Street Fighter Alpha Anthology Guide

[Kamui]

What's up SRK. I wanted to take a moment to do a little shameless advertising.

The Brady Games Guide Book for Street Fighter Alpha Anthology should be hitting shelves in the coming weeks. The guide includes over 280 pages of in-depth character strategy for the 5 main games included on the disk. Each section contains specific objectives for each character, advanced tactics, recommended ISM choices, offensive & defensive notes, combos, and often used Variable / Custom Combos. The opening section of the guide, the Alpha "Essentials" section, was meticulously put together in an effort to explain absolutely everything a newbie player would need to know if they're just getting started with competitive play. This includes basic and often used tactics that can be carried over to any fighting game, advanced game-specific tactics such as Crouch Cancels or Unblockable Low Custom Combos, and the majority of the other need-to-know items you could possibly think of.

By no means is this guide perfect. We weren't able to include frame data because of several issues with time, space, and not having a copy of the game early enough. For the same reasons, some tactics, heavy coverage of the HSFA mode, and match up information could not be included.
Regardless of these problems though, what it does have is perfect for any newer players that are looking to boost their game. This guide was specifically created with you in mind.

If anyone has any questions I would be happy to try and answer some of them.

[Best Kind Boxer]

So basically it's information that is readily available here on SRK all crammed into one book? :P

Shame about the frame data. But I'll probably get the book all the same. Any pretty pictures?

[AKUMA2000]

I was already planning to get the strat guide, but cool info nonetheless.

[SiLLiEMutAfuKA]

VERY good for someone like me who didn't take the Alpha series seriously and does now, I definetely wanted to learn the basics and character's moves and whatnot.

Definetely looking foward to it, can't wait.

[FallingEdge]

Fucking awesome, I can't wait to buy this game and the guide. Plus we know now for a fact that the US version is not getting the shaft.

Next week can't come soon enough :tup:

[GreyFoxx]

Any extras included like posters or anything? Also is it still possible to get the SFA strat?

[chaoscntrl77]

VERY good for someone like me who didn't take the Alpha series seriously and does now, I definetely wanted to learn the basics and character's moves and whatnot.

Definetely looking foward to it, can't wait.

Think I might be picking up the guide also 'cause I, too, didn't play the Alpha games that much and I know that I will be over the summer and in the future. This should be pretty sick..

[fireballtrap]

If it's half as good as the SF Collection guide, consider it bought. Hell, even the CFJ one was pretty damn good. I'm looking forward to this one.

[EveryFlowerFlow]

We weren't able to include frame data because of several issues with time, space, and not having a copy of the game early enough.


:sad:

[cam347]

I just hope it's written proffesionally unlike that Fighter's Edge crap, while th CVS1 guide was kinda dull

[SF4LIFE]

Fucking awesome, I can't wait to buy this game and the guide. Plus we know now for a fact that the US version is not getting the shaft.

Next week can't come soon enough :tup:


Cofuckinsign!

[misterbean97]

awesome, i'm plan on purchasing this

[omni]

Everyone should go out and buy this guide because not only does Kamui rock but a member of the SF community that you guys are also a part of wrote this. If it wasn't for people like him writing these guides you would get 15 pages of how to do dragon punch after you throw a fireball as a pro tip.

As far as expecting frame data - that shit takes a lot of time and at the end of the day who cares - we all know chun li's low forward is buff in a2.

So everyone go out and huggles the book because Kamui spent a lot of time on this.

Derek Daniels
http://lowfierce.blogspot.com

[SaBrE]

screw framedata, hit boxes are dope tho!without hitbox data, who woulda knew i coulda attacked st akuma way behind his head for super easy crossup during his proximity s.rh or hit t'hawks c.strong recovery without being anywhere near him? lol

[negitoroseven]

Please let us know about included art pages and posters when you have the time Mr. Kamui.

[Bunkei]

What's up SRK. I wanted to take a moment to do a little shameless advertising.

The Brady Games Guide Book for Street Fighter Alpha Anthology should be hitting shelves in the coming weeks. The guide includes over 280 pages of in-depth character strategy for the 5 main games included on the disk. Each section contains specific objectives for each character, advanced tactics, recommended ISM choices, offensive & defensive notes, combos, and often used Variable / Custom Combos. The opening section of the guide, the Alpha "Essentials" section, was meticulously put together in an effort to explain absolutely everything a newbie player would need to know if they're just getting started with competitive play. This includes basic and often used tactics that can be carried over to any fighting game, advanced game-specific tactics such as Crouch Cancels or Unblockable Low Custom Combos, and the majority of the other need-to-know items you could possibly think of.

By no means is this guide perfect. We weren't able to include frame data because of several issues with time, space, and not having a copy of the game early enough. For the same reasons, some tactics, heavy coverage of the HSFA mode, and match up information could not be included.
Regardless of these problems though, what it does have is perfect for any newer players that are looking to boost their game. This guide was specifically created with you in mind.

If anyone has any questions I would be happy to try and answer some of them.

I can't wait; when you get more specific release dates for the guide, let me know and I can give you some advertisement on my site (see link below).

P.S. How do you know Ven and BonusKun? You probably was on Chat Solutions IRC server to see their screen names.

[aktham]

kind of off topic...

but which fighting game guides are worth purchasing? I plan to buy this one since i never got into Alpha seriously.

Thanks

[Kikosho]

Consider the guide bought. Gotta support the community.

[Best Kind Boxer]

^ All the ones done by real players are worth it. They are far and away better.

You can find a lot of info on the net, but it's great to have it all neatly tucked away in the one source, by people who know their stuff (this one).

If it has lots of technical data (frames, ranges, boxes, measurements), even better.

Just stay away from the ones that are nothing more than glorified moveslists.

[psychochronic]

Now that's what I'm talking about. :tup:

[benj86]

i am so getting this ^^

[The Switcher]

Any word on those extras? Posters/soundtracks?

[Kamui]

To my dismay, neither is included. Brady Games had a lot of trouble getting what we needed during this project for various reasons. Extras, this time around, are the bare bones minimum unfortunately.

The guide is still 288 pages though, all of which is filled with raw information. There will also be a little online content that will be accessable through Brady's website after the guide's release. This content will initially include combo videos, and we will attempt to upload additional information and whatnot a few weeks after the guide's release.


Please let us know about included art pages and posters when you have the time Mr. Kamui.

[ruthless_nash]

whens this shit coming out yo

[ShinJN]

Kamui FTMFW

[Buktooth]

3 dollars

[Geese Pants]

I'll get my copy soon as well..................

[Kamui]

I was told today that the release date is on 6/13, the release of the game.

And yeah, I knew Bonuskun and Ven from chat waaaaay back in the day.

I can't wait; when you get more specific release dates for the guide, let me know and I can give you some advertisement on my site (see link below).

P.S. How do you know Ven and BonusKun? You probably was on Chat Solutions IRC server to see their screen names.

[SF4LIFE]

[QUOTE=Kamui]I was told today that the release date is on 6/13, the release of the game.

So they pushed the release back from th 8th to the 13th oh well I definitely will be getting the guide but I have a question that may or may not have been answered do you cover how to unlock the arrange modes and the characters featured in them as well?

[Bill Wood]

Kamui, thanks a lot for the info, I'll definitely be picking up this guide. I know you said earlier there wasn't time to include comprehensive HSFA data, but is there any info at all in the guide that pertains to this mode? Even a couple of pages in the back of the book, or a very brief outline on the new -ISMs would be nice.

Thanks again for keeping us informed.

[ImMrDurp]

I'll most definately pick up the guide when I pick up the game. Awesome stuff!

[Kamui]

The guide contains information on how to unlock the various modes and characters present, including the new ISMs. There's a very brief overview of what the ISMs have, but room and time made it difficult to go in-depth with it.

Kamui, thanks a lot for the info, I'll definitely be picking up this guide. I know you said earlier there wasn't time to include comprehensive HSFA data, but is there any info at all in the guide that pertains to this mode? Even a couple of pages in the back of the book, or a very brief outline on the new -ISMs would be nice.

