Info on the Old School SF Scene?

[dsfh]

I was wondering what the SF scene was like way back in the days of SF2. It'd be cool if some of the older boys put down some of their memories. Actually I specifically wanted to ask about this dude Tomo. My friends say he used to play around where I live (so cal), and was generally regarded as the best 'round here. Hell, I might have gotten my ass kicked by him and not even known it back then. So my questions are: Why did he quit, and where the hell is he nowadays? I guess I can ask the same thing about Thomas Osaki, who also seems to be a god. But it'd also be nice if some of the newer gamers got to know how it was like back then.

[jcasetnl]

The old man stirred in the corner at hearing the young man's question to the other fellows at his table.

"What's that? Speak up, boy, these ears aint what they used to
be!" He croaked. "What's that you say about the old school
days?"

The young man turned and stood up as an old, wizened man emerged from the shadows amid a cloud of smoke but steeled his nerves and said, "I want to know about the old skool days, what it was like."

"Ah, well we didn't use that new-fangled spelling
of "school", for one", as he took up a chair. "The old school days, eh? Sit down, boy, sit down, and I'll tell you a tale... but you keep my cup full, you here?."

With a glass of Jack Daniels on the rocks in his hand he
took a deep breath, staring intently at the young
man and nodded. Then he turned his eye off into the distance, into some past he held sacred.

"Yeah, I'll tell you a tale, boy... Not one told often, or as often as it should. Because in these days there ain't nothin' like it, and prob'ly won't be again. Pay attention now."


Let's turn the clock back to the year 1987 and a
little town called Oakland, California, and a 7-
11 not far from the intersection of Fruitvale and
McArthur and a boy about 11 years old.

Let me tell you of a time when a quarter was still a lot of money to us kids. Let's talk about a game called "Street Fighter".

There were fighting games before Street Fighter: Yie Air Kung Fu, Karate Champ, Punch Out... but Street Fighter was different. The
fighters were huge and detailed and brutal and sinister looking. Each was signficant and unique, and your ability to defeat each one was a measure of your skill.

When you got punched in the face the sound that came from the speakers sounded painful, not some 4-bit, scatchy, crackly
noise but a full and powerful SMACK. As primative as it was, it was closer than anything that came before to tapping into the animal instinct of two fighters locked in a mortal strugle.

I won't dwell on those early years, though, because the original Street Fighter didn't have too much of a following. I was a videogame junky by then, or what we used to call a "ware fiend" - a slang that comes from the old BBS days of downloading cracked games for the C64.

That 7-11 installed some pretty useless games over the years but every day after school a group of hardcore players were there no matter what, to dominate and master whatever they threw at us. Hell, I even kicked ass at Arabian and that game is a piece of shit.

See, it wasn't just the game that mattered. It was the "scene" - the people and the friends you met and made, and the competition. Some kids got respect for playing on the basketball team. But we weren't like them. We got respect by getting our initials on the high score table.

Yes, the competition. Even playing Ghost and Goblins there was an element of competition because when a good player walked up who could beat the game, the other kids took their quarters off the machine knowing they'd have to wait an hour before the next game. They stood around and watched you kick ass, though. And that was one of the main ways you earned respect back then.

Occasionally 7-11 installed a gem of a game, and Street Fighter was one of them. In the spring of 1987 I ran Track and after running my race up at Merritt College I'd leave the Meet early, catch the bus and spend the rest of the Saturday playing Street Fighter. It was just Street Fighter and 7-11 nachos. That's all I really cared about.

In those old days the arcade industry was in a slump and had been since about 1984. It's important to recognize this to really understand just how big the impact of Street Fighter 2 was going to be. There were few arcades and most of them were dark, seedy places that kids were either too afraid to walk into or weren't allowed to walk into by any parent that cared a damn about their kid's security. All the action to be had was at the local 7-11 or on this new home console system called "the Nintendo". Girls never, EVER played videogames.

Street Fighter was eventually replaced by some other crap game and time passed. My parents love to gamble and Reno, Nevada was a second home to me. I knew every arcade in town. But on one trip I saw a game at Circus Circus - a knockoff of Double Dragon called "Final Fight". This was a game that had instant appeal to everyone, especially button mashers. This is where the car from the bonus round in Street Fighter 2 came from. As wowed by the incredible CPS1 graphics as I was, this was just a hint of what was to come.

A few of those 7-11 grammar school friends remained friends when I started high school and just like before we were loyal game addicts. But now a couple of the guys had licenses and cars, so we headed for "far off" places like Bayfair, which up until then were just fanciful "palaces" we got to visit when mom wanted to go shopping. My friend, Phil, was an avid bowler and Bayfair Lanes had a handful of games. That was our hangout for about a year.

Then one day Phil told me that Street Fighter 2 was coming out. Phil was considered "the best" at the original Street Fighter and all those memories came flooding back. A place called Manor Bowl, not far away, supposedly had one. So we went.

I don't know what it was, but the first time I saw Street Fighter 2 I didn't want to play it. Phil played and started beating on these little kids with Ryu. He commented that doing fireball and uppercut were easier than in Street Fighter 1. He said that when doing jumping roundhouse you had to hit the button late (in the original you have to hit Roundhouse just as you start to jump or it doesn't come out). After a couple of games Phil was doing the oldest of the old skool traps - the fireball-uppercut pattern.

The next day at school I was talking with my friend Ian during P.E. and telling him about Street Fighter 2. He had seen screen shots in the magazines but hadn't played yet. "Dude, the fireball doesn't take off shit, neither does the uppercut," I told him. You see, in the original Street Fighter, the special moves were tough to do but did MASSIVE damage. Two fireballs plus a roundhouse killed your opponent. One well-timed spin kick could actually kill your opponent. In Street Fighter 1, being even ABLE to do the special moves was proof you had skill.

We decided that Street Fighter 2 was just eye-candy and not equivalent to the old skool original. This was a game for the "masses", we thought. How right and wrong we were...

Finally I got around to playing it at our old homestead, 7-11. My very first round of Street Fighter, ever, was against Blanka and I got destroyed. Blanka was considered tough in the very early days. Zangief was considered practically invincible. I hated Street Fighter 2 after that. I mean, fucking Blanka? He was like some "monster". All the characters from the original were human. The whole idea of this Blanka character seemed silly.

Then 2 Star Liquors, three blocks from my house, got a Street Fighter 2. I grudgingly tried it again and got my ass kicked again by a Chun Li. I tried it again with the same results. WTF?? No matter what I did she stuffed it! Throw a fireball and she just jumped over it and no matter what I did she'd hit me. Fucking WHORE!

Fuck this. I put another quarter in. This bitch is toast. By the end of the first round I heard something I'd never heard before:

"YOU LOSE...

... PERFECT."

I couldn't believe it. Me, a guy who had killed Mother Brain, a guy who had saved the Princess, a guy who had beaten SATAN and a guy who had faced Adon and Sagat in the original Street Fighter and was declared "King of the Hill"... got his ass handed to him by a GIRL. I didn't even want to play the second round. I HATED this game.

In the old school days there were always little kids milling around begging for quarters because they had no money, for all I know they still are. One of these kids asked for 2nd Round. Disgusted with this piece-of-shit game I said, "Fine, go ahead."

Chun Li jumped, he moved under her and did ducking fierce. Chun Li did a spin kick and he did the same. But for a couple hits he won the Round easily. Then he turned to me and said, "See? She's easy!"

A fucking eight-year old.

I was hooked. Pride, maybe, but I was hooked.

The first few weeks that Street Fighter 2 was out it was just another game for us to beat. Few ever challenged. You have to understand that before Street Fighter 2, video games were almost always about showing off your prowess against the MACHINE, not another person. Games were about patterns: learn the pattern and if you had even decent execution you could beat the game. The guys who could deviate from the pattern and still win were the heros. The guys who could rack up the most points were the ones that got respect. Like in Ghost and Goblins, the guys who blew through the game with the torch as their favorite weopon were considered Gods since the torch sucked so bad compared to the sword. If your name was on the high score table, you were the King. We took those scant three initials seriously back in the day because they were the evidence of our skill. And God so help the 7-11 employee that unwittingly unplugged the machine at some point and whiped the high score table. He was the target of unending scorn...

I don't remember when it happened but about three or four weeks after SF2 came out I got off the bus and headed for 2 Star Liquors for my daily dose of ware play. 2 Star had installed a second machine and there were about 20 kids there, whereas before there were maybe two or three. 20 kids, crammed into a space that was maybe ten feet by fifteen feet. Think about that for a second.

When was the last time you saw 20 kids crammed around ANY game?

More tommorow...

[Zulu]

Too good.

[GKI]

Originally posted by Zulu
Too good.
So true, good job bro.:)

[Plutoburn]

That was a good read, I'll give this thread a foreign perspective.

This happened in Taiwan, a situation IMO commonly shared by many Asian countries.

I don't know what it is about arcade, but it always has a special place in my heart that no console can take away. Even now with the sophistication of DC/PS2/GC/XBOX, there is just something about the arcades that made me drop $$ and play.

Like jcasetnl, going to the arcade was a daily after-school activity for the school gang. My neighborhood has small arcades all over. I remember there was a period in time I have a choice to visit 6 different arcades within 15 minute walking distance. It was just as common as convenient stores.

Anyways, I forgot exactly when I started to actively going to arcades, but it was slightly before SF1 came out. I wasn't particularly interested in fighting game, I just played whatever is there. What I remember most about SF1 is that I always lost to Adon and fights between 2 human players are pretty much down to shoryken-fest. It's almost like a joust. 2 players start to approach each other with jab shoryuken and see who get hit. Sometimes it stall because they do it at exactly the same time. But to sum it up, there were not much strategy involved. It didn't matter to me at the time because I was just a kid mashing the buttons.

Since arcades were extremely popular in Taiwan, I often have to compete against people much older than I am and I usually get my ass handed to me, so I don't play that often, I was just happy to watch.

When SF2 came out, it didn't came out with much of fanfare for me. It just came. But within matter of weeks, EVERYBODY was playing it. I remember seeing some people that can finish the game PERFECT after PERFECT with Guile doing JUST air throws. Almost as if they know exactly when the opponent will jump throwing them down when the opponent is still rising. I also remember seeing the FIRST combo, cr. forward into fireball. I didn't have a clue what combos were. I merely progressed from button smashing to specials spamming state.

Many different styles soon evolved. The invincibles are the ones that are ahead of their time. They study each normal, specials, priorities and stuff, nobody can touch them. And there are the I can do everything but I don't know what it will do style. They just throw out random moves and such, kinda fun to watch back then because it was still pretty new at the time. There are also the move abusers like me. Spamming one particular specials and just keep doing it.

The arcade that I frequent the most has 6 machines dedicated to SF2. It is small, only has around 15 machines. That pretty much tells you how important SF2 was.

While all this is going on, it went on with a twist... Schools didn't like students going to arcade after school, so teachers have a system of students reporting classmates who they caught going to the arcade. It's always the girls tell on the boys. So going to the arcade for my gang and I was like breaking rules together. Probably because of this that we had a special bond between us that makes us trust one another. However, me in particular, has the toughest time of all... my parents strongly oppose me going to arcades. Whenever I am caught, I get punished. 99% of my punishments are because of going to arcade. You can say because of this, arcade means that much more to me.

I also remember buying my very first non-comic book using my own allowance. It's a street fighter 2 book. It has screenshot of all the moves, how to do them, and pictures, bio and stuff. One thing sticks in my head and that was a huge headline: SHORYUKEN no longer invincible. And it showed successive screen shot of a shoryuken performed and the performer punished on the way down. It's funny thinking back on this.

A while gone and the rainbow edition came out. I was like WTF? hadouken in air?!? These modified SF2 was fun for a while but it didn't last. Same with accelerated edition. The next big thing was HF.

[Kuma Kev]

man that post was fuckin awesome. if there was a best post award id vote for that one u just made.

[taiji]

jcasetnl is top tier :)

[Visceral_1]

I hardly ever post but this thread deserves some 'respect'. The second thread sums up very well what a lot of old timers (people in their late twenties approaching the big 30) experienced and can appreciate about the arcade scene circa 1983 (about the start of the crash) to 1991 (the 'Golden Era' in full swing) and what SF *really* meant to social aspect of going to an arcade.

I remember for me going to the Scarborough Town Center in 1987 and staying at the mall all day (I was a mall rat) and watching all 'big' guys play SF1 (it's a primarily Asian community where I played) and round after round you saw these players just throwing fireballs and hoping to connect with an uppercut (just to illustrate how strong an uppercut was -- 1 uppercut, properly placed against Geki - second guy on Japan after Retsu-- would kill the bastard - I don't remember ever killing any other player in that game with one uppercut but Geki but I'm sure you could do it).

And when SF2 came out it was pure madness at times. Huge crowds around the machines and people you didn't often see coming into the arcade actually coming in (I remember a bunch of big white biker dudes come in kicking ass with Guile and Dhalsim and was pretty amazed at their tricks). Then of course there were the glitches (handcuffs, freezes, magic throws) that people sometimes exploited and these individuals were hated because they locked up the machine then promptly took off (*Ugh*)

And I still remember a couple of weeks prior to SF:CE coming out there were huge posters outside the arcade and in some parts of the mall with the words Street Fighter: Champion Edition Coming SOON! When the hell was the last time you walked through the mall and saw huge posters advertising the release of a SF game?

Ahhh... the memories.

[Million]

*I'll read all that later...*


-----
I just remember HATING SF1 when I finally played it for myself. I didn't see what the big hoopla was...the control felt like your guy(Ryu) was moving through a tub of cement, and special moves only came out occasionally. The music was really cool though, as were the graphics for the time.:D Even the voices were classic, despite the fact of them being hard to understand:

"Blua bluaaah blua bla bla blah. Derbluaah blah blah bloh."

------
SF2--much better. Graphics were fukkin awsome for the time, and on my first time watching people play, I thought "THIS IS THE GREATEST GAME.....OF ALL TIME. WITHOUT QUESTION":lol:
This immediately became my game of choice nearly every weekend at the mall. Saturdays were PACKED.....you actually had to stand in line to play, and it was messed up for a short guy like me, since people also crowded around the machine to watch.....
*why the hell do tall and/or fat people ALWAYS end up in the damn front?!:mad: dammit.

It got better though, as my arcade eventually put SF2 on a big screen setup when Champion Edition came out. Soon, that was our arcade's main thing:
-1 big screen Champion Edition.
- 1 big screen regular SF2
- 1 big screen Mortal Kombat!
- a regular size SF2 in the back of the arcade.
- and ANOTHER regular sized SF2 at the front
- there were some SNKs....1 World Heroes, and 1 Fatal Fury, but nobody gave a shit:lol: (Even when people didn't feel like waiting in the SF2/MK line....the SNK games STILL got no play....most people would go over to a pinball machine or an action/shooter game to pass the time:p )

[jcasetnl]

The next day the young man returned but the old man was nowhere to be found. He turned to leave but just as he reached the door heard the old man's voice:

"So... back for more, eh?" he rasped?

"Well, I... well yes."

"Fine, fine. Set me up with a drink, boy, and we'll continue."

The old man lit a cigarette and stared into his glass for a moment, sipped, took a deep breath.

"Now where was I... oh right... twenty kids crowded round a video game?"


And they were all crowded around a kid named Pele (prounounced like the soccer player), playing on the second stick. A few kids challenged on the first side and he quickly dispatched them. Finally, everyone backed off to let him play the computer. He got to Balrog and was trounced, but no one had ever seen "the final four" before and he instantly became a legend. Watching him play I learned in a few minutes what would have taken me months to learn on my own. He knew exactly what to do against each opponent.

I've been hooked on games before, but I'd never been re-hooked. Still, I got my first glimpse of what was possible with this game, or what we old-skoolers like to call "the next level".

I'd never seen him before but he made me step up my game. And from that day forward at 2 Star Liquors playing the computer was just half the game and competing against LIVE players was the other half. Even though no one had beaten the game at that point, no one gave a flying fuck about the high score table. It didn't mean shit because if some schmuck could challenge you and toss you off the machine your stupid initials on a high score table didn't mean jack. And people were playing so much no one ever saw the high score table anyway.

In short, it was the start of a whole new era of videogames.

Two Star Liqours on Fruitvale Ave wasn't the exception, but the RULE. Street Fighter 2 had taken hold in a massive way. From then on, if you went into any convenience store, arcade, 7-11, or shithole bar there was a crowd gathered around the game. If you wanted a game "against the computer" you had to EARN IT by beating the crap out of every player that stepped up. No longer did you stare helplessly at another guy playing the game hoping he'd mess up so you could play next. Now, all you had to do was beat him.

But as revolutionary as Street Fighter 2 seemed to be with what little we knew, it was merely the beginning.

---

The old man sat back from his drink, eyes watered over from the alcohol. "Well that's enough for this night, boy."

And the young man said, "There's... more?"

"More!?" the old man said, in angry contempt. "That's just the start, the beginning! Of course there's more... much more. But I'm an old, old man now. Long in the tooth, boy, and I need my rest. You come back tommorow and I'll tell you another tale."

"But! Tell me just a bit more."

The old man sighed. "Okay, just a bit more then."

So with a swig of his drink he continued.

Everyday after school we had one thing on our mind. Two classes before school let out my mind was already thinking about it and my hands were doing fireball or uppercut motions on my notebook and sweating with the anticipation. The moment the bell rang I was down to Phil's car in a flash and as often as not he'd be there before me if his last class was in a building closer to the parking lot.

We quickly established ourselves as good players at the local places. 7-11 was no longer the hangout of choice for us because it cost 50 cents to play, whereas 2 Star only cost a quarter. All the history, literally, the 3 years I spent at 7-11, were cast aside. And 2 Star fostered the game, not like those jerk 7-11 counter jockies who would sometimes unplug the games because there were too many kids crammed in there.

The Fireball - Uppercut trap was beatable but only by good players. It required fakes, mind games and consistent execution if you wanted to use it and win. Even against the computer you at least needed good positioning. And for those of us that made that pattern our business we got respect. Other players feared playing us. Never before was "fear" part of videogames. As I watched a good player beat opponent after opponent, watched my quarter slowly march to the right, the adrenaline started to rise and my pulse would start to quicken. I can beat this guy. I can BEAT this guy.

One day I walked in and there was a murmur in the crowd about this thing called a "triple-uppercut". Of course, the uppercut only hit twice so I tried to imagine how it could possibly hit three times. Maybe if you were under the player? It didn't make sense. But true to form Pele stepped up against me and after getting me dazed he positioned himself right next to me.

Now when you dazed a guy the thing we always did was throw him. It did good damage and well... we couldn't think of anything better to do. But Pele did jab into uppercut. He basically mashed the jab button and whirled the stick in a tight circle. Three hits. And I got dazed again! It was the first time I'd ever seen a double-dizzy, but much more importantly, it was the first combo.

I was re-hooked again.

On and on we played. Phil was two years older than me and graduated that year. Eventually we lost touch and he stopped playing anyway, to concentrate on his studies at Cal Poly.

At some point the potential of Guile was realized but I still clung to Ryu. No one ever thought Guile could compete. Sure, he had that insane reach with his normal moves but you had to charge his specials, so he was insanely predictable. But as the strategy evolved and progressed, those three seconds to charge his moves basically disapeared. And his sonic boom had no delay. His flash kick had insane reach as well. Put it all together and Guile was a corner-trapping God.

I was good, but I wasn't that good. As much as I tried I was never as inventive or creative as many of my opponents. I was a "pattern" player. But that was enough to be the best player at the local liquor store.

By this time it was also known that if you got close to your opponent after a knockdown and did ducking short (which they were forced to block), you could throw them before they recovered from block delay. It was reversible, but extremely difficult to reverse. So players dubbed it a cheater's tactic and it became known as "cheap". Even the computer fell for it, and players with absolutely no skill could now beat the game. "Honorable" or "skilled" players never used this tactic. How many arguments, debates, shoving matches and outright fist-fights did I see over this one aspect of the game? I can't even recall, but there were a lot.

I got back in touch with a friend named Tony. In the six or so months since I last spoke with him he had been playing and had all sorts of stories to tell about legendary players and massive arcades where the best of the best went. Tony had a car and had been all over - Oaktree, the Underground, Bayfair, and Regency just to name a few.

I played Tony a few games and he absolutely thrashed me with Ryu and Guile. He was a great trash talker too. When he played it looked like some intricate dance. He seemed to read my mind and know what I would do way before I did it. He could triple with ease, and landed fierce-forward-fireball combos on me one after another. Over eight months of street fighter experience and I was still being soundly trashed whereas before it had taken me anywhere from two days to a month to master any game before that.

Then he switched to Guile. At the time he was by no means an expert Guile player but being exposed to the far more advanced strategies of the arcades I didn't have a prayer. Over and over he absolutely destroyed me. I had no answer to anything he threw at me. Finally he said, "Dude, if you ever want to succeed at this ware, you need to take that fool Ryu and dispose of him. He can't compete. You have a plan, but Guile has PLANS, fool. You want to defeat Guile, you have to defeat all his PLANS."

I told him he was the best player I'd ever seen and that he could dominate anyone in the place.

And he said, "Yeah, but there's this Asian fool at the Underground that whoops my ass on a daily basis. That fool has ludicrous skills. He's on the next level. I beat him a couple times at first, but then he factored my gameplan, divided by Pi, multiplied by the common denominator and filed me away in the database. He whoops me every time now."

"Who's that?"

"Thomas."

[TNOT]

jcasetnl,

Great story man! So when you met Thomas, how well could he play? What made him different? What kinda fighting style did he have? Did he rush, or wait for the opponent to make a mistake. I bet he waited...


ps- did you ever see Thomas get whipped by anyone?

[taiji]

bump, this is really a great read :D

[DrumlinerJoe]

I remember all those early SF games were in grocery stores and gas stations and all that. All day people would be huddled around the machines playing them, trading rumors about "handcuffs, bracelet throwing, etc..." Damn I remember when CE came out, that was insane. Everyone freaking out over the new colors, backgrounds, moves, and being able to play the bosses. Man those were the days, I got so many fun memories of SF II and the like.

[OneEyedJack]

Best Thread EVER!

[Desmond Delaghetto]

Originally posted by taiji
bump, this is really a great read :D


I know. This should definitely get a SRK Fourms Award.:(

[fireballtrap]

Man, i really wished i was old enough to vividly remember this stuff. I can remember huge arcade crowds, but it was always like that, so i thought that's just the way it was, and always would be. :( Jcasetnl, finish the story....PLEASE!!!

[...sICkpRIme...]

hahaha, this thread rules. I remember the first time i played SF2WW. I was 7 years old. My mom forced me to go shopping in some stupid town i hated. We got there and instead of being shopping cart caddie, i booked it to the mall to see what they had to offer. I had 2 bucks to kill, and then I saw my oais. ARCADE!!! It was like a tuesday at 11:30 or something, and there was NOBODY in the arcade. I didnt get to go into arcades very much in those days, never had money. But i knew what games i liked. I was in front of RAMPAGE in no time. One dollar down, i just walked around a bit. This place was pretty seedy, really dark lighting, brown carpet (which was sticky for reasons i cant explain), and then I saw SF2. i was just hypnotised. I saw blood sport like 2 days before and i remembered thinking how cool a game based on bloodsport would be (I WAS 7 OK !!!!). I just launched my money into the machine. First charactor i picked was blanka. First match was against Dhalsim. I just got my ass handed to me. Last 50 cents, i chose guile. Never looked back. After my money raqn out i just stayed there and watched the demo, over and over and over....then some older kids showed up and began playing. There was like 6 of them and they were doing all the moves and just being plain badass. I just stood among them and watched. My mom had to come find me and she was mad i was hanging out in such a dump. I came home and tried to tell my friends about it and they called me a liar because they remembered how i was talking about a bloodsport game, and just thought i made the whole thing up. When they did see the game i just stomped there ass with GUile. rest is history. Theres my best SF2 memory, well, actually the best was when i was 12 and i beat 3 16 year olds in front of their girlfriends, but that another story.......humahahahahaha.....

yes, i am lame

[Jinsogood]

That right there was some shit.

Brings back a lot of memories. I never played against anyone like Thomas or anything... I got my ass handed to me by much easier opponents.
But since the first time I played SF, I wanted to be a pro...
Someone who was above 99% of other players, to be able to compete with the best.
I didnt need to win, just compete.
I just wanted to be on that other level.

[burnyourbra]

nice stories on this thread:)
I remember seeing SF2 in a local arcade when I was young. i wanted to play it because of the chun li so my mother gave me some money and told me that she would be right back.
I got my ass handed to me by some real good guys and they laughed at me cause I was a female.
I didn't think anything of it.
So I decieded one saturday morning to go and play against the computer. I had my sister bring me and again I got my ass handed to me. I kept putting money in and kept playing.

When it came out for SNES my mother bought it for me cause she knew I liked it. I went through the little booklet, wondering how to do the moves. I played and played with chun li, ken and ryu until I finally got the hang of it. Then I put the game on the hardest level (I think it was 8 or something like that) and I played. My goal was not to lose a match and I didn't.

