Info on the Old School SF Scene?

[NoAffinity]

Okay, gotta add a tale, as recounted to me by my close friend (and only other friend that still plays sf). He in fact, just got back from Japan, where he went for no reason other than to to find the comp (yes, relive the good ol' days) that he misses so much. Myself, I didn't get heavily into SF until alpha 2. I recall a high school friend getting SF2 on SNES, but of course all the moves were in the manual, so know magical mystery there, like there was in the original days. I recall playing one game of sf1, at the Family Fun Center in Escondido, CA (now Boomer's). It was a six-button setup, and I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. I recall it was on a big-screen setup, with spacious flat panel controls. I was getting served by the computer, when a dude came over, put his coin in, watched me continue to get served, then saved me right before death (you remember that: "come on, dude, get in here before I die")...only to hand me an equal serving. I remember just trying to grasp everything on the screen (such as the life bars and the little circles that represented lives), and fathom what could possibly be the use of all six buttons. Hey, I was used to Atari 2600 single button joysticks at that point in time. My next recollection (aside from SNES SF2, as previously mentioned) was playing at the Megacade which was right up the hill from Rancho Bernardo High School (from where I had already graduated by that time). I usually played SS (2, I think), Addam's Family pinball, and a handful of other non-lasting games. There was a hole wall of SF's, which I'm pretty sure were SSF2, because I recall Cammy being a character. There was maybe 8-10 cabs in the Megacade, and all but maybe 1 or 2 were empty. I put my quarter in one in the middle of the non-played cabs (in all honesty, hoping to be left to play by myself), thinking "hey, I used to know a few moves on that SNES SF2"...and got whooped on by the computer. I couldn't even react without the computer hitting me. I think again, somebody came up, put their quarter in, soundly destroyed me, and I walked away disgustedly.

I could go into further detail about when there were two Nickel City's within 10 minutes drive of each other, here in S.D., and when the SFA3's showed up, and the comp that was still existent on them, oh, some 7 or so years ago now...but we are focusing strictly on the o.g., so I would like to recount what I have been told by my friend Darren, what I have listened to in nostalgic awe many times, each time he tells the story, getting just a little bit more of a true image of the scene as it was then.

Darren was at Round Table the day they wheeled in SF2. He saw it come in on a dolly. He recalls playing Final Fight while it was being wheeled in, and leaving his FF game in progress, to be the first to put his quarter in. He chose Guile for some reason, of course had no real idea what he was doing, but Final Fight and other Capcom games of the time did have special moves (qcf moves, that is), so he was no stranger to the pricinciples. He remembered thinking, passively "this is pretty cool". He soon picked up Zangief, for what reason he can't even recall now, but has recounted how damn near impossible the SPD was, and being sure you could only do it one direction (i.e. clockwise), because he had never pulled it off the other direction. He has recounted to me all the ridiculous rumors that were flying around about the game, back when it was still new and magical. Of course, there has been talk of Shen Long, but there was also the rumor that the rock in Chun Li's stage (in the foreground) could be picked up and thrown...and there were those that would swear they had seen it. He has told me of playing at some seedy arcade in L.A., where essays got all huffy and puffy over getting repeatedly beaten, threatened him, and he left in the middle of game to avoid getting jumped, stabbed or worse. He has told me of endless win streaks at Round Table and other arcades, with 20+ dudes crowded around that or another single cab, and being gleeked on by some cowardly hater. He also recalls going into some random arcade, in the search for comp, again going up against some seedy hispanics, but they were very good, and welcomed the challenge of new competition.

I could go on and on in the same theme as those that have already very eloquently described the scene (mad props to the o.g. bards, and thank you for sharing your tales), but what I recall is it was new. It was magical. There was a whole world of possibilities, just waiting to be discovered.

:edit: Upon further consideration, getting back to why the scene declined, I don't think consoles, bootlegs, Capcom's decisions, or any other factor were really to blame. I think the decline of SF came because of the boom. It was new, it was fresh, and essentially it was a fad. And just like all fads (rubik's cube, pet rock, swizzle sticks anyone? :D), it passed. But the greatness of SF is in the fact that while the fad of it passed, it nonentheless has staying power. Assumedly, plenty were the number that played and eventually came to the realization that they weren't going to be great at it...or just didn't care to be. They all fell by the wayside, while the likes of Tomo and Valle and other greats mentioned herein stuck with the game. And of course there's even those of us who may not be as good as the greats but still play and enjoy the competition, and welcome the challenge of playing someone better. That is the greatness, imho, that is Street Fighter.

[DanielLarusso]

This thread IS SRK.

Co fucking sign.

SRK needs to enshrine this thread in gold somewhere so when they crash and lose their archives as they have about three times in the past, this thread will still remain.

[SNkNuT]

this thread is a taste of what old school is something that we must never forget becuase it where SF is born and thus SRK itself.

[oniman]

I have to acknowledge my old-schoolness. I'm a little over thirty and I used to haunt the arcades in Penn Station in NYC. Not too seedy, so my parents allowed me to spend plenty of Saturdays there (anybody here remember Playland in Times Square? Now *that* was seedy).

I came across SF1 when it had pads: two huge pads that you had to pound to correspond to jab, strong, fierce. I remember little kids used to come by and beat everybody pounding on it with their elbows. Used to beg for 2 quarters just to bust your ass.

I didn't play it too much, but I do remember first seeing SF2. It was in the back of the same arcade, 4-in-a-row lined up. And you would see bunched of quarters stacked on top and a queue of people milling about. It's true, before that games were only single player, so I became addicted to the competition, man. I was about twelve and I would get an adrenaline rush just pulling off a shoryuken (I didn't know the movement; I just knew if I rotated the joystick in a semi-circle and mash the buttons it would magically come out sometimes lol).

Nowadays the arcade scene is dead. Too bad. You used to see the same players around the fighting games and a little community built up around it: VF. SF. MK. Even Killer Instinct had fans. Now the only way to play SF competitively is to play online and have someone cheese you with lag. Too bad. At least I witnessed the birth of this SF thing....

[CyanideAssassin]

Nowadays the arcade scene is dead. Too bad. You used to see the same players around the fighting games and a little community built up around it: VF. SF. MK. Even Killer Instinct had fans. Now the only way to play SF competitively is to play online and have someone cheese you with lag. Too bad. At least I witnessed the birth of this SF thing....

I wouldnt say its dead at all. Sure its not what it used to be but look at how many people post here. I guess it just depends on where you live, theres tons of comp around me, lots of familiar faces and communities around the different games.