Thanks again for keeping us informed.

[felineki]

screw framedata, hit boxes are dope tho!without hitbox data, who woulda knew i coulda attacked st akuma way behind his head for super easy crossup during his proximity s.rh or hit t'hawks c.strong recovery without being anywhere near him? lolYoga Book Hyper? I sooo need to get that...:crybaby:

I have the Anniversary Collection guide, and it's very nice, so I'll definitely look into getting this guide. :tup: The online content sounds like a good way to complement the guide, since you weren't able to get in all the info you wanted.

[platinum_pinoy]

When does the game come out?

[SF4LIFE]

The guide contains information on how to unlock the various modes and characters present, including the new ISMs. There's a very brief overview of what the ISMs have, but room and time made it difficult to go in-depth with it.

Good stuff Kamui thanks fo all the info.:lovin:

[Rise Vader]

consider it bought. id get any guide thats actually done by someone from the community. hell even the cfe guide was decent.

[AKUMA2000]

^ All the ones done by real players are worth it. They are far and away better.

You can find a lot of info on the net, but it's great to have it all neatly tucked away in the one source, by people who know their stuff (this one).

If it has lots of technical data (frames, ranges, boxes, measurements), even better.

Just stay away from the ones that are nothing more than glorified moveslists.


Agreed.........strat guides are better and more credible when info is gotten straight from the horse's mouth. :tup:

[CptMunta]

This guide sounds Great! I was lucky enough to be able to pick the AC book when I was in Boston. It was their last copy too.

Any news about where it's being shipped to? I'd love to be able to pick one up from little ol' New Zealand.

I need some major schooling in the way of the V-ISM.

[Harris 138]

kamui, thank you for the info!!
i was curious about picking this game up, but now i will be for sure. i'm really excited about the game and the guide, this is shaping up to be a big release!!

also - -

(me=works at gamestop)

for some reason, we still have the guide in our computers as coming out on the 8th. the game is still due out on the 13th. i'll post if either of these dates change!

also - - the shipping date is +1 of the release date
meaning as of now, in the computers - game ships 13th/arrives the 14th
guide ships the 8th/...guides can take up to a few days!! not sure why...

but yeah! 8th, 9th, 14th, all of them sound pretty good right now. can't wait man! thanks a bunch!:tup: :tup: :tup:

[cent208]

Kamui, does the book explain what all of the different dip switches are? guys from the board figured out a few but it is still a mystery. also do you explain what the differences are between the different versions of the games? for example sfa1 has 1995/06/05ver,1995/05/27ver, 1995/07/27ver. its great to see a real sf player is writing the book, the alpha 3 book was total crap.

[IzunaDrop]

I'll have to pull a little extra from my check to get this. I've never been able to get into Alpha much, so I have a lot to learn. Hopefully this will help me out on that. Thanks for the info, man.

[SNkNuT]

yeah i missed out on the alpha series during its glory days. this guide sounds like a good place to start for an alpha noob like me.

[Gutcruncher]

normally id scoff at the idea of buying a guide, but the SFAC guide was so good that im definatly gonna pick this one up.

[kenmastersX]

How in-depth is the Pocket Fighter section? Just wondering. ^_^

[Demon Dash]

Would Brady Games be releasing a seperate Hyper Street Fighter Zero Guide at any point?

[Kamui]

Not very. It's the weakest section of the guide honestly because it was the last game we did. We had the least amount of space to work with for that game.

How in-depth is the Pocket Fighter section? Just wondering. ^_^

[Kamui]

Since finding an accurate version of the game is important to us, we have a section of the guide that reccomends certain versions of each game. This section will most likely be inaccurate once people figure out all of the dipswitches, but it's a good start.

We don't have the individual dipswitch settings listed, again, because of room. However, if this is something that people want, I can take measures to get that information on to Brady's website after the guide's release. We were provided a list of what the majority of those settings do (not all, but most). If you keep bugging me I'll most likely get it up there after I take care of other things.

Kamui, does the book explain what all of the different dip switches are? guys from the board figured out a few but it is still a mystery. also do you explain what the differences are between the different versions of the games? for example sfa1 has 1995/06/05ver,1995/05/27ver, 1995/07/27ver. its great to see a real sf player is writing the book, the alpha 3 book was total crap.

[Kamui]

I would like to mention that I was given permission to post frame data for Alpha 3 on the Brady Games website. It's going to take me a few weeks to get it up there (I'm estimating it'll be up 2 weeks after the guide's release). This framedata DOES NOT list advantage or disadvantage like the CvS2 guide unfortunately, but it does have start up, active attack time, and recovery.

[DarkZero]

I would like to mention that I was given permission to post frame data for Alpha 3 on the Brady Games website. It's going to take me a few weeks to get it up there (I'm estimating it'll be up 2 weeks after the guide's release). This framedata DOES NOT list advantage or disadvantage like the CvS2 guide unfortunately, but it does have start up, active attack time, and recovery.
Thats sounds nice. Everything sounds great so far.

[UrIeNaToR]

I'm gonna bug you : )

[!!Sazabi!!]

definately gonna pick the guide up wen its released.. good stuff

[moeller61]

I might just have to pick up this, the game, and a ps2. I so wish this was on xbox, but this game seems too good to miss.

[AKUMA2000]

yeah i missed out on the alpha series during its glory days. this guide sounds like a good place to start for an alpha noob like me.

Its ok young grasshopper........welcome to the alpha family. :tup:

The alpha series will come back with a vengeance in this new collection and return to its former glory it had back in the middle 90's..... :nunchuck:

[Dark Hadou XS]

I'm trying to practice some Alpha 3 VC combos, but they don't seem to work for crap on the DC version. I have three different versions of the game, which one would be good to practice on until Anthology is released next week?

PSX:A3

DC: A3

Laptop: A3 (9809040)

[felineki]

I'm trying to practice some Alpha 3 VC combos, but they don't seem to work for crap on the DC version. I have three different versions of the game, which one would be good to practice on until Anthology is released next week?

PSX:A3

DC: A3

Laptop: A3 (9809040)Assuming the Laptop is emulated arcade version, stick with that. A lot of the things that made V-ISM combos deadly (crouch cancels, etc.) were only on the arcade versions, and got removed for the home ports.

[Sano]

If it's half as good as the SF Collection guide, consider it bought. Hell, even the CFJ one was pretty damn good. I'm looking forward to this one.

Cosign. Can't wait! :tup:

[Dark Hadou XS]

Ditto:rock:

[GreyFoxx]

Ahh snap cant wait and darn it expected it here this week ahh well gonna rape that baby when it pops into my job at EB!!!

[Spoonz]

Just got my boss to order this for me, can't wait to get my hands on it :D

[EveryFlowerFlow]

I would like to mention that I was given permission to post frame data for Alpha 3 on the Brady Games website. It's going to take me a few weeks to get it up there (I'm estimating it'll be up 2 weeks after the guide's release). This framedata DOES NOT list advantage or disadvantage like the CvS2 guide unfortunately, but it does have start up, active attack time, and recovery.


:pray:

[TS]

Crouch cancels are in all ports of A3, except for the PSP version. Almost all V-ISM combos which work in the arcade version work on the console versions, but sometimes with different timing.


Kamui- I have the All About Street Fighter Zero 3 book, which has frame data in it. If you need help getting things up (no homo), I can help. I'm assuming we both have the same numbers, since the book is based on the Japanese arcade version.

[cent208]

Everybody please starting bugging Kamui for the dip switch settings.

[Bunkei]

I was told today that the release date is on 6/13, the release of the game.

And yeah, I knew Bonuskun and Ven from chat waaaaay back in the day.

haha, that's cool. The chat server that you were on was mine. Believe it or not, it still exists. Ven still comes around, but BonusKun .. haven't seen him in several months. I think Final Fantasy swallowed him whole.

[ImMrDurp]

Ordered it off the net today. Sounds like a great guide for a slightly-casual fighting game fan like myself to start to get into the alpha games.