Months after this my brother, sister and a couple of friends went to the mall. We passed by the arcade and there was SF2 HF. No one was there so I went to play. A couple of teens came up to play me and I beat them with chun li. I was surprised that I had beat them all. They left then returned with a kid younger than me and he choose chun li. He beat me the first round, I beat him the second and then the third round was close but he won. I had no hard feelings and he told me that he didn't know of any female who played. I thought nothing of it. it was normal for me.

fighting games come and go and even though I don't play street fighter as much as I play tekken now I am a street fighter fan at heart.:)

[fireballtrap]

Originally posted by ...sICkpRIme...
I saw blood sport like 2 days before and i remembered thinking how cool a game based on bloodsport would be (I WAS 7 OK !!!)

yes, i am lame

no WAY!!! When i was young(er), I remember seeing Bloodsport and remember comparing it to SF. Of course this was after i'd played it, but it seems to have all the characters represented, iirc. This thread needs to be stickied.

[Desmond Delaghetto]

Originally posted by fireballtrap


no WAY!!! When i was young(er), I remember seeing Bloodsport and remember comparing it to SF. Of course this was after i'd played it, but it seems to have all the characters represented, iirc. This thread needs to be stickied.

Heh, I was wondering how a WMAC Masters game would look like.
Me and my cousin used to take our genesis controllers, and acted like we were controlling the people...man...the days....

[Cheezy Rice]

That story was inspiring I give it 2 thumbs up.:D

[jcasetnl]

The next day the young man returned again and found the old man at the back of the bar with a cue stick in his hand, engrossed in a game of pool against some of the regulars and leaning against a Golden Tee game in the corner waiting for his shot.

"You see, boy? You see this piece of shit behind me? The only thing sadder than this waste of a perfectly good cabinet and trackball is that people actually put quarters into it. But it wasn't always like that. We used to have good games, games worth playing and mastering. Now they make 'em so any drunk-off-his-ass college kid can feel like a hero by smacking a track ball. Ah, but where was I?"

Tony advised I switch to Guile and that's what I did. It quickly became clear to me why Guile was so dominant. Within a week I was a far more powerful player than I ever was with Ryu, and even when the gap between the two was closed with Champion, Hyper and Super, I never played Ryu again with the kind of conviction I did with Guile.

But getting back to the World Warrior present of 1991, by this time I was actually afraid to step into a real arcade. Between the ass kickings Tony handed me regularly and the stories he told I was afraid to face reality - that I was nothing. Sure, I could now easily defeat any of the asian kids in the neighborhood, even Pele was no longer any match for me, but I still felt I needed more practice. But that was the thing about Tony. Like it or not, he dragged me kicking and screaming.

The first lesson in humility I got was at Regency Game Palace in Concord, CA. The whole drive out there (about 40 minutes for us) Tony hyped it up and I squirmed in the passenger's seat.

Tony: "Dude, are you prepared?"

Me: "I'm ready for some Throw Down."

Tony: "Nah, dude, I mean are you PREPARED?"

Me: "ha ha, sure dude. It's all good."

Tony: "Nah, dude, nothing can prepare you. I hope you're in shape, dude, I hope you ate a full meal and got a good night's sleep. You're gonna be making a lot of trips to the token machine. I don't want you to pass out from exaustion."

Regency gave an unprecedented 11 tokens for a dollar. There was a cluster of four World Warrior machines in the center of the arcade with about 40 people playing. And they weren't kids. They weren't the 10-year olds I was used to at the liquor store or 7-11. In fact, no one looked younger than I was and several looked well into their 20's. We pushed our way forward into the crowd.

I watched what I didn't think was possible by that point. Some guy was playing Ryu against Guile. And winning. The guy playing Guile was good, in fact, at the time he was one of the best Guile players I'd seen. Better than Tony. But this Ryu player was extroardinary. He had incredible timing and put pressure on the other guy in a way I'd never seen Ryu played before. In some cases he traded hits to stay out of the corner or keep the pressure on. He didn't seem to play by any set of rules, he had no pattern I could discern. Even though Guile was the better character he still pulled off the win.

Me: "Damn, did you see that? That fool is--"

Tony: "...on the next level. Hell yeah, he is. His name is Jay."

Jay was probably the most dominant player at Regency. I counted the tokens till I was up - there were at least 10. But Jay gave his game to Tony and after Tony beat another Ryu player he gave me second round.

I froze up. The guy wasn't even that good but I'd never seen people play like this. It's like when some little kid with absolutely no skill just bangs on the buttons and seems to beat you. I was expecting a mano-a-mano test of who could work the fireball-uppercut pattern better than the other but this guy just waited for openings and tore me apart.

My thinking was just so wrong about this game. I was so used to throwing a fireball and waiting for my opponent to react so that I could answer with something. This guy examined my pattern and went from there.

Tony: "You got schooled. Step aside."
Me: "I... uh... damn..."

Tony finished the guy off. The next round I was ready. Something clicked and I was no longer a pattern player. They say competition breeds excellence and they're right. Watching those few rounds in that dimly lit arcade with at least 10 people staring over my shoulder I immediately changed my style and focused as I never had before. It wasn't enough, not yet anyway.

Tony: "You suck dude. That fool read you like a Dr. Seuss book."

Yeah, I lost, but I learned more in one night than the whole year before. I saw how this game is meant to be played.

We played until the arcade closed at midnight. I managed to win a few games over the course of the evening but even the crappy players were a challenge for a me. We made for Dennys up the street and that became our Friday night tradition. Warez till midnight, then off to Dennys. Our own little tradition of shit-talking and post game analysis.

In the old skool days, news travelled via word-of-mouth. The internet technically existed but neither I nor the vast majority of players had any idea what it was. If you heard about a player it was in the arcades, chatting it up with other respected players. You even learned of an arcade's very existence this way.

If you talked trash you had to have some nuts to do it because whatever you said was to a player's face. And this was in the Bay Area. In Oakland, you better be careful who you talk trash to. Spend a day there and you'll see what I mean.

And when it came to legendary players, well, they just didn't get the props they rightfully deserved. We didn't have easily accessible ranking tables that could tell you with a few mouse clicks and URLs who the best players in the country were. Even the tournaments were poorly advertised, ussually just a flyer taped to the side of the game that got ripped off within a day of it being put up. How did we know who won the tournament the day before? Either we were in it or we asked someone else who was.

We played on through the summer and I got better with Guile. We went everywhere we could find and when we weren't in the arcades we filled the gaps at the convenience store.

Finally, I had a run-in with the famous Thomas Osaki.

A few times we went to the Underground at UCB. In the World Warrior days we actually avoided the place because truth be told, there weren't too many good players there and a lot of the players were "cheap". On top of that the games were usually in lousy condition. But Telegraph Ave had always been a hangout for us, all the way back to the early La Val's days and $2 Sunday at Silverball.

There was a good crowd that day and Tony pointed out Thomas to me.

Me: "You think he can beat Jay?"
Tony: "I don't know, dude. My guess is he probably could. I haven't played Thomas in awhile, though. He doesn't seem to come here much any more.

My guess is Thomas was probably going to SVGL at this point, but I don't know for sure.

At any rate, Thomas was methodically beating player after player. There were so many guys gathered around the machine that I could only catch a little of what he was doing. It was such a hassle to get a glimpse I finally resigned to playing on another machine.

Tony: "Oh my God, did you see that?"
Me (in the middle of a game): "See what?"
Tony: "He just did Fierce-Standing-Fierce to flash kick."
Me: "Wha...?"

Okay, this sounds sort of pathetic by today's standards, but in old-skool combo theory this was a very big deal.

Since this was World Warrior I had to pick Ryu. I knew I couldn't win. Against any good Guile player my Ryu just didn't stack up. But supposedly this guy was an expert Guile player.

Thomas beat me soundly in a no-nonsense sort of way. No flash, just all business. No slack in his game. No faking a sonic boom with jab. No mistakes. He never once looked at me, not when I stepped up, not when I put my quarter in, not after he beat me. I was just another duck in the shooting gallery I guess.

If I could relive those few hours knowing what I know now I would have put another quarter up and played him as much as I could. But after that one game I played the rest of the day on the other machine. Like I said before, we didn't know who the best of the best was. We went to the arcades and just played whoever was there. We knew who the local good players were but we didn't have any idea just how good they really were. I mean, we were comparing this guy to Jay, and I can say with certainty that Thomas would have owned Jay in a heartbeat.

But that's how it was in those days. The world was a smaller place before the internet. The level of competition that existed in the Bay Area was extremely high, but we didn't see it that way. We figured what was going on in the Bay Area was happening everywhere, that guys like Thomas were just a 10 minute drive away at the next arcade. And sure, the Fighting scene was a hundred times bigger throughout the world in those days, but the Bay Area was one of the true hotspots. Go anywhere from Sausalito to San Jose and there was competition. Even after I won ten straight at the arcade the night before, I'd walk into a 7-11 during my break at work for a quick game and some random guy would give me a wake up call. Almost a year of playing Street Fighter fanatically and I was still just another player. That's how good players were back then.

How many times have you been given a wake up call playing Golden-fucking-Tee?

That was the one and only time I played Thomas. We never saw him again at the Underground. Sorry if my experience is a bit of a let-down, but that's how it happened. We never considered the possibility that one day this fabulous era of competition would end. We didn't really know what we had until years later when we realized it was gone...

- j

[burnyourbra]

Great story. You truly described the old days:)

[OneEyedJack]

Please continue!

You should definitely copy and paste your articles to file! Save them for posterity!

Keep writing!

[Desmond Delaghetto]

Yeah, man! Keep going! I bet a story about when SF Alpha first came out might be cool.
Your a really good writer. Im sure you'll be a good gamemaster in Shadowrun.

[jcasetnl]

More time passed and fall turned to winter, which in the Bay Area means absolutely nothing. And like the unchanging weather I was an unwavering Street Fighter addict as always.

By this time, however, Guile and Dhalsim were considered practically unbeatable in the hands of skilled players and that combined with the game being out for over year caused the competition to start tapering off. I didn't care too much though - I was happily doing invisible throw, handcuffs, statue and all the other glitches we had discovered.

But one day it all came back with a vengeance. I rode with my friend Adrian in his 65 mustang out to the Red Robin at Bayfair.

In the pre-web days you got game information from the magazines like Gamepro and EGM. I used to laugh when there was any mention of things like the handcuffs or the game reset glitches. The magazines were afraid to print how they were done but they were well known to all of us. One even warned that these glitches could "damage the game" and one version of World Warrior featured a neutered version of Guile to prevent people from doing them.

I still remember when EGM played an April Fools joke wherein they explained that Sheng Long really did exist. This was always a big mystery to us. Who the hell is this Sheng Long guy anyway? Most speculated that it was the Dragon Punch, but we all wanted to believe he was some hidden character. Every once in awhile some kid would make a wild claim that his friend's friend's sister's boyfriend had gotten to Sheng Long. You know how those stories go. We never took them seriously.

Supposedly to get to him you had to beat every single fighter perfect. They even had screenshots of him on Bison's stage with a flaming uppercut. I made this my mission for a few days until I wised up. I was so pissed off at EGM for all the quarters I'd wasted trying to accomplish this that I never bought another issue.

But we rarely bought the magazines anyway. Another old ritual of ours' was going to Barnes and Noble in Jack London Square. We gathered up a stack of game magazines and then marched up to the cafe, ordered a cup of coffee and then spent a couple hours reading while the sun went down on the Bay. When we were done, we put them back on the rack and left.

There was one I did buy, though, and I still have it. It was called "Video Games and Computer Entertainment" and it had the first screenshots of Champion Edition we'd seen.

As Adrian and I pulled into Bayfair's parking lot I was skeptical. Adrian had "heard" that Champion Edition was there, but Adrian wasn't nearly as hardcore as I was, and the friend he heard it from was some scrub from Alameda.

Anyway, as we walked in, there were at least 30 kids jammed into the little game area they had and there it was, Champion Edition. In fact, there were so many kids jammed into that room that finally the staff put a divider and a "door man" in front of the entrance to the game area. About an hour after we arrived they announced that only patrons of the restaurant could stay - everyone else had to leave.

Being kicked out of 7-11s or super markets for crowd control reasons was a common thing back in those days. On one occasion at a 7-11 the guy told me "last game" and I said "fine". Then he went into a back room and cut the power right in the middle of my game. Disgusted I got in line behind about six or seven people to get my quarter back and after finally getting to the front he told me "no refunds." Then he smiled like a jackass and turned away on some Clerk-esque power trip. I don't reccommend you do what I did next. I reached into a box of candy bars at the counter, grabbed the biggest handful I could and waved it at him. "This ought to cover it, asshole," and I walked out.

So I was used to being kicked out wherever I went. It was one of the prices we paid to play back then. But I got two games in, one with Ken and one with Guile. I couldn't resist playing Ken the moment I saw that huge sweeping uppercut of his. It seemed impossible to daze your opponent but the combos and the overall flow of the game just seemed better than ever.

A week later Tony and I were out at Regency around noon time and he was playing Ken against a lousy Bison player. This is one of the all-time funniest Street Fighter moments I can remember.

Everyone picked up on Bison's zig-zagging psycho crusher tactic that did stupid amounts of damage before you recovered from block delay and this guy was relying on it to win the match. So Tony, who knew a thing or two about playing against "cheap" players just gave him what he had coming. After his defeat the guy whipped out his soap box and started crying foul about how he was cheated.

Tony pointedly underlined the "Champion Edition" logo on the marquee of the machine with his finger and said, "You see what this says? It says CHAMPION EDITION, dude. You see that game over there?" He pointed to the lonely World Warrior machine in the corner now suffering from total neglect. "That's where you need to go... back to Remedial Edition... to learn the basics."

Champion Edition was a worthy successor to World Warrior and the Street Fighter competition scene was back in full swing. But unfortunately, it wouldn't last.

Now some people say the end of the "golden age" of Street Fighter happened when Alpha came out. In a way, they're right. But in a lot of ways it happened during Champion Edition. It happened because of the "kits".

You may have heard of Street Fighter: Rainbow Edition, or Street Fighter: Black Belt Edition. Those were hacked rom sets of Champion Edition. There were literally dozens of them. They started out tame - the first one I ever saw allowed you to do moves in the air and projectiles could go super slow (so slow you could walk past them after you threw them) or super fast.

They were a lot of fun at first. You could throw a fireball, cross-up your opponent and combo him so that he was hit in the back by it during the combo. The computer AI would react in all sorts of wierd ways to these set ups. But we quickly realized a problem with them: competition was a joke. Take Zangeif for example. All you had to do was keep jumping and spinning and you could go off the screen. You could literally go up several screens this way. And then all you had to do was line yourself up vertically with your opponent and do a SPD. Sure, it was funny watching a guy get a SPD from seven screens up but after that, Zangief just had to spin up a few screens out of reach and wait for time to run out.

There was another problem. Every week a new kit came out. Sometimes we got two or three in a week. And each one was more ridiculous than the last. Some sped up as you played, others had zig-zagging or curving fireballs. Others allowed multiple projectiles on the screen or zero delay charge moves (imagine sending 10 super slow sonic booms at your opponent). Others allowed you to switch characters mid-round. Throw ten sonic booms, switch to Ken and do a super fast spin kick across the screen, switch to Zangief and do a super high jump into SPD while your opponent is tied up in block delay. On wakeup your opponent was in a sea of sonic booms and totally powerless. In short, they were all fun for awhile but serious competition became impossible.

When the kits hit, Street Fighter began to dissapear from the 7-11s and the super markets. Now it was the more hardcore players that remained. The damage was done though. Capcom's answer was Hyper Fighting.

Once again I was up in Reno and my ussually cheap parents decided to splurge. We stayed at what was then called the Bally's and they had Hyper Fighting. I played it and honestly didn't really care for it because it played a lot like some of the early kits. You could do some moves in the air, it was sped up, etc. In fact, it seemed boring compared to the kits. No more crazy combos, no more total ownage of the computer, and no more insane setups using five different characters.

It did bring back the competition though. It only took a couple trips out to Regency to figure that out.

This is when arcades started to change pretty radically. Street Fighter 2: WW had brought the industry back from the dead and other fighting series (MK, SS, AoF) had kept the ball rolling but as the genre's popularity began to center around the more hardcore gamers the profits began to dry up overall.

Regency was the classic example of this. First off, they changed the name. It became "Playland".

"Regency Game Palace" - home of hardcore players.

"Playland" - home of... stuffed animals?

Sad but true. They installed a bevy of ticket games and one of those big, plastic playgrounds. It was no longer dimly lit and mysterious, with the competitive atmosphere of a pool hall from "The Color of Money". Now it was screaming flourescent lights and day-glo Barneys plastered all over the walls.

By this time we checked into one of the oldest of the old skool homesteads: Gametown USA. This was an arcade of about 15 games and half a dozen pinball machines on College Ave. It was a shithole with virtually zero competition. However, I'd finally worked my way up to something approaching Tony's level and the competition was all about us. At the same time we made some good friends there. We still hit the other arcades looking for competition but somewhere along the line we realized the train had started to slow down. And as for me, I had other things to think about.

---

The old man finished his drink with a seeming finality and the boy figured the story was over. But the old man gestured for the waitress.

"One more and let me close out."

[fireballtrap]

Such goodness......:eek:

Only one more? Noooooooo.....this is the only reason i come to this site anymore! :lol:

[dsfh]

The hacked versions of SF was the main reason I stopped going to the arcade back then, funny you mention. You think Spiral's Wall of Swords is crazy, you should see Guile's. sonicsonicsonicsonicsonicsonicsonicsonicsonicsonic sonic boom. Good stuff, jcasetnl, post of the year honors here.

[SEbastard]

I remember the old days of pacific ave bowl in stockton. Me and zeke, or any of the rest of the "old" crew would walk from edison, over to the alley to battle. Even if all we could do was scrape up fifty cents for two games. We knew that was all it would take to keep on the machine for another 5 hours or so.....depending on how many scrubs came in....which back then, was pleanty. I remember we use to throw a round on purpose, just to keep them going back over to the change machine.

Saturday nights were the best. We use to gamble on the machine, and had people that came from other towns just to do the same. Man, back then....you played your heart out, cause you knew if you lost....there was 12-15 quarters up that you would have to wait for.....at least there was wrestling, and U.N. Squadron to hold ya over.

Anyone remember playing "poor man" style? If you and a buddy were the only one there....you would battle against each other until one almost lost...then you kept blocking fireballs or whatever, until you each had the same ammount of energy for a tie. It use to let you go 10 rounds before shutting down. Capcom got smart though, cause in champion edition, they cut that ish down to like 4.

Those were the days......Never has another single video game caused so many people to drop outta school and take their ged/proficiency esam.......I know hella, and we all took it on the same day.

[ShinRyuBen]

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

[smoke]

I've been looking and asking for stuff like this for quite a while on both this webpage and shinakuma. I suppose I didn't ask the right questions so props to the starter of this thread for showing me wording is crucial.

And thanks to jcasetnl for making this one of the finest threads ever. Just wondering if you know anything about Tomo?

Or if there's other bards out there with their fancy tales, throw down. There's a glass of JD waiting for you too.

[VincentDelpino]

madd skillz!

[smashfighter]

I would like to shake jcasetnl's hand.

This stuff makes me want to cry. My true love, SF, in full glory, all thanks to the vivid memories of jcasetnl.

Unfortunately I wasn't around for the old school days. I got into SF at A2. When exactly did the crowds die out? I will blow whatever machine that caused the death.

*I still want to cry*


My only wish is that I was alive back then. That is just so great.

But perhaps more importantly to me than living back than would be to have the same boom happen all over again.

I hope to someday pass along a story jcasetnl's to my own kids.

I still want to cry.

[TS]

Weird SF moment: I remember hearing about SF2 from my brother...I must have been in 3rd grade or so, I don't know...yeah, that sounds about right. Anyhow, I remember knowing exactly what Blanka's character art for the VS screen after he loses, before actually ever seeing him. Not a picture, not anything. And I don't mean I had that deja vu feeling when I saw Blanka...it was like precognition. Weird.

Also, I remember making some weird association with Predator 2...since the thing in the mask with the claw (Vega) was fighting the rasta dude with the skulls around his neck (Sim). So I thought about how if it were Predator 2 it would be Sim trying to avenge that one dude who got killed and got his head torn off.

Entirely too young to be seeing those movies...


Damn, such memories about rediscovering the SF2 games on my own later...actually drawing the six buttons and a joystick on a piece of paper so I could get better acquainted with the buttons (there were so many!!)...reading that old SF2:WW guide by GamePro...trying to do that jump short, crouch rapid fire short combo with Ryu vs the CPU and getting killed...sweet...

Damn. You just made my night.


Originally posted by jcasetnl
Tony pointedly underlined the "Champion Edition" logo on the marquee of the machine with his finger and said, "You see what this says? It says CHAMPION EDITION, dude. You see that game over there?" He pointed to the lonely World Warrior machine in the corner now suffering from total neglect. "That's where you need to go... back to Remedial Edition... to learn the basics."


:lol:


You write well.

[SEbastard]

Originally posted by smashfighter
I would like to shake jcasetnl's hand.

This stuff makes me want to cry. My true love, SF, in full glory, all thanks to the vivid memories of jcasetnl.

Unfortunately I wasn't around for the old school days. I got into SF at A2. When exactly did the crowds die out? I will blow whatever machine that caused the death.

*I still want to cry*


My only wish is that I was alive back then. That is just so great.

But perhaps more importantly to me than living back than would be to have the same boom happen all over again.

I hope to someday pass along a story jcasetnl's to my own kids.


I still want to cry.

I would say things really died out when super turbo came out. I remember there was still much excitement when super came.....but after that I think street fighter was hard to get into if you were a newbie. The computer on there would often kill off people in the first match.

[Visceral_1]

This is a great thread that brings up a lot of old memories especially for those people who were around for the Street Fighter I and WW days.

This might sound drastic but I think for many of the older players here who experienced the boom years of SF and the revival of the arcade... such games actually shaped the way we grew up.

I know for myself Fridays meant going to the local arcade on my bike or in my friend's car just to test our mettle against one another. More importantly I have never remembered feeling as passionate about a game as I have with street fighter. My brother and I played it constantly and have gotten into screaming matches and 'cold -shoulder' syndrome over the game. I remember when we didn't know better and the word cheap still existed in our vocabulary -- getting thrown was the ultimate disgrace and it got so bad at one point that if you threw in one of the arcaded I played at it was EXPECTED that you allow your opponent a free throw (man... I've even seen people almost come to real life blows over such a thing -- that's how heated and passionate people were about this game).

Other memories I have are of SF2 coming out for the SNES. Man, when a kid on my block (about grade 7 I guess) was the first to get that cartridge seemingly every kid in the neighbourhood flocked into house (even me who was several years older). We really didn't even know him... we just knew that he got the cartridge on the first day it was out and so we had to go to this guy's house!! It was nuts... his parents promptly threw us out into the street after 20 minutes of playing because some people seemed to get so agitated by the competition.

I also remmeber when that April Fool's joke came out in EGM. Man, my friends and I spent an entire evening trying to get Sheng Long to come out. What a waste... Strangely enough I remmeber that even Japanese mags were plagiarizing EGM and they were baffled on that side of the ocean as why it wasn't working (EGM printed this themselves the following month as they saw it as just desserts for having their stuff copied without prior consent).

Interestingly, I bought both GamePro guides that outlined the SF games in 'detail' (well, in retrospect both guides sucked but they were just awesome to look at and read during lunch because we couldn't very well leave the school and head for the mall -- too far for us). In those guides there was actually a printed interview with Tomo Ohira (the guy Gamepro claimed to be the best -- but I know this is a heated / touchy area as ALOT of people claim Thomas or maybe even M. Watson was the best in the old school days). If only I knew how to upload scanned material I would post it here if people were interested.

Ahhh.. I'm just rambling ... forgive a washed up, worn-out old-schooler for remembering who he was and who he thought he could be....

Back before the internet made the world into a truly global village, I think more Street Fighter players were susceptible to the illussion that they could become 'the GREATEST' if only they practiced enough, spent enough money/time/blood/sweat and tears on this game. If anything, the internet and Shoryken.com has shown me that all those hopes were just grand delusions wrapped up by pipe dreams.

But ... what I wouldn't give to have that same spark, that same feeling of invincibility we always thought we were on the brink of achieving in those early years.

[Visceral_1]

Originally posted by smashfighter


"Unfortunately I wasn't around for the old school days. I got into SF at A2. When exactly did the crowds die out? I will blow whatever machine that caused the death."



You might be surprised at what machine you will want to destroy then...

Who was it who said "You kill what you love..."?