But I agree its not what it used to be. Thats for sure.

[Nos99]

Okay, gotta add a tale, as recounted to me by my close friend (and only other friend that still plays sf). He in fact, just got back from Japan, where he went for no reason other than to to find the comp (yes, relive the good ol' days) that he misses so much.

I have to wonder what the hell it is that these people do to be able to go to the other side of the planet to play SF.

Not that I wouldn't want to go... but damn. That's a lot of loot.

[Ryu & Ken]

Yeah. Actually, Tomo was at my first tourney:) I won! Beginners' luck. I tried to set me up in the same bracket on HF(that last match was Vega vs. Guile on CE) by calling in advance once. I was promised Tomo first round and when I arrived I was put in a totally different bracket. I made it to the semi-finals and ended up losing to George Ngo, getting 3rd and never being able to play. We played after the tourney for my satisfaction(Tomo was always cool and gracious like that) and I won:) Still, it would've been better to have an HF tourney win over him as well(that match was Rog vs. Ryu). I played him, in what I believe was his last sf tourney on ST. I beat him with Vega vs. Guile,Ryu then Bison. But by that time, it was clear that Tomo's heart wasn't in it. Also, Watson believes he beat Tomo in his last tourney too. So, it's possible that we are both who eliminated him or maybe they were separate tourneys. Difficult to remember. It's not like we had realized that we would care, now, back then, heheh.

Don't be confused into thinking that I was better than Tomo. He seemed to always have Vega problems and Rog was a nice counter to Ryu on HF. You just can't beat Rog without ticking and to tick, you gotta knock him down. Tomo was clearly the best, at the time. He still lost once in awhile to Mike and I even saw him lose to Kuni Funada's INSANE Zangief. That's the same Kuni Funada from Arcadia magazine.

I played Tomo casually, multiple times. I only got with him for a practice session once with Jeff Schaefer which just happens to be the only time I played HF at SHGL before the Alpha years. SHGL wasn't the hotspot for the best comp, back then. It was that hole in the wall comic shop, World's Finest.

I played all those guys back then. Really, those were the guys you wanted to play when you were hardcore. Ahh...the golden era!!! heheh

I remember seeing that guide well after I had moved to Vegas. I was surprised to see my name still on the board. I still have that page, lol. Only that page tho!

Apoc.

Apoc did you ever find that page where you said you would tell me what the 20 playeers are doing.

Also whats Jeff Schauer and Mike Watson doing now ?

[let blood run]

i used to live in sunnyvale in the early 90's. i was only about 5 or 6, but i remember going to SVGL and seeing the arcade so full, that you couldnt even walk around in there. i wish i could go back in time.

[SNkNuT]

svgl is still pack on some nights, but its the hardcore that shows up not random people anymore.

[nothingxs]

Mike Watson? He's challenging TFGM to a game of SF4 in the parking lot...

[Mycah Leonhart]

Oh my God.... such chills and goosebumps.... best thread ever??..
sure... I love it...
---->>Ok Im an old man... when I walked into the arcade (dono the name it was in Houston though, seedy, seedy, seedy mall by a Fiesta grocery store.. maybe some H-town Heros can help here) there were like 10 dudes around this machine (the mall was about to close..) I was like WTF?? so I looked up and WAM!! Street Fighter 2... TWO?!?!?! You see as far as I knew I was the only person in the world that had ever played Street Fighter much less knew how to throw a fireball (thank god for the grandparents, a Turbo Duo, and Fighting Street).. anyway.. They were taking turns fighting "The Last Guy" (it was Sagat) I was like "How do you know it was the last guy?" (some big Hispanic dude) "He was the Boss of the first one..." (man I was impressed now... These guys KNEW!!) But like I said the mall was about to close, and I was leaving town in the morning.. I wanted to play! So I asked if I could jump in, and the guy said "when I'm about to die" (sound familiar? :) ) So he was about to, and I did... Here it was... some girl vs my Ken.... don' remember much of the actual match but I remember I won third round... OK here comes Sagat (the Fagat, for he was cheap as hell in SF1) Killed him with Shoryuken and let me tell you peaple went CRAZY!! (And I've been hooked since then... I mean I LOVED the game before that but I've been an addict since) Then came Bison and of course that cheap fucker killed me ("Man I hate Fucking Bison!!.." became a fave saying of mine and my Homie Doc would ALWAYS say... "you sick fattie.. why do you wanna fuck him anyways? ;) )
OK thats enough.... many similar stories to those above... ooohh OK OK OK first Standing Fierce xx F.Shoryuken with Ken in CE... aaaahhhh... the big uppercut = DEATH!!!! POW<POWPOWPOW!!!!!!
later dudes--
---->>Ben

Sup man, what do you play on XBox Live nowadays?

Also I know good and damned well I had a few posts on here back in 2002 :confused:

[Fudd]

Also I know good and damned well I had a few posts on here back in 2002 :confused:

Yeah, that's kinda strange. I also remember this whole thread being longer.. Something like maybe 15 or 17 pages.

[NoAffinity]

The whole site crashed a while back, and all was lost (maybe a year ago, iirc). Recently (within the last week), I think there was some major pruning. I know for a fact the other day, I was in a thread that was 5 or 6 pages long, but when I finished posting, it was only 2 pages long. :xeye:

[Jion_Wansu]

this is a cool SF2 Turbo commercial


http://www.youtube.com/watch.php?v=L_Zc_mIWqI0&search=capcom%20vs%20snk%202

[Ryu & Ken]

this is a cool SF2 Turbo commercial


http://www.youtube.com/watch.php?v=L_Zc_mIWqI0&search=capcom%20vs%20snk%202

why is it, when ever I watch something on youtube.com that all I see is a black white pic but I can hear the sounds

[goodm0urning]

If somebody took the best of this thread, put it in a book, and sold it in stores... I would buy it. This thread is great to revisit every few months, even if there's not much new added to it.

[JohnnyEight]

Bumping this amazing thread. If you're looking for a good read, just spend some time in here

[Crayfish]

Bumping this amazing thread. If you're looking for a good read, just spend some time in here
Deffo.

Check this for Street Fighter history!!
http://l.lafage.free.fr/poubelle/hadoken.jpg


Crayfish. (http://www.wingkong.net/video/reflexes-high.avi)

[SNkNuT]

Bumping this amazing thread. If you're looking for a good read, just spend some time in here


thanks for the bump. i was looking for this thread.

[supaman]

We old schoolers should never forget this thread.