I'm most excited to learn alpha 2 - alpha 3 is a GREAT game, but for some reason I always found alpha 2 more fun...

EDIT: Is the SF:Aniversary Collection guide just as good as the AA one? I.e. does it include character specific strategies, combos, matchups, general strategies, etc, for a newbie to get into SF2 and SF3? Might get that one too.

[Dark Hadou XS]

Crouch cancels are in all ports of A3, except for the PSP version. Almost all V-ISM combos which work in the arcade version work on the console versions, but sometimes with different timing.


I thought you couldn't crouch cancel on the DC and PSX versions of A3? This is good news to here. By chance was it harder to CC on the console versions of A3?

[Bill Wood]

EDIT: Is the SF:Aniversary Collection guide just as good as the AA one? I.e. does it include character specific strategies, combos, matchups, general strategies, etc, for a newbie to get into SF2 and SF3? Might get that one too.

Most definitely, it's one of the better American fighting game guides out there. Plenty of combos. strats, matchups, terms, etc. It even has a decent artwork gallery, and comes with the 3rd Strike soundtrack CD to boot!

[Ultima]

Oh snap. Kamui's writing the guide? I HAVE to get that, even if I don't actually buy the anthology (which I most likely will).

Wow. 288 pages? That's enormous. Will this guide be the one to finally top the SFA2 guide for "best [US?] fighting game strategy ever"? Probably not, since you can't beat 256 pages dedicated to one game vs. 288 dedicated to about 8. Still, it should be quite lovely to hold.

Hey Kamui, by any chance does the guide have damage/stun listings for all (normal/special/super) attacks like the CFJ one? I don't care too much about frame data, but damage data would be nice. I thought that was one of the few things lacking in the SFAE guide, and was very glad to see it in CFJ.

[firenze]

I'll be picking the guide up. Good to support authors from the scene, and the SFAC and CFJ guides were indeed well done.

My question... I'm interested in seeing a good A3 guide, but is there anything in this one that will make me forget my awesome Versus A1 and A2 guides? Can't believe that a compilation guide could be better than the godly Versus SFA2 book, but is there anything new/unique to this new guide? My favorite video game ever (A2), so I'm interested in any tidbits on it...

[Dark Hadou XS]

Anyone pickup the guide yet?

[UrIeNaToR]

ship date changed to the 16th...wont be out till end of june..

[cent208]

Kamui, just curious, did you write any other sf strategy guides?

[GreyFoxx]

Yeah i got into alpah all super late and only played some of the alpha's. So im very pumped for this little treat too come in.

[FallingEdge]

snip

Good ish man. Thanks for all that info. I do have one question for ya. This is still kinda bugging me, but do you know if the US version is the same as the Jap version? I plan on getting the game and guide either way, but I would just llike to know for sure. Thanks :tup:

And on a different note, does anyone know where I can buy an A2 Versus Guide book? I'm a perfectionist and would like to collect as many SF gear as I can :wgrin:

[ShinjiGohan]

By no means is this guide perfect. We weren't able to include frame data because of several issues with time, space, and not having a copy of the game early enough.

If you had time, how would you have gotten the frame data?

[Tigard's Own Dr. Evil]

Holy crap, it's Dr. Deelite! :O *does fighters.net handshake*

Anyone who's gonna be getting their guide from an online store, Amazon's got it for 35% off the cover price (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0744008131/).

[SF4LIFE]

What the fuck is the deal with this guides release date I'm seeing bradygames official date as June 13th ebgames says 16th and fuckin amazon says the 30th?
I was hoping to get the game and guide the same day if Kamui or Dr. Deelite could give me the official word from bradygames regarding ship date/release date it would be greatly appreciated.:confused:

[Onslaught2000]

Bradygames website says it'll be avaliable on June 13th.

And this guide sounds like it'll be tight!

[Johnny]

I already pre-order the game so I might as well get this guide as well when I go pick it up this wednesday.

[Dr. Deelite]

While we cut it close the guide should still be out with the game. Hopefully.

[Tigard's Own Dr. Evil]

Amazon tends to have guides available later than game stores so DON'T BE SKEERED.

So I might get the guide a little later than most but hey that's $7 more I will have to buy sushi.

[yoooooon]

screw this guide, its all about kamui's wcw vs raw wrestling guides.

[Ultima]

Dr.D: re: damage values

O I C. THat makes me a sad panda. It's nice to *not* have to be able to turn on the PS2 and go into training mode just to find out the damage of, say, R.Mika's c.LP. :(

I'll still get the guide though. I love me SF guide books.

BTW, when you said:

Like Denzel said, this shit ain't chess, it's checkers.

Er, shouldn't that be the other way around? :|

[jae hoon]

I looked through the guide, it looks pretty decent from the short time I got to read it. Wont be able to pick it up until friday. I did laugh at the fact that the guide implied that Ken couldnt produce offense very effectively in Gem Fighter.

[ScHlAuChi]

I got the guide today, overall its pretty good, but one big letdown is the lack of any info on the extra chars like DeeJay, FeiLong etc... and nothing about the new ISMs.
Its still worth to get if you can overlook these flaws.

[Dr. Deelite]

Er, shouldn't that be the other way around? :|

Fixed! I don't sleep much!

[CapMaster]

I also got the guide today and I love it. As someone more fluent on A1 and A2 then A3, to me this guide is fantastic as there is more A3 coverage then the other ones. I love the complete summary of V-ism tactics and the guide isn't afraid to tell you some game-breaking tactics that previous Brady guides were scared to show. Thanks to the authors for writing this.

[kesh!]

Guide is great, thanks Kamui!

[Sano]

Thanks for the guide man! Helped me find out about Color Edit in every game, how to unlock and play Cammy in SFA2 Gold and the best/closest to arcade version of each game. I can see the guide was done out of labor and love for our community. Thank you so much! :tup:

[Moribundi]

Thanks a million for the guide. Saves me a lot of time. :wgrin:

[Matarick]

I bought it and I do not regret passing up the Versus guide back in the day one bit.

I might as well get one for my girlfriend as well.

[AKA]

Mad fucking props for this guide, wow holy shit.

[Gen-An]

I bought it and I do not regret passing up the Versus guide back in the day one bit.

I might as well get one for my girlfriend as well.

I dunno man, that Versus A2 guide was pretty hot. I mean, it was 256 pages dedicated to ONE game. I managed to get one many years after the fact and am glad I did. Having the Z2 Gamest mook and All About SFZ2 book is nice as well :lol:

[Matarick]

I dunno man, that Versus A2 guide was pretty hot. I mean, it was 256 pages dedicated to ONE game. I managed to get one many years after the fact and am glad I did. Having the Z2 Gamest mook and All About SFZ2 book is nice as well :lol:

Back then, I only had a SNES and sought no value in getting a guide for something that I will not able to afford to play within a generation and I recalled that the SNES version of Alpha 2 stunk horibly since I played for a good bit. Money was tight since I was in middle school at the time.

It was an awsome book, from what I heard, but it had no value for me, at the time. Now reading from the SFAA guide, I want to find the Versus book as well and this seems to be great reading.

Only if Brady Games made DVD guides, now that would be a business venture.

[Gen-An]

I had plenty of chances to get the A2 Versus book back in the day and regret that I did not do so at the time. I kept thinking, "I have time." Of course the book promptly vanished and I didn't get one until a couple of years ago when Chocobo on #capcom picked one up for me. The information contained within would have opened my eyes to higher level SF play a lot earlier.

[goodm0urning]

I bought it and I do not regret passing up the Versus guide back in the day one bit.You sure? It's an excellent book, and a piece of Street Fighter history...

[Matarick]

You sure? It's an excellent book, and a piece of Street Fighter history...

Well I do want it but I cannot afford to spend much more money since I already bought the two versions of SFZFG/SSFAA, the guide, saturn controller, BBnavigator, not to mention some other stuff like NSMB and PS2 Treasure Box.