The demise of Street Fighter from the 'Golden Age' in the early 90s was (*IMHO*)brought about (ironically) by Street Fighter itself or, more specifically, CAPCOM. As jcasetnl (sp?) pointed out (and I tend to agree) the numerous clones that came after the original WW without too many discernible changes (except to the hardcore) I think really took away from the SF scene. The leap from SF2:WW to SF2:CE was no where near as huge as the leap from SF1 to SF2. All the upgrades without any true revolution (just an incremental evolution) I don't think could draw the mass audience as much as the original WW did.

Please don't take this the wrong way. I'm not saying that the SFs after WW sucked (I loved them all.. well except maybe Alpha 1) it's just that Capcom really rode this pony for all it was worth (witness the the strange transition from Super to ST -- the stage of evolution with the fewest noticeable changes [although one fo the changes being HUGE -- the addition of a super meter]).

Also I think that maybe the fact that fighters became more and more technical alienated the mass audience. What we love as 'hardcore' fans (anyone who reads SRK regularly) is the intricacies and depth of this game. Ironically, I think it's this same depth that prevents the casual passerby to really get into SF. As everyone here knows SF is much harder to just 'casually play' (unless you're a complete scrub just hammering away at the buttons) than other games (gun games, shooters, driving sims, etc.

Ahhh.. I don't think i made any sense... it's late... I don't feel like editing. Good night

[Judgment Day]

I totally agree with a lot of the posts made here; JCasetnl has a wonderful way of describing stories of the old school Street Fighter days. If anyone wants to read more of his work, click on the following links below. A lot of it is funny beyond belief, yet true :lol:

All this talk of Thomas Osaki (http://www.shinakuma.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=176&highlight=osaki)
Tales of Smackdown (http://www.shinakuma.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=180&highlight=osaki)
Thomas Osaki (http://www.shinakuma.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&postid=5959#post5959)

Again, I highly recommend this. Enjoy.

[Million]

I will actually take the time to read this today....*such long posts:p *

While I am here;

Everything here "died" when the Super series came out. There's little to no question about it. Almost everyone (including myself) thought Super SF sucked ass compared to the previous editions and the original SF2. The new characters just weren't interesting (Bruce Lee. Another big-stupid character. A bikini broad with no ass. some black jamaican dude. Yay.:rolleyes: ) Also, the game was slower than SF2 Turbo/Hyper/whatever. It just was not acceptable....it was like a backwards evolutionary step. You don't give us insanely fast-paced action, and then go back to slow fighting....that's just not cool. And something about the graphics just wasn't great either. Even when this shit came out on SNES...nobody I knew cared; we were still playing SF2: Hyper Fighting(or Turbo? whatever) with the Game Genie to make it into the illegal "Crazy Edition".

At least in the arcades here, the SF2 crowds was split into this:

- people who thought Super series sucked (majority)
- people who just got tired of any kind of SF (disappointed by lack of any "Oh My GOD!" changes....many of these types would become hardcore 3d fighting fans, and looked down on 2d fighting as a thing of the past.)
- people who began to tire of videogames of all kinds. (the wierdos who actually "grew up".:lol:.)

Actually, it's probably more accurate to say Super series slowed it down considerably.....SF: Alpha 1 was the final nail in the coffin.....it was the last straw that killed everything.

[Josh-TheFunkDOC]

IMO, both Super SF2 and the constant comparisons with Mortal Kombat served as the nail in the coffin. All the problems with Super have been mentioned before, so no need to go further there. In addition, MK2 was released right around the same time as Super and in the opinions of many, was a better game overall. The whole issue with Joe Lieberman gave MK the mainstream buzz that Street Fighter never attained, as did their respective movies; while the SF movie was of course awful on every level, the MK movie was at worst enjoyable.

Of course, Alpha 1 very well could have been one of the nails in the coffin...it was a horrible game, and that time was when the 3-D fighters emerged.

Josh the FunkDOC

[moop]

please....

stop whining about the death of SF at alpha

just because you couldn't adapt to the lack of GUILE!!!

yeah alpha and 3s totally changed SF. Those who couldn't/wouldn't adapt were left behind.

more like... you quit cuz you couldn't hang and random people were beating your ass!


on another note, SF2 times were probably the "purest" SF times. Every arcade/liquor store/pizza parlor/convenience store had it cuz it was a sure fire money maker. I remember going to the liquor store almost everyday just to check it out (or check out the lastest hack of SF2:CE :P ).

anyways, i love my sf2 roms, you get to hold on too a piece of history (like i remember the time i did chun's spinning bird kick countering a blanka roll that did like half damage). And the first time i saw someone do a sonic boom from crouch (WTF!!!!). The first big combo for us was ryu fierce into jab DP. We didn't know it was a combo tho, more like "pressing punch twice gave more damage."

[Aerial Assault]

Ah yes! The only place I played SF1 at was at a laundermat...I'm glad SF1 is in one of those new Ultracade 32 cabinets man those things are the bomb, dozens of games like Legendary Wings, Higemaru, Ghouls n Ghosts and WW, Champ and Turbo.

But at Southpark Mall back in the early 1990's I was just turning 10 years old getting over my fear of arcades (don't ask). And that night was the first time I saw all 3 editions, World Warrior Turbo and Champion editions in action. I was pretty much not a scrub but an OUTCAST for being my age while all the good SF players were high schoolers, I don't know where those guys went now, except for this one guy, who is a total BEAST with Ken, and used to get 60+ win streaks on Mortal Kombat every weekend. Ever since 3rd Strike's been out he's been coming back quite every now and then. Back then I was playing SF2, but didn't feel like waiting in that big group waiting to step up. But either way I learned the concept of what SF is about: Through the SNK Neo Geo MVS Choice machine otherwise it was Forgotten Worlds, Final Fight or Turtles in Time. But the most I played was Fatal Fury 2 when I beat alot of people I don't know how many times I won because fighting games didn't record win streaks back then. Then I went to playing SF when the crowds started to thin up a little. Still got beat but not as bad as before...I didn't even know how to do a Dragon Punch then....


And I remember when Alpha came out also. I loved (and I still do) those Darkstalker-esque graphics, and so was X-Men: COTA.

[Million]

more like... you quit cuz you couldn't hang and random people were beating your ass!

cheh,

Nah, by that time people around here were barely going to arcades, so when I gave Alpha 1 a chance, I was playing the CPU. Nobody else was even near the machine, and I soon found out why:lol: It was so boring and bland...I walked away in the middle of my game....and left the arcade.:lol:

At least the graphics looked cool.
Personally, I thought Alpha 2 made up for it, but it was already much too late by then. The "SF Scene" here was dead, and it would never recover.:(

[Josh-TheFunkDOC]

When I say "the death of SF", I am referring to when it stopped being on top of the videogame world. Now it's just another underground scene...for the time being anyway.

Josh the FunkDOC

[OneEyedJack]

I love this thread! Don't let it die!

[jcasetnl]

Back in the day, I always paged Tony with my code - 7311. This time he called me back a couple minutes later on his cell phone and explained that he was running late due to some domestic trouble.

Me: "So what happened, dude?"

Tony: "How do I explain it, dude? She was just tripping, you know? It's like... It's like you know when you're just playing some fool and it's all good, but out of nowhere he goes for the tap-tap-throw?"

Me: "No doubt, dude. Did you break-out the technique?

Tony: "Well... I had every right to cross
her up with deep roundhouse, ducking short, standing jab to
uppercut, you know? But if I do that, and don't give her a round, she'll take her tokens and go home."

Me: "I hear you, dude. But after she went for the tick throw, it's all fair game, in my opinion. So what did you do?"

Tony: "Basically, I just took it back to Remedial. I gave her a little
fierce-forward-fireball, a little fierce-strong-flashkick, know what I'm saying? So, she knows I'm in control of the game flow but that I was merciful and gave her Second despite her transgressions."

Me: "I hear that, dude. Good shit. But I mean, in the overall scheme of the World Warrior Tournament, what's in store? You think she'll ever compete on the next level? I mean, when two fools step up they can just sit there and throw each other all over the screen but what's the point. Why play at all, know what I'm saying?"

Tony: "I hear you but I don't know, dude, at this point she doesn't possess the knowledge that a fist of fire can destroy. You know it's like when you're just having an off day and you lose to the computer and the timer is running down and you're out of tokens. Sometimes you go back to the token machine, sometimes you just hop up in the Ride and roll out to Dennys."

Me: "Yeah, dude, and sometimes you hop in the Ride and travel the world to face a wider variety of opponents."

Tony: "Exactly."

Me: "I hear you."

Tony: "Let's go play Turbo."

Me: "Good shit."

When words failed us, we put things in "Street Fighter" terms and we knew exactly what the other guy was trying to say.

I forcibly restricted myself from playing Street Fighter because of College. I started College that Fall at a school that is not known for its academic posterity, but it is known for its hair. Yes, I'm speaking of the one, the only, Chabot College, a.k.a. "Hesperian High". No other school came close to Chabot's female student body in boasting the biggest, highest, most obnoxiously unnatractive hair-styles ever to scrape the pleather from the roof of a Honda Civic hatchback as that bastion of education in Hayward, California. But at $13 a unit, who was I to complain? Especially since I was paying my own way.

As soon as I realized most of my classes employed some sort of a Curve, spelling my name correctly pretty much assured I would get a passing grade. Thus, after getting over the "shock" of college, I spent most of my time in the rec room.

The Chabot rec room was a little ten-game affair next to the cafeteria. It reminded me of the old 7-11 and Two Star days because it was always crowded and hot. There were always guys that couldn't speak english. I used to listen closely and try to figure out if it was manadarin, cantonese, thai or vietnemese. I could swear like a sailor in all of those languages. Spend as much time in Bay Area arcades as I did growing up and you just picked this sort of thing up.

There was always the lonely fat kid with headphones who never looked anyone in the face, just stared around sheepishly, played a couple games and left. There was always the really foul-smelling "fresh off the boat" kid missing a bunch of teeth and wearing acid wash jeans from the flea market. There were the anime geeks - nice guys, but other than school they just didn't seem to do anything well. They were mediocre at best on the sticks. They were such nice guys, though, I always felt bad smacking them down.

Samurai Showdown was the big game at the time - the first fighting game that used weapons and wasn't horrendously awful. It was one of the several fighting games that we played casually, as a diversion from Street Fighter. Tony played the World Heroes series.

Me: "Dude, what the fuck?! That fool threw a boat at me."

Tony: "Yeah, that fool has nautical powers, dude. You'd best be on gaurd."

Me: "This game fucking sucks."

That was the beginning and end of my interest in World Heroes.

Super Street Fighter got a lot of hype in the magazines and sounded impressive on paper - new graphics engine, new artwork, Q Sound, four new characters and a supposedly revamped combo system. One magazine stated "No longer will you be Dhalsim the combo-less wonder up against Captain-Combo Ken..."

We were waiting for it. Each day we'd drive out to one or two arcades to see if they had it. We even made trips to places like Escapade in Emeryville and "The Castle" near the Oakland Coliseum - places with lousy competition, broken sticks, or both - places we typically ignored - just on the off-chance that it would be there.

For the first time in our gaming lives we were fully able to pursue our passion. We both had cars and we both had jobs. We also got to know the guy behind the counter at Gametown so we had a say as to what games were installed. We told him to page us with '911' the moment Super arrived.

It was like a childhood dream realized. No more digging through the couch looking for quarters. No more being kicked out of 7-11s - in fact the guys at Gametown often let us play after-hours for free. No more being told when to be home by our parents. Like all parents, of course, they didn't exactly like our fascination with video games, but luckily they had the intelligence to realize there were far worse things we could have been doing.

Oddly enough, after all that driving around for about a month or so, the little Chabot rec room was the first place I found with a Super Street Fighter.

The first thing I noticed was the announcer's voice. The old voice was serious, grave, and a just a bit menacing. He could have hosted matchups in Thunderdome. The designers of games like Mortal Kombat and Killer Instinct stepped that up a notch for added affect. Somehow, Capcom went the other way.

The new announcer could cut your hair and give you a manicure. I didn't know what Capcom was thinking, or continued to think later on with other Street Fighter incarnations, as this non-threatening, non-forboding, effeminate, he-girl voice played into my disbelieving ears.

The next thing I noticed was that Super was a lot slower than Hyper Fighting. That seemed a little odd, but it wasn't the huge turn-off to me as it was to most because I was more of a thinking player. I never had the best reflexes. But above all else, that was the most common complaint about it. It was just too damn slow for most people. It wasn't as slow as World Warrior. It was somewhere around Champion Edition speed.

I noticed a curious phenomenon in the Chabot game room, which also had a Hyper Fighting machine. Although the popularity of Hyper Fighting had died down, when Super came out it actually had a small resurgence of interest. After a game of Super, a lot of players would shake their heads in disgust and walk over to Hyper Fighting for a few games. And when they did they played seriously. Beat a guy on Super and nobody cared. Play them again on Hyper Fighting and they immediately stepped up their game.

I beat Super the first time I played it. The computer was easy compared to Hyper Fighting or even Champion. At the end of the day I drove home and paged Tony with the news. I should have figured it, but he demanded we go right back out there.

When I had played Super earlier in the day the wait wasn't long. But this was no surprise because as lousy as Chabot was, a lot of kids took their educations seriously. And moreover, all the high school and grammar school kids were stuck in school during the day. But as we drove back out to Chabot I thought back on the old World Warrior and Champion Edition days when the arcades were still jammed. Sure, the crowds for Hyper Fighting had been a bit lackluster but that's because it was just Champion Edition with some added bells and whistles, I figured. This was a whole new Street Fighter. I imagined seeing some of the old faces and the old competition.

It was about 7 o'clock, I remember, and the rec room closed at 9 so I was worried we wouldn't get any games in. I wanted this first night of Super to be perfect because we'd been waiting in anticipation for so long. I didn't want a bunch of no-skill wannabes to be in the game room wasting precious playing time, but on the other hand I didn't want the place to be packed or we might not even get to play at all. I was hoping maybe six or seven really good players would be there.

There wasn't a single person.

Tony: "Damn, dude, that's a sign of the times."

Not one single person was in the game room. The silence was prophetic.

[jcasetnl]

Yes, the scene was starting to wind down but we kept going anyway. We made some good friends at Gametown and played almost daily. Between the five of us there was usually at least one other person to play and it made our trips out to the arcades that much more fun, going as a group. We'd play for who had to walk next door to Wendys or the Burrito shop and buy food. Like always, warez till midnight, then off to Dennys, then back to Tony's to play the consoles till four or five in the morning. This was around the time of the 3DO and a great time for console gaming in general.

As unloved as Super was, it was during this time that I played at my peak. I dissected Guile like never before. His normal moves were given less and less priority with each succesive version. His sonic boom delay seemed to get worse and worse and his flash kick became easier to counter. That meant positioning, timing and the mental game had to be that much better. I played with all six buttons, maximizing each one. Rather than hit the buttons with one finger, I played with my three middle fingers which allowed me to hit the buttons just a few hundredths of a second faster than the other guy. With every move I figured there had to be a use for it, if only as a way to enhance the mental game.

At the end of the night of gaming I'd talk Tony's ear off about some new realization I'd made about Guile.

Tony: "Yeah, dude, you're taking Guile to the next level but Street Fighter is kind of on the down slope now, you know?"

I honestly don't know why I stepped up my game like this given the scene was deteriorating. When I think back on it now I sometimes wonder. Why push so hard when there was no one to play? It was like I was trying to pump some life back into an era of gaming that I knew was heading towards an end. But that wasn't the whole of it.

All the signs of change were there: going from high school to college, moving out of my parents house, working at a job not just for spending money but to actually live on. I was 19, almost 20. I had a girlfriend, a car and bills to pay. I'd been playing games since the 5th grade, since I was nine years old, since 1985. 10 years earlier my best friend had shown me Spy Hunter at the Round Table down the street and from that day forward each game I played, and mastered, became a sort of marking of the passage of time.

It wasn't just the Street Fighter scene that was coming to an end. It was, in a nutshell, the end of my childhood. I was growing up. Part of me still wanted to stay a kid.

In 1994, Super Turbo was released, hot on the heals of Super. We liked it and we played it, but it was tough to find good competition. It was tough to find any competition for that matter. Even out at the good arcades it was a treat when one of the old-skoolers would take a break from Slam Masters and play Super Turbo a few games.

I think this was also around the time of the Street Fighter live-action movie. We gathered up all the homies and crossed our fingers because when video games get turned into movies the results are often dissastrous. Our summation: it could have been worse. Sadly, it was the last acting gig for the esteemed Raul Julia. That's akin to saying Babe Ruth's last game of baseball was in his backyard with a wiffle ball bat.

On one of our forays to Barnes and Noble a few months before the release of the movie we were sitting in the cafe leaching the latest crop of game magazines when we noticed Ming-Na Wen was sitting at the next table.

Me: "Dude, check this out. Isn't that the chick from The Joy Luck Club?"

Tony: "What page is that?"

Me: "Not in the ware-zine, you retard, at your three o'clock!"

Tony: "Suck the corn outta my shit, dude. Oh... hmm... let me go get a napkin so I can scope the full 360 rotational view."

Tony: "Holy shit, dude, I think that's her. You know, I heard she's supposed to play Chun Li."

Me: "Damn, really? Hmm. That's kind of a shame. Anything Van Damme touches these days flys to the rental shelf with astonishing speed, dude. It could be career ending. Maybe I should ask for her autograph or something, and warn her to back out while she still can."

Some of our conversation was overheard, though, we realized. When we looked over again, Ming-Na politely smiled and nodded at us and then left the cafe with the guy she was with, obviously not wanting the public attention.

1995 was when it all ended. I'll probably take a lot of heat for saying that on a site that still preaches the gospel of Street Fighter but for myself and most of the old skoolers, that was the end of the golden age. That was the end, period. We hung on for awhle after that, but 1995 was more or less when it stopped.

From late 1994 to early 1996 several things happened. Darkstalkers came out and I immediately hated it. The cartoonish artwork had absolutely no appeal to me. The special moves were flamboyant and ridiculous and all sense of precision seemed to be absent from it. I couldn't imagine breaking the game down with such fanatical meticulousness as I had done previously with Super and Super Turbo. But as Capcom churned out a new fighting game every couple of months, it became clear that they never expected us to.

Then the Street Fighter Movie game was released. I played it once.

Tony: "What'd you think? It's crap, huh?"

In response I shoved the game away from the wall, unplugged it, and shoved it back into place.

One after another the old skool players gave the new stuff a try, quickly realized what was up, and left. And they more or less never came back to the arcades.

Then the anti-christ was born, except it was called Alpha. I played Alpha exactly one time while it was in the arcades. That's how much I, and a lot of others, hated it. The gameplay was clunky and simplistic. The graphics were cartoonish and silly. The music was childish. It didn't have the feel or flow of Super Turbo. Guile was replaced with Charlie.

Me: "What the fuck is Charlie saying when he throws a sonic boom? "Chronic-Jew"? This game fucking sucks."

Tony: "I think he's saying "wonic-foo". I don't know, dude. I think I like the voices from Street Fighter 1 better than this shit."

Me: "And tell me this. Why is it when you hit a fool, his brains go blasting out of the back of his head?"

Tony: "I don't know, dude. I think Capcom has lost their fucking heads for real this time."

Tony played Alpha a bit but I just couldn't stand it.

Tony: "It has some new shit, but NO ONE is playing seriously, you know? People just sort of play it, but there's no one like Thomas or Jay breaking it down and taking it to the next level."

One day, I think around April or May of '96, we drove out to Playland. There really wasn't any competition any more by that time. People didn't even play Alpha much and Capcom just kept churning out more clones. Half the time we'd get out there and one of the sticks on Super Turbo would be broken. We'd end up playing Bust-a-move or really old shit like Smash TV and Heavy Barrel. It started to seem kind of pointless.

But we'd been driving out there for the last four years, so what the hell else were we gonna do?

On this particular day it turned out we were going to turn right around and head back home. Playland had closed up for good.

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.

Gametown was for Tony what 7-11 and Round Table had been to me, a fixture of his youth. That's where he had played games ever since he was tall enough to reach the sticks.

Me: "Damn, dude, we're getting old."

Tony: "Ha... you fool. I hear you, though."

And then it was over.


That's basically how I remember it. I realize that this tale of the old skool days is a somewhat sweet, sappy and perhaps somewhat-dramatic accounting, but I can't help occasionally feeling nostalgic for those days. Anyone who wasn't there, anyone who wasn't as fanatical about all of it as we were, anyone who didn't get a first hand taste of the energy and excitement... just won't quite understand.

At best they'll smile and nod their heads politely. Like I said, we didn't play basketball or football. We weren't like those other guys. We carved out our own little niche in the world and if other people didn't get it, we didn't care.

But the thing was, we made those old skool days what they were. It wasn't our parents telling us what to do. It wasn't some jerkoff coach kicking us in the ass to realize a dream we didn't share and didn't want. We didn't do it for girls or money or because there was some big payoff down the road waiting for us. We just did it because it was so damn fun. It was something really special that we made great, and it was all ours.

---


The old man got up to leave, sighed and shook his head.

"Yup, ain't nothin' like it these days, and probably won't be ever again."

--end

Shouts out to all the dead homies. Biggest props to Tony (tescoman) and the fools who made the old great memories happen.

- jcasetnl

[Million]

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.


Damn. ^this right here kinda got me.....it reminded me of when I went to my usual spot (the "Quartet" Mall). I got out of the car, headed straight in the usual direction, and noticed the door was locked. I finally looked up and saw an EMPTY ROOM where all the games once were.:( Not one machine was left, and even the sign on the front was gone. I just stood there in disbelief for a minute, but I should've seen it coming. As I said before, those last days were pathetic....to see even 5 or 6 people in there would be considered a crowded day.

[VincentDelpino]

thankyou thankyou thankyou

[fireballtrap]

*sigh* That last one brings a tear to my eye. I experienced this last year when my local arcade closed up. Yeah, i did shead a tear that night, but i was only 14 and had only played there for about a year. So i can only imagine how bad it was for you.

[Aerial Assault]

Speaking of closed arcades, there was this arcade called the Go kart Village I lived 5 minutes from..had slammin' memories of it. It opened on my 13th birthday in 1995. There was decent competition too. That place is where I was first introduced to Killer Instinct, Tekken, MK3, and X-Men COTA. Then over the years, that arcade never updated on games, while 3rd Strike and MvC2 and CvS was hot, they still had games people don't play anymore: regular Tekken 3, Ehrgeiz, Police Trainer, some old submarine gun game from Taito like Operation Wolf, Rail Chase, G-Loc, I forgot the name of that driving game from Jaleco with a wheel and a gun on it, and this odd SNK trackball game called the Irritating Maze. The only thing good in there was Soul Caliber. And not ONCE have they had a VS. game come into that arcade. Within a year before the GKV arcade closed down, I tried to tell them that Marvel vs Capcom 2 and Capcom vs SNK might save the arcade from going out of biz, but they said they get whatever their company gives them, and that's stuff that people don't play anymore. So that was the last nail in the coffin for that place. And I just watched it fall everytime I pass there......

[Judgment Day]

Hmm...excellent, yet sad story. Like many others, it also reminds me of my home arcade in Michigan. That place was booming when I started going up there in '93 (SSF2 was out), and it went through the roof in when MK2 was released. After Killer Instinct in 94, the crowds dwindled, and Mainstreet Video finally closed in late 1997 :( Luckily, Mainstreet Video had 2 other establishments, but none were like the original; the one where everyone would hang out beyond gaming, have a good time, and take it to the next level. The arcade that created

--Judgment Day

[PK]

wow... some good reads.. i'll have to spend some time in here... but my first memory of SF was in Sharpstown arcade (houston, tx). by that time they had taken out the big smash 'em up buttons and replaced them with the legendary 6-button layout. I couldn't understand why no one used the hurricane kick. the scrubs like myself would wait our turn and call, "no fb and no uppercuts ok?!" hell, i was like 12 at the time. i had to skill. so the guy was like, "ok" and preceeded to whooop me with the hurricane kick. d.fierce wasn't around then. damn, that game sucked, but it looked really cool. like something out of the fly'n kung fu movie scene. very cool. then one day at Fun Plex (also Houston, TX) there were 20 guys standing around one machine. My friend Greg and I desided to check it out and that's when i first saw it, SF2. an older college age guy was on 2nd player using Z of all ppl. I loved wrestling and so i gave it a shot. when it was my turn to get up there (after a short 15 game wait), the original Z guy was still champ. was i worried? hell no!!! i was only 13. at 13, nothing scares you... so i didn't think there was that much to this game... big brawly characters and a girl... hhmm... i'll go with Z, i love wrestling.... i most i got off a couple of fierces but the guy just SPD me to death... i was amazed... so i hung out, didn't want to wasted my money losing to this guy so i just watched.... "how do u do that?" i asked... he said, "just watch my hands" all i saw was him spinning the joystick... hhmm... to think about it, that messed up my SPD abillity for a LONG time.... asshole... but that was the first move i learned... i couldn't do it... but i knew how to do it... soon i became a Dalsim master... soon as in SF time line.. it was 2 years later that started to actually realized the full potential of all the characters... Blanka's cball was the first move i pulled off... everyone was like, "wow! how did you do that?!" and "how do you do this?!" that was the first couple of years of SF2.. answering questions on how to do a move or how to pull off a combo (revolutionary at the time). i used to love beating guys with Guile's standing jab, if done fast enough you can redizzy them just with the standing jab. unballanced. bad shound. highly addictive. it saved the arcade, gave the SNES the extra boost over the competition, and started a cult.. damn, i love that game... OH BTW, you can play SF2Turbo and down at DAVE AND BUSTER'S in Houston!!! it's soo funn doing the drunk'n monkey and handcuffs again!!!