I used to remember spending all my lunch money on SF2. They had an SF2 WW or CE machine almost everywhere I went. At the pizza places, bowling alley, Safeway, a sports bar, a movie theater, 7-11, etc. My friends and I used to go to the pizza places to eat and play SF. If there wasn't any good comp we then walked or road our bikes to the bowling alley or Boxseat (a sports bar). Every now and again we went to the 7-11. The 7-11 had WW, CE, CE rainbow edition, Heavy Barrel and some shooting game. I think it was Terminator 2 or some stuff. And of course it had 1 pinball machine. Anyways, the scene nowadays is pretty much dying. It's kinda sad. Man, those were some good old times back then.
HEAVY FUCKIN BARREL!!! that was the shit back in the day. Yeah I wish seven eleven and the liquor stores i went to still had arcades bring back memories

[goodm0urning]

This thread deserves a sticky. Can't let this one die on us folks...Maybe one of the gentlemen who run SRK could select the story bits from this thread and compile them into a document on the site.

Hell, I'll do it myself if I can get a guarantee that it will be accepted.

[DaLastDon25]

Reading this reminds me of why I love fighting games. Thank you for resurrecting this thread. Did that story ever get published?

[Jion_Wansu]

Stayin' alive, we old schoolers should never forget this thread.

I used to remember spending all my lunch money on SF2. They had an SF2 WW or CE machine almost everywhere I went. At the pizza places, bowling alley, Safeway, a sports bar, a movie theater, 7-11, etc. My friends and I used to go to the pizza places to eat and play SF. If there wasn't any good comp we then walked or road our bikes to the bowling alley or Boxseat (a sports bar). Every now and again we went to the 7-11. The 7-11 had WW, CE, CE rainbow edition, Heavy Barrel and some shooting game. I think it was Terminator 2 or some stuff. And of course it had 1 pinball machine. Anyways, the scene nowadays is pretty much dying. It's kinda sad. Man, those were some good old times back then.

[dbostick]

Yeah, I grew up in the So Cal scene. I wasn't even 10 and everywhere I went, you knew where Street Fighter II was at because there would always be a human orgy around the cabinet... wherever I went. I dared not to play, I took great interest in watching and not getting my ass served to me. This was the peak of SFII's popularity (summer of 1991). People still swarmed for CE, the crowds started waning for HF and everyone stopped giving a shit once Super and subsequent games were released.

[PremoThaKhamilleon]

glad i was lucky enough to be living in los angeles when sf2 first jumped off

arcades on every corner

there was a good 3 or 4 within walking distance of home

the laundry mats and burger joints all in between had sf2 too

it was pretty sick when MK first jumped off too

also remember fatal fury for the first time , i think that was the first sf2 knock off , art of fighting , world heroes and all that followed , those mostly got played cuz sf2 had a long ass line

[MiLky]

I lived in S.D. at that time, graduated in 91'. Those were the good old days man. I used to own the Mission Beach Arcade, though Yellow Brick Road in UTC was where alot of the real comp was back then (ass handed to me alot), Plus they always had loke tests there. I remember a SSF2 Turbo beta machine being there very shortly after SSF2 was released.

This place keeps my spirits up just knowing there is still people like me around. Really no comp, or even arcades anymore, in Maui. I just started to play a little more seriously again after giving up on the THPS series. Might move back to S.D. or Oahu in the next year or Two. When I do I will be happy to get my ass handed to me to whip me back into shape.

I might be old, but I still got the reflexes.

[DJcream]

Sorry if this seems a bit selfish but I'm bumping this topic to help out my research on the old school sf community. btw, a lot of these people have very interesting stories. I wish i have one to share but my fighting game career only goes as far back as 2002 with CvS2 ^_^;;

[Connor]

This has been the best thread I've read in YEARS.

Actual, well thought-out and well written content. I give jcasetnl massive props for his recollection of something most of us here can ever experience.

Kudos!

[{PFH}-Lake]

it was a lot of people play Sim and Guile, then some gief players.

[jcasetnl]

This has been the best thread I've read in YEARS.

Actual, well thought-out and well written content. I give jcasetnl massive props for his recollection of something most of us here can ever experience.

Kudos!

Wow, thanks, Connor! I really appreciate it! I can't believe this thread has continued after all this time. Must be something about this fighting game community...

[goodm0urning]

Wow, thanks, Connor! I really appreciate it! I can't believe this thread has continued after all this time. Must be something about this fighting game community...Back already?

Though I have said as much before, this is an amazing thread, and I have to thank you big time for participating in it. Hell, it is your thread. I would buy a book of this stuff without hesitation.

[Fudd]

Praise the GODS this thread is still around. I was starting to get worried when it wouldn't appear during the shitty search engine days.

[Razorkicker]

SF2 came out when I was in junior high school. Two of my buddies were always talking about it, I had no clue what they were talking about, but it sounded cool. I went into the 7-11 on the corner near my school to check it out, and there was a green guy with claws and a biting attack, and he was from Brazil! I used to play the shit out of the old Pro-Wrestling game on the NES, remember the Amazon? Green amphibious dude that would bite your head? He was my favorite, and so I got hooked on Blanka. I started ditching class to play, the only time I've ever stolen money was 5$ from my mom's purse to play SF2 at the 7-11. But I was getting my ass KICKED by my friends, and I realized that extra damage blanka takes if he gets hit during a spin TOTALLY off-balanced the game and made him nearly un-playable. So, I looked at the other characters and saw that Guile had the same movement for his sonic-boom AND he had the razor-kick. Plus he was big (I was more..fat than Guile) and blonde, like me. So I switched, was able to hold my own, and I've been a Guile freak ever since. For some reason when I would play the brown alternative color for him, I had better luck, and my friend called me "Shit Guile", both for the color and because he'd say it allot when we would play. Iv'e had a Guile knockoff in every pen/paper RPG I've ever played. Sabin was my personal PIMP on Final Fantasy 3. I'm playing a Sabin/Guile hybrid monk in D&Dv.3.5 right now. I never obsessed over a game like I did with SF2.Then the SNES came out and I got one. Then SF2 came out for it and I think I had my first orgasm when I first slammed the cart in and saw the intro. My brother got into Ryu with an almost manic fanaticism and we would piss each other off every day. My best friend was a Chun-Li cheese fan and he would piss me off too. I was a slow learner, I realized why I was getting beaten was because I was predictable with my game play. As soon as I got the feel, my bud, bro and I were usually 50/50 on the win loss ratio. I remember playing Super SF2 and beating it without losing a round on lvl 8 diff so I could see that picture with all of the characters on it. I felt like King fukkin Kong. I bought an import Sega Saturn and played all of the Capcom VS. games, but Alpha/Zero one and two never did it for me. I was a Guile fanatic and I thought Charlie/Nash was a pussy. As soon as SF03 hit Japan, I imported it for the Saturn and my bro and I haven't stopped playing it, although we play the Sega DC version. I have two back up systems just in case we fry this one, I'm still on the original system, so it may never happen, but i won't risk losing the best SFA3 incarnation for the life of me. Guile was back with a vengeance and I couldn't have been happier. I would play SF3 allot more if they had put him on. I like Dudly and Urien though. Remy is Guileish, but he's more of a pussy than Charlie! WTF!!!