You know how it is for our hobby ;)

[AKUMA2000]

I dunno man, that Versus A2 guide was pretty hot. I mean, it was 256 pages dedicated to ONE game. I managed to get one many years after the fact and am glad I did. Having the Z2 Gamest mook and All About SFZ2 book is nice as well :lol:


I had the SFA2 VS book as well, that was book was amazing and no strat guide hasn't even come close to that book since then.

The SFAC strat guide is good, but i think the SFAA strat guide will be better than that one.

[FallingEdge]

I would like to purchase the A2 Versus guide. I know that it isn't in print but is there anywhere I can try to look for it? eBay didn't seem to have it at all.

[SaiST]

Same. My lil' cousin got a hold of my A2 guide way back when and tore the thing apart. I'd love to get my hands on a mint copy.

[Nori]

Holy crap, it's Dr. Deelite! :O *does fighters.net handshake*

Anyone who's gonna be getting their guide from an online store, Amazon's got it for 35% off the cover price (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0744008131/).I just ordered my guide. I'm a manager at blockbuster, get employee discount, and this is even cheaper:)

[Dr. Deelite]

Same. My lil' cousin got a hold of my A2 guide way back when and tore the thing apart. I'd love to get my hands on a mint copy.

Grounds for murder.

[_MJ_#R]

250 pages or 288?

anyways will it include all known vc's for all characters?

[AKUMA2000]

There's 288 pages.

[EveryFlowerFlow]

frame data?

[Geronimo]

Guide's pretty good. Props to you guys!

However...I was surprised you left out V-Akuma's OTG VC's but put in Karin's. Even though I don't know much 'bout A3, I guess Karin's OTG VC's are more important to her overall game, in comparison to Akuma's *shrugs*.

If someone could confirm/elaborate, it would be greatly appreciated.


- Geronimo

[m121akuma]

This guide changed my life.

[aznflict]

dood, this guide is AMAZING for people who have little/no knowledge of the Alpha series.

the "Alpha Essentials", while some elements were Alpha specifc, can be applied to almost all Capcom fighters.

solid gold stuff in there.

[Mowbs]

dood, this guide is AMAZING for people who have little/no knowledge of the Alpha series.

the "Alpha Essentials", while some elements were Alpha specifc, can be applied to almost all Capcom fighters.

solid gold stuff in there.

I'll second this. I'm on page 13 and it has already taught me a lot. I hope what you say is true and I can carry much of this over to games in the vs series.

[aznflict]

i said "almost all Capcom fighters". the vs series is a totally different beast. not a whole lot will translate to MvC2....

[evilmuffinmanX]

can I have a link to the Jap's mook of SFZAnthology?

[Mystic_bash]

can I have a link to the Jap's mook of SFZAnthology?
So you can review it? :wonder: ....Sorry I couldnt resist, Try a torrent site, Or usenet.

[OneInchPunch]

awesome guide and anything to help out the sf community but random question thats kind of related, is there a MVC2 guide out there that stands on the same caliber as this guide?

[epsilon_]

i bought it and it was good. coming from a cvs2 and 3s background this stuff is all new to me. thanks alot for making it.

[Mowbs]

awesome guide and anything to help out the sf community but random question thats kind of related, is there a MVC2 guide out there that stands on the same caliber as this guide?

I asked this in a different thread and the answer is no. Apparently, the MvC2 guide is just a glorified move list. I don't know where your level of skill is at for the game, but if you're a beginner like me, try using the resources this site offers and see if you can find videos. In case you're interested, the guide for CvS2 isn't good either.

[Mowbs]

i said "almost all Capcom fighters". the vs series is a totally different beast. not a whole lot will translate to MvC2....

Dang. Oh well. I guess I'll take this one game at a time. I've been going through a capcom 2D fighter craze lately. I tried playing GG and KOF, but that shit just isn't the same to me.

[Gutcruncher]

So at least in the future there will be less guides like the piece of crap A3, CvS2, and MvC2 guides and more guides like SF:AC, CFE, SvC: Chaos, and so on.

the svc chaos and cfe guides are along the same lines of awesome as the sfaa and sfac guides? damn, i hate those two games, but if the guides are that good i almost wanna buy em

[aznflict]

CFE was more about frame data (Majestro's website has errata & updates) than strats and combos.

Still better than 99% of other fighting game guides though...

[DaLastDon25]

Don't know if this is a repost. The SFAA guide is 13 bucks at amazon.com. It still says pre order but I'll wait a few days to get it at that price.

[Dr. Deelite]

awesome guide and anything to help out the sf community but random question thats kind of related, is there a MVC2 guide out there that stands on the same caliber as this guide?

Yeah, download the new Justin v. Sanford movies from ECCX or The Clash, lol.

[leon_shore]

Pick it up while it's hot guys. The SFAA guide is difficult to find (maybe it's just my area). I drove around 6 different game stores before I finally found it at Game Crazy. Rarely do I purchase strategy guides as there's a stigma of crap attached to fighting game guides, but it is definately worth the $21 I paid for it. I didn't realize the Street Fighter Anniversary guide was also written by the same authors, so I just ordered that off of Amazon. I try to support the fighting game genre/scene as much as I can. Keep up the good work guys. I missed Alpha3 years ago, so I have a lot of catching up to do.

[Servbot001]

Alpha 2 Gold was never released in arcades here and in general people who play Alpha 2 don't like Alpha 2 Gold, including me, ha ha, so since Kamui and I wrote the kind we sort of ignored Alpha 2 Gold. It changes a lot of what makes Alpha 2 fun for no reason and changes some other arbitrary things for no reason IMO, so my recommended dipswitch setting is to just play Alpha 2. :wgrin:

Um...That's rather weak. YOU didn't like it which means it should get axed from the guide. That's pretty bunk and lazy. I don't recall your opinion being part of what I or the rest of the community likes. You were enlisted to write a guide for a game that has been in the series since 97 (96 if you count the arcade port). I don't see how you can call yourself a fan (or even a good writer/tech writer/player/etc) of the series when you ignore a game in a 'guide for the masses' because YOU didn't care much for it. You know, I think everyone should adopt your trend of not writing about something if they don't care much for it. We'll have game instruction booklets lacking info on how to play the game because the tart writing the book didn't like the game at all. Excellent concept.

For anyone bothered by no details on Alpha 2 Gold EX character versions, I went through and made a big list of differences for EX characters versus the regular A2G characters, but in the end A2G never had a competitive scene and it never will, and space/time were issues already (again, we got a build of the game the day of the guide deadline, which is why there are a few errors in the guide regarding some settings and dipswitch stuff, among other things) so we said screw it. If A2G was important to you, I'm sorry, but you're in the minority.

Yes, I'm bothered. A2G never had a competitive scene? It never will? Not with that attitude it won't. Again, when reading a guide, I don't care about your opinion for the majority of the time. If you included all the info about the game, then MAYBE I'd care about your opinion, but you didn't and you were lazy...not to mention taking a firm stance on killing ANY sort of adoption of new games. I suppose because I don't bust a nut over your shoddy guide, I'll be flamed to no end.

For anyone bothered by no character breakdowns of DeeJay/FeiLong/THawk/Guile (apparently this really bothered some people), we didn't know Upper/HSFA were in until the last minute basically, and made a decision to not do a section for the upper characters. Again, much like A2G, this decision was based on that A3 Upper never had a competitive arcade scene here. This is also why there was not more detail about HSFA and the new Isms. That was all very last minute.

Last minute addition. I'll let that slide for HSFA. No one could have guessed that was gonna be in there, but the Upper characters? Come on now. I could have told you what the arrange modes (outside of HSFA) were gonna be when the game was announced. Not to mention the JPN cover art was being solicited as early as March. Are you really not a fan that much? I could understand a guy who never played SF in his life making such silly mistakes, but someone who CLAIMS to be a fan of the games and of Capcom's whole fighting entourage to make stupid mistakes like that is compareable to a child with down syndrome driving a president's personal helicopter. It's just something you don't let happen. (ps, I have nothing against those afflicted with down syndrome - just lazy people.)