[Hcparker]

Reading this thread makes me realize a few things....

Fighting games, no matter how complex the engine is, no matter how feverent the fans, are a niche market and their fans will never compare in numbers to fans of other types of games.

A lot of that has to do with the advent of Home consoles gaining popularity. No longer did you have to go into those musty, smokey-filled halls instead you could play games in the comfort of your own home.

SF was unique in that it gave the Arcades a view into what they could become and opened the doorway for Fighting games to burst onto the scene. It also allowed other companies to literally survive and lay strong foundations.

It forms a link from the old Ghosts N Goblins to Resident Evil: Zero and Steel Battalion.

SF was unique and for that I don't think it will ever get enough credit.

PS. I was one of the few people that LIKED Alpha1 when it came out. Super Turbo to me was really the last gasp if you will of a tired franchise. When I saw and played Alpha, I saw it held the promise of what SF could become, a more 'complete' version of the game that most of us spent our youths learning.

For that I am also grateful.

[urkangijordi]

Wanna talk about an old school player, look no further. Maybe I am not the best player, but I do have an SF2 story.

My first experience with Street Fighter was SF1at my then favorite arcade, the Time Out of Laurel Center Mall. This arcade, like many of the ones I am about to mention are gone and faded, as is the SF2 days. Street Fighter 1 I played once. I didn't like Street Fighter 1. I did love going to the arcade and I love Capcom games, mostly for graphics. When I use to work at the mall I went there to play other games (Out Run, Turbo Out Run, Shinobi, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles). I'd seen new games get popular and fade out. When TMNT came out, dozens of little kids would crowd around it, dumping money faster than a drunk billionaire in a casino. But for the most part, my infatuation for video games was mostly a solo experience. I had maybe 2 friends who I played Genesis games with. The John Madden Football would introduce me to my first real competitive experience. But this was at someone's house, not in the arcade. You go in to the arcade and play, and then you go home.

It's funny, when I worked at the mall; I went to the arcade all the time. But when that job ended, I couldn't get to the mall (no car, not yet) and I missed a great deal of the games that came out around late 1990-1992 in the arcades. But I did read EGM and I did love Capcom. The first pics of SF2 in EGM (March 1991 if memory serves me) got me fired up. I wanted to see it, but I needed to find one, and get a ride. I heard there was one at another mall (Annapolis Aladdin's Castle) and convinced my best friend at the time to drive me down to Annapolis just so I could see this game (June 1991).

I didn't like it. There were too many buttons, the cabinet was a horrible conversion (I would later realize that the game got better when converted correctly) and it was damn hard. Or maybe it was damn confusing. But I did love the trademark Capcom graphics and the floor parallaxing blew my mind. I went away disappointed and would not see SF2 again until I trekked back to Laurel later that summer.

I went to Time Out and saw many new and different games, but the main attraction at the front of the 'cade was an SF2. I watched a guy playing it (he was an Asian guy named Thomas, I kid you not) and he was playing the game using Zangief. I saw SPD and many cool throws that really brought me into the game. I couldn't believe how much you could do with a big dopey character like Zangief. My bud looked at it but he didn't seem all that interested. So I sunk my money into the game against Thomas. I chose the one character that was destined to be my pick until ST...Ken Masters. I liked his red gi.

I didn't like the ass kicking I got.

I played SF2 for like $10 and lost EVERY TIME. This Thomas fellow threw me left and right. I got hammered and embarrassed. I was upset and gave up, vowing never to touch that horrible game again.

Fate would change in December of 1991. I would get a car. Now I was a true high school senior, and more importantly... I could get back to Laurel Center Mall and play more games...Yay! My first instinct was not to go back to SF2. I remembered the brutal beating I got at it and I wanted to play something else. But when I walked into the Time Out, crowded around the SF2 machine were about 20 guys and one woman. I played other stuff, and heard the banter from the SF2 machine. My curiosity got the better of me. I watched as a Guile player systematically destroyed everyone at SF2 he fought. He was not Thomas but was still beating everyone. He had long dirty blonde hair and had a sort of laid back, rock attitude about him. He played several others who I would later get to know and befriend. As I watched, people played everyone, there were several Ryus, a Honda, a female Chun Li, and a Blanka by a blonde 12 year old named Andrew [I will call him Lil’ Andrew, you'll see later]. They were not only playing a game together, but also competing. The competition aspect of the SF community is what hooked me.

I went to other arcades I knew of like the Champions of Columbia Mall, a small hole in the wall at Security Mall, and an arcade in the now gone Harundale Mall. There was comp at Columbia, but the machine was a small 13in conversion where you had to be huddling your competition to play. Security Mall was highly competitive, but I was a lamer no thrower and they threw. They also comboed much better than the Laurel crowd. In the end though, Laurel remained my place of choice.

I began to play SF2 and take my bruises. I met many, many people who also like SF2 and I could talk strategy and tactics with. The most prominent players there was the longhaired Guile player, a Ryu player named Joshua, and Lil’ Andrew who eventually learned Dhalsim very well and dumped Blanka. I also ran into a player who went to high school with me previously named Jazz. He brought the flare of combos from downtown Baltimore to Laurel. I did learn a lot, like what a special move was and how to block, but by the time May 1992 came, the attention had shifted to the new SF2...

Champion Edition

Laurel was not very quick in getting Champion Edition. I had to drive south towards DC to University of Maryland in College Park. There was a 24-hour laundry mat with a Champion Edition in a dedicated Capcom competition cabinet. As I approached the blue machine with the double sized Champion Edition I saw lots of players. There was a crowd that I have never seen the likes of again...ever (outside a tournament). There must have been at least 30 people in line with more just trying to watch. Joshua was there as well as a few others. I got to play one time that day. I loved the changes to Ken, but lost to fast and didn't really want to wait another hour to try it again. At this time my focus changed from Laurel (due to late CE) to Columbia who had a nice Capcom dedicated cabinet. It was like vindication for all those scrunched SF2WW matches before. I finally understood combinations and crossovers. I was getting better and I also met a guy there who would eventually become a really good friend years later. Columbia was a no-throw arcade as well and many, many Guile grudges were settled within the first few weeks of CE being available.

At the time of Champion Edition's era beginning in MD, a new mall opened called Marley Station Mall. It was another Champions Arcade like Columbia but with shiny new equipment, and 2 Champion Editions. In MD it was unheard of having 2 of a game of any kind in an arcade outside of Ocean City. Both were also big dedicated cabinets and there were all kinds of new comp for me to play. The most prominent and memorable of the new comp was a player named Andrew. He was easily the most prominent player there playing with an unorthodox 'crossed-handed' style with his controls. He played with an intelligence that I would not see surpassed for many years. He could play anybody, was very good at mixing up his patterns and reading everybody else. I also met another player who would become a good friend of mine named Lord Zor. He was simply put, extremely good at finding powerful strategies for every character. While Andy played Ken, Zor played Zangief. There was also another Zangief player who was really good (and the brother of a friend of a friend), and finally a wacky combo nut named Vince. These guys would become somewhat kindred over the years as I began realizing the wide spread popularity and diversity of SF2 at that time. Marley Station was now my home base beyond all others. I played SF there clear thru Hyper Fighter.

During the Champion Edition era, Marley Station had a tournament. The first video game tournament I had ever been to was there. The idea of a tournament was unusual to people but many, many players came from as far as Springfield VA. This tournament was the first time I realized there were much higher levels of skills at SF. I met for the first time a notoriously good player at that time named Lance. He showed everyone the first five hit double sonic boom combo. Hailing from downtown Baltimore, a place that at the time if I had known about, I would have become MUCH better at SF. Imagine a 24 hour arcade with lines on 3 machines. It had Infinite comp, with greasy, iffy sticks. He and Jazz played there often, but Lance was clearly much better than anyone at that tournament. The Virginia players brought us the Sagat uppercut glitch (allowing Vince to learn to uppercut before the low fireball finished recovering, creating a monster). I lost so fast it wasn't funny, but I did learn a great deal for the first time since my early days in Laurel Center. I had finally mastered almost all skills except predictability. I learned of an arcade down the road in Severna Park that was open late with SF comp.

..more to come...

[urkangijordi]

...con't

SF comp was everywhere, and I loved it. As Hyper Fighting had made its appearance, I was in bliss with Ken's new air hurricane abilities. But at this time players were going to other fighters...namely Mortal Kombat. As the steam died down, MK rose in popularity, and my ridged loyalty for SF2 prevented me from trying MK seriously. So I watched as the comp dwindled and my games were against a few repeat players at Marley.

During the time of Super Street Fighter 2 I had blew the engine in my car. I couldn't go anywhere and missed out on the SSF2 at Marley for quite a while. Not that I cared, Super's slow speed felt like a fatal mistake to me, and I didn't really like the slow game. I did however love Cammy. She would begin my many years of 'Goddess Worshipper' (you may have to look up some old posts in alt.games.sf2 for the definition to that one folks ^_-) and I would start to try other games like Samurai Showdown, and King of Fighters. Still nothing really compared to SF to me, and the dying comp scene depressed me somewhat. Before SF I didn't care about comp and community and such, but since then, going into an arcade and not seeing someone I knew seemed wrong now.

Super Street Fighter 2 would also bring me up to another new arcade in Security Mall. Woolworths of all companies owned this place. However the supplier was Maryland mega distributor State Sales...so it got a constant rotation of new games, just no technical support. But still an arcade was an arcade so I went there too. But comp was thinner than ever, and SSF2 was killing my flame.

Sometime in 1994 I think, Capcom released one more Street Fighter 2. Now up to this point I was completely naive about the world stage of SF2. This would be the SF that changed my life and showed me my goal for the future. In Annapolis of all places, where my first exposure to SF2 began, I would come across Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo. The game that is played by many, respected the most of all SF2 games, and would have the longest legs (it is now what 7-8 years old?), I played and loved it. I didn't like New Ken too much, but Cammy was really cool now. So I played Old Ken and New Cammy. As SSF2T got to Marley, the old crowd returned as well as some new faces that I am proud to call friend (Hey F2Billards =). Super pushed our skill limits and more importantly, gave me an idea.

I tried to start a club called the Fighter's Guild (before I knew of the internet, I tried to do the club thing the old fashion way). As I met more faces and became a sort of known locally not for my skill, but my dedication to trying to create and unify the SF community in MD. I also met a man in Security Mall named Alex, who helped me learn why you don't run a game club like a boxing organization (Don King anyone). After I let go of the Fighter's Guild I began wondering something. Marley at the time of SSF2T was the best in MD at the time. I was not, but some of my friends were great, and super egotistical about it. They would talk about how cheap each other was, and how great they were. I was not convinced. I wanted to see how good people could get.

I issued a challenge on alt.games.sf2. I just wanted to meet new players, but Jazz (who plays DeeJay and will remind you of that fact every chance he gets) figured we would get a better response if we talk some smack. I wanted the Fighter's Guild to be about community but when Jazz talked up our game on the post, we got a response from Hampton VA (Hey Kris). They came up and not only were our side not prepared for the incredible skill difference between them and us (the Horsemen of Hampton killed us so bad), but the egos of the local clan sort of died out and I began to see how far and how deep SF2 has always been. I realized that the community between SF players was global, arcade based, and very talented. Beyond anything I could ever do with my experiences. My curiosity was fueled more. I wanted to go to more places so I went down to Hampton to have my ass handed to me some more. I saw Zangief dominate Guile and all kinds of things I thought weren’t possible. To play a game for almost 4 years and still realize there were levels higher to achieve got me going again. I even went to New York and lost to the greats like Seth Killian, the turtling Joel and Sam, and even played Tom Cannon once (he played Chun Li), when Boardwalk was still around.

As I grew away from SF, the Alpha came to be, and the skill and shift of comp went down to Gametime. It's amazing that when SF2 was around; there were arcades and comp everywhere. Now in Baltimore there are much fewer arcades with even less fighting games (unless you like Tekken...Bleh). I still miss it, and I wish I could go down to Gametime and compete more. The drive is like an hour and now I just want an arcade in Baltimore for competition again...

I was there when it began, and I am still there. Some people on the boards may not remember me to much but I a great deal of memories and friends from SF and the fighting game community. I will never be the same again.

[Aerial Assault]

Speaking of good SF2 players back in the day, there was this guy I used to know his name was Elika. I miss this guy to death. He died in a car accident a few years ago, when Alpha 2 was the rage. But Elika was the only player I know on the level of Thomas Osaki. He once came to our house to play some SF2:WW on SNES, and his playing was so incredible...he could successfully do combos and link special moves while your character is stunned, like if he was using Guile, he'd hit you with a Sonic Boom, and while you're stunned and the game is slowing down, he jumps at you and finishes the combo with a flash kick, I mean giving you NO chance to recover. Or other than that he could throw more than one sonic boom all at once, I mean with that charging method he was good at beating the odds the slowdown could bring.

[Eggo]

Alright, Junior, step aside and let an old man tell you what Street Fighter was REALLY like. This story, like any good one, began in a 7-11 in Glendale, CA… The local 7-11, actually, just three convenient blocks from my junior high and high school. Every day after school, I visited the 7-11 for a few hours and flexed my arcade might on the latest and greatest arcade games, and boy were there many great ones… Shinobi, Double Dragon, Ninja Turtles… the list goes on and on. But one of them I will never forget - the game that changed my life – Street Fighter 2.

It was an ordinary day and an ordinary game. I thought nothing of it. Six buttons? Certainly a novelty, but I had no idea how special this game was. The first character I picked was Blanka.

Here was the reasoning:
Ryu – I never picked the default character. Status quo was for the weak.
Ken – Tempting, but a little too generic.
E. Honda – Fat guy? No thanks.
Chun Li – I ain’t no girl.
Blanka – Savage green animal… sign me up!
Zangief – Big hulking wrestler dude, aww hell no!
Guile – Good, clean, all-american guy. Probably was the high school football captain. He would be my second choice.
Dhalsim – Interesting… but what was the last game you played (remember this is 1991) where a Hindu was the best?

I asked a friend how you did the ball, and the rest is history. I walked backwards and literally balled my way to victory against computer and human opponents alike. Most people hadn’t figured out how to block, and luckily, my walking backwards technique provided a natural defense against the errant fireball that would eek out from some button masher’s wild gyrations.

In time, I grew to love the fierce and roundhouse buttons. They provided a nice bang for the buck and were obviously the weapons of choice for the adept Street Fighter player. These were the two buttons that you used, just like all the other arcade games. The other 4 buttons were gimmicks.

Over the next few days, word spread of how to do special moves, and new ones were discovered regularly. Ken and Ryu’s spin kick and fireball became staples of their arsenal. Guile players now had the choice of crouching and razor kicking or walking backwards and sonic booming. These tactics were generally adequate enough to frustrate non-blocking opponents into a desperate jumping charge of futile offense. A jumping opponent is a dead opponent. Remember that, Junior.

Then one day, I was playing the computer and the typical large crowd had gathered, hoping to get a glimpse of an ending. My walking backwards technique was sadly bested by M. Bison and his “Great Roundhouse of Death.” As the crowd began to disperse, a stranger approached me and put a quarter in my hand. “Finish the game,” he said. I’d never seen him before, as he wasn’t a regular among the video game crowd I was used to. But who am I to refuse an offer of free money? So I continued and the crowd returned. This time, I didn’t mess around. Once I knocked M. Bison down, I was on him with my scathing Electricity of Death. Payback for the humiliation just handed to me. M. Bison succumbed to my manly button-pounding fury, and the crowd was treated to Jimmy’s tearjerking ending.

As a new game started up, the stranger tried his hand at some versus competition and promptly got his ass handed to him. From the pitiful play of his Chun Li, I could tell he had never played an arcade game before, so I stepped in and avenged his death. Over the next few days, he kept coming back and getting better… and better… and better… until he could beat me. He must have been practicing during off-peak hours when nobody was around. Here was a video game virgin who put in the time and money to get good at a game. Training, if you will, for the video game equivalent of Bloodsport.

By now, I began to notice changes. People were not losing interest in this game, like all its other arcade predecessors. Instead of being a passing novelty, like the next Robocop/Bad Dudes/Superman game, this game is gaining in popularity over time. In fact, the crowds of spectators was growing. A pecking order also started to develop at the 7-11, as the good players gained reputations and regularly dominated for streaks of 7-10+ wins in a row.

Myself and my newfound friend, Vahe, rose to the top of this local pecking order. We made the ideal dynamic duo. Me, the young 17-year-old with lots of free time and highly refined arcade skills. He, the much older 22, had the maturity, brains, money, and, more importantly, transportation (a car!).

After establishing our position as the Godfather of the local 7-11, we realized that there were other arcades, 7-11’s and liquor stores out there where we could prove our Street Fighter superiority. Taking Vahe’s car, we journeyed around town in search of Street Fighter competition (this was an absurd idea back in 1991). The next stop – Pinball Plus in Burbank. This was the hangout for the local Burbank high school kids. They were pretty good too, but again, we dominated the competition.

Eventually, we grew to know every backwoods mom and pop doughnut shop, 7-11, and arcade that had a Street Fighter machine in town. We had an imaginary map in our head of the town and the nearest Street Fighter machine, scouting each regularly for competition.

Then one day, I was in the Video West arcade, just blocks from the Glendale Galleria. There is this asian older guy (30 something) on the machine holding center court and dominating fools like nobody’s business. He’s sitting cross-legged over a stool and smoking while taking out the trash (players that I considered good). He’s playing Zangief, and he has full command of the mysterious Spinning Piledriver. He’s doing it on demand, grabbing people from 3 inches away, jumping on them, and doing it again. I’d never seen anything like it.

This is back before the Internet was big, when knowledge was power. My first introduction to the SPD was a brutal one, as he routinely demolished myself and the local Glendale competition. I tried everyone: Chun Li, Guile, Ryu, Dhalsim, E.Honda… everybody. He won over 40 matches in a row before growing tired and leaving.

My visions of the world were shattered. That was and still is the worst beating I’ve ever taken in my Street Fighter career. I was not the best. No matter how good I was at the local 7-11, there was someone out there better than me. That knowledge fueled my desire for revenge and to be the best. I went back to the 7-11 to train some more and become a fine-tuned killing machine.

By now, all the moves had been figured out, except for one: Ryu’s all-you-can.

One day, I walked into Pinball Plus, and there was one guy on the machine who was kicking ass and taking names. Watching him play, my jaw dropped as he regularly threw fireballs and did the all-you-can on command!

I asked him how he did it, but he refused to tell me. I kept watching his hands and mimicking the movement on another machine until I got my first uppercut. Eventually, I narrowed down the possibilities till I had it figured out: forward, offensive crouch, forward flip, back to forward, hit Fierce… all in one quick motion. By the end of the day, I could all-you-can on command! …on 1-player side only (but most people didn’t know this).

So Vahe and I took our newfound knowledge back to the 7-11 the next day and dazzled onlookers with our all-you-can prowess. If only I’d had this weapon against that damned Zangief player…

[Eggo]

Weeks later, I was going about my day, business as usual, slapping down the local competition while my mind was on autopilot – “I wonder how long it will take to do my homework? Should I buy that new Guns N’ Roses CD?” My train of thought was interrupted when Vahe came in and started babbling. He was so excited, he was tripping over his words.

“Dude! I played this guy. He’s the best player I’ve ever seen. He uses Guile and he demolished my Ryu. He was doing this backhand!”

“The backhand? That move sucks! You’re smoking crack. How could you get hit by that?”

“No no. I would throw fireballs and he would hit me while my arms were stuck out.” <imitates Ryu’s fireball pose>

At this point, I was still in disbelief that:
1) There was a guy who was THAT good that he could destroy my invulnerable buddy.
2) He was using walking-backwards-to-sonic-boom or crouching-to-razor-kick Guile to dominate like that.
3) He could hit someone with the backhand. Who uses that?!

But then Vahe dropped the hammer: “This guy was throwing sonic booms while sitting down!” This was another one of those life-changing moments in which comprehension dawned and I reached an epiphany of video game thinking. Up until this point, we had treated Street Fighter like any other arcade game out there: 4 directions 4 choices. But this was an 8 direction stick. Why not try a diagonal?

Hands shaking, I selected Guile and held defensive crouch and tried throwing a Sonic Boom. Oh… my… god… I tried a razor kick from the same position… Hot damn! I was beginning to believe.

“So tell me more about this backhand. He does it when you’re in the fireball pose?”

“Yeah, and I couldn’t block it.”

We proceeded to figure out, piece by piece, the ingredients for my friend’s public dismantling. We were part mad scientist/part mystery detective re-enacting the murder of my best friend. Vahe would fireball and I would match it with a sonic boom, then backhand.

“You couldn’t block that?”

“No!” he said, excited with glee.

I then grilled him for more details about his weekend trip. Apparently, he had gone to Pak-Mann arcade in Pasadena and played this kid named Tomo, who kicked his ass.

By now, we were beginning to realize that Street Fighter was developing a community… a hierarchy even. Every town was crowning local players who they deemed the best. Names were popping up and reputations were spreading. This Tomo was apparently the champion of Pasadena. I had to meet the guy.

Like a video game bounty hunter, I tracked down the details of his playing times and habits by questioning people who’d played him. There were surprisingly many.

“The Guile guy? Yeah, he plays on Friday and Saturday night at Pak-Mann. Go around after 10PM. That guy is GOOD!” Vahe and I circled the next Saturday on our calendar. The anticipation was like a world championship boxing match. The showdown was set to begin.

[Ultima]

A couple things:

Concerning the general death of Street Fighter, I think there were 3 main factors:

1) Arcade Super SF2 - No doubt about it, this killed the interest in new SF in my country. Awful voices, the new characters were shitty, and TOO SLOW. Very few places got it, and NO ONE played it after the first week or so. Every one went back to playing HF (and I should note that people STILL play HF to this day, but that's another story).

2) Street Fighter the Movie - This pretty much made SF a laughing stock in the general gaming community. Now you couldn't mention "SF" without thinking about this horrible, horrible movie.

3) SNES SSF2 - The final nail in the coffin. Super Turbo had been released by this time, and there was definitely a lot of interest in it around here. However, no arcade seemed to get it (and none did until LONG afterwards), so the thought of a home version was a comfort. And while Capcom did release a home version that improved on the arcade, it just wasn't enough. SSF2 with more speed wasn't ST. Many of us saw absolutely no reason to buy this game and play it over HF, and our interest in new SF games was killed for a very long time. Alpha 1 came out in one place, and I thikn only two people played it (me and my friend). I remember the machine breaking one week when we played it, and when we came back the following week, it as exactly the same. I guess no one had played the game in that time to report that it was broken.

Anyhow, that's my view on what ended the golden age of SF. MKII had a big hand, but I think if Capcom had made SSF2 a much better game (i.e. ST), MKII poularity (much of whic came at SF2['s expense) wouldn't have been as high (and rightfully so).

Anyway, I have my own old school stories, but I won't repost my longass rambling tirades here. You can check them out on the following link. It's my arcade history in general, so there are some other games that are mentioned, but 90% of it centers around SF in some fashion. Since I grew up in another country, I can't name drop any of the old legends like Tomo or anything, but don't mind that. :)

http://www.rit.edu/~jas2842/uramble/history_arcade.html

Oh yeah, to the person that said it: The original SF2 guide from Gamepro isn't any good, but the second one that dealt with HF and preview SSF2 was - and still is - a great book. That was where I first learned the concept of deep hits and started pulling off combos for real. It may have been from Gamepro, but it as masterminded by Matt Tyler, who also orchestrated VS. Books and the SFA2 guide, the best US fighting game strategy guide ever made.

[Eggo]

Saturday afternoon, we warmed up our skills by destroying the locals at Pinball Plus. An appetizer for the main course to come. Then we got in the car and cruised down to Pasadena. This was pretty absurd if you stopped to think about it. Me, a 17-year-old kid getting in the car with some stranger I barely knew, and us going on the freeway to travel to another town in hopes of possibly meeting this reputed good player at a video game. But with Street Fighter 2, anything was possible…

When I first arrived at Pak-Mann, I was dumbfounded. I’d been to the arcade before: it’s about a block long and filled with row up on row of arcade machines from past, present, and future. What was surprising was the row of 10 Street Fighter machines and the crowd of people surrounding them. I didn’t have to see the marquee to know what game everyone was playing and excitedly talking about. There were so many people that they had to put a few of the machines in another row so the crowd wouldn’t get too clumped in one area.