I'm finally getting my Guile/Ryu tattoo this year. I'm stoked. I won’t claim to be a master A3 artist like those tourney geniuses, but most of our friends don’t volunteer to play my brother and I anymore. I used to go to arcades and hurt people, I'd hang out at video game stores that were demoing the DC or import Saturn and I'd do the same. I took my brother over to a friends house once for an A3 party, and they got all pissed because they thought I set them up by bringing a ringer. I was proud. Actually haven’t played them for years. Never did tourneys, they were intimidating, and I was never THAT good with an arcade stick. I have respect for the truely obsessed :china: That’s my story, long live Guile, Ryu, Capcom and SFA3!

[Mizuki]

Wanna know how old school SF2 scene is?

Go to an anime con, put out SF2 CE. Enough said.

[shoultzula]

been in the sf loop since 90-91-92 or whenever ww came out on the snes and been playing since and probably will till I die. I had OG training on oahu which has a pretty decent scene from what I hear. Playing against people 10+ years my age schooling me up and eventually winning a little bit before I left the island. Me and djb13 and probably a few other OG oahu players used to all play @ the same arcade. All though I didn't know him then, we played for years @ the same place so eventually we had to play against each other @ one point. oahu is the roots!! probably one of the best places in the world for a kid to grow up

[jcasetnl]

Back already?

Though I have said as much before, this is an amazing thread, and I have to thank you big time for participating in it. Hell, it is your thread. I would buy a book of this stuff without hesitation.

I really appreciate the compliments, and those of the others over the years.

The only point was to tell the story like it really happened, and I'm glad so many people shared their own stories. I hope this story will be told for a long time. ;-)

[Gouki7]

Wow, thanks, Connor! I really appreciate it! I can't believe this thread has continued after all this time. Must be something about this fighting game community...

Wow, dude that was a freaking amazing story you wrote. You should write novels :rofl:.

[TrueSephiroth]

Honestly, I was glad to be at the arcades so frequently due to my uncle taking my younger brother and I almost everysingle day, and every weekend was basically at the arcades.

The greatest thing about the Early-Mid 90's, was that you didn't have to travel 10839402384092 miles for great competition, that was the single BEST thing about it, kind of like how in Japan is, where if you just travel to your local arcade you'll get solid competetion already, it was the same here in the US at the time.

Gosh...I really miss those days, now a days if you don't live in a big city, your choices of competition is severely limited.

This thread is golden, I would hope that more people come and read up about these things, because this was without a doubt the greatest time period of the fighting game scene within the US, which was OG SF2.

Honestly, someone who has access to some of the Top SF2 OG Players should get a hold of them and interview them about the scene, and the competition back in those days, because that would be Prime!

[OJ4]

man... i remember when sf2 first came out. i was very young so i wasnt a completive player. i remember ppl crowding around and playing. and we had two cabients back to back to each other. here in VA there used to be city teams. like a norfolk, virgiinia beach team and they would all compete every weekend. and i remember this well and i was only about 6/7 at the time.

i remember watching ppl doing shoryukens and wondering how they did those moves lol. and it used to be very hard to rent, man back when we would rent games. wow this brings me back. but anyways man va used to have so many arcades and now we only have about 5 left. some of the o.g's are still around but its died down of course.

i remember renting it and practicing the moves all night tryna be good at it. even tho i don't like MK now but at that time it was groundbreaking and off the wall, so we would rent that too and hear the quote "get over here!" on countless times.

aw man this thread is awesome. in fact the 90's arcade scene was awesome. so many games you had to go to an arcade to play.

[gridman]

So we spent most of our time at Gametown. One day I got a call from Tony and he said to get down to Gametown right away. I hopped in my car and got there about ten minutes later, just long enough for us to play one last game of Street Fighter as the rest of the games were being carted out. I don't even remember who won. All the friends were there and we watched them cart away Street Fighter. It had the solemnity of a funeral procession as we followed it out.

truly depressing

[BRPXQZME]

also remember fatal fury for the first time , i think that was the first sf2 knock offCommon misconception; it was in development before SF2 was released (both released the same year, similar graphic style, yeah, it looks like a SF2 knockoff superficially, but the fighting system is just way too weird in comparison). It's more like an SF1 knockoff; the timing it takes to play FF is ridiculous.

[JubeiNinja69]

damn i remember my local billiards place had like 10 SF2 machines and kids to teens to adults would wait in like 10 different lines to play.

[Akutabi Gamma]

Funny how my first days of Arcades involved KoF 97, but that's another story; the arcade actually DID have SFII (The last arcade release), and as irony would have it, ppl played KoF 97 FAR MORE than the BARELY played SFII! Then again it was what 1999? Ah well, I was using Ken mostly, but only cuz he had a flaming Shoryuken.

[ashmoboy]

Wow so glad I found this thread, every competitive gamer should read this (especially the first few pages - jcasetnl your posts were inspiring) and be thankful for sf2.

Sadly I didn't get involved in the SF scene, my local mall just didn't have it. I remembered being in an arcade in another suburb and walking past SF2 machine with a bunch of 'bigger' kids crowded around. I only really saw a few seconds of gameplay as my friend wasn't interested in watching but man it really mesmorised me. SF was so ahead of its time.

My local video store Fountain Flicks (later taken over by Blockbuster) had TMNT and eventually got MK, but the games I grew up on were SNK. The computer store in the mall (I think it was called Pacific) got a Neo Geo 6-slot and it was awesome. Every month or so they would add a new game and it was like Christmas. Fatal Fury, Art of Fighting, World Heroes. Non-fighters i remember playing were Blue's Journey, Nam 9*something or other and other random stuff.