I believe Kamui has a list of what every dipswitch setting actually does but got it too late to include in the guide, and he's on a trip right now anyway. When he gets back at the end of the month, we'll be working on A3 frame data to put on the Bradygames site, as well as a tutorial/combo video or two. We'll consider throwing A3 Upper character profiles on there along with dipswitch settings too (assuming Kamui actually did get a list of them, and I didn't just see that in a dream or something).

Were you two on a trip when you wrote it? Like the kind where you giggle and see pretty colors? We (the fanbase) want that list. Make it happen and *maybe* in the process pull some of your dignity off the bottom of our boots.

Finally, the editors actually made some mistakes editing so some minor details are wrong, and occasionally a phrase or two doesn't really make sense. There are also places where they formatted a screenshot or two incorrectly (like in the Alpha Essentials section, when I talk about cross-ups, there are two screenshots and I say "As you can see, Sakura blah blah blah" and obviously that should be a screenshot of Sakura MK from the front, and Sakura MK crossing up and hitting from the back, but instead it's a pic of Karin stand RH and a pic of like, Sakura landing kick throw. I'm sure most people can tell it was obviously just formatted wrong but for a complete noobie it might be confusing). I'm going to compile a corrections list for the guide; whether Brady will want that on their site or not, I don't know yet. If they don't I'll just post it someplace here.

A correction list would definately be useful. I suppose Brady needs a good ass-kicking for hiring shitty tech writers to do what's more or less a job of meticulousness. Maybe they should look into firing those losers and getting a new bunch. Trust me. There are plenty out there who care enough about their work and a product to not fuck up repeatedly - including yours truly. Note why FAQs have revisions, but if you want a guide with a single release - homework needs to be done - especially when you have contact with the team who is working on the game.

Another good question is - when was the deadline for the guide? I would hope it was BEFORE the JPN release of the game. Of course, there was plenty of technical knowledge out there for a lot of these mistakes to not be made. For instance, we KNEW the same team that did Vampire Darkstalker's Collection was working on this collection. It was OBVIOUS that they'd use the same layout and game revision.

The guide was a failure. Pure and simple. I particularly LOVE the competitive play focus of the guide - coupled with the choice of revisions being the OLD revisions with broken stuff still included. Good job guys. Don't push balance or anything. In fact, lets go play MvC2 on the JPN DC or Arcade version so I can jump off the screen with Gambit and beat you via Timeout.

Do us a favor and don't write another guide. Of course, I'll get flamed for that statement because I'm not all super shit like you guys or Sirlin and don't have a name for myself. Because stature apparently outranks stupidity, ignorance, and lazyness.

-Jin

[Dr. Deelite]

Mr. Epstein, please check your PMs.

Mr. Monin, I liked the pics, but next time, less rose petals in the bathwater, they block the view.

I am interested in a the breakdown of the EX A2G characters as well as the A3Upper characters. Could you post these on Brady's website? Thanks

Possibly/probably. EX A2G is just like, a laundry list of stuff like "Chun can't cancel X move in Y mode" or "Ken loses/gains close stand fierce" so it's more likely that I just throw that up here.

A3 Upper, probably, on Brady site as breakdowns that resemble the guide or something. Only issue there is those aren't established tourney characters so it's harder to say what's actually good, though Fei-Long has some pretty dope tricks. DeeJay is sad because he was a lot more interesting in the older A3 Upper/Max and DC A3, which as far as I can tell is NOT this version of Upper. Or maybe this just worked on DC A3. His sonic boom recovered faster than any projectile ever, so you could basically do super cancels (silly stuff like cross-up MK, land, low short short short start kick super motion, hit fierce in the middle for sonic boom, finish motion and hit kick for kick super - sonic boom recovery is so fast the super comes out and combos off the sonic boom. Or if close enough you could link after the sonic boom into ANOTHER sonic boom, or a super). This version of A3 Upper, his projectile has lag so fun tricks like that seem to be gone, and there doesn't seem to be a dipswitch setting to get them back.

Regardless, yeah, that'll probably happen.

Dissatisfaction with guide

You're entitled to your opinion and I'll be the first person to agree with you that the guide isn't perfect. Your tone is a little condescending however. I'm not going to sit here and describe the process to you because I don't owe you that any more than you owe it to me to describe how you do YOUR job. I assure you though that Kamui and I worked hard on this under the gun with very little information. Contact with the dev team? That's a joke, the only contact with ANYONE from Capcom was David Sirlin via Majestros who mentioned in passing to Sirlin the guide was being worked on. Sirlin got ahold of important information for us when it seemed no one else could only 3 days before the deadline (which was before the Japanese release which people ripped and downloaded or imported - we had no such luxury). We didn't get game builds until the day of the deadline.

A2G EX character details - since I sat down and went through and specifically found them all myself on an old copy of A2G for PS1, yes, it's stupid we didn't put this in.

A3 Upper characters - we did find out about A3 Upper being in the game at the very last minute (roughly when we found out about HSFA as well). Because those characters never had a competitive shelf-life and because there was no time we opted not to include them at the time of the guide release with the possibility of doing breakdowns for them later on the site. It wasn't safe to 'assume' anything about this conversion. Up until the days of working on the guide we couldn't even get Capcom to just answer us as to whether or not the ports were PS1, DC, arcade, weird emulations, whatever. If they WERE arcade perfect, which is the assumption we decided to go off of, then A2G and A3 Upper aren't really part of the Alpha series 'canon,' in that they are considered sort of non-serious peripheral home games. While this is already changing with tourneys going largely to console and arcades dying, the arcade has been the standard since forever. Hence the lack of emphasis on A2G and A3 Upper.

It's also worth noting the hardcore tournament audience for fighting games doesn't even like those games, which is why we didn't feel too bothered glossing that over, especially (again) considering the time constraints and lack of information available.

Balance - fighting game companies and strategy guide publishers HATE it when you allude to any sort of imbalance or say so-and-so is better than so-and-so. They especially don't like it when you say X move or Y character is bad. Even still, we wrote a guide for the games they made, not a perfect dream game that exists in someones' head. No fighting game is balanced. It's my personal opinion that balance is a) a myth, and b) unimportant. What IS important is VARIETY. This is why MvC2 is a good game even though 75% of the cast is complete trash. This is why A2 is my favorite fighter ever even though it's basically a 6 character game. Those 10 or so MvC2 characters and those 6 or so A2 characters that are strong are interesting enough with enough fun options to make the games worth playing for me. If you're looking for a balanced fighter, you're going to be looking for a while.

I'm not offering excuses or asking for some sort of forgiveness or whatever. Just offering explanations. If you don't like the guide don't buy it, it's that simple. For the most part people seem to dig it, and while I appreciate your detailed comments and certainly there are things that could/should have been done better, I'm also a bit relieved you seem to be in the minority.

[Servbot001]

You're entitled to your opinion and I'll be the first person to agree with you that the guide isn't perfect. Your tone is a little condescending however. I'm not going to sit here and describe the process to you because I don't owe you that any more than you owe it to me to describe how you do YOUR job. I assure you though that Kamui and I worked hard on this under the gun with very little information. Contact with the dev team? That's a joke, the only contact with ANYONE from Capcom was David Sirlin via Majestros who mentioned in passing to Sirlin the guide was being worked on. Sirlin got ahold of important information for us when it seemed no one else could only 3 days before the deadline (which was before the Japanese release which people ripped and downloaded or imported - we had no such luxury). We didn't get game builds until the day of the deadline.

Of course it's condescending. So basically what you're telling me is that you were contracted by Bradygames to make a guide you knew nothing about so Brady could simply make a buck off a game and its fanbase? That's more disgusting than being let down by the guide. Worked under the gun is an understatement. I'd call 10 years a damn short period to possibly work on a guide for games that have been released repeatedly on mutliple systems. Of course, if you were in talks with and that you wanted to do this to begin with, why not start before you possibly had the contract?