I put my quarter up and waited through a line of three people. By the time I drew first blood, I knew I belonged. My Chun Li was one of the better ones out there. My Blanka wasn’t too shabby either. The stream of players kept coming, a regular and steady flow of more meat for the grinder. But this isn’t what I came here for. I had plenty of newbies back home to beat up. I wanted the Man himself.

Scoping the aisles of machines, my friend pointed him out. “There he is.” I stood and watched as he dismantled opponent after opponent. Nobody could take a round off of him. Tomo looked like an average, unassuming Asian kid. But the way he was playing was anything but ordinary.

He was doing combos. Jumping Forward, low Jab, Razor Kick. Dizzy. Jumping Fierce, low Strong, Razor Kick. Dead. I had no idea what combos were. I just saw people dying REALLY fast. Like 10 seconds and the round was over. It was pretty scary. I didn’t know why they weren’t blocking the second and third hits.

I dropped in my quarter and lost first round badly to a dizzy combo. I looked at the controller as if defensive crouch didn’t work. “I can’t block that?”

“No.” He laughed. I almost won second round due to my unorthodox Chun Li play and some timely throws, but he pulled it out. I proceeded to wait in line and continually get schooled by his Guile.

I didn’t realize it at the time, but Tomo wasn’t just playing the game. He was creating it as he went along. He wasn’t sticking to any simple fireball-uppercut pattern. He was faking, feinting, constantly doing something to throw you off, testing new moves. While you were thinking of the next move, he was thinking three moves down the line. While I was a follower learning traps and patterns, he was creating them.

As I was waiting in line, a guy came around and handed me a flyer. His name was Charles and he was holding a tournament at some comic book shop called “World’s Finest Comics.”

A video game tournament?! Are you serious? Never before had the idea been mentioned. But now that I thought about it, it made sense. Here was my shot at a real-life Bloodsport. Vahe and I knew we had to go to this.

[Eggo]

The fateful Saturday rolls around and we head down to Pico Rivera. World’s Finest Comics, the locale where Tomo and company hung out, played, strategized, talked, and generally grew into the #1 Street Fighter community in the U.S. The tournament was about 30 people or so. The turnout was considered a success, and Charles announced that he would hold another one in 3 weeks.

I didn’t make top 10, but I didn’t care. I was there to learn, and learn I did. How to combo. The latest combos. Redizzy combos. Corner traps. Fireball traps. Trap counters. How to throw. How to reverse.

Every three weeks, Vahe and I would go to World’s Finest for these SF tournaments. We went as much to compete as to amass knowledge like a sponge. And then bring back the latest tricks of the trade to our local arcade to whip ass on the newbies.

World’s Finest wasn’t just the site of a video game tournament. It was a place for SF experts to gather, be accepted, and share tales of their local arcades. It was a place where the newest and most effective combos, strategies, and glitches could be displayed, analyzed, and countered. The In & Out burger restaurant across the street was the source for our daily sustenance, drinks, and a secondary hangout - our home away from home.

Gradually, the pecking order of World’s Finest developed. There was the Big Four… and everyone else. The Big Four were Tomo Ohira, Roger Chung, Tony Tsui, and Willy (Lee?). They were in a class by themselves, playing at another level from everyone else. The reason they were grouped together like that is because the other three were the only ones who could beat Tomo, although he ended up winning most of the tournaments.

As time progressed, people realized that not all characters were created equally. Guile emerged as the best, and the only character who could stood a chance against him was Dhalsim. Every tournament came down to Guile and Dhalsim fighting in the finals and semi-finals.

Vahe was a real student of the game. He could sit back and watch people play, dissecting what they were doing to win. What traps worked and how to get out of them. Every move had a counter. Every technique had an answer.

His problem was he didn’t have the reflexes and coordination to pull off the latest combos as they were invented. So he took me under his wing as his student. He told me what to do and when to do it. What countered what and the latest strategies. Living vicariously through me, he was training a lean, mean, fighting machine.

After a couple tournaments, the Guile/Dhalsim fight was expected. It became like an elaborate dance to the death, with new moves added every week. It evolved. First Dhalsim started with standing Fierce to push people back, then Fireball, standing Forward. Then people changed it to Fireball, standing Fierce to push them back and get damage when they jumped. Then people found out Fireball, low fierce had more priority. Then it became Fireball, low Roundhouse slide when they jumped, Yoga Flame as they got up, standing Fierce, repeat. Fireball, close-range standing forward. Fireball, jump back Fierce. Drill (Yoga Mummy), throw. Noogie, standing Strong, Noogie some more. Yoga Flame, throw (in the corner). The variations were endless.

Every week changes were made to the choreography, and if you didn’t keep up on the latest moves and the appropriate counter, you would succumb to them. It became like homework in Street Fighter school to memorize the latest tactics. And believe me, school was in session.

By this time, I was becoming an elite SF player. I knew all the strategies for destroying any non-Guile/Dhalsim characters with either Guile or Dhalsim. People I didn’t know, didn’t scare me. I began placing top 10 at World’s Finest, as the homework and practice began to pay off. I still couldn’t beat the Big Four when it counted, but I would make them earn it.

At this point, playing at my local 7-11 was no longer satisfying. Local scrubs were stifling my growth, dulling my skills, and providing false confidence. I only wanted to play at World’s Finest, where the true challenge lay. Every three weeks, I would go to the tournaments and get schooled by 3 weeks worth of new ideas and strategies. It was difficult trying to improvise counter strategies on the fly, but I tried and loved every second of it.

Between tournaments, Vahe and I would scour Los Angeles, looking for hotbeds of hidden SF talent. Searching for a backwoods pizza place with a local prodigy who might have some tricks we could use.

I became like a talent scout. I would go to foreign arcades and just watch how the locals played. If their ‘technology’ (the moves and patterns they were using) wasn’t up to snuff, I wouldn’t even bother wasting a quarter to beat them. When I was out with my girlfriend, we would walk by an arcade and she would know we had to go inside to see what people were doing.

By the way, the one time I brought my girlfriend to World’s Finest (boys, never bring your girlfriend to a video game tournament. She’ll be bored out of her mind.), I won the tournament, beating Tomo in the Finals. One of the high points of my SF career.

Eventually, we realized that we had scouted all there was to scout. There was no more hidden talent in LA. The best places to play were Pak Mann in Pasadena, College Arcade across the street from LACC (LA Community College), and World’s Finest in Pico Rivera. By now, we knew everybody at these places on a first name basis.

Do you believe in pre-destination? It exists in video games. If you dropped a quarter in a machine and challenged me, and I didn’t know your name, you already lost. There was no doubt. Your fate was pre-determined. You just wasted 25 cents funding my gaming habit for the next minute.

When I spent three hours a day, seven days a week presiding over the scrubs at my local arcades and doing my homework regularly at World’s Finest for the latest tricks of the trade, there was no way a stranger could win. It just didn’t happen. Ever.

Oh there were guys that talked smack. Lots of them. “You gotta play my friend at Street Fighter. He’s sooooooo good.” You don’t know how many times I heard that.

But the end result was always the same. Unless I knew you and practiced against you regularly, you didn’t beat me. Not even a round. The people who could beat you became like family. Your peers. Your comp. What made you better. What pushed you further. What made you innovate.

My comrades and I played through all sorts of conditions. Walk into an arcade… “no defensive crouch.” No problem. I’ll pick Ryu and uppercut through the fireballs. Spin kick to the other side and play footsie. Broken controls weren’t a deterrent, they were a handicap… which we overcame. “Roundhouse doesn’t work all the time.” Time to play Dhalsim.

“Only two buttons work.”
“Is one of them punch?”
“Yes.”
Zangief.

I would play matches using only one button - jab. I would play one-handed: one hand on the joystick and the same hand on buttons (and yes, you can still fireball/uppercut that way). I could literally beat people with one hand behind my back. Buddies would share rounds. Sometimes, we would play together. My friend would do joystick, I would do buttons… and we could fireball trap (with fakes) and uppercut opponents without verbal communication. Great minds think alike? Sometimes I would be bored and let people take off more than half my life, then magically turn it on and demolish them without taking any damage. It was sick.

So it was established Pico Rivera was where the best Street Fighter players in Los Angeles played. But how did LA compare to the rest of the world? We were about to find out as we took our first trip outside LA in search of the true World Warrior…

[Chson]

What a gem of a thread!

[jcasetnl]

Eggo, dude, speak the lore.

<tips his hat>

To move forward, remember the past...

With eternal vigilance the old skool will never die...

- j

[Storming Flower]

with this talk about og sf, im trying to learn guile. can one of you guys help me on the guile vs ryu matchup HF, the gameplan and strategy, like followups and setups after booms..im only 17 but i played this 24 year old og player and i would come so close to beating his ryu with my ryu but when i go to guile i completely lose, and his guile beats down on both my guys but i still don't really know how to play guile.

[jcasetnl]

Originally posted by Storming Flower
with this talk about og sf, im trying to learn guile. can one of you guys help me on the guile vs ryu matchup HF, the gameplan and strategy, like followups and setups after booms..im only 17 but i played this 24 year old og player and i would come so close to beating his ryu with my ryu but when i go to guile i completely lose, and his guile beats down on both my guys but i still don't really know how to play guile.

It's all about the mind game. I already said it, but, make that charge time dissapear. Put the pressure on. Use his thrusting knee to close the distance and keep the pressure on. Use the range of his crouching normals to your advantage. You can always counter his wiff roundhouse with a low forward. Learn the walk-unders, the wiffs, etc. to set him up and take him down. It's really quite easy when you get feel of it.

Shotos, except the very best, are easy to contol with Guile. Just shut them down. Distance and positioning are the key. Just get in close to him, get in his face, and learn from there.

Good luck - j

[FINAL SHOWDOWN]

This is really good.

[Storming Flower]

j: thanks for replying i read your post on shinakuma too when you talked about the walk unders, but im still trying to figure it out. Right its like im developing a pattern of slow boom, walk forward, down forward twice, then boom again (if they jump im screwed), or continue down jabbing before boom but if they jump while im jabbing then FK. (that gets weak but not sure what else to do)

sometimes they jump and i walk under and throw from other side. or low boom knee boom again. i'll use the other booms like fierce to give myself room when they throw fireball so i can walk foward. that's all i basically do...(not a good sign) I mean in ST he has those new kicks so i can use him but he seems more limited in HF, , what about corner traps..i'll just keep practicing

[Tesco]

Let me begin by sending mad shouts out to jcasetnl…

It is jcasetnl's recounting of the lore tales of yesteryear that has brought me out of retirement and to my keyboard this afternoon.

For the first time in over a decade he has called upon me to share my experiences with what I consider to be the greatest arcade game of all time…. Dare I say the greatest videogame of all time...? Street Fighter II….

"Dude...what should I say?! What’s left to add?!" I asked...

"Damn TONY.... speak the lore already... these fools need to know about the next level!" he replied impatiently…

I sat down to read the posts to see where my SF brothers stand. Just reading through the thread brought about an influx of old skool memories…

Memories of a time before 800 page FAQs and step by step combo guides.

Memories of a time before 'onscreen help’ or 'context sensitive' game menus.

Memories of a time when games didn't have to have an end, or play fair with you...

Memories of arguing with parents about spending too much time in the ware palace.

Memories of adding fools to the database for future reference.

Memories of spending my ‘college years’ at SFSU in the campus arcade

Memories of Metallica on stage with long hair ripping through ‘Harvester of Sorrow’ >sigh<

Memories of jacasetnl’s over the top victory celebrations…

Memories of playing the fabled ‘Thomas’ and kicking his ass. (If only for a few games)

Memories of defiling the great temple known as “Denny’s”

Memories of taking fools’ bus fare and lunch money as they tried ‘just one more time…’

Memories of sending legions of fools back to Remedial to work on their basics…

Today I share a brief moment in time which jcasetnl will never let me forget…

…I do mean…. never…

Oakland, CA:

Jcase and Phil (the deadest homie of them all) are credited with introducing me to the game of SF2. Phil brought the knowledge, but stepped back as his disciples took his knowledge, disposed of it, and elevated to a new plateau. (Not to deride Phil… any fool who can finish Ultima 4 has his name scribed in the Great Book of Wareplay Eternal… his 8bit skillz were indeed legendary on both NES and C64 alike…)


For a brief period of time after the release of SF2, I was able to hold my own against any and all challengers. I didn’t lose often… and when I did lose I was able to evolve and return with higher standard. My skills, reflexes, and timing were polished to a point that I have since been unable to duplicate…


I was also quite the arrogant bastard… especially where SF2 was concerned. (..and rightfully so…hehe) Trash talking was a huge component of my game…. To this day I am amazed that I didn’t end up in a garbage can somewhere in the back alleyways of Oakland’s Chinatown…

Woe to the fool who walked up to a machine with a gamepro in hand or a move list scrawled on a napkin. He would be the recipient of verbal abuse that would make the likes of a Navy Seal ring the bell of shame…

I often turned this attitude toward the homies as well… as Jcase and I would often exchange ‘pleasantries’ after our matches…hehe

After a while, Jcase stepped away from challenging me and concentrated on his own game. He would often step in to trade rounds with me while I reloaded on bagel dogs and Sunkist, or made a food run to the local Wendy’s. In my mind, this was the white flag that I had been waiting for. I had established myself as the dominant World Warrior.

Of course, I had no clue that he was studying my habits, patterns, techniques, tendencies… I also had no clue that my style was so readily obvious. Apparently JCase had noticed my fatal flaws… flaws that other opponents recognized but could do nothing about. (I had fairly quick reaction times, and the speed of the original SF2’s game play gave me plenty of time to adapt to their attacks.) This coupled with the time he had been spending ‘cross training’ at the OakTree was a dangerous combination…

One afternoon he cruised into GameTown, stepped up to the SF2 machine that I had been occupying for what seemed like weeks without a valid challenge, plunked in his quarter, and hit the player 2 start button.

I believe that day I had decided to work on what we called ‘advanced theory’ with Ken. (I often took breaks from playing Guile, as it was just ‘too easy’) I believe Jcase to be putting his newfound Guile devotions to the test.

Round 1 started as I faked a fireball and dug into his airborne ass with a dragon punch. (Oh how many rounds began this way, my old friends?!…hehe) While not taking the round with a ‘perfect’, I was victorious and began one of my usual verbal celebrations.

Round 2 saw me relaxing myself a bit. In the olden days, we gave second rounds to our deserving opponents as a way of showing respect. The problem was, while I thought I was giving him second round, he actually took it from me. Toward the end of the round he began to read my every move and supply the appropriate counter for the situation. How many backfists in the mouth would it take for me to adjust my flow?? How many standing forwards or air throws would it take for me to adapt??

Round 3 began and for the first time in recent memory I was concerned that my opponent may actually get the best of me. I became tentative… I was second guessing myself. I was hesitant and cautious… perhaps too cautious.

Jcase sensed this and began the blitzkrieg. I found myself flipping around the screen in hopes of escaping the onslaught, in hopes of delaying the inevitable…

I, like countless Ken/Ryu players before me, was being dissected by the consummate Guile player. As time wore on in the round, I began to stage a brief comeback, upper cutting any limb he would even think about sending my way… doing my best to keep proper distance. Faking him into coming in and getting a fistful… It was truly a see-saw matchup.

He seemed to have an answer for everything... he would take the hits, then bring the pain. The closing seconds of the round saw me in the corner, attempting to hold on for a few more seconds perhaps in hopes of being saved by Father Time.

It had become clear to me what I needed to do: I had a ‘tactic’ of walking up to crouching opponents and throwing them. Remember that? Straight up walk up to a fool and toss em before their brain even processed… Jcase had this move scouted, as I had used it on him religiously. (With MUCH success)

I made the madman’s final attempt and moved in to deliver the final throw. As I rose and made my way toward my crouching nemesis, thoughts of my victory speech began streaming through my mind. "We choose to go the moon in this decade...."

Not two steps into my attempt to throw my ‘unsuspecting’ opponent, I was greeted by a roundhouse flash kick, right smack on the forehead…

“eeeeeeewwwwwuuuuuhhhhhh” was all I heard as Ken struck the ground lifeless and Guile began combing his ridiculous flat-top…. It was the flash kick heard round the world…

I was stunned, but muttered ‘good shit’ nonetheless.

Of course, JCase being the great sport that he is proceeded to humiliate me with the greatest after match clown in recorded history.

Elated at the sight of his victory, he ran out of the arcade, directly into the middle of college avenue with his arms raised overhead in a ‘V’ and screamed “MOOOOOORTAL KOOOOOOMBAT!!!!” at the top of his lungs.

All the while, staring toward the sky, spinning around in the middle of the street…. “MOOOOOORTAL KOOOOOOMBAT!!!!”

(For those who don’t remember, the ad campaign for the 16bit renditions of Mortal Kombat featured scores of kids running through desolate streets yelling ‘Mortal Kombat’ in unison…)

Cars and passers by had absolutely no idea how the balance of power had shifted that day, or the significance of his actions. In fact, most were peeved to see a young punk in the middle of the street yelling at the top of his lungs.

He returned to the arcade to find me in a ball on the floor of the arcade… tears of laughter streaming down my face…

I had been handed the fattest slice of humble pie in my game playing career….

Big props to Jcasetnl, Jay, Frank, the crews from GameTown, OakTree, Regency, Escapade, 2 Star liquor, ‘SShack Redemption’, Big Al, all my victims, and all those here in the forums today who took the time to read about a personal piece SF history.

Much love to the dead homies, to the Commodore Amiga, to the old skool warez scene, and to anyone who picked up a controller when it was called a joystick and had one big ass red button.

I’m OUT…

-Tesco
"Tony"

[kempobot]

Is that THE Eggo from Gamefan magazine posting?!

[jcasetnl]

Old skool - mad skillz.

First of all, you new skool fools need to read that shit twice on weekdays and three times on sunday and take notes. That was consumate old skool as it has never been told nor will ever be spoken again. You need to study that shit, pay attention and recognize.

Damn dude, even till this day I get slapped around by your technique.

I need to head to the ticket counter for Redemption...

<>!!sEGa!!<>

- jon

[Eggo]

with this talk about og sf, im trying to learn guile. can one of you guys help me on the guile vs ryu matchup HF, the gameplan and strategy, like followups and setups after booms..im only 17 but i played this 24 year old og player and i would come so close to beating his ryu with my ryu but when i go to guile i completely lose, and his guile beats down on both my guys but i still don't really know how to play guile.

This matchup is pretty hard for Guile. Good ryu players will sweep your low forward and roundhouse with a low roundhouse. They can see the move come out and react.

Anyway, try walking backwards to start, throwing nothing but fast sonic booms in the projectile war. See if you can draw him out into jumping to come get you. If you have him jumping towards you, you'll most likely win.

If he doesn't jump towards you, you're going to have to keep throwing sonic booms till he falls asleep, then jump with a late roundhouse to kick him once in the head. Then proceed to run away and guard the lead. This match is all about getting a lead (no matter how minor) and holding it. Time is your best friend.

Once you've got Ryu jumping, then you can low fierce, low strong (it will whiff) then immediately throw (Ryu's jumping RH with mysteriously miss), low jab, standing RH, standing forward if he's right on top of you, air throw, low forward or RH if he's far, or jump early RH. Once in a while, you might want to block too. Basically, whenever Ryu jumps on you, do something different, so he never knows what to expect and when to RH.

If you're losing, then you have to play close range and throw the hell out of him. This should be your second choice. Never play close range if you can avoid it. Here, throw a slow sonic boom and follow it. If he matches with a fireball, backhand or low forward (he'll have time to block), but it buys you time to setup another boom.

A good OG trick is after doing a low forward which they block, immediately do a backhand. If they try to throw a fireball, you'll hit them clean before the fireball comes out. Your goal is to get them to block a sonic boom with you right behind it. Then you just walk in and throw. The alternate is walk in and at the last second low RH. Or you can walk in, pause, then walk forward and low RH. Walk in, standing jab, throw. Endless variations of cheese. If he spin kicks, low fierce. If he fireballs, block it, then jump towards him with a fierce, low strong, razor kick in case he throws another.

If Ryu corner traps you with fireballs, it can get really bad. Try razor kicking out - cutting off his head like a guillotine and going through the fireball. Or else trade a backhand with the fireball just to throw off his timing. Good Ryu players will back you into the corner and make you block at least 5 fireballs every time you fall down. If you jump up, they'll alternate fireball speed till you finally fall on one. You do not want to be in the corner against a good Ryu player.


Is that THE Eggo from Gamefan magazine posting?!

Yes.

[Storming Flower]

thx a lot man, i really appreciate it. i've beem playing a lot and sorta learning those things, yes i've found out that time is my friend. i mostly use low strong, walk stand fk, thrust knee, jump early rh, and walk under throw against jumping. however how do catch in airthrow? in a projecticle war, even though im throwing fierce booms, wouldn't i lose the war? because i end up getting guard damaged, cuz fb comes out faster than boom? i thoguht ryus game plan was to keep guile out. (unless hes way behind in life)

[jcasetnl]

Originally posted by Storming Flower
j: thanks for replying i read your post on shinakuma too when you talked about the walk unders, but im still trying to figure it out. Right its like im developing a pattern of slow boom, walk forward, down forward twice, then boom again (if they jump im screwed), or continue down jabbing before boom but if they jump while im jabbing then FK. (that gets weak but not sure what else to do)

sometimes they jump and i walk under and throw from other side. or low boom knee boom again. i'll use the other booms like fierce to give myself room when they throw fireball so i can walk foward. that's all i basically do...(not a good sign) I mean in ST he has those new kicks so i can use him but he seems more limited in HF, , what about corner traps..i'll just keep practicing

When you walk under the guy, if you're directly under him do standing forward kick with the stick neutral. After you knock him out of the air a few times with this he'll roundhouse early to counter it (the roundhouse has priority I think). So in that case, when you're right under him, let the stick go neutral again and wait for the roundhouse. The moment he sticks his foot out you go into crouch - not defensive crouch - because you'll go into your block animation. Just duck under the kick, which will wiff, and when he lands you can chuck him, do a couple low strongs, etc.

If you connect with the standing forward you have to move up so that once again you're right out of the range of his roundhouse. So basically you need to know fairly precisely where he'll land because you have to position and charge as soon as possible.

On the corner traps it's basically the same thing. In WW Guile could corner trap like a bastard but by the time of Super Turbo they'd added some delay to the sonic boom and taken a lot of the range and priority out of the flash kick. Also, of course, his normal moves got ball-chopped. Oh yeah, and they added a slight delay after the flash kick. <sigh> Speaking of which, when you do his super flash kick, there's no delay afterwards so if you completely wiff it and the guy walks up to toss you worse, you can immediately follow with another flash kick. It won't work against the better players who are wise to it but sometimes it can turn a match around.



Hope this helps.

- j

[MightyAkuma]

The ONE thing I remember about the "Old Skool" S.F. scene were the Fights that occured outside the Arcade/Round the Local "Corner" after someone lost a match. It was pretty good, actually.

........

[ngamer7]

This is the greatest thread ever! :)
Thanks to this thread , i will download every single st movie from evo which i otherwise never would`ve done..

[Judgment Day]

Originally posted by Tesco
Not two steps into my attempt to throw my ‘unsuspecting’ opponent, I was greeted by a roundhouse flash kick, right smack on the forehead…

“eeeeeeewwwwwuuuuuhhhhhh” was all I heard as Ken struck the ground lifeless and Guile began combing his ridiculous flat-top…. It was the flash kick heard round the world…

I was stunned, but muttered ‘good shit’ nonetheless.

Of course, JCase being the great sport that he is proceeded to humiliate me with the greatest after match clown in recorded history.

Elated at the sight of his victory, he ran out of the arcade, directly into the middle of college avenue with his arms raised overhead in a ‘V’ and screamed “MOOOOOORTAL KOOOOOOMBAT!!!!” at the top of his lungs.

All the while, staring toward the sky, spinning around in the middle of the street…. “MOOOOOORTAL KOOOOOOMBAT!!!!”

(For those who don’t remember, the ad campaign for the 16bit renditions of Mortal Kombat featured scores of kids running through desolate streets yelling ‘Mortal Kombat’ in unison…)

Cars and passers by had absolutely no idea how the balance of power had shifted that day, or the significance of his actions. In fact, most were peeved to see a young punk in the middle of the street yelling at the top of his lungs.

He returned to the arcade to find me in a ball on the floor of the arcade… tears of laughter streaming down my face…

I had been handed the fattest slice of humble pie in my game playing career….

-Tesco
"Tony"

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Oh my God, that was funny! Excellent post, my friend.

PS: The death sound effect of Ken was to a tee. Also reminds me on how Ken and Ryu used to say "Shoryuken" (All You Can) like they meant it in those days. The true sign of old school :)

“eeeeeeewwwwwuuuuuhhhhhh”
--The Real Ken

[DanielLarusso]

As many have said before me, best thread on SRK. Good shit jcasetnl. What up Eggo, Dragonmaster Alex from the OG #gf_tavern oldschool in the heazy.