I wish I got to play more competitively but my friends and I were poor. We would just play one player games where the other one would jump in when we were about to die. Always funny trying to get that 'moment' before they lose, either guessing to late (game over), or joining in to early and getting an earful. "Man I could have had him!"

Didn't really get to play SF2 until my two friends(twin brothers) got it on SNES. Their grandma wouldn't let me stay until after 5pm so our sessions were always too short. Even though they got to train against each other all the time I could still beat them around 75%. I always dreamed of playing in tournaments. Of course I would have been demolished playing the pros but I never got to play any top players till many years later.

I only remember one street fighter tournament in Australia. It was like the World Street Fighter Championships and the winner(s) were supposed to get flown to play in other countries (U.S i'm guessing) I think I remember hearing the Japanese won but my memory is hazy. It must have been around 1995, does anyone know of this tournament?

[ToXY]

I only remember one street fighter tournament in Australia. It was like the World Street Fighter Championships and the winner(s) were supposed to get flown to play in other countries (U.S i'm guessing) I think I remember hearing the Japanese won but my memory is hazy. It must have been around 1995, does anyone know of this tournament?

Sounds interesting, I'd like to hear more about it, which aussies competed, won etc?

[Terminus Est]

I lived in S.D. at that time, graduated in 91'. Those were the good old days man. I used to own the Mission Beach Arcade, though Yellow Brick Road in UTC was where alot of the real comp was back then (ass handed to me alot), Plus they always had loke tests there. I remember a SSF2 Turbo beta machine being there very shortly after SSF2 was released.

This place keeps my spirits up just knowing there is still people like me around. Really no comp, or even arcades anymore, in Maui. I just started to play a little more seriously again after giving up on the THPS series. Might move back to S.D. or Oahu in the next year or Two. When I do I will be happy to get my ass handed to me to whip me back into shape.

I might be old, but I still got the reflexes.

So I was looking up all the new SF4 and Turbo HD stuff, licking my chops for some good ol' fashioned Street Fighter and I was thinking about the glory days, back when UTC's Yellow Brick Road crew and Tomo's LA crew were pretty much the two dominant groups and decided to see if there was anything on the web about it. This is the closet I got.

I was one of those UTC kids that pretty much never left the mall/arcade and was playing SFII and all of it's spin-offs.

I really wonder what ever happened to the guys like Alex, Sean/Shawn and David (and David's younger brother who I can't remember the name of). I was the 11-13 year old white kid that was always getting people mocked by their friends for losing to me.

Is there anyone else from that yellow brick road group around?

[Terminus Est]

- Yellow Brick Road in La Jolla...SD players! What i really like about SD players is that they didn't all play top tier Guile/dhalsim. They had awesome chun li, zangief, and honda players.

The guy with the really notable Honda at UTC/Yellow Brick(I want to say Jeff but that doesn't seem right) is probably also the guy who, after losing to my Balrog 3 straight times (this was back when no one played Balrog and I was one of the first to master charging at the arcade) freaked out and threw me head first into the wall. At the time he worked for the arcade and was obviously fired . . . but in the end we kept playing for quite some time.

Later on guys like Wei this massive asian dude who was notorious for shouting out things like, "No way!" or "Too Easy!" from the other side of the back-to-back games showed up. This was as Alex and Sean weren't coming around as much.

For the life of me I can't remember the name of the guy who had the really notable Zangeif. He was japanese as in from Japan and spoke very little english. Before him Zangeif, even with the good Zangeif players, was considered a much more 'capped' character.

One of the things that kind of drove the fact that the Yellow Brick Road crew used so many odd characters was that the core group probably only consisted of about 10 people. Outside of those ten, there really wasn't anyone who was a challenge (accept of course when Tomo and his friends came down) so if everyone just used the best characters, things got real boring because there weren't even that many people to get a real game from. That meant people spent a lot of time using non-standard characters, trying to learn the various exploits that others hadn't even bothered with because that character wasn't considered a top-tier character.

It even got to a certain point where guys like Sean, Alex and David didn't even use their "best" character accept in the late rounds of tournaments and when they did it was always kind of like, "Oh shit, he really wants to win, he busted out Dhalsim." To catch one of those guys playing a Ken, Ryu or Dhalsim outside of a tournament or unless we had visitors from LA was very, very rare.

Only with Guile? Um...Guile wasn't his tourney character on HF. If you're talking SF2:WW, who cares. It was a pos(of course then we had nothing to compare it to, heheh). Tomo was good with other characters. By the last paragraph I assume Tomo didn't toss you around anyway. Casual play, bleh.

And after CE he got into PC games? Sounds like you're saying he dropped SF. He played in tourneys up until SSF2 and even an ST tourney or 2.

Yeah, I'm trying to figure out what that guy is talking about as well. For SFII, when it came down to his final match in that first national tourny at Yellow Brick Road, he chose Dhalsim as I recall.

I think we all called it Moon kick (and sometimes I still do). Speaking of throws, it took me a while to get them consistently (even after learning the distance and timing, I suppose I was always worried about getting thrown instead!)

We always called the "axe-kick".

Why? Because you can't fake character animation. It's soooooo easy to react to what you see on the screen. It took much more discipline to know when to react BEFORE you saw what they did appear onscreen. Head to head SF is SF lite and I've believed that for over a decade.

Heh. I remember all the exaggerated button tapping. The fake rolls like you were going to throw a fireball, or doing a fireball motion and tapping kick to get people to jump . . . some of the stuff people would do was down right comical.

We anticipate matches between our top players and San Diego's since there was a rivalry at the time. The most talked about SD player was a guy that came outta nowhere named Wei Sit.

Man. Too funny. I think I even remember this tourny but I'm not sure. I distinctly remember a tourny when Wei had pretty much taken over YBR as the lead player and there was a whole bunch of LA folks coming in (we had tourny's all the time so they kind of blur together) and it was kind of a big deal. As I recall Wei got knocked out pretty early in a shocker where, I believe, he actually lost to one of our own players and the big show-down between him and the top LA guys never really happened in the tourny . . . but obvious a ton of rounds were logged when the tournament were over.

I miss those days. . . as arcades started to die off and the competition around me started declining (I know there were still great players and arcades, but they were out of my radius), I lost a lot of interest because what I loved was having people around who were way better. If I just strolled into a regular arcade it'd be around 30 minutes before no one wanted to play me and that got boring. Eventually I just stopped playing. It's always funny, though, when we would get those various console versions and I'd play with my friends because it really was a different level of play. My friends would tell me about their stories of being able to whoop everyone at the local 7-11, but at places like UTC and the big LA spots, it was a whole different world. My friends would find that out quite quickly even if it has been years since I've put any time into the game.