YOU also wanted to make a name for yourself as a credible source in the community and then you dilly dally and attempt to recover with "you don't know what you're talking about and you shouldn't tell me how to do my job." Wrong buddy. You should have written the guide for the fanbase in mind - not how it best suited you. I have every right on telling you how to do your job - as does the rest of the fanbase. The community basically did you job for you. Was your deadline back in February? If so, I can again completely understand missing the Upper characters since those were on the boxart which was solicited in March in Japan.

I'm also guessing you did get paid for this little venture and you've probably got a steady job. If you're so ga-ga over the series, I'd imagine you've got some CPS carts tucked away somewhere? I know i've got some and I'm just a nobody - no big name in the community. Granted I've lacked the cash to afford a Naomi but i've got a DC - and a psp somewhere with SFZ3UU in it. Course, those are minor details.

A2G EX character details - since I sat down and went through and specifically found them all myself on an old copy of A2G for PS1, yes, it's stupid we didn't put this in.

Instead, I'm greeted with a page with one paragraph and the rest is taken up by Sodom. Great use of pagespace.

A3 Upper characters - we did find out about A3 Upper being in the game at the very last minute (roughly when we found out about HSFA as well). Because those characters never had a competitive shelf-life and because there was no time we opted not to include them at the time of the guide release with the possibility of doing breakdowns for them later on the site. It wasn't safe to 'assume' anything about this conversion. Up until the days of working on the guide we couldn't even get Capcom to just answer us as to whether or not the ports were PS1, DC, arcade, weird emulations, whatever. If they WERE arcade perfect, which is the assumption we decided to go off of, then A2G and A3 Upper aren't really part of the Alpha series 'canon,' in that they are considered sort of non-serious peripheral home games. While this is already changing with tourneys going largely to console and arcades dying, the arcade has been the standard since forever. Hence the lack of emphasis on A2G and A3 Upper.[QUOTE]

Wow. That's weak again. A3 Upper was confirmed in the game in March. Never had a competitive shelf life. WTF. Who said write the guide without ALL the information there. Where did you learn how to write a guide - let alone a mass published one which would be used/seen by the masses. You don't leave stuff out because you fancy it. Perfect example - Versus FFVII guide vs Official FFVII guide. Versus had EVERYTHING and the Official one lacked a lot. Guess whos sold more and still goes for a pretty penny if you can find it? I'll give you a hint: It's not the official one.

Also, if it's not Canon, why even bother including the Pocket Fighter section? Kthx.


[QUOTE=Dr. Deelite]It's also worth noting the hardcore tournament audience for fighting games doesn't even like those games, which is why we didn't feel too bothered glossing that over, especially (again) considering the time constraints and lack of information available.

Last time I checked - the guide wasn't for your beloved hardcore tournament audience. Frankly, most of the folks who play these games competitively looked at your guide and scoffed and the foolishness you presented (like using Gouki's Asura warp repeatedly over and over without telling someone to be careful.) The guide was for the masses and NEW fans if anything. New fans a) will be turned off by your lack-of-effort guide and b) probably move onto something else. New fans can't even relate to the characters in these games with your guide. Your guide doesn't tell who anyone is or why they are even there. It just gives mumbo jumbo about how to use a move and maybe a few combos. No where does it state that playing the game is the best experience for anyone. It gives broken tactics for characters that I might add, you make seem godly. News flash: There is a way around everything sport. Maybe you should tell your 'audience' about the problems with a move too.

Balance - fighting game companies and strategy guide publishers HATE it when you allude to any sort of imbalance or say so-and-so is better than so-and-so. They especially don't like it when you say X move or Y character is bad. Even still, we wrote a guide for the games they made, not a perfect dream game that exists in someones' head. No fighting game is balanced. It's my personal opinion that balance is a) a myth, and b) unimportant. What IS important is VARIETY. This is why MvC2 is a good game even though 75% of the cast is complete trash. This is why A2 is my favorite fighter ever even though it's basically a 6 character game. Those 10 or so MvC2 characters and those 6 or so A2 characters that are strong are interesting enough with enough fun options to make the games worth playing for me. If you're looking for a balanced fighter, you're going to be looking for a while.

So the lack of balance includes not giving out folks strong points and weak points? Jesus christ. There are strong points and weak points for all the characters with no need to mention where they fall on the tier list or how balanced they are.

What is this bullshit about MvC2 being a good game. It's not. It sucks. Is it fun to play casually? Sure it is. Is it a good game, not really. It's full of broken combos and glitches regardless of what version you're playing. Also, 75% of the cast is garbage. Hey, you said it. Why on earth would I want to play a game where characters were garbage. OR, why would I even want to play a game?

FOR FUN. Sure, playing games for competition is great, but I'm thinking you and your comrade missed that whole point in your guide. Everything is about winning in your guide. Nothing can be played for fun. In fact, you can't even play the newer revised versions of Alpha because it's not built like you remember it, and thus, you can't always win. SOOOOO...suggest everyone play on your level where those who are unable to adapt sit and cry about how the game got 'tweaked' and balanced more. What is with that?

I'm not offering excuses or asking for some sort of forgiveness or whatever. Just offering explanations. If you don't like the guide don't buy it, it's that simple. For the most part people seem to dig it, and while I appreciate your detailed comments and certainly there are things that could/should have been done better, I'm also a bit relieved you seem to be in the minority.

Too late. I did buy it (this means I get to bitch.) Like a lot of folks bought it - expecting something that wasn't there. Expecting a guide that wasn't filled with pure excrement. You're also wrong with folks digging it. Every person I've talked to who has read over the guide has had nothing but disdain for the lack of info it presented. Of course, you're gonna offer up that I must talk to a small group of people who never plays fighting games or games at all and that I must be out of my mind. Sorry bub. People didn't like your guide. Anyone who did doesn't realize how much is missing and how crappy your overall presentation is. In fact, those are probably the folks too new to the games and the ones you'd want to pull into the community. Chances are though that they'll just flutter onto something else because you gave them NO reason to stick with the games. Either that, or they didn't read it.

Not to toot my own horn, because seriously I don't care but maybe it'll get you off your high-horse - I've got emails from random joes telling me they would have rather paid 20 dollars of their hard earned money for my 24 page Secrets FAQ.

-jin

[aznflict]

the only major gripe i have is that in the "combos" section for each character, the page is 10% combos and 90% HUGE PICTURE OF CHARACTER.

uh, i'm pretty sure by that page, we understand it's "Charlie" we are reading about. more strats/combos/etc, less HUGE PICTURE OF CHARACTER.

[cent208]

Dr. Deelite, I just wanted you to know that I am a hardcore SF fan and I'm very pleased with my purchase of the guide. I know you've said this but people have to realize that this guide covers 5 game and you guys were not even given proper builds of the game from capcom. I was surprised and pleased to see that A2G Cammy had her own section. The small A3 section alone blows away that horrible a3 guide that came out approximately 7 years ago, that thing was a glorified move list. Just wanted to thank you for a job well. I've read the comments on the message boards and 95% are very positive. You can't please everyone. Quick question, do you know the quality of that alpha 3 guide was so bad? Its crazy that the alpha 2 guide was the best english sf guide ever and the alpha 3 guide was the worst ever.

[Kamui]

I understand that you have complaints about the missing information; that's fine. We did what we could to get as much information into the guide within the time allowed while attempting to tackle numerous problems along the way. If you don't believe these problems even existed and we were simply slacking off the entire way through, that's your uninformed opinion (One that lacks all of the information and any kind of experience with this line of work).

Additionally, Joe's reasoning for discluding information for games that the community hardly touched is not unreasonable. Not only did we not have the time or space to include much information about these games, but players have no use for advanced tactics for a game that no one is playing competitively. The players that do care about these games don't care about playing them that well; they simply care about endings and unlocking extras. In essence, you wanted us to include information that most people wouldn't have much use for when we didn't even have the time to include it.

In the case of the information people can use, again, I'm sorry It didn't make it into the guide. Believe me, there's no reason why I wouldn't want that information to be there. When I return, I'll do my best to include some of the information on the Brady games website that I couldn't include in the actual guide.