[jcasetnl]

Originally posted by Storming Flower
thx a lot man, i really appreciate it. i've beem playing a lot and sorta learning those things, yes i've found out that time is my friend. i mostly use low strong, walk stand fk, thrust knee, jump early rh, and walk under throw against jumping. however how do catch in airthrow? in a projecticle war, even though im throwing fierce booms, wouldn't i lose the war? because i end up getting guard damaged, cuz fb comes out faster than boom? i thoguht ryus game plan was to keep guile out. (unless hes way behind in life)

You're right that you can't go head up against fireballs with booms. So the key is to know when the fireball is coming and already have an answer for it with a normal. And of course, you can't connect a normal unless you're close to your opponent...

But if you use the same normal over and over you'll obviously get factored and filed away. So mix it up, but more importantly, watch what your opponent does in response to your setups. Some guys, after you shut down a fireball with a backfist, for example, will *always* jump at you as soon as he recovers. And because of the positioning I knew I could always do a walk under and either do standing forward or let the roundhouse wiff and hit him on the way down. I can also "take the hit" and throw him. In some cases I could jump and chuck him out of the air. He's expecting me to go for the wiff/low hit thing, so he holds off hitting roundhouse and leaves himself wide open.

They jump forward and immediately realize it was a mistake, but in the heat of the match they can't adapt and overcome their "instinctive" response. My reaction time was middle-of-the-road at best so I had to know what was coming in advance. Quick players, even with often subpar gameplans, always gave me the toughest time until I took their game into the lab for analysis.

This is all ryu/ken stuff though. Especially against good rushdown Balrogs you better have something else up your sleeve.

- j

[jcasetnl]

Originally posted by Judgment Day


:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Oh my God, that was funny! Excellent post, my friend.

PS: The death sound effect of Ken was to a tee. Also reminds me on how Ken and Ryu used to say "Shoryuken" (All You Can) like they meant it in those days. The true sign of old school :)

“eeeeeeewwwwwuuuuuhhhhhh”
--The Real Ken


That reminds me of when the slower kids would call Guile, "gully" and Ryu was still called "rye-you", back when kids would have half-hour long debates about what make and model car the bonus round Ride was or point to the old man with the cane on Bison's stage and claim he was Sheng Long.

PISS-O-PISS-O-P-PISS-OFF. Who's old skool enough to remember what fighting game that comes from? Heh heh.

Damn this thread brings back memories. Back in the Street Fighter 1 days I used to show other kids how to do the special moves in exchange for nachos and burritos...heh heh... information is power. Then they would do the same with other kids. Talk about a pyramid scheme.

I can still beat Heavy Barrel on one quarter, though. I can usually still get at least to Stage 30 in Galaga. And it would not be wise to ever throw money down against me in Moon Patrol or Spy Hunter. All that aside, I'd go so far to claim you might be totally insane to ever challenge me on 8-bit, that is, unless you can beat Metroid from start to finish in under 20 minutes or beat Gradius without any codes... heh heh. :D :cool:

peace - j

[vahe]

Originally posted by Eggo
--------------------------------
"His problem was he didn’t have the reflexes and coordination to pull off the latest combos"
------------------------------------

Sometimes I wish I had just kept that quarter in my pocket and walked.

[Eggo]

Originally posted by vahe
Sometimes I wish I had just kept that quarter in my pocket and walked.

:lol: ...and here I thought I was the old man on the board. <passes cane over to Vahe>

So why don't you share your thoughts on Tomo with the younguns?

[Million]

haha....I think I was the only one here who didn't say "Gully" when referring to Guile. I thought it was odd and couldn't possibly be correct....it doesn't even look like it's pronounced that way. :p Plus there was the word "beguiled", so I figured it was pronounced that way. Everyone here also said "rye-yuu" for Ryu, and that was NEVER corrected. For the longest time, I was probably the only one saying it the japanese way. It got to a point where I just conformed to saying "ryeyuu" just so people around me knew who the hell I was talking about.:lol: I refused to start calling Guile "gully" though....it just sounded silly.

I had a friend who swore Ken/Ryu were saying "I Got YouSurrounded!" when doing that hurricane kick....eventually he just called the move IGotYousurrounded!....like:
"Hey, how you do that IGotYouSurrounded again?"


Rumors!!! Rumors!!! anyone remember these?
--Guile can take a gun out and shoot the opponent.
--Guile could use a knife that's tucked in his boot.
--there was a way the opponent could pick up Vega's claw after it was knocked off.
--If you KOed him in a certain spot on the screen, Bison's body would break the bell in the background.
--Guile could throw his comb at the opponent.
The odd thing is....I remember people believing these....but I don't remember ANYONE falling for the legendary Sheng Long secret character joke. :lol:

[DanielLarusso]

-When the WW came to the SNES soon after there was a Game Genie code that allowed you to pick the last four bosses.

When you used the code the game was glitchy and the bosses were off color. In fact I think only two of them worked.

If you were Sagat, you were fine as long as you're throwing Tiger shots, but once you tried to Tiger Uppercut the game would freeze and you'd have to reset it.

---

My cousin's favorite character was always Sagat. Sagat was unplayable so he'd pick Ryu, and yell Tiger and Tiger Uppercut EVERY time he did a fireball or dragon punch.

---

Knowing how to do all the character's moves on command was considered "mastering" the character.

[Ultima]

Waitaminute... "Eggo"..? As in Eggo from Gamefan? :wtf:

BTW, amongst most of my friends and in my country, Ryu is still pronounced "Rye-YOU". Most of us know how it's really pronounced, but we refuse to change because we're stubborn OG bastards like that. :)

To Million:

Jesus, we've gone over and over all those stupid Sf2 rumours about 2193712937901274 times by now. But among the more famous ones you missed were Chun Li being able to throw her bracelet, being able to throw the rock in Chun Li's stage, Blanka climbing the tree in his stage, and Bison being able to hide in his bell. At least those were some of the rumours I heard in my country.

It's odd: Despite the fact that I've grown up and live in another country, the SF2 rumours that we had are pretty much the same as the ones I've heard in the US. I guess bullshit is universal. :p

[Judgment Day]

Originally posted by jcasetnl



That reminds me of when the slower kids would call Guile, "gully" and Ryu was still called "rye-you", back when kids would have half-hour long debates about what make and model car the bonus round Ride was or point to the old man with the cane on Bison's stage and claim he was Sheng Long.

peace - j

Heh...As people mentioned, a lot of gamers still call him Rye-You, even I do, though I'm aware of the correct pronounciation. Just a bad habit, I guess. Every now and then me, and my friends joke around and call Guile "gully" or break out the "Barlog" :lol:

Nothing was better than translating what was originally said to English which made absolutely no sense, like:

Somebody! = SamSho1, 3 Victory Chant

Ahh...memories :)

[ShinRyuBen]

..Oh Hell yahh!! HEAVY BARRELL!!!!!!
My mom used to work at stopNgo and lemmee tell ya' .... I played that game to no end... the best one of those DE little twisty stick games... what fun...
And as for Street Fighter... One of my friends called him "Barlog" and I always ragged on him.... but one day he showed me that it was spelled that way on the cabinet.... I felt like such a jerk....
And for the "Igotyousurrounded.." there is no fucking way he said TatsuMakiSenpuuKyaku... I always called it "Yespakjakgaroogak" (yep... I'm serious.....) and to this day if Im talkin to one of my buddies I STILL call it the "Yespakjak"... think about it.... wtf WAS he sayin????
---->>Ben

[GohanFan]

LoL, this thread is great. Funny and a history brush up. As for funny rumors:

- Guile's comb, yeah there was the throw the comb one, but I also heard from a friend back in the day that he used it as a knife or something. I swear I heard someone say to get the comb you gotta press certain buttons when he pulls it out to comb his hair for his victory pose. Too funny.

The Chun-Li rock one is interesting because the rock does appear to pop-up off the foreground because of the way the graphics are, I guess someone saw that and immediatly thought it must be useable. Too good.

This is a Mortal Kombat one but... :

-Johnny Cage has a Fatality where he does his infamous "ball punch" and juggles the guy's balls like a clown then throws them all up in the air and catches them in his mouth. :lol: Sick, funny, but I don't see how anyone could ever think it could even be remotely true. I heard this one on a school bus ride home, ages ago BTW.


General thoughts now. I mentioned this in a somewhat recent chat hosted by AMinorThreat. I think SF2 gameplay in general for people back in the day, well at least the people who were younger - was pretty funny reflecting upon it now. I believe you could sum up our Shoto gameplay like this:
Mix up Hadoken, Hurricane Kick, good old "jump kick and trip", and struggle to Shoryuken.

Great stuff.

Oh boy does my state need more SF 2 series machines.

Ryu's Hurricane Kick : "Da-da-da-dadooken."

DBZNY 5.0
http://go.to/DBZNY
-GohanFan@aol.com-

[floppydiskx]

ok...so who's tomo?

Whod he get dethroned by?

Valle? Choi? Watts?

[Josh-TheFunkDOC]

Originally posted by floppydiskx
ok...so who's tomo?

Whod he get dethroned by?

Valle? Choi? Watts?

Nobody. He just retired, IIRC.

Josh the FunkDOC

[TS]

Originally posted by GohanFan
This is a Mortal Kombat one but... :

-Johnny Cage has a Fatality where he does his infamous "ball punch" and juggles the guy's balls like a clown then throws them all up in the air and catches them in his mouth. :lol: Sick, funny, but I don't see how anyone could ever think it could even be remotely true. I heard this one on a school bus ride home, ages ago BTW.



:lol:
That was the funniest thing I've read in a long time... never heard that one before...

[smashfighter]

Heh, after reading all this I decided to pop in the ol' SF2 cartridge for SNES and DAMN! I have not enjoyed SF that much in a long time. Re-dizzy combos, covering your sweeps with fireballs, tick-throwing, just basic shit that never gets old.

Couple questions

Are there any old school SF collection games for DC or PS?

How do you do some of those Guile glitches like the invisible throwing and handcuff things, I've heard about them but never seen them. And can they be done on the SNES version.

[Million]

There are two SF Collections on Playstation. I actually forgot if I had both or not..:p It's been THAT long since I've played the system. (I destroyed my psx over 2 years ago.)

The collection I remember most is the one with Super SF2, Super SF2 Turbo, and SFAlpha 2 Gold. Alpha 2 Gold was on a second disc, and the Super games were on the first disc. The other SF Collection has regular SF2 and SF2 Champion Edition..(or Hyper? I'm not sure)
And the art for both of the SF Collections is SO damn nice....it's done by whoever the artist(s) are that did all the Rival Schools/project justice art. Of course, this means it's one of the very few SF games to be released in U.S. with GOOD box art.:p The one I have has a group shot of everyone from the Super series on the front.
*quick search*---here it is:
http://www.ciudadfutura.com/solucionesytrucos/playstation/streetfightercollection.jpg

[NemoDC]

i remember thinking during the hurricane kick "rye-you" was saying "ha-tight-tight-world wah!!"

everyone remember's rumors about how to do the "red fireball" with ryu/ken

i could've sworn one time i saw E.Honda's arm fly off and hit the guys face across the screen... but I kept that to myself.

[Antos]

Street Fighter....now that's a name I've not heard, in a long time....a long time...

I actually got started with the first street fighter on a *commodore-64*. I didn't even know how to do the moves...just, sometimes a FB or a 50% damage DP came out. The music was quite good on it, though.

Then, around 1989, when I started playing it at an Arcade in Cerritos Mall, I started learning the moves from my friend and trainer, Mohsen, and eventually we were able to have Uppercut contests, sometimes lasting half the round before someone got hit. (On that machine, the Uppercut was COMPLETELY invincible, even when landing). And we also had contests to see who could get the highest score fighting the computer (even a blocked HK gave you 5,000 points per hit, and making the CPU block and doing the HK for 4 hits, was the fastest way to jack up your score). Losing the 2nd round helped a lot here, too.
(note: getting the "highest score" in a machine card (best score ever), gave you a bunch of free tokens.

Anyway, Street fighter 2 came to our arcade late, because the manager was a jerk, and was going "VR" crazy. Anyone remember the "TIme traveler" "Hologram" game, and the "VR" action game? He didn't think SF2 was a great game, which hs REGRETTED when he found out how much money he missed, and how those "high tech" machines were TOTAL fads. We had to go play at Long Beach arcade, and a few other places, before the "TIme Out" would get a SF2 machine.

Mohsen and I had advantages when SF2 was new, since we already knew how to DP, so we could beat a lot of people. We also found out about tick chumping too, but most scrubs hated it. we used it to take advantage of a knockdown and outpredicting what the other guy was going to do.

Then (since we lived in Cerritos), we found out about World's Finest comics (in Pico Rivera) and Pacmann Arcade...and that's where I met the legendary Tomo (and a bunch of others, like George "eggo" (no offense, George :) (Ngo). It was at Pacmann where we first saw the "sitting Guile" domination of WW, when Guile's ground attacks simply had WAYY too much priority, and NOTHING in the game could hit his close standing forward kick (not even Chun Li's forward knee press, IIRC)

I still remember when Mohsen beat Tomo's Perfect Guile, with *ken*, by jumping at him without attacking, which whiffed Tomo's RH totally, and then he got tick thrown to death. From then on, Tomo used ducking Fierce....

CE came out next, and Western Arcade (in Cypress) and a donut shop by Faye Ross(?) junior high had the machines first. That Donut shop was PACKED with about 20 people...a tiny little shop. Western arcade was farther but we went there a day or two later, and it was PACKED. Two CE machines, and Mohsen figuring out that Guile was still good (but he didn't have 0 recovery after flash kick anymore). This was back before anyone knew about Ken's almighty Jumping Fierce priority. I was the first person in Cerritos to find out about this, and NO ONE at touraments knew. I was fighting some Vega player, who kept using the claw when I jumped in. Then I tried different attacks, and then saw that the Fierce, to my surprise, stuffed his claw cleanly. I then saw how dominating this Fierce was, by jumping at the CPU and outprioritizing their counters. I took this to a tournament at WF comics, and surprised everyone by jumping at Guile, and stuffing his ducking punch with my Fierce, and doing a DP for free when landing (usually a combo).

The problem was, those joysticks were like total 360 type (Super) sticks that I could NOT DP on (I could only DP on the old block-feeling (for the corners) style (Happs Competition-like) joysticks), so my Ken got pretty owned. I even surprised Sean Mann by jumping at his sagat with Ken a million times, before he figured out that vs Ken's fierce, he had to wait till the last moment before doing a TU. I can't believe none of these guys knew this (not even Tomo).

CE was really an imbalanced game, though. Bison had an *UPPERCUT* vs many players (Ducking Fierce), which totally destroyed Ryu...if Bison got close to Ryu, he could trade RH's with Ryu's FB, and nothing worked....Ryu couldn't jump (duck fierce), Ryu couldnt HK (duck fierce), Ryu couldn't DP (scissors double dizzy), Ryu couldnt FB (Bison jumps straight up or hits you with RH)...Ken was much easier to fight Bison with, than Ryu, as his jumping fierce hits Bison's ducking fierce).

The 5 best players in CE were Guile, Bison, Ryu, Sagat (who was apparently identical to SSF2 Sagat but with a "worse" fireball and MASSIVELY damaging Fierce TU) , and Dhalsim (with his fast drills, and rediculous tick traps).

I got out of tournaments after that, due to not having funds (or transportation), but I did start playing HF, and Chun (who was the same as on Ce, except with a much better SBK, and a FIREBALL), was actually a respectable player, and Blanka was mad fun.

A word about some of the matchups: when i went to Riverside, I learned that Chun was one of the best characters in HF, IF you know how to use her effectively, without making mistakes. (Her too good jump forward+throw vs Shotos was a no-brainer as long as you didnt throw them into the corner--her throw made them land at the perfect time for a middle jump hit right when they get up, and jump forward+two low forwards=fast dizzy if they miss a wakeup DP), PLUS a fireball and useful air SBK. Blanka was really good too, vertical balls=OWNAGE...Sagat and Bison were no longer the best...Bison sucked ass and Sagat had more FB recovery time now; Dhalsim was really weakened (his air drills were SLLOWWW and more vulnerable now, while given an almost useless teleport--good against blanka traps only IF you did it right). Honda destroyed Sagat with his TOO GOOD short sumo splash. Ryu, without a Bison to stuff him (HF Bison's duck fierce totally missed Ryu's HK now), and with the increased speed of HF, made him top tier.

Some people think that HF Ryu was "better" than CE Ryu, but this isn't really true. CE Ryu had gained the initial invincible frames of the HK, and faster FB, but slower ground speed (than Ken)...this was unchanged in HF. HF Ryu gained an air HK, that's the only change. Otherwise he was the _exact_same as on CE (the air HK could work for him or against him depending on distance or matchup). Both Ryu and Chun could land for free after their HK/SBK in the air and ground in HF. But what REALLY made Ryu top tier (besides the nerfing of Bison) was the faster speed of the game. This made it harder for Guile and Chun to react to Ryu's fireballs.

If HF had CE's gamespeed, then Guile would be top tier, and Ryu would probably be *Below* Chun Li (chun would be 2nd, Ryu third), since again, the faster gamespeed makes it harder for both of them to react to the fireballs. Few people realize this.
As it is now, the rankings for HF are 1:Ryu, 2:Guile/Chun (depends on who has more experience in this matchup, but Guile has a slight pull), 3:Blanka/Sagat (take your pick) 4:Ken. 5:Honda/Gief

I wont get into the ST games, since I wasn't really into the scene (besides SSF2 and some ST games in Riverside and after I came back to Cypress)

[SEbastard]

Originally posted by smashfighter
Heh, after reading all this I decided to pop in the ol' SF2 cartridge for SNES and DAMN! I have not enjoyed SF that much in a long time. Re-dizzy combos, covering your sweeps with fireballs, tick-throwing, just basic shit that never gets old.

Couple questions

Are there any old school SF collection games for DC or PS?

How do you do some of those Guile glitches like the invisible throwing and handcuff things, I've heard about them but never seen them. And can they be done on the SNES version.

nope, it can't be done on the snes version, but load up the arcade rom on your P.C. in mame...and have some guile air throw fun. I remember when we first discovered that you didn't have to throw them forward, you could throw them towards your character, and keep doing it over and over until they died. Or doing the handcuffs on someone, then releasing them 1 second before the match was over so that it wouldn't have to be restarted. Classic.

[JoelFrank]

Hey, I just figured I'd add a link to my thread here... with some info about my Street Fighting in the good old days and the opponents I met in the past, like Tomo O., Thomas O. and the good east coast old-schoolers.

http://shoryuken.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=12165

[.D.o.A.]

Best thread ever.

[Maj]

Wow. Just wow. This is hands down the best thread i've read on srk this year.

jcasetnl, Visceral_1, Eggo, vahe, urkangijordi, JoelFrank - you guys are my heroes!

Way too much fun reading these stories, trying to understand what it must have felt like to find down/back for the first time with Guile : )

[JumpsuitJesse]

This is the very first thread I have ever read from start to finish, and I must say it is by far the greatest thread ever posted on SRK!

[Visceral_1]

Hey there,

For the writers and responders who are looking at this thread.... can you please take a look at my own thread called 'Are there any scholars out there? Brainstorming...'

I make a direct reference to the people in this thread and especially some of the writers. Maybe you folks could help out an old schooler... =)

Anyways,

take it easy.

Visceral_1

[makstaks]

Hey, whats up eggo. Im from the torrance crew where roger chung played. I remember the first few times i met you we used to talk about breaking top 10 on the rankings board...on sf2 i got as far as 8 but you got farther than me though! Us guys from torrance always talked about vahe. SF2 was very scientific and we didn't understand vahe's "psychic" flash kicks. We swore, as soon as we pressed up to jump in (which rarely happened), vahe would flash kick us so early!!! He even got us a couple times when we barely had a chance to take a step forward.

Well, i have funny stories to share too. Man, i saw everything and was right at the beginning of a lot of shit...

Alladin's Castle in Torrance was the hotbed of sf1 and sf2 competition. Roger was at the top there. I came from this little arcade in hermosa beach we called 4th street. To make a long story short, i was a pretty notorious player and people from all over torrance used to come down to play me. Roger and i had serious battles...we were the best two in the area by far. I know exactly what George means when he says, if i don't know you, you already lost. Well, here's the funny part, when i would beat Roger, he would always say "cheeeter" in this real annoying way. It was just his thing. Sometime during the first couple months of sf2 Roger goes on a trip to taiwan and comes back with a very deadly new technique...we called it the "cheat move!!" He jumped in with guile or ryu with short kick, we blocked it, and he threw us as soon as he landed. It was sooo mind blowing and people was PISSED! We yelled back at roger after losing calling him a cheater...but in a friendly and joking way of course. But when we learned it and beat him he would call us a cheater. Everytime we threw after a block we just simply said "cheat". It really took a lot of skill to do it and reversing it was even harder. Only the best players could do it. Anyway, months passed and more people started using it but they started called the technique all these different type of words like "cheap" and even "cheese". What the hell? Its a cheat move dammit!!! Roger brought the cheat move to america and because people couldn't understand his freaking accent everyone started calling it CHEAP!!!

SF2 was without a doubt the best street fighter experience. Even in the beginning when we were so ignorant that we thought you could only do one flash kick or sonic boom per round. I remember i used to low roundhouse people to death who thought they were the shit on that game.

more later...
Marco

[supernewb123]

wow, what an awesome thread.
stupid me :( . when SF2 first came out, i was only about 5, and i hated sf because i didnt even know how to block, let alone do fireballs. it wasnt until about 7th grade (that would be almost 4 years ago) did i finally realize the competative potential in sf. i missed out big time.

[ChunLiKasumi]

Street Fighter 2 is the one that launched the fighting game industry. The reason why SF2 was so successful was because it was designed to be a player verses player game. What a lot of the developers realized is that a computer is a poor substitute for a human competitor because a computer has an IQ of zero. You can make the AI as complicated as you want, but eventually you will find a pattern and figure out a way to either counter or get around it. For example, take DEEPER BLUE, the biggest and most powerful supercomputer designed to play Chess. Yes, it did beat Kasparov, however, if you noticed, in the first game, Kasparov used the closed openning and completely wasted DEEPER BLUE. In the remaining games, he used the open game and the computer basically beat him by tiring him out. Kasparov didn't lose because of his skill, he lost because he couldn't beat the stamina of a supercomputer.

In the beginning, you have some guy pick a character with an abusable pattern that no one knows how to counter yet and become king of the hill. Eventually, a counter is devised, but this takes time. People investigate and this tremendously improves the life span of the game. In SF2, its history would begin with the shoto's fireball/uppercut pattern. Easy to do, very hard to counter, since no one knew how to counter it at the time. Then people who love a good challenge start to think and experiment, looking for weaknesses and lo and behold, 2 weaknesses are found. The first one involves the recovery delay between the fireball and the uppercut, which characters with really fast jumps like Blanka and Zangief can exploit. The second one lies in the fact that there is a vulnerability window at the beginning of the fireball that allows you to totally nullify the fireball and damage the shoto's at the same time if you can score a hit in this small window, which character with fast pokes like Chun Li could exploit, since she had a really high and long jump. More and more theory and analysis started coming out and more and more people started to practice. The average skill level started to rise. The potential of the other characters were being realized. You started seeing more Blanka's, Chun Li's, Guile's and Zangief's in the field. But each game has a limit as to what it can offer. Eventually, everything will be discovered and the best tactics will be laid in stone.

Then CE came out with noticable, but not any big significant changes. They were enough to change the tiers of the game, but not how each character was played. Plus the introduction of the bosses present a whole new set of posibilities to explore.

Then HF came out with big changes that were enough to change the way each character was played slighty. For example. Ryu would still use the good old fireball/uppercut trap, but not that often as characters had new ways of countering it.

SSF2T, was the game that brought about the biggest change to the way characters were played. Supers presented powerful possibilities for each character as well as powerful new threats. This combined with lots of new moves, gives the game more potential for competition. Then Capcom split the game into 3 series, Alpha, SF3 and the Vs series, each one with a different focus. There wasn't anything really special about the Alpha series, its too similar to SSF2T, Alpha combos were a nice addition, but other than that, there wasn't enough change to provoke significant change in the way the older characters were played. The Vs series brought about a massive change. Massive beam supers, crazy infinite combos, mad speed and super jump demanded a lot more reflexes that the previous SF games never required.

SF3 introduced the parry, which was enough to completely change the way each character was played over time. The change wasn't immediate because the full potential of the parry as well as the skill to utilize the parry wasn't realized, but eventually they were brought to light and lo and behold, change was everywhere. Fireball/uppercut patterns went out the window, attacking first from certain positions would never guarantee an advantage, players waking up from the ground would never always be at the mercy of some wake up block combo. The whole emphasis on patterns that was present in all previous SF games went completely out the window. This game demanded ingenuity, you had to outwit your opponent to win.