All that said, I was never a match for guys like Tomo, though I could take 2 or 3 out of 10 against Wei.

[MiLky]

I generally lived at the Mission Beach arcade, but got out to UTC at least once every 2 months. I didn't know most of the people personally, but I do think I remember Wei. I think he's the one that used to play me for $2.00 in tokens vs. $1.00. I used to usually come out about even, only because it was basically 2 to 1 odds in my favor, but he did get up on me sometimes. The competition was good up there, it's where I learned how to play proper, or became unscrubby. I too at one point in my life thought throws were cheap, heh.

I used to be a real dick at SSF2 on the head to head though, I was young. I had the Zangief teleport throw timing down almost perfect. I feel bad for the newer players at Mission Beach playing the other side back then to this day.

I probably played you way back then, either way, a shout out to the good old days.

You should really check out GGPO dude.

[Terminus Est]

I generally lived at the Mission Beach arcade, but got out to UTC at least once every 2 months. I didn't know most of the people personally, but I do think I remember Wei. I think he's the one that used to play me for $2.00 in tokens vs. $1.00. I used to usually come out about even, only because it was basically 2 to 1 odds in my favor, but he did get up on me sometimes. The competition was good up there, it's where I learned how to play proper, or became unscrubby. I too at one point in my life thought throws were cheap, heh.

I used to be a real dick at SSF2 on the head to head though, I was young. I had the Zangief teleport throw timing down almost perfect. I feel bad for the newer players at Mission Beach playing the other side back then to this day.

I probably played you way back then, either way, a shout out to the good old days.

You should really check out GGPO dude.

Yeah. My peak was around SFCE but I played quite a bit, long after that. What mainly separated me from a lot of the best there was that I got bored with having a primary character so I focused on learning a lot of the less popular characters. When we were just challenging eachother with random characters I could hang with most anyone there but when it was a competition and people were playing their best characters I usually wouldn't make it to the finals due to losing to one of my own damn buddies.

My name is Dash, by the way. I would have been the little blond-ish white kid. If Wei was around, we were playing against eachother or splitting rounds if there weren't a larger group of the top-notch guys.

Again, I think some of my fondest memories were when we'd get what we'd call tourists from other arcades who were top-dog in their arcade but still at that more "advanced scrub" level. They'd have their whole group of buddies and they'd get beat by this little 12 year old white kid and their friends would start trashing them . . . until they got beat too. Guys like Tomo, though, would pretty much beat me most games minus the ones I managed to sneak a few moves in by reading their tendencies . . . but they were so good they'd pick up and counter on my exploits by the next game and continue on.

[KYO84]

Wow as long as I've been on SRK I have never come across this thread, such an awesome read.

[Tiberious]

R.I.P. Time Out on the Court...All you cincy heads should be feelin me on this one. What a great place......now its a shitty ass wonderpark with ddr:mad:

Up at Forest Fair, right? Or were you talkin' Tri-County? Either way...
Also wanna make my mourning of Doc Holliday's known.


For me, SF2 was when I got into the game. I'd always wondered why I'd seen II around when I never saw 1. And when I did see it, it was clear. WW was far superior.

I also remember the first move I ever learned, both normal and special: Chun's headstomp and Ken/Ryu's fireball. I remember managing several wins with just the headstomp alone. When I was taught the fireball, being shown to me as DB-F (yes, I was shown an exaggerated motion), the game changed for me.

Another thing stick out in my mind very plainly, and that's when I had my younger brother down to literally nothing, and all red bar, and my on the verge of a perfect... when I felt I HAD to hit him with a DP just to outclass him... turned out he came back and actually won.

That right there, never giving up even when so close to defeat, shaped my play, even to this day. There's some people, and even in the big AE set from this past week on kaillera, that sees someone close to death, and starts trying to put it away. Normally, this only allows me to get a little more damage in before the curtain's closed for good, but there are those rare times...


When CE came out, I was pumped. Those four bastards that munched so many of my quarters were now under player control? It made the game feel more complete, because now, they weren't some mindless boss characters that could press the win button on you when they felt like it. You had a chance. Oddly, though, Cincinnati never had much of a local fighting game scene from what I could find during those times. I must've been too young, or not in the right places.

HF, when I first saw it, felt like a rip. CE and WW were a quarter each, while Turbo was 50¢. I thought 'why pay extra for simple discoloration?' It didn't have the same kinds of major changes like CE did (increasing the roster by 50%), and all it was was faster.

SSF2 hit Doc Holliday's and was promptly ignored, what with the KI machine taking credits, and MK2 seeing tons of play. It was even thrown into the back, where they kept the few pinball tables, also not good for showcasing it. The big game at the time from Capcom's side was Children of the Atom later on, and finally SFA showed up in the main gaming area.

By then, though, the writing was on the wall. Games sat unused for hours, more and more games were fitted to accept tokens (newer and more popular games were quarters-only, and tokens were 8 to the dollar), and by '97 or '98, they had closed completely...

[Terminus Est]

I also remember the first move I ever learned, both normal and special: Chun's headstomp and Ken/Ryu's fireball. I remember managing several wins with just the headstomp alone. When I was taught the fireball, being shown to me as DB-F (yes, I was shown an exaggerated motion), the game changed for me.

I can't remember the first move I ever learned but I do remember my first combo, which was fierce to fireball or fierce to uppercut . . . but of course it was just done by rolling the controller from forward to crouch as fast as possible while lobbing a couple button taps in there.

For the, some of the real big moments were learning concept oriented stuff, like behind-the-back/cross-over kicks, or how to do standing-fierce to axe-kick type combos.

At the beginning of SFII, when people started really mastering combos, instant moves from the ground and the likes, I liked learning all the fundamental stuff, like being able to pin people in with guile while using only his sonic booms, low forward and his neutral forward or roundhouse kicks. I always liked to read people and the tick-tack them to death while they were trying to pull off all these advanced moves and combos and I wasn't even using special moves . . . but I think UTC was kind of notorious for players who played the game a bit more "oddly" than a lot of other places.

[FreshOJ]

Yeah. My peak was around SFCE but I played quite a bit, long after that. What mainly separated me from a lot of the best there was that I got bored with having a primary character so I focused on learning a lot of the less popular characters. When we were just challenging eachother with random characters I could hang with most anyone there but when it was a competition and people were playing their best characters I usually wouldn't make it to the finals due to losing to one of my own damn buddies.