What is this bullshit about MvC2 being a good game. It's not. It sucks. Is it fun to play casually? Sure it is. Is it a good game, not really. It's full of broken combos and glitches regardless of what version you're playing. Also, 75% of the cast is garbage. Hey, you said it. Why on earth would I want to play a game where characters were garbage. OR, why would I even want to play a game?

FOR FUN. Sure, playing games for competition is great, but I'm thinking you and your comrade missed that whole point in your guide. Everything is about winning in your guide. Nothing can be played for fun. In fact, you can't even play the newer revised versions of Alpha because it's not built like you remember it, and thus, you can't always win. SOOOOO...suggest everyone play on your level where those who are unable to adapt sit and cry about how the game got 'tweaked' and balanced more. What is with that?

[Demon Dash]

New fans can't even relate to the characters in these games with your guide. Your guide doesn't tell who anyone is or why they are even there. It just gives mumbo jumbo about how to use a move and maybe a few combos. No where does it state that playing the game is the best experience for anyone. It gives broken tactics for characters that I might add, you make seem godly.
OR, why would I even want to play a game?

FOR FUN. Sure, playing games for competition is great, but I'm thinking you and your comrade missed that whole point in your guide. Everything is about winning in your guide. Nothing can be played for fun. In fact, you can't even play the newer revised versions of Alpha because it's not built like you remember it, and thus, you can't always win. SOOOOO...suggest everyone play on your level where those who are unable to adapt sit and cry about how the game got 'tweaked' and balanced more. What is with that?
You see I think that's your problem right there. Why do people buy strategy guides? For strategy and combos; if you want to know why a character's there why don't you go read some comics or something.

Concidering the deadline and lack of resorces they had I think they've probably done the best they can possibly do; especailly since they had to do it before the game was even released. I mean, what do you expect them to say? "Yo Brady Games, stfu! This is how we're doing it!" They can't do any more than they can, and to expect things that the fighting game community hasn't even figured out yet in a guide released so early is just retarded.

So why don't you go cry somewhere else? None of your moaning, whining or bitching is going to make any difference what so ever. You don't like the guide? So fuck, who cares? I certainly don't, and I don't think these guys do either.

[Servbot001]

Gotta love assumptions. First, I completely understand what is entailed with 'this kind of work'. Just because you don't know who I am doesn't mean you instantly know that I'm not in the tech-writing field. Kthx.

Next. I'm fine with your approach of competitive gaming. What I'm not fine is the general consensus that playing these games is for no OTHER reason than to win. Yes, winning is fun, but not everyone out there is playing these games to go to tournaments, to beat the best players in their area, or even never lose a round against a 'scrub'.

THAT is what is wrong as an overall majority with your approach. You ignore those who want to play the games to have fun and to remember playing the games earlier in their life - but not playing to be super competitive.

It's perfectly within my grasp that folks who don't want anything other than to destroy their opponent would like your guide. That's who you wrote it for. You didn't write it for everyone.

I'm dissatisfied with the community overall as a whole in this fashion and I really don't like your perpetuation of this ideal on everyone that is not in your circle of thinking. It drives away new players and players looking to get back into the game. You can't play a game if you can't relate to it. You can't play a game if you can't play it for fun. You especially can't play a game if you instantly get flamed for being new to the community and not being 100% hardcore.

For me, and really what you should be pushing for the community imho, is that these games need to be played for fun first, competition second. I know the concept if probably new to you, but everyone outside your competitive community really thinks of SRK as a den of elitests.

I know one person can't change how a community thinks especially with one guide, but there has to be a step in the right direction. If this doesn't happen, Street Fighter is dead. If you can't see this, I suppose I'm wasting my time.

-jin

[rikc]

Great work on the guide. This will be my first time really playing the SFA series, and this guide will go a long way to help get me into it.

[Oni_Ryu]

This guide changed my life.

Co-sign. Remember me? I'm the one who sold it to you :wgrin:

Clear out your PM box son!

[The_Docctor]

The guide lacks several key features that are essential for a "Strategy" guide. How can I formulate a playing strategy on less than all the movelists for the availible characters? The exclusion (or omission) of the Arrange Alpha 3 characters is completely unacceptable. If there is not sufficient time due to publishing contraints to include this information than the fault lies with the publisher. And it does in this case. The lack of information regarding an included title in the collection is also unacceptable. I am pretty sure the cover of that book says Street Figter Alpha Anthology. It does not say "Most of Street Fighter Alpha Anthology". If there is a considerable portion missing then their needs to be an explanation why. Alpha 2 Gold was not an unlockable title in this collection it is an included piece of software. The author's disapproval of this title which is included is irrelevant to the fact that it is part of the program, therefore it bears some discussion along with the other included titles. To not give this program it's due is to short change the programmer's who contributed to it, the company that produced it, and the fans who just paid for it when they bought the game. The personal bias of the author(s) has cheated the fans of information that should have been included in a 288 page book. This is unacceptable. As someone who does technical writing for a living, I am amazed that the publisher allowed such a gross oversight in the guide creation process. I do not at ALL fault the author(s) for having an opinion of what they like. I do fault them for allowing that opinion to prevent them from creating the most thorough guide possible. I also fault the publisher for allowing authorial bias to prevent the purchaser from getting what they paid for, which in this case was a guide to Street Fighter Alpha Anthology and not "Most of Street Fighter Alpha Anthology". To the sublect of game secrets and all that: As a fighting game (and guide) customer I purchase the "strategy" guides also to discover what secrets lay buried within the game if any. As a customer I am unhappy with what was not revealed within the guide. Servbot has written an extremely helpful FAQ that gave information in STAR function (with help from Middlekick), hidden modes of play, feature menus etc. This he did on his own time and posted at ZERO cost to SF fans on several websites. I am sad to report that what he provided at no cost was far more thorough than what Brady provided to me for $16.99 plus shipping. The author(s) have stated that they will provide the STAR function information when possible, and we need to give them the time and opportunity to do so. But I believe that there is a serious flaw somewhere in the creation process when information that is free on the web cannot be superceded by a book publishing company that has exclusive contact with the software publisher. Brady was set up to have access to the game, and its COMPLETE contents. They should have gotten complete information, and then provided it to their customers when they created the book. They did not do so. They were either ignorant of the software contents, or lazy in providing the information to the author(s). Both of these explanations are unacceptable. The guide at the end of the day is not complete,. The fans know it, the author(s) know it, and the publisher knows it. The fans and the community do not deserve anything less than the best, and most professional of efforts from the guide creators and from the author(s). We got neither.

[Demon Dash]

You have to remember though, Cpacom didn't release any information on this game at all, other than 5 arcade perfect titles, people didn't know if they where arcade perfect or not. Can you imagine if Brady Games released a guide with all this information on Upper or whatever and it turned out to be completely different? What would happen then? People are still working out the dip switch crap, Upper and HSFA now, if they where to do the same you wouldn't even have the guide yet to complain about. Sure I agree BG should have allowed more time to work on the guide, but there's no point in going on at these two about it. It's not as if they could have done any different than what they're told to do, like they said, they're just doing their job.

[The_Docctor]

Agreed. Which is why I look forward to the author's fulfilling the comittment they made in their comments to include the missing information at the Brady website. It's unfortunate that for all the commentary in the press release about Brady Games and Capcom's "exclusive" partnership that there was not more effort made on both sides to provide a better product for the consumer. Capcom should have been anxious to provide build versions to the publisher, and the publisher should have been energetic to pursue them. I also seem to remember seeing the box art for the Japanese version sometime (Capcom Japan website) in March or April. This artwork clearly shows Fei Long, Guile, and T.Hawk. Now if the characters are going to be visible on the box, doesn't it stand to reason they'll be in the game? Again this is all solved by professional and competent discourse between the game developer and the guide publisher, but again somewhere in the process the decision (deliberate, or unintentional) was made to not do that.

