness: TBD


 * San Francisco Smashers
 * Strong Point: TBD
 * Weakness: TBD


 * Boston Blasters
 * Strong Point: TBD
 * Weakness: TBD


 * Dallas Desperados
 * Strong Point: TBD
 * Weakness: TBD


 * St. Louis Bullets
 * Strong Point: TBD
 * Weakness: TBD


 * Seattle Corsairs
 * Strong Point: TBD
 * Weakness: TBD


 * Minneapolis Mechanix
 * Strong Point: TBD
 * Weakness: TBD


 * Montreal Maraudeurs
 * Strong Point: TBD
 * Weakness: TBD

MORE TO BE ADDED

Cyber Baseball Coupon System
Unique to the game is a coupon system, where the cabinet has a special slot in which a coupon could be inserted by the player to gain a single-use in-game boost that is active for the duration of a gameplay session. Each coupon has a different in-game boost effect (i.e. faster or trickier pitches, faster running speed for the batters and fielders, enhanced catching ability for fielders, etc.) and is color-coded. The coupons are only usable for the game's Major League mode, which when selected prompts the player to choose whether or not to use one.

The coupon also has a barcode, which is scanned by a barcode scanner in the coupon slot on the cabinet. When the coupon is inserted and scanned, the data from the scanned barcode is transmitted into the game to activate the in-game boost.

If the player were to start the game in Game Breakers mode, a mechanism on the cabinet closes the coupon slot to disable it and prevent the usage of a coupon. The reason being, that an in-game boost provided by a coupon would have given the player a potentially unfair advantage against the CPU and defeats the purpose of Game Breakers.

The arcade operator also has the option to disable the coupon slot altogether and set the game to not accept coupons, in the event that they themselves run out of coupons and need to order more of them, or if the coupons are discontinued from production.

The coupons are distributed to players in a few different ways;
 * 1) Sold onsite at the arcade by the operator
 * 2) Distributed in video game magazines as freebies to promote the game
 * 3) Packed in with copies of the home release and the official gameplay guide
 * 4) Coupon booklets sold onsite at the arcade by the operator at a premium price
 * 5) Surprise coupon packs of 3 to 5 each, with a chance of getting a limited edition, bronze, silver, or gold coupon

The bronze, silver, and gold coupons, if sold on their own by the operator, would have a premium price compared to the standard individual coupons, and are reusable for a limited number of times. Bronze coupons are reusable only once, silver coupons twice, and the gold ones three times.

The surprise coupon packs are also sold at shops that sell video game products.

Some people had remarked that the coupons functioned more like tickets and even resembled flight tickets, and that it would be more appropriate to refer to them as tickets.

Challenge Coupons
Some coupons allow the player to access special gameplay modes released with later software revisions of the game, and are rarer than the in-game boost coupons.

The first was an orange Challenge Coupon. When inserted, the Challenge Coupon triggers an even harder version of the Game Breakers mode (see Gameplay Modes). In fact, on each Challenge Coupon, there is a warning printed on it, which states that it is only for the most skilled players.

The second Challenge Coupon is gray. When inserted, it triggers the Batting Cage mode.

Ultra Game Breakers Promotion
Coinciding with a software update for the game, a promotion is enacted for the new Ultra Game Breakers mode. When the contest is enabled on the cabinet, a player can start the game in Ultra Game Breakers mode by inserting an orange Challenge Coupon.

If a player successfully completes all ten clipboard pages in the Ultra Game Breakers mode, they are given a randomized nine-digit code that they could write down and mail to the developers with their name and address.

Depending on the code, participants who manage to complete Ultra Game Breakers mode could earn a randomized prize, such as a coupon booklet, a video game console with a home version of Cyber Baseball, tickets to baseball games, cash prizes, or even a Cyber Baseball arcade machine.

Batting Cage Promotion
It was after the success of the Ultra Game Breakers promotion that a new one was enacted for Batting Cage mode, again coinciding with a new software update for the game. There are six numbered tiers for prizes, with higher numbers representing higher tiers. A five-digit prize code is given to the player depending on the number of hits achieved in Batting Cage, with higher scores giving codes for higher-tiered prizes. The prize code is to be mailed away to the game's developers with the sender's name and address. The prize earned in any of the tiers by the entrant depends on the code that they send away.

Prize Tiers

 * Tier 1
 * Cyber Baseball keychain
 * Cyber Baseball USB thumb drive
 * Cyber Baseball T-shirts
 * Coupons for major shops or promotion partners
 * Tier 2
 * Cyber Baseball jackets
 * Cyber Baseball caps
 * Toys (from popular franchises or a promotional Cyber Baseball toyline)
 * Tier 3
 * Free tickets to expensive entertainment venues (i.e. amusement parks)
 * A free video game of the player's choice (including AAA titles)
 * Cyber Baseball backpack
 * Limited Cyber Baseball edition game controllers
 * Tier 4
 * Game console with a pack-in game of the player's choice
 * Cash prizes ranging from $1,000 to $2,500 USD
 * Tier 5
 * Cash prizes ranging from $5,000 to $10,000 USD
 * High-end gaming PC worth $5,000 USD
 * Tier 6
 * Cyber Baseball arcade cabinet
 * Tickets to the MLB World Series, complete with all-expenses-paid flights to and from it, a stay at a hotel, a rental car, and a cash allowance for refreshments from the concession stand and/or merchandise from the stadium's gift shop
 * Cash prizes ranging from $50,000 to $100,000 USD

Software Versions

 * v.0.2 - Earliest known software revision of the game, made as a tech demo for the coupon system.
 * v.0.5 - Early revision internally tested.
 * v.0.7 - Prototype revision showcased at the AMOA Show.
 * v.0.8 - Prototype revision for location testing.
 * v.1.0 - Initial release in the arcades.
 * v.1.05 - Software update for fixing bugs reported in previous version.
 * v.1.1 - Additional bug fixes and difficulty level adjustment of the Game Breakers mode.
 * v.2.0 - Revision for internal testing of the Ultra Game Breakers mode.
 * v.2.1 - Software revision introduced in the arcades after internal testing, bug fixing, and difficulty adjustment concluded for v.2.0.
 * v.2.2 - Software revision introduced after the Ultra Game Breakers Promotion ended, where after Ultra Game Breakers mode is beaten, no prize code would be given to the player. Also enables the usage of the bronze, silver, and gold coupons.
 * v.2.9 - Internal software revision for testing the Batting Cage mode.
 * v.3.0 - Revision released in the arcades coinciding with the promotion for Batting Cage mode.

Trivia

 * Coincidentally, in regards to the game's working title of Cyber Stadium, there was a robot-based baseball game developed and released by Konami years ago on the Nintendo Entertainment System in real life titled Cyber Stadium Series: Base Wars.
 * The game is inspired by a dream that this page's creator had.