My name is Dash, by the way. I would have been the little blond-ish white kid. If Wei was around, we were playing against eachother or splitting rounds if there weren't a larger group of the top-notch guys.

Again, I think some of my fondest memories were when we'd get what we'd call tourists from other arcades who were top-dog in their arcade but still at that more "advanced scrub" level. They'd have their whole group of buddies and they'd get beat by this little 12 year old white kid and their friends would start trashing them . . . until they got beat too. Guys like Tomo, though, would pretty much beat me most games minus the ones I managed to sneak a few moves in by reading their tendencies . . . but they were so good they'd pick up and counter on my exploits by the next game and continue on.

I *just* found this thread today! I read it from start to finish! JCase is the bomb story-teller. He needs to be writing books!

All of this...the nostalgia to this quoted post is *really* making me wish I had frequented Yellow Brick Road more when it was open.

Yes, I'm an old-schooler, too. It's too bad I didn't climb out of scrubdom until I started at SDSU in 1994, after dominating at the Community College level (whatever that's worth...heh). Shout-out to the old crew: Greg Clarke, Harry Chang, Don, Todd (aka Todd 1), RICO!, Andrew Chin, the Harry that beat me in the MSH tourney and won it, and my alt.games.sf2 SD alumni Bob Painter, Mark Zedaker, Milo Cooper, Eric Koda, James Romedy, and Terry Cox. I think Wei frequented Aztec Amusement Center because I remember a guy with the same name that fits your description! I don't remember being that good against him.

Oh...I did meet Apoc...heh...lost a game of SFA2 with my Ken to his girlfriend's Chun Li at the time...but not the match! Don't get it twisted! :) (Chun vs Chun, low forward XX overhead ftw) And yes...James Chen. No one has ever made not being able to take off more than 50% of their life more fun and frustrating at the same time. :) SVGL! I know I've met some other people...my memory fails me.

By the way, if you're still in SD, check out the Pacific South section. We're trying to start something. You'll see when you get there.

[Terminus Est]

I think Wei frequented Aztec Amusement Center because I remember a guy with the same name that fits your description! I don't remember being that good against him.

Wei originally came from there and he regularly played there when he wasn't playing YBR. Like one poster mentioned, he just sort of "showed up" in some senses because he was kind of the top-dog there(we're talking 92/93) but didn't really play at YBR. When he came to YBR he was quite good but when he had top-level competition to play day-in and day-out, like there was at YBR at that time, he rapidly became a more dominant/consistent player. His Sagat was sick. That's not to diss anyone from Aztec, but YBR had about 5 regulars there(that were ALWAYS there) that could win a tournament on any given day, and then had about 5 or 6 other guys who, while they may have played other arcades, probably played 2 days a week at YBR and showed up for the tournies.

By the way, if you're still in SD, check out the Pacific South section. We're trying to start something. You'll see when you get there.

Am on my way to check it out now.

[elvis_a_presley]

This thread has brought back the best of memories. Thanks to all who posted. I was 12 years old when World Warrior hit arcades. Good times, good memories.

Old farts unite. Never stop playing, never retire.

[GunterJPN]

to relive the historic US vs. Japan event (only a little over 7 years ago, but some ppl may not have been around back then):

http://groups.google.co.uk/group/alt.games.sf2/msg/ce809bdaa8e268ae

[Dark Stalkers]

I'm gonna tell these stories to my children if I ever have any.

[Jion_Wansu]

Nostalgia

This is an oldie but a goody...so resurrection!!!


EDIT: my takes on the old school scene, etc.

http://forums.shoryuken.com/showpost.php?p=1253744&postcount=152

http://forums.shoryuken.com/showpost.php?p=2188315&postcount=223

http://forums.shoryuken.com/showpost.php?p=2636432&postcount=250



I like this one from Apoc:

http://forums.shoryuken.com/showpost.php?p=1685384&postcount=176

[jcasetnl]

I *just* found this thread today! I read it from start to finish! JCase is the bomb story-teller. He needs to be writing books!

.

Thanks for the kudos, man!

[jcasetnl]

Capcom released console sales figures. Resident Evil, as a series, has been the most successful, but their number 1 cartridge of all time was 1992's Street Fighter 2.

http://ps2.ign.com/articles/876/876333p1.html

Hard to believe that was 16 years ago. Half my life ago! I remember when this cart came out for the Super Nes back in the day and it was a very big deal. I believe it was in the Champion Edition days. The first time I saw it I was at Bay Con in San Jose. One of the vendors got ahold of an early copy and set it up next to his booth. It drew quite a crowd.

The release on the SNES was so important for several reasons. First, arcade to console ports were still very iffy. Everyone knew the graphics would take a hit. No one knew if the game would suck or not. Chief among the concerns was the gameplay, because if it differed markedly from arcade original it wasn't worth bothering with. Fortunately, capcom came through and the game was reasonably close to the original.

Second, and most important, now people could play Street Fighter at home. This was both a blessing and a curse. This was still at the very peak of Street Fighter's dominance in the arcades and it was common to see ten or more quarters lined up on a machine to play. When you finally got your shot, you had to really make it count or it was back in line you went to wait another 20 - 30 minutes.

Not so with the home version. The home version, therefore, was the weak player's wet dream. They were sick and tired of you, me and everybody kicking their asses six ways to sunday in the arcades. All they wanted was a warm and fuzzy game against the computer and now they could finally get that.

So like I said, the home port of Street Fighter 2 was a blessing and a curse. A curse because those bottom few tiers of players who provided our daily fodder now "took their ball and went home". They didn't have to settle for the continuous, frustrating ass-beating they were handed constantly in order to get their Street Fighter fix. On the Super Nes they could lower the difficulty all the way down and live out their chun li anime fantasy of dominance. YA TA!

Even for us more hardcore players, the SNES port proved to be a lot of fun as we finally got around to playing with the other characters in the game. It also meant our group had something to do after the arcade closed at midnight. We spent a lot nights up till four in the morning, and there were even a couple where my friend said "Dude... we need to stop... the sun's coming up..." Good times.


Edit: Here's the table in the event the IGN article disappears.