Games like SSF2 and Alpha didn't offer enough change to warrent an extended life span like HF or SF3 did. This is why games like SSF2T, HF, SF3 and the verses series are still played while games like Alpha are gathering dust in the backroom.

ChunLi

[Apoc]

Originally posted by ChunLiKasumi
Street Fighter 2 is the one that launched the fighting game industry. The reason why SF2 was so successful was because it was designed to be a player verses player game. What a lot of the developers realized is that a computer is a poor substitute for a human competitor because a computer has an IQ of zero. You can make the AI as complicated as you want, but eventually you will find a pattern and figure out a way to either counter or get around it. For example, take DEEPER BLUE, the biggest and most powerful supercomputer designed to play Chess. Yes, it did beat Kasparov, however, if you noticed, in the first game, Kasparov used the closed openning and completely wasted DEEPER BLUE. In the remaining games, he used the open game and the computer basically beat him by tiring him out. Kasparov didn't lose because of his skill, he lost because he couldn't beat the stamina of a supercomputer.

In the beginning, you have some guy pick a character with an abusable pattern that no one knows how to counter yet and become king of the hill. Eventually, a counter is devised, but this takes time. People investigate and this tremendously improves the life span of the game. In SF2, its history would begin with the shoto's fireball/uppercut pattern. Easy to do, very hard to counter, since no one knew how to counter it at the time. Then people who love a good challenge start to think and experiment, looking for weaknesses and lo and behold, 2 weaknesses are found. The first one involves the recovery delay between the fireball and the uppercut, which characters with really fast jumps like Blanka and Zangief can exploit. The second one lies in the fact that there is a vulnerability window at the beginning of the fireball that allows you to totally nullify the fireball and damage the shoto's at the same time if you can score a hit in this small window, which character with fast pokes like Chun Li could exploit, since she had a really high and long jump. More and more theory and analysis started coming out and more and more people started to practice. The average skill level started to rise. The potential of the other characters were being realized. You started seeing more Blanka's, Chun Li's, Guile's and Zangief's in the field. But each game has a limit as to what it can offer. Eventually, everything will be discovered and the best tactics will be laid in stone.

Then CE came out with noticable, but not any big significant changes. They were enough to change the tiers of the game, but not how each character was played. Plus the introduction of the bosses present a whole new set of posibilities to explore.

Then HF came out with big changes that were enough to change the way each character was played slighty. For example. Ryu would still use the good old fireball/uppercut trap, but not that often as characters had new ways of countering it.

SSF2T, was the game that brought about the biggest change to the way characters were played. Supers presented powerful possibilities for each character as well as powerful new threats. This combined with lots of new moves, gives the game more potential for competition. Then Capcom split the game into 3 series, Alpha, SF3 and the Vs series, each one with a different focus. There wasn't anything really special about the Alpha series, its too similar to SSF2T, Alpha combos were a nice addition, but other than that, there wasn't enough change to provoke significant change in the way the older characters were played. The Vs series brought about a massive change. Massive beam supers, crazy infinite combos, mad speed and super jump demanded a lot more reflexes that the previous SF games never required.

SF3 introduced the parry, which was enough to completely change the way each character was played over time. The change wasn't immediate because the full potential of the parry as well as the skill to utilize the parry wasn't realized, but eventually they were brought to light and lo and behold, change was everywhere. Fireball/uppercut patterns went out the window, attacking first from certain positions would never guarantee an advantage, players waking up from the ground would never always be at the mercy of some wake up block combo. The whole emphasis on patterns that was present in all previous SF games went completely out the window. This game demanded ingenuity, you had to outwit your opponent to win.

Games like SSF2 and Alpha didn't offer enough change to warrent an extended life span like HF or SF3 did. This is why games like SSF2T, HF, SF3 and the verses series are still played while games like Alpha are gathering dust in the backroom.

ChunLi

This is little more than a long opinion with a whole lot of ignorance. Not trying to be rude. Just clarifying that none of this is truthful knowledge and is merely someone's perspective.

Apoc.

[FMJaguar]

Originally posted by Apoc


This is little more than a long opinion with a whole lot of ignorance. Not trying to be rude. Just clarifying that none of this is truthful knowledge and is merely someone's perspective.

Apoc.

Yes, Describing SF3 series with "This game demanded ingenuity, you had to outwit your opponent to win." Is a sure fire give away.

[makstaks]

Apoc, i know you have stories. Please share em. I have a question for you. I remember seeing you alot in LA but i know you're from vegas. Didn't you live in LA during sf2? What arcade did you practice at?

Here's something that baffled me. I met some friends in San Bernardino at a real ghetto arcade called lazer blast. Me and this guy from there named kha discovered the dhalsim invisible glitch and how to get out of the handcuffs. Someone else later figured out that you could do the magic throw without being in handcuffs...dammit, we didn't try that. I only showed 2 people the dhalsim glitch and 1 week later i go to vegas and you guys were trying to do it. How did you find out? It wasn't like we were trying to hide it, but i remember egm had a $50 bug contest back then and kha wanted to keep it hush so we could split it. :evil:


Alright. Back in the day, these were the hottest Socal arcades to go to....IMO :)
- Alladin's Castle in Del Amo mall Torrance. After super turbo its become an absolute piece of sh!t. Im bitter because torrance had a lot of good players but since the arcades went to hell everyone is gone.
- 4th street in Hermosa Beach. My local training grounds...RIP.
- 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.
- Circus Circus in Las Vegas...this was my favorite place of all. I was there on memorial weekend at the same time Tomo was. We split rounds with Guile on SF2 and nobody beat us once. Practically played 8 hour shifts on one quarter. Whenever we lost a round, people would cheer like crazy. It was awesome. There was a crowd of about 50 people and at least 3 video cameras taping us at one time. Days like that made SF2 so awesome...wasn't even a tournament. Too much fun.
- LACC. We heard about the good players but we rarely went there. People really hated throwing. One time my friends had an incident with a shotgun there. So we stopped going. This place and Mission Control in Garden Grove were the most dangerous arcades ive been too.
- Pac Mann in Pasadena. This place is legendary. When everywhere else closed, people went to pacmann. I think they had 25 SF2 machines at one time.
- Laser Blast, Arrowhead Lanes, and Inland Mall in san bernardino. These guys didn't know anything when i first started going there but caught on incredibly fast.
- Granada Hills (family fun?) arcade. Solid upper tier competition pretty much all the time. Even today i hear. Serious battles.
- SHGL. Just to let you know, we never heard of any good players from here. This was a scrub beat down spot up until A2 when Valle came out of nowhere. I wasn't there, but after Valle took the first A2 tourny, people thought it was a fluke. People said he won the tournament just from AC'ing with ken. I was thinking WTF? So i play this dude at SHGL and beat him a few times with Guy. He keeps coming back for more. I remembered playing him once before on A1 Ken vs. Guy at beach and warner arcade. Reason why i remembered is because he had the best cross ups and combos ive ever seen. Anyway, while he's putting in another token, Watson shows up and tells me im playing against the dude who won the A2 tourney. What!?! As soon as i knew it was valle he's owned me ever since. :bluu: His play style defied old schooler logic...way too random attacking and jumping in! But his attack and reflexes were just solid.

[basic]

Don't let this thread die...

Memories not in any particular order:

-Remembering seeing a HF or turbo machine everywhere I went (wal mart, MCD, Burger king, yes they had them!) and always finding people to play.
-Some guy who did nothing but threw fireballs and uppercuts, he was unbeatable.
-The excitment of hearing about HF!
-Going to arcades JUST to play SF and nothing else (well maybe some MK).
-Getting WW for SNES and getting my ass whooped by my scrubby friends (at the time I sucked)
-Getting my ass handed to me by CPU chunli and blanka
-Bison's zigzag pattern!
-The SF guide my friend got for xmas which I borrowed and studied religiously
-Hitting puberty and finding chunli attractive
-Playing SF on a big screen at the wharf (even tho it was rainbow edition)
-Being somewhat let down my the Alpha series and Super/Super turbo
-Would of killed a man for a copy of SSF for SNES but only to be let down
-Boss code for WW using game genie
-My friend teaching me how to play SF and telling me about it (it's sad how I can beat them now very easily)
-Death of SF and arcade scene...

Street Fighter... my best friend, my first love, forever and always.

[Figthermaster]

This is so very interesting... read almost all of it.

Does any of you people play old street fighter on the internet? By ANY chance? I've been looking for your kind for a while...

So please let me know, I want competition.

[ShinkuuR]

*Bumps thread out of respect.*

[Ryu & Ken]

man this takes me back to my youth in England, nearly all the stories are true, who here remembers when the Sheng long story came, where you could fight him after bison or he beats up bision and you had to do some psycho thing to fight him, like perfect everybody or something like that. Hey I was 13 when championship edition came out and that story sounded creditable, yo Apoc or liquir storyteller man you guys want to back me on this and tell the young uns about it. The past, tell us about the past

[Ryu & Ken]

errrr bump!

[fishjie]

damn i just stumbled onto this thread and its awesome! BIZUMP!!!

oman those were some awesome stories guys it makes me sad that I was too young to be around for the old school scene.

it sux, i finally get into fighting games (VS series), but arcades are on their way out, dying left and right, with capcom abandonining its fans and stuff. Damn if i had just been born a coupla years before... 20 people in line for sf? 6 machines dedicated to it? a machine in every 7-11, liquor store, restaraunt??? :mad:
WTF happened to all that shit. this thread made me sad, but it makes me wanna learn how to play SF2 now. gonna play on emulator now.

dude, the part of the story where jcase (sp) compares the dragging out of the SF2 cabinets out like a funeral procession made me really sad. so did the ominous part about rushing into to play the new SSF2, only to see that the room was empty. that is fucking good short story material.

[RoninChaos]

I'm not able to say all of what I want to as elegantly as the others on this thread, but here goes.

I'll never ever forget the first time I played SFI, or SFII. I played the first one at the galleria mall where I hung out a lot and just chilled. There was this black guy there in his 20s who played the game. I walked up and asked if I could play. I was like 6 at the time I think. Played him, and just slapped buttons. I went a few rounds and he looked down at me and said "no no, you play the game like this" and showed me. Even taught me how to do a fireball after I'd come back to the arcade a few times. I'll never forget it.

The first time I played Street Fighter II was at Malibu Speed center by Town Center mall. Back then the place was like a giant warehouse with a go-cart track. I stayed all day playing as Ryu. I was hooked. Just like everybody else has stated on this thread, Street Fighter II was so different from anything that you HAD to come back for more. I remember trying to get rides everywhere so I could spend every day after school playing SF.

Later on, obviously, it all dried up. For the longest time I thought nobody played SF here in ATL. Then I found SRk and that kind of changed everything. I'm very thankful to the people who run this site because it allowed me to get in touch with people who've loved the game as long as I have, and who love the compitition it brings.

[Muskau]

It's so great to read about the birth of the fighting genre and the excitement of those days.

I only got into SF during the Alpha 2/EX era, so most of the hard work was already done for us, we had magazines and internet FAQ's. I can just imagine the stuff people would talk about gathered around the machines and telling each other what Ryu's DP is and how to fireball trap...

I think that's a once in a lifetime experience... and I missed it! Awww crap. :bluu:

[marvelscrub]

Originally posted by smashfighter
Are there any old school SF collection games for DC or PS?

How do you do some of those Guile glitches like the invisible throwing and handcuff things, I've heard about them but never seen them. And can they be done on the SNES version.

The PSX Collection with CE/HF is -GREAT- It has a "Deluxe Versus" mode which is awesome IMO.. You can pick The WW/CE/or HF version of your character and challenge another WW/CE/or HF character.

Anyhow, The only glitches in it with WW Guile are magic throw, and free boom charge after strong throw... So repeated OTG magic throws are easy. :) Mwahahah..

Just so you know.

[Muskau]

The load times are annoying though, sometimes its like sfa2 loaded faster!

[REALPLAYER]

This thread is top-tier.


Originally posted by Eggo

So it was established Pico Rivera was where the best Street Fighter players in Los Angeles played. But how did LA compare to the rest of the world? We were about to find out as we took our first trip outside LA in search of the true World Warrior…

OK, don't keep us in suspense, what happened next????
This shit is like a daytime soap opera for SFers. :D :lol:
The story MUST be told!!

[ShinRyuBen]

Originally posted by fishjie
damn i just stumbled onto this thread and its awesome! BIZUMP!!!

oman those were some awesome stories guys it makes me sad that I was too young to be around for the old school scene.

it sux, i finally get into fighting games (VS series), but arcades are on their way out, dying left and right, with capcom abandonining its fans and stuff. Damn if i had just been born a coupla years before... 20 people in line for sf? 6 machines dedicated to it? a machine in every 7-11, liquor store, restaraunt???
its true... and I loved it... and Ive seen alot more than just 20 people waitning to play.... "I've got up's... "
--------->>Ben

[SmoothCat]

man im new school only played 3 times at the arcade's wish i could of been born back in those days cant wait till im older and actually have a job to get money to go to paridise:D

and thanks 2 the guys who shared all those storys from ther personal life big ups to you cats

[BEWD]

Yeah this thread really deserves a 5 rating and most importantly... a stickie(can a mod please sticky this thread)?

[Skyler]

Yea, those were the good old timez where everybody gather and a tradition started cause of SF2 been so popular. My 1st ever SF character was Ryu and will always be Ryu threw thick and thin. I feel like i can still go down to a local store and find a SF2 arcade rite next to the doors, pop in quarter and play some SF, but now its a thing in the past. Wonderful stories here about the old schools SF2 that even brought tears to my eyez. Ryu,Ken, and Chun-Li will always be the 3 heroes of fighting gamez and will always live on to do so. SF2 is a once in a life time experience that will never happen again, but atleast we felt that experience while it lasted. :D

[Pained Auron]

i miss these days:(

[Ryu & Ken]

man I was 11 was SF2 came out and was I the only one when the game finished and after I used Ryu. After when u come out u start shouting hadoken and shoryuken but the hurraicane kick was hard 4 me 2 pronounce, so I used 2 say hacha hacha burger, like Ryu just came from Mcdonalds like that, yes please I would like a hacha hacha burger

[BEWD]

Sorry,but I really felt this should be bumped.

[loco]

I remember when Championship Edition first came out Alex Valle and I were at a liquor store and he beat so many people and people were so mad that they unpluged the machine and made him leave. That had to be the funniest shit ever......

[BEWD]

Originally posted by loco
I remember when Championship Edition first came out Alex Valle and I were at a liquor store and he beat so many people and people were so mad that they unpluged the machine and made him leave. That had to be the funniest shit ever......

:lol: Indeed.

[Judgment Day]

Here is a post from jcasetnl on the ShinAkuma forums. Definitely worth the read and worthy of the subject at hand.

http://www.shinakuma.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=980

[Brutha' Mayne]

hmm...

i remember when i first saw sf2. i was like 8 or so? 7 or 8...anyways, it was awesome. i don't quite remember the feeling i had for it, but me and this dude named ken(who was damn good at the game) played all night on his super nintendo. my first game for super nintendo was sf2. oh man, guile was who everyone played as back in the day where i'm from. we were fascinated by his hair, his air throw, flash kick, and sonic boom.
oh man, guile > 3 all of us at the time.
i used to play this in the arcade all the time. that or simpsons arcade game and xmen arcade game. this is ol' skool...brings back nice memories, heh. anyways, i remember when sf had commercials on tv(ssf for snes) and they had one for championship edition i believe. my friends and i tried to draw the cover for that game. all we did was collect video game magazines and shit. gamepro, gamefan, game players, egm, egm2 when that came out a lil later, etc. this is back when egm was like mad pages long. like thick as hell.:(
its not just streetfighter for me, its video games at that time period. i had to post in here out of respect too, even if i wasn't in cali, and around the real pro's. i remember seeing choi and valle winning every tournament in all the magazines. heh.

sf has to be on my top list of games that changed my life. that and mario 1, 3, and world
mortal kombat 2
killer instinct
virtua fighter 2 and fighter's megamix
chrono trigger and mario rpg
parasite eve and brave fencer musashi
final fantasy 7
river city ransom
simpson's arcade game and xmen arcade game
donkey kong country1 and 2
sfer series including marvel vs capcom 1 and 2 and 3s and alpha 3
honorable mentions :bubble bobble, mario 2, tetris, kirby's dreamland, teenage mutant ninja turtles 2 and 3, contra series, sonic 1, 2, and 3.
:( i wish games were like they used to be. hard as hell and fun at the same time, so you'd keep coming back for more.

[Zeidust]

Hey don't forget about PIT FIGHTER!
Man..people were flocking to that game like shit on flys. How wrong they were. People gave up on that shit when they realized what you could do in SF.

Hey EGGO, question for you. What is your connection to GameFan? That mag was the bible to my friends and I. I ask because I want to know what happened to Nick Rox? his support of street fighter in the 90's was wonderful. when was the last time you picked up a game magazine with a 2D fighting game on the cover?

[Gouki Hinogami]

Bump.

Any chance we could get the end of the story?

[megatron420]

tomo still lives in SOCAL. after chapionship edition he got into PC games. now he plays in a basketball league with a co-worker of mine, and the only games he plays now is counter-strike and warcaraft3. he was a GREAT SF2 player, BUT only with guile. i would work his ass if he was anyone else....BUT when he chose guile, it was over for everyone that challenged him.


I recently found out about roms and emulators, im so happy that i can play street fighter everyday now for FREE. damn i spent so many quarters. i remember stealing a guys bike because he would keep short, short throwing me. Damn that used to piss me off so bad.

anyways i heard that u can play mame roms online? are there many sf2 players online?

[CptMunta]

In New Zealand

there's never been that many Street Fighter Contests. (Except for a lame high score ones).

There was kind of an unoffical tornament down at the arcade in the centre of Town every Saturday night.

Wizards "Free Play" night. $5 for 5 hours of free play on all the machines in the arcade Super Turbo was the latest SF.

Me and my best friend would spar during the week on our Megadrives. And then go into the city on the weekend.

The unwritten rules were: You lose the fight step away from the machine. Then the next player challenges the winner. But that did'nt stop beginners from challenging again and again. Hogging the machine. While the "Real" Players had to wait. "I'm allowed to play whatever machine I want!" was there only defence. But even losers can only take so many perfects. "You did'nt even let me get a hit! That's not fair!" "Thats right..... It isn't."

Me and my friend ruled the Hyper Fighting machine. But it was so popular at the time we always had quite a few

There were some Excellent Japanese players. And the games were always very friendly. We all shared techniques with each other. Super Turbo was the hot machine since it did'nt see the light of day on home consles for years. In New Zealand, people would laugh at you for choosing Dhalism. Such was many a players folly.

And when we found out about choosing Akuma! Man things got very interesting.

The joy of when I first found out and unlocked him.

Wizards is now shut.

Ahhhhh.... I miss thoughs days.

[Jahnli]

I have a slight memory of Street Fighter I, but I had zero interest in it - our version had freaking punch pad controls. Space Harrier was my game.

Street Fighter II at the local bowling alley. Now that's where the action was in the 80's. Who bothered with Ikari Warriors or Marble Madness when you had SFII? I was in the Atari 2600 generation, so SFII was just amazing graphically. I tried Ryu (like everyone) at first, but i just couldn't get a hold of the "all-you-can" (my friend still calls the Shoryuken that lol) so like a wuss I switched to the "easier" chun-li.

Chun-Li got housed BAD for a long time - everyone and their mother seemed to have an attack to stop her. I couldn't even figure out E.Honda's stupid torpedo - and definitely not the much faster "Blanka Ball." When i managed to stumble past Vega (damn that fence-clinging divebomb!) and sagat to get to Bison, that damn psycho-crusher was SO annoying! The only thing that kept me in the game was a guaranteed air throw as time began - Bison always jumped for you.

I finally figured out how to stop body projectiles (i love you, flying knee!) and practiced my triangle of death and hesitation moves (they still work on kaillera opponents lol!) and most important - timing and distance. Remember, SFII = no kikouken. There were alot of ways that SFII was cheap, but i'll always look fondly on Chun Li v.1 - simple and badass. The best player (and my greatest adversary) was Dolphin Man, a dude in a Miami Dolphins jacket that played Guile like this...sonic boom forever until you got close enough to get flash kicked. I loved the rounds where i feinted inside, and had him miss on a flash kick - or even better pretended to feint, and froze him as i walked right up to him and threw him.

college in the 90's brought Champion Edition (what is up with these funky strong kick forward flips and forward kick backflips?) and my indoctrination to the Tap-Throw. my poor sheltered upbringing didn't prepare me for the national (and international) strategies campus life brought- that was 4 years of dog-eat-dog, and the competition there was fast and furious (and so was the smack talk). the sad thing was going back home and seeing dolphin man - i destroyed him regularly, and seeing him change to ken after losing with his best player guile in a futile attempt at a change of tactics was even sadder.

finally it was graduation time. hyper fighting was an interesting development - chun li can throw fireballs! well, sorta. and those bootleg boards where chun li could spinning bird kick (i called them "helicopter kicks") on top of the screen and all the way across at lightning speeds...a fun diversion but i still preferred SFII:CE. by this time i have to admit i was getting a little bit of the SFII burnout - and all the etiquette like a pity round and no tap-throw went out the window by the time Super SFII came out. I never did get used to Chun Li having that kicking uppercut thing - i considered it just another Shotokan wannabe move.

Believe it or not, I only played 1 or 2 games total of SF Alpha and SFIII - i missed out on that whole generation. By that time the arcades weren't what they used to be and i felt lame going to a place where families brought their toddlers to play mini-skeeball and daytona USA. SFII was about novelty and originality, and arcades were too - it was a fresh experience. SFII:CE was about the competition and hardcore strategy - college was a good stomping ground for that. nowadays i'll take my kid cousins to the arcade to play the latest 2-dollar tourist trap.

I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving when i'll drag out my import dreamcast games inbetween watching the kids play their uber-slick xbox and ps2 games. i think the future is definitely online, and if there is a future for SFII, it will have to find a way to recapture that old magic in this new format.

[Apoc]

Originally posted by megatron420
tomo still lives in SOCAL. after chapionship edition he got into PC games. now he plays in a basketball league with a co-worker of mine, and the only games he plays now is counter-strike and warcaraft3. he was a GREAT SF2 player, BUT only with guile. i would work his ass if he was anyone else....BUT when he chose guile, it was over for everyone that challenged him.


I recently found out about roms and emulators, im so happy that i can play street fighter everyday now for FREE. damn i spent so many quarters. i remember stealing a guys bike because he would keep short, short throwing me. Damn that used to piss me off so bad.

anyways i heard that u can play mame roms online? are there many sf2 players online?

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.

Apoc.

[fluxcore]

Originally posted by CptMunta
In New Zealand

Wizards is now shut.

Ahhhhh.... I miss thoughs days.

Was this up in Auckland? I'm in Hamilton. Never any tournaments here, either. Hell, we don't even have any COMPETITION here. There's about 2 dudes that play MvC2 that are worthwhile. Everyone else plays tekken tag or *coughs* Soul Calibur 2... in campaign mode. No 2p there.

--flux

[megatron420]

naw im not saying he completely dropped sf2, but he just didnt play it as much as he played WW and CE. i dunno, i didnt think he was that great with other characters, but thats just my opinion.

me, i lived in Orange County Ca. in my area there were a few MAIN arcades...Clubhouse pizza, YOGI's, golfland on beach, and beach and warner arcade. my friends and i pretty much destroyed everyone there.

[Apoc]

Originally posted by megatron420
naw im not saying he completely dropped sf2, but he just didnt play it as much as he played WW and CE. i dunno, i didnt think he was that great with other characters, but thats just my opinion.

me, i lived in Orange County Ca. in my area there were a few MAIN arcades...Clubhouse pizza, YOGI's, golfland on beach, and beach and warner arcade. my friends and i pretty much destroyed everyone there.

Golfland was "ok" at that time and beach and warner was better but not by much. Which Yogi's? Anaheim? Don't remember clubhouse pizza.

At that time I would have to say that Camelot had the best comp since Schaefer would bring down LA guys like Tomo or Watson or other World's Finest players. Tomo, Jeff and myself went down to Golfland on Beach once and it was pathetic. I didn't go there again until A2 days when Valle brought the comp level there higher than ever.

Tomo would pick Bison on CE vs Sim. I wasn't around during WW but seeing Tomo on CE and HF I'd have to say that HF was his highlight time(discounting WW since only one could pick Guile). His Ryu was incredible. Ryu was his main character in HF. He never needed a back up character. On CE he needed Bison to compete vs. Sim.

He always had the Vega weakness, imo. Still, even today, I think Daigo is the only player that's reminded me of Tomo's level. While not untouchable, surely dominant.

You should nag that foo to give SF tourneys one more go. A decade off is more than enough to get over the boredom of winning:P Although, there is a lot more stupid shit nowadays that I'm sure he'd find distasteful, lol.

Apoc.