[eks]

snip

you sound upset =[

[Xorcist]

Just wanted to throw in my two cents. I really liked the guide, and got a lot out of it, but my one gripe is... what happened to the SFA3 Upper characters? I was really hoping to get some tips on Dee Jay, Fei Long, and Guile.

[FSgamer]

I asked this in a different thread and the answer is no. Apparently, the MvC2 guide is just a glorified move list. I don't know where your level of skill is at for the game, but if you're a beginner like me, try using the resources this site offers and see if you can find videos.
Go to GameFaqs.com and look for Kao Megura's MvC2 faq. That guide is great for people who are getting started with MvC2.

[AKUMA2000]

I purchased the strat guide and i'm happy with it, very informative.

[Ultima]

A bit late, but I'd like to throw in my support for the guide. Considering all the constraints, it's pretty good. But it IS incomplete, sadly. Not even talking about frame data or HSFA. Since SFA2G was advertised, it should have a dedicated section, even if it was just 2 pages of system changes and character changes/additions. I personally don't care, since I was one of the few who went through A2G on Saturn and noted all the changes (which I posted to a thread on alt.games.sf2), but I think they should have been there.

Does anyone have access to what all the stars do? If so, that should have been made public knowledge as soon as possible. I don't know why Capcom would be so secretive about this; you'd think they learned from the Vampire Collection (aren't they still trying to figure out what all the stars do in that collection?)

servebot:

Your star FAQ is fine. But otherwise, well, you have some legitamite complaints, but most of it is just scrubby whining ("these games need to be played for fun first, competition second"; competition = fun) and baseless stupidity (box art showed upper characters, therefore they MUST be in the game; see also, Capcom using Super Turbo art for A2G).

The guide was written for everyone. Everyone within a certain realm of thought (i.e. the thought that the player playing the game is playing to win; because really, what else are you going to do while playing? Seriously, is there something else in the game to keep track of?), but still for everyone. If it was just written for hardcore players, they wouldn't even have bothered with moves lists or basic system descriptions, and just include character vs. character strats and the more esoteric systems. Much like the A2 Versus book, the guide was written with the intention of making the player better at winning, or how to trim your opponent's life bar down (opponent being another human player that is) the most effectively and efficiently. This has always been the spirit of Street Fighter, and there is no better way to celebrate the game than to explain to players the nature of that spirit and help them getter better attuned to it.

Yeah, it's not as good as the Vs. SFA2 guide because the A2 Vs. guide was super complete, while this one is not. But you can't match 256 pages for one game written by 13 authors versus 288 pages for 4 games (should be 5, but A2G was mostly omitted) written by 2 people. Your labelling their constraints as "weak" is ignoring reality, or placing blame on the wrong people. If you want, blame Capcom for not telling anyone, not even their guide makers, what the anthology's actual contents were.

Man, I thought SRK had eradicated this type of scrubby whining years ago, but I guess some managed to escape. You're still relatively new here, so there's hope for you yet.

re: Dee Jay

Dee Jay had the insane projectile recovery on all home versions of A3 (PSX,DC,Saturn), but they slowed it down for the arcade Upper. Thus, Dee Jay in the arranged version of A3 has the Upper recovery.

[sailboat]

Hey hey hey! Drama! Woo!

First and foremost, I would like to say (a late) congratulations on the creation of the guide. Despite all of the gripes here and there.. being a new player, I love the guide. Again, me being a new player, my 2 cents may not mean shit to all of you vets out there who have the game broken down to frame by frame action, etc.. But, I would just like to say, I have never been more absorbed by a strat than I have with this one. The fact that it was written by real players, and not random employee A & B from Brady Games just makes my heart soar.

The Arcade scene in the midwest is dead. (Not that you could really find alpha games in arcades anymore, that's besides the point.) So for me, finding someone to show me the ropes of a game is really hard to do, and that's just what this guide has done. Granted all of the afore mentioned vets who could probably write a guide of their own, sure, there are probably flaws to you. But to people just picking up competetive fighters in general, this guide is a godsend. To both of the authors.

Thank you.

If this was in no way coherent, I apologize. But I needed to just share my praise, as meaningless as it may be.

[Sweet Tooth]

Servbot001 why are you bitching for? Be happy they even made a guide and attempted to make it GOOD.

[cent208]

Since SFA2G was advertised, it should have a dedicated section, even if it was just 2 pages of system changes and character changes/additions.

It did have the system changes listed in the alpha 2 section. it also has character specific changes in the characters alpha 2 section. i think the guide was very good especially considering the limited # of pages they had and the fact that capcom did not provide them with any info.. also, does anybody know if they updated the brady page as they promised.

[hyt]

I would like to mention that I was given permission to post frame data for Alpha 3 on the Brady Games website. It's going to take me a few weeks to get it up there (I'm estimating it'll be up 2 weeks after the guide's release). This framedata DOES NOT list advantage or disadvantage like the CvS2 guide unfortunately, but it does have start up, active attack time, and recovery.

I don't believe that I saw an update for this, and nothing's on the Brady Games website, but is the frame data going to be posted anytime soon?

[cent208]

I don't believe that I saw an update for this, and nothing's on the Brady Games website, but is the frame data going to be posted anytime soon?

I sent Dr. Deelite a PM about 2 weeks ago, asking him when he was going to update the site and he did not write back. I hate to say it, but it doesn't sound like they are going to keep their promise of updating the site. Maybe everybody should PM Dr. Deelite and Kamui. Does anyone know what their email addresses are?

[SF_crazy]

*doesn't read all of thread*

Is this guide getting released in the UK? Or is it already out over here?

[Best Kind Boxer]

The guide is fucking AWESOME for new players. You can tell they wanted to teach new players how to play.

As for the frame data thing.. yeah, that would be great. i'd do it myself if someone would tell me how. :sad:

[streetfighter lord]

I agree it is great for noobs and who cares about frame data. Most begginers dont care or dont know what that is. Gets everything else right

[Iapetus]

This guide is quality work. Do yourself a favor and buy it. I don't care if you are a master at the Alpha games, you will learn something from this guide. I garuntee it.

Two thumbs up!

[ParryPerson.]

I don't understand why people would bitch about this, the guide is great.

The few people in here that whined and complained are whats wrong with the scene, this was a great effort, and even if it isn't "PERFECT 100%" why complain? Don't fucking buy it then. You complainers will be the death of us.

Great job on the guide guys.

[shinmaster619]

Im getting this since the game doesnt include a moveslist (which is pretty shit for new players) and i like to master new characters since i've never been a fan of the alpha games.

[master akuma]

I dunno man, that Versus A2 guide was pretty hot. I mean, it was 256 pages dedicated to ONE game. I managed to get one many years after the fact and am glad I did. Having the Z2 Gamest mook and All About SFZ2 book is nice as well :lol:

In case if you know: I hear there was a Zero 2 gamest tape released in Japan in 96/97, do you have/know by any chance anything about that stuff?

[CptMunta]

I got this book sent over from the states a while back. It's really good. I liked how the SFAC guide would describe all the important attacks, special moves and their properties. And it's a bit of a shame they didn't handle it the same way here. But considering the vast cast of characters and different versions it's understandable.

Everything else about the book is fantastic. It's good to see Brady Games getting Pros to give these games the focus they deserve.

[technique121]

well i am not into guides cause they take all the fun out of the game. discovering new tactics in the game by yourself is more fun than reading a book

[omni]

In case if you know: I hear there was a Zero 2 gamest tape released in Japan in 96/97, do you have/know by any chance anything about that stuff?

I have it somewhere and it's terrible. Gamest had a habit of releasing tapes like 4 months or so after the game had come out - showing some combos, strategies and having some tournament footage. If I remember right Nuki wins the tournament with Chun and Bas gets 4th or so with Bison. If i remember right the top 4 had 3 chun li's and 1 bison. It was really boring.

The combos were nothing exciting nor the strategies.

Derek Daniels
http://lowfierce.blogspot.com

[TS]

well i am not into guides cause they take all the fun out of the game. discovering new tactics in the game by yourself is more fun than reading a book

You should stop posting here.