Franchise Sales

Series Units Sold
Resident Evil 34.5 million
Mega Man 28 million
Street Fighter 25 million
Disney Titles 13.2 million
Devil May Cry 9.5 million
Onimusha 7.8 million
Monster Hunter 6.3 million
Dino Crisis 4.4 million
Ghosts 'n Goblins 4.3 million
Final Fight 3.2 million
Breath of Fire 3 million
Ace Attorney 2.8 million
Commando 1.2 million
1942 1.2 million

Individual Title Sales

Title Released System Units Sold

Street Fighter II June 1992 SNES 6,300,000
Resident Evil 2 January 1998 PS 4,960,000
Street Fighter II Turbo July 1993 SNES 4,100,000
Resident Evil 3 Nemesis September 1999 PS 3,500,000
Resident Evil March 1996 PS 2,750,000
Dino Crisis July 1999 PS 2,400,000
Devil May Cry 4 January 2008 PS3, Xbox 360 2,300,000
Devil May Cry August 2001 PS2 2,160,000
Monster Hunter Freedom 2 February 2007 PSP 2,150,000
Onimusha: Warlords January 2001 PS2 2,020,000
Resident Evil 4 December 2005 PS2 2,000,000
Super Street Fighter II June 2006, 1994 SNES 2,000,000
Onimusha 2: Samurai's Destiny March 2003 PS2 1,990,000
Aladdin November 1993 SNES 1,750,000
Devil May Cry 2 January 2003 PS2 1,700,000
Duck Tales January 1990 NES 1,670,000
Street Fighter II Plus September 1993 GN 1,650,000
Ghosts'n Goblins June 1986 NES 1,640,000
Resident Evil 4 January 2005 GC 1,600,000
Onimusha 3: Demon siege February 2004 PS2 1,520,000
Mega Man 2 December 1988 NES 1,510,000
Lost Planet Extreme Condition December 2006 Xbox 360 1,500,000
Final Fight December 1990 SNES 1,480,000
Resident Evil Outbreak December 2003 PS2 1,450,000
Duck Tales September 1990 GB 1,430,000
Resident Evil Code Veronica X March 2001 PS2 1,400,000
Dead Rising August 2006 Xbox 360 1,400,000
Resident Evil March 2002 GC 1,350,000
Mega man Battle Network 4 December 2003 GBA 1,350,000
Devil May Cry 3 February 2005 PS2 1,300,000
Resident Evil 0 November 2002 GC 1,250,000
Resident Evil 4 Wii Edition May 2007 Wii 1,250,000
Magical Quest Starring Mickey November 1992 SNES 1,210,000
Resident Evil DC Dual Shock August 1998 PS 1,200,000
Chip'n Dale Rescue Rangers June 1990 NES 1,200,000
Dino Crisis 2 September 2000 PS 1,190,000
Mega Man X December 1993 SNES 1,160,000
Monster Hunter Freedom December 2005 PSP 1,150,000
Resident Evil Code Veronica February 2000 DC 1,140,000
Commando September 1986 NES 1,140,000
Resident Evil Director's Cut September 1997 PS 1,130,000
Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts October 1991 SNES 1,090,000
Mega Man 3 September 1990 NES 1,080,000
Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles November 2007 Wii 1,050,000
Final Fight 2 May 1993 SNES 1,030,000
Street Fighter Alpha 3 December 1998 PS 1,000,000

[oldschool_BR]

The only point was to tell the story like it really happened, and I'm glad so many people shared their own stories. I hope this story will be told for a long time. ;-)Just one hour ago I sent a link to this thread to one A2 fan and one crossover (vs series) fan. And changed sig.

I wish I could tell the story for the cities I lived in as well as you did. Very nice posts, man. It really took me back to those days when all was new, arcades were the one place a child would want to be and there was that aura about the guys who could even execute a shoryuken, or get past boxer.

[jcasetnl]

Had to give a short presentation to the board of trustees (the big wigs) on the progress of our web site upgrades and enhancements. The agenda was running 90 minutes behind so they politely said, "make it quick". And I did. Total shotgun presentation. About three minutes. "Any questions?" Nope. So I was outta there.

The marketing director tried to put me on the spot, which I anticipated. See, he wants this new home page layout, which his department crafted. However, he doesn't want the faculty backlash of "why weren't we consulted on this layout??!!" He has, in the past, kicked any such "negative" reaction over to us in IT. "That was IT's decision - we are but your humble marketing servants!" is his excuse. His snakieness is almost impressive. Almost.

So we agreed before that he would present that part, since, you know that's the marketing part. He intro'd me and then handed me the podium to do the WHOLE presentation. So I said "the marketing department has come up with a new layout..." to stick it right back in his lap. Ha ha bitch. Not that fucking stupid.

And when he saw I nailed it and the reaction to the new layout was positive, then he wanted to jump back in and add some additional comments. Ha ha.

He's like the guy at the arcades that suddenly pretends he's been your friend for life after you win 10 straight.

I mean c'mon. I grew up playing Street Fighter. You have to adapt the gameplan on the fly. It's all part of the training. You can't think you're gonna make me lose a step when you said you'd pick Ryu and then suddenly switch to Guile. I got that gameplan, baby! I got 12000 quarters+ of training on that flow, baby!

So the point is, whether it's sports or competitive game playing or being competitive at whatever, that experience can make all the difference in a clutch when someone tries to change the gameplan last second on you and tries to stick you holding the bag. You know to be prepared for all situations, all circumstances. And when the unexpected happens, you still step up, ready for the game, and you execute regardless. Bust your combos and counters just like practice, and maintain that focus.

And you get the win.

So whether it's street fighter or life, the rules are the same - you need to think through the angles in advance and plan and expect for the unexpected. And when the unexpected shows it's head, you're still ready to go, not missing a single step, a counter, or a clutch situation. It's all just the way you did it in practice and against the uncountable fools that stepped before. And you send them back to the token machine like all the others.

[Arxinal]

J....Amazing stuff. In every way possible thank you.

[dieheart]

Wow great thread read, and great thread . Brought back a few memories of my first time seeing SF2 at the community center in Adak Alaska.They had it set up there, and one machine at the gym. Everyone would go there to either watch, try or play the best that was there. There was something special about people just meeting somewhere for something. Thing is, it wasn't spoken of when or where we would meet sometimes, we just did it.

Thread should be made a sticky imo

[Jubei Kibagami]

Man I've been looking for this thread for years. I thought it's awesomeness would be lost to the ages. Now I've found it again and this shit is STILL legendary. Great read all and all.:encore:

Thanks much to whoever bumped it.:pray:
:pray::pray:

Props and Respect to jcasetnl. You rock brother.:rock::rock::rock:

[krackerjack]

I love this thread. It makes me want to run to the nearest motherfucking arcade and just spend all week there.