[epsilon_]

Great thread. I played SF2:CE when I was like 3 and I've loved SF ever since. It's funny how im kind of an old school SF player (even though I only got out of scrubdom last year) and I'm only 15.

[megatron420]

as for yogi's there was the one in anaheim and the one in garden grove. we went to both. the funny thing is that i still go to camelot sometimes, but of course there are no sf2 players there. there is a lot of svc players though. i have never tried SVC yet, i guess im more into the old school.


i know this sounds weird but this is how it was.....i could beat tomo, tomo would kill my friend ching, but ching would kill me. i guess we had our own styles, and it depends on how a person adapts to ones style. i just never had a hard time against tomo when he was ryu.

[TS]

Everyone in this thread needs to get their hands on the evo2k3 dvd (find someone who bought it, and then beat them up and take their copy, whatever just get it). ST Final 8....crazy.

[CptMunta]

Hey Flux Core,

The 1 Street Fighter High score contest we had was in Christchurch at "The Toy Warehouse".

It really sucked. You went in and played their Megadrive (Genesis for USA peps) and tryed to get the biggest high score in 10 mintues. I think you won a Copy of the game and 2 6 button controllers it was probably around 9 years ago. (Man I'm Old)

Most people (Like me) worked out that you could just lower the diffcultly to one star but the speed up to max and keep doing Psycho Crushers and keep getting perfects. Lame.

Alot of people play the KOF series down here. But Capcom Vs SNK 2 gets quite a bit of attention.

But I know your woes. Playing the computer too much and not many humans makes you very sloppy I reckon. Cos' when you finally do get to fight someone real. People end up overpredicting there oppentents, thoughing their mind games (My favourite thing about the game) outta whack.

[kev_the_bev]

Originally posted by Visceral_1
I
I remember for me going to the Scarborough Town Center in

Scarborough Town Center? I was there yesterday.

[Richard]

Memories of SF1: Played the rubber-pad strength version once and thought it was a bit of a gimmick. Started playing the microswitch button version and the first round I ever played was against Birdie and I got caned.

Eventually got the hang of blocking (defeat Mike on timeout by crouching in the corner!), but special moves were still touch-and-go. Bonus rounds were interesting at the time. Got to Adon on one credit a few times, and Sagat once or twice. Overall just saw it an "another beat'em'up" and still preferred Double Dragon and others.

Later got the game when it was released on the ZX Spectrum home computer. Not a good conversion (monochrome, and no blocking!!)

Memories of Human Killing Machine: HKM was the unofficial sequel to SF1, released by US Gold in 1989. It was out on the 8 and 16-bit computers of the day, and used exactly the same game engine as the home versions of SF. You played Kwon and visited Moscow, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Germany and Beirut. The background graphics were the only good point about it.

Memories of SF2WW: played arcade WW a few times before it came out on Nintendo. Liked Ryu/Ken/Guile. CPU Zangief was easy, but Honda and others were hard... Played Nintendo version and got the hang of using the other characters. Returned to arcades in time for SF2'CE and the craze had really taken off. My small local had about 3 or 4 machines that were busy nonstop for several hours a day (continuous at weekends). People still prefered Ryu/Ken, but I got into Blanka and Sagat and others. Bootlegged/hacked BlackBelt/Rainbow Editions came out (mad KOs at time=97), followed by the official Hyper Fighting which also had people hooked.

By the time Super came out, some people had moved to the home scene (Hyper on MegaDrive etc), but many still carried on in the arcades. People had got a lot better and were starting to show real style by then. Unfortunately, tourneys never really took off in Essex... By Super Turbo, it was starting to slow down.

From Alpha 1 and 2 onwards, the machines were getting harder to find, and the rest is history...

[Nokato]

Originally posted by Eggo






Yes.


OMG. I thought you were from Gamefan from the Avatar but wow thats pretty neat that you post here. Gamefan was the shit IMO, it was like the only magazine I cared to even purchase. No one had hi res pics and detailed commentary on SF like GF. Sadly, enough I got into competitive SF during the Battle By the Bay days and didnt really know Ohira Tomo or Thomas Osaki ( only knew of them ) but it all because of the Versus Games Book I was instantly hooked on A2. Hearing the amazing final match between Choi and Valle was great only wish that I couldve been there for it. Schaefer, Vega, Doung, Waston..I wished that I couldve seen all of them play A2. I went to B5 but A2 was long and gone and probably with good reason by that time. Nothing was to be found in that game since it was broken down so easily.

I got into the tourney hardcore 2 years ago and pretty much stopped after B5. (realized capcom released 2 really horrible games and that I was trying to play serisously). Its so nice to read about a better time...an altgames.sf2 time. A time I wish I had a chance to experience and learn from the best of the Era. Because in all honesty it still is the Era. This thread is great hopefully it wont die soon. Thanks for your input as well as jcasesntl and the many others who put their story. I would put my own but its merely pale in comparison to the great times had on WC in SF. Makes me miss my time as well but its something I wont forget.

Thank you

Where is Tomo nowadays...and Osaki?

[rrehmann82]

This is a gold mine of history information. :D

[fatherbrain]

Sweet sweet memories. Always been a gamer myself, but never really got into sf2 till it came to snes, seeing as how we had 1 arcade in town with it, and no one ever played it. (believe it or not, maybe cuz it's a military town, and 90% of the time, the sticks were broken). Anyway, this Korean kid- neighbor of mine, got it for the snes, and it took mew forever to learn how to do a fireball. I could do charge moves with no problem, but fireballs? hell no. When I finally got it right (yoga fire) I was extatic! then came the 1/2 circle moves (yoga flame!) and i could even take on James (korean kid from earlier) and even beat him on occasion. Then came the day that I was playing hf on the snes, and i sat there for an hour, learning the dp motion. (tiger uppercut!) My first uppercut hooked me all over again. I went on to beat the damn thing with sagat, and realized there was one more move missing. (having gotten the tiger knee motion with no problems at all). The ever-elusive 360. I had gotten to the point where I thought it was impossible, then suddenly hit me..... JUMP< DUMBASS! I jumped straight up, spun my pad wildly till i landed, and as soon as I landed, pressed jab. OMG! the rush! (have since learned how to properly tick, etc.) Since then,. I have always had an affection for the big bastard, Violent Z... As it turns out nowadays, I have to play online on kaillera to find anyone to play against (hit me up, will ya?) cuz everyone here refuses to play me. It got so bad with the lack of opponents, i started to play, but nt so well, in the hopes of NOT winning, cuz if I let them win on occasion, people would continue to play me. anyway, you can often find me on kaillera (and zbattle if it ever comes back up), still chugging away on the old sf ce and ssf2t games. dling ww tonight...hehe.... Those were the days, and online, they still are the days.................

[=dave=]

I remember renting Street Fighter 2 for the SNES system again and again until I was able to save up $70 and buy my own copy of it at KBToys in the mall. I was so proud of myself and back then it was an unheard of investment on my part. That summer I played it nonstop every day, for the entire summer. I remember Playing a few people at the local bowling alley at this game, which later turned out to have some glitches found in the Rainbow Edition. I thought that E.Honda was top tier and was suprised to find out that Ryu was generally the favorite. So I played people at the bowling alley off and on, although the most popular game there was Mortal Kombat (saw a fight break out over a game of it one time). By the time Super Turbo came out I was back to the rental store picking it up for weeks at a time. Never picked up my own copy and didn't really get into the games until Street Fighter Versus X-Men came out into arcades on my birthday and I dropped $40 in quarters into it that first night. I went on to buy the Sega Saturn and got into the imported games. Now I'm finding myself unable to purchase the Japanese PS2 and get into games like HSF2:AE, but I guess it's ok since I'm too old for these games. :D

[Gen-An]

I started SF back in 92 when CE was already out (pretty much skipped WW, and while I had played SF1 once before SF2 came out it didn't really count for anything). I was 13 in junior high school and Atlanta was (still is really) the capital of scrubdom; no throw was in full effect although a few "cheap" guys bucked the system (LOTS of fights and a few shooting deaths to show for it :eek: ). My main hangout besides the local mall arcade was a little small "arcade" at a flea market in Decatur, GA. I dunno if you could even call it an arcade; it was a few machines tucked away in a corner of the building. By the time I started playing all the moves were well known and published in gaming magazines, but performing them was another matter entirely. My god was my execution horrible, flinging the stick around and wondering why my FBs and DPs weren't coming out consistently :lol: I swear it took me a full year to get DPs out 75%.

There were mostly us newbies playing at the old Flea Mart 285, but a few guys would come in and lay the smack down. I remember playing this little kid (he couldn't have been more than 8 or 9) and getting my butt handed to me. Coming from playing games like TMNT, X-Men, Final Fight etc I was completely oblivious to any other way of playing a video game besides using patterns. But this kid, he actually seemed to *think* when he was playing. Everytime I'd throw a FB with Ryu he'd jump it (or jump over me) and throw me. I'd get up and foolishly throw another FB and he'd just jump it and throw me again. HE WAS UNBEATABLE:lol: The first time I managed to beat that kid I felt like I had overcome a major obstacle in my SF gaming life.

The only semblance of high level play I ever experienced in Atlanta around that time was one day in a laudromat where I used to play HF (BTW I was horrified when HF came out, it was TOO FAST). There was this one guy using Chun Li in a way I had never seen. I'd just lost to this guy using those darned jump in "cheaps" (which of course were IRREVERSABLE:rolleyes: ) and this guy steps in. This guy was out-throwing the thrower! He even managed to *reverse* those jump in tick throws. And he was spacing and zoning and playing footsies (walk up throw after whiffed low rh might seem elementary to people out West but I'd never seen anything like it). And that was the first time I'd seen anyone do Chun's air SBK. I should have quizzed the guy for all he knew but I figured I could get it all from the magazines because THEY WERE THE EXPERTS OF COURSE:rolleyes: Darn Gamepro and southeastern Atlanta comp, I could have become so much more...

[ltron2020]

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:

[Jion_Wansu]

Ok,

The first time i saw an SF2:WW machine was in December of 1991 (I was 11) at a bowling alley in San Jose, California. I was like, what's this?? So I watched this kid play with Ryu. i asked him, "How do you do a fireball?" He was like, " Half circle forward and strong." So I figured only strong could do it, but I was wrong. Anyways, he got up to Vega, and Vega perfect him twice. I've never seen anyone get passed Vega for a few months.

Then in my hometown (which was Morgan Hill, California) at the time had a bowling alley, Safeway, and a Mountain Mike's Pizza within 500 meters of eachother. All 3 places had SF2:WW and people played that more than other games.

I used to frequent that place and a local 7-11. I used to remember two hispanic guys do the draw glitch all the time. You know the

"ROUND 9"
"FIGHT!"

That was a classic which they later fixed.

Before SF2:WW I used to play Double Dragon, Shinobi, and Final Fight as some of the fighting games. I loved the part in DD where Spike and Hammer (wow i remember their names) had to fight eachother at the end. And of course Shinobi was a classic with that Ninja Magic. The Shinobi and Double Dragon sound track were also good for its' time. Anyways back to SF2.

Dhalsim: Had a dissapear glitch. I was like, "That's cheap". Also I saw some people do Guile's air throw (some of you called it magic throw) 100 % of the time. I was like dude.

In school we always talked about it, and yes, sometimes mimicked the moves during recess. We never got hurt of course, because the punch would be 2 feet away and we'd pretend to fall. Bison's torpedo was called "blue flame" and Guile's summersault was called Jacknife or flash kick.
We called it flash kick more often though. Some kid was like, "I see you at 7-11 all the time. They got a new SF2 there where you can pick the boss characters." I said, "Yeah right."

So I went there and looked, low and behold they had it. My first character I picked in SF2:CE was Sagat, 'cause I always liked his music and cheapness in WW. During the fight I tried to mimic the SF2:WW Sagat, and noticed the basic moves changed some. Like the standing short kick was fast whereas in WW it was just as slow as a roundhouse and took damage like a roundhouse. Needless to say I was the reigning champ for a while with Sagat, Bison, and Vega, countering everything and stuff, until people came up with the cross-ups and stuff.

It seemed like no one could beat Bison in WW for a long while, until the pattern was found.

After CE I saw another version of SF2 where Blanka turned into Ryu during his head bite. I was like man, this SF2 kinda sux. This was around the same time Mortal Kombat hit the arcades. Half the SF2 players went from SF2 to MK (me included).

I didn't start playing a street fighter game again until MK3 came out, since I only like MK1 and MK2 in the MK series.

Currently I'm playing CVS2 and will be playing the anniversary edition on PS2 once I get it. If Hyper Street Fighter 2: Anniversary Edition hits the arcades.....well that's gonna be like my second home. I'm gonna get rehooked to Street Fighter.

Also, would've been cool if they maintained all the glitches from all the Street Fighter 2's in the anniversary edition.

[Richard]

Originally posted by Jion_Wansu
I loved the part in DD where Spike and Hammer (wow i remember their names)

Actually, weren't they called Billy and Jimmy Lee? Maybe they changed it for the USA or something.

Guile's summersault was called Jacknife or flash kick.

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!)

until people came up with the cross-ups and stuff

Yeah. At one point one of those 200page strategy guides was printed and I picked up a copy. That's when I got crossups and stuff. It had "in-depth" tactics and "killer combos", and it even had an interview with the emerging top players of the time. Happy days trying to do the double jump hurricane fever!

It seemed like no one could beat Bison in WW for a long while, until the pattern was found.

Yeah. I'd defeated him on the arcade a couple of times, but he was especially difficult on Difficulty 8 on the home versions. After spending something like 10 hours one night continuing on level 8 (and using every approach possible), I finally beat him. After that, the arcade seemed like a walkover!

Half the SF2 players went from SF2 to MK (me included).
Only a small number of players in my town started on MK. I played it a handful of times but never got into it.

[Muskau]

I'm just wondering if there was anyone here who knew what the SF scene in Australia was 90-95? I dunno much, I figure the most comp was in Sydney and Melbourne. And I was too young and broke to be wandering arcades.

KOF got really popular around 96 or so, mostly because of the HUGE comp that came from the chinese/phillophines/indonesian/japanese players that were doing their business/IT degrees, and they still are. Once per year you'll usually get an influx of new expert players from different countries who dominate the KOF machines for awhile. And since there's only one decent arcade in this city every wednesday thursday night during the school year is practically a mini tournament on a random machine. I remember when a whole bunch of 20 asian guys came out of _nowhere_ and started playing SFA3 using V-Dhalsim, X-Adon, V-Ryu, A-Chun, A-Bison, V-Vega... it was a nice sight to see.

[Dasrik]

Osaki was at Evo2002.

[*InVeRs3*]

Hah! Kof players in the philippines are the best.

Hi I'm a yung old schooler. My much older cousins played this game all the time. My cousins in the bay were really good. I had a cousin from canada who was good and the philippines too. I pretty much played the best players in their respective regions and that's how I got better. Canadian players are scarry. Peapo if u play a canadian get ready for a fight.
I used to hate sf2, but I somehow liked it, maybe because hadukens were cool. My much older cousins don't play anymore. I was really really yung bak then. Now I'm 16.

And arcades nowadays, ddr and initial d. I don't play ddr and initial d because I'm loyal to sf. Yeah I know its stupid but I'm jealous that ddr has so much attention from average joes looking inside the arcade. I remember when sf was all the talk, sf is one of the top 5 sellingest franchises in history and now its become a "why play cartoony games that are not 3d? Play games murderers and terrorists and perverts and the morbidly stupid play like ddr and counter strike" onlookers give just some respect to ddr peapo. No one cares about sick combos and setups. Boo.

[m121akuma]

Bump, to remember times past, and as a hope for the times ahead.

Thank me later.

[TheIlluminati]

Bumping.

[Endless]

This is the stuff I come to SRK for.

All that stuff, although it wasn't as big here, I totally remember....the SF2 machines were always on "Battle 99"

[baagoo]

RE: What are Ken/Ryu saying during special moves?

Personally I used to think a DP was "Screw you Ken", perfect for Ryu vs. Ken fights. Also, I thought a good one for the ken/ryu spinning kick was "shishkabob and new car". I remember seeing this game in grocery stores/7-11s about a year or two before WW came out on SNES. Even back then I was "I cant belive there is a console game out that actually looks like the arcade!" and "Wow, the first 16-meg SNES cart, wow!". I played SF1 a handful of times, and played StreetFighter 20xx, on NES. (what was the purpose of that game?). I recall the day I saw Final Fight, and played it as much as possible. (Also it was the 1st SNES game I owned). I probably logged over 500+ hours daydreaming about SFII during school and whatnot. I remember the Shei Long rumor. I had the PC version as well (It kept the original 'scroll down on some skyscrapers and show two dudes boxin' intro). For whatever reason, I never saw any of the hacked cabinets, ie: rainbow/blackbelt. I owned (and still do) SFII-WW and SFII-HF. I remember renting SSFII, with cammy, dj, thawk, and fei long. It was pretty cool, neato intro and what not. I never played alpha series. I never really liked MK or MKII. I only appreciated the attempt at realistic sprites. *same for PitFighter*. MKIII was pretty fun on PC. *Gravis game pad anyone?* I also recall renting 'Karate Champ' like everyweekend for NES, way back. But yeah, aracdes were all about, The Simpsons, TMNT, XMEN, Road Blasters, Hard Drivin', UN Squadron, Rampage, Popeye,Time traveler, Golden Axe, the list goes on. This thread is excellent, and as someone said before "Goosebumps and wonderful memories of a time long lost". <insert damn Im getting old here>

[RadioRaheem]

RE: What are Ken/Ryu saying during special moves?

Some quick random comments:

When the SF series made its first appearance on the SNES I honestly wasn't old enough to care... all that mattered to me was this beautiful looking game at home on MY tv instead of the arcade... amazing. I tried to visit the arcade when I could but I wasn't nearly into video games then as I am now (who would've thought ;) ) The fighters (though incredibly basic by today's standards in some respects) were diverse and it always seemed that everyone quickly found a favorite. I never tried to guess what they were saying, but my 3-year old sister would say "kerplunkin!" every time I threw a fire ball.

Most importantly I remember SF2 being one of the first games that I felt had a rythem to it. The more I played the more I felt it, and thankfully Capcom went on to develop that feel to the game throughout the series.

It's always good to bust out the old school series and sharpen your skills every once in a while. Super Street Fighter II Turbo Revival on the GBA is a regular of mine.

[Vidness]

My fondest SF2 memory....

This is an easy one. Back in '93 I went to Singapore. Of course, I found an arcade, and whaddya know, there's a SSF2 tournament going on. Of course I participate, and I find myself in the finals rather easily. To my surprise, there's this KID that I have to play...He couldn't have been more than 9 years old. You KNOW what I"m thinking, oh, this will be a piece of cake. Single elimination, normal best 2 out of 3 rounds. He chose Ryu, I
Ken. At the end of the first round, I find myself with my jaw on the floor.

The kid tore me a new one.

The second round, the kid takes an early lead, while I am STILL in shock. I quickly slap myself and buckle down. The round basically consisted of fireball fakes, uppercuts, footsies. I barely squeak out the second round. Third round, I don't know what to expect...the match goes back and forth, and with 10 ticks left, we are each down to a fierce punch's worth of energy. He'd make a fireball motion with the joystick and then tap between the buttons, but I wasn't going to buy any more fakes. Time was starting to run out....it was too close...He faked once more, and then I saw that look in his character's eye...so I jumped...


It's been said that when you die, your whole life flashes before your eyes...Well, that's the experience his Ryu must have felt as I was gliding over his outstretched hadoken-making hands. A roundhouse kick later, I win.

The crowd goes wild....although I think I may have been the only one to be fluent in English. My co-workers drug me out of there back to the ship before I could claim any prize :( But the look in the faces of the people that were watching the match...that indeed will stay with me for a long time.

-Vidness

[bassventura]

Even though my reply is years after original thread jcasetnl has got the story perfect, sounds similar to my arcade experiance in the UK

Damn good read

[watson]

wow, this thread is quite a long one to read.. many things well quoted and many fun times to recall... sheesh, where has all the time gone.. if you are old school like me, 10 years of SF+ has gone bye.. WOW!! anyways my favorite memory of playing SF was a tournament that Apoc and I attended in San Diego. It was the best time ever and maybe apoc will donate his end of the story.

Me and Apoc dont really really know each other at this point so this was a cool trip to become homies. I brought a friend names Steve, who was this massive workout buff who could eat a house. So heres how the story goes... We all wind up at McDonalds somewhere near san diego and my friend orders up 2 Big Macs, 2 chicken sandwiches, and 2 20-piece nuggets and like 3 xl Ice Teas. (back then no free refills, and yes, 40 nuggets total) Apoc and myself were just laughing our ass of remembering how the bitch at the counter was trying to give him a total and the boy couldnt stop ordering... (had to be there) anyhow, we wound up at the hotel around 11pm i believe and i had like a major argument with my chick at the time.. Apoc can better describe this one, it was basically a NC-17 phone call... To sum it up, we had a tourney at Yellow Brick Road at the UTC in San diego. Disney channel was there and the tourney was a blast. Tomo took first, i took second, and your well known japenese player "KUNI FUNADA" was there. im telling you, he hasnt aged a day since i met him 10-12 years ago....

well, good times, and lets share more memories guys

[Ryu & Ken]

I remember when I played this game in feb 91, I just bought my sega megadrive and this aracde was on the shopping centre and I chose Ryu, as I recongized him from street fighter 1 and I remembered the moves from fighting streets( street fighter 1) and my first opp was Blanka and I was like what the fuck and beat him the first round but to many fireballs and stupid missed dragons were my down fall.
I was like hang on, fireballs used to take a third of an energy bar in SF1 and if a dragon conneted proper it should have killed an opp instantly in SF1, as I completed that a few months prior after many 20 pences went down that machine

[JumpsuitJesse]

Oh how I miss the golden days of heated competition.....where to begin..??

Well, for starters I have always been a gaming junkie. Back to when I would beg my cousin to let me play on his Odyssey and his Atari 2600...playing games like KC Munchkin, Kaboom and Montezuma's Revenge....til finally I my parents could afford to buy me an NES....boy was I hooked on that system for a long time. Buying and renting games left and right.....looking forward to receiving my next Nintendo Fun Club Magazine and Newsletter in the mail....sharing tips and secrets with friends.

My arcade life was pretty simple when I was a kid. My Mom would take me to the cleaners and there I would play Donkey Kong 3, Jr Pac Man, Gyruss and Do Run! Run!

Around 1988 I got into playing Double Dragon pretty hardcore... discovering that the mighty elbow punch could take you to the end of the game with ease....around 89 I moved to Pasadena, TX and a buddy of mine showed me this gameroom called "The Video Wizard".....boy this place had it all. Super Dodgeball, Shadow Dancer, Double Dragon 1-2, Aliens, Space Ace...this soon would become my new home. I took a trip to the local mall and layed eyes on my first SF1 machine...this thing was gigantic! It had huge plunger style buttons...and I will never forget the guy who was playing. He was a tall geeky looking guy and he knew how to play cuz I could see him do fireballs with ease. He taught me how to do the special moves and from that moment on I would come everyday to try and master SF1. I would play so hard that my arms would be tired...I had callouses on my wrists from the rubber covers being ripped off the buttons. I didn't care. I wanted to get to Thailand and face the Muay Thai Masters...Adon and Sagat! I remember there were days when I would beat Joe and Lee with ease and then there were days when these fools would rush me the fuck down! Needless to say, I got really good at SF1. I would beg neighbors for quarters and take my kid brother up there in his stroller just so I can play SF1!!

I will never forget the day when that geeky guy came in one day and said "DUDE! I just got back from an Electronics Show and Street Fighter 2 is coming out!!! I didn't believe him...I was like "No way...don't kid me" He swore on his life and said that you will be able to choose from 8 different fighters and travel to new countries like Russia and Brazil and that the last stage again would be Thailand to face Sagat again!! I think the guy was more excited then I was because it just sounded too good to be true.

About 6 months had passed and still no sign of SF2....by that time I knew it was a joke....but games like Pit Fighter, Final Fight and quarter munchers like Crime Fighters, Combat Tribes, Street Smart and TMNT were keepin me busy.

Til one day my friend from school came to my house out of breath and full of sweat....WHAT's WRONG MAN!?? "Jesse! The mall! STREET FIGHTER 2!!!! YOU GOTTA COME SEE IT!!" My ears couldnt believe it!! The old geek was telling the truth!!! I grabbed my shoes and darted out the door like a bat out of hell!! I enter Tilt and behold...there it was....a Black Street Fighter 2 Machine with a crowd around it ....everyone trying to get a peak at what the big deal was.....I remember seeing that awesome sideart with Ryu's back facing you...the yellow/red/purple border of the bezel.....seeing Ryu vs Ken for the first time!! I was overwhelmed with joy! Right away I put my quarter up because there was a LINE of quarters! Never have I seen a line for a video game before! Nobody knew how to do anything but I remember how to throw fireballs....so I got my first chance to play...I moved the cursor to see what fighters were available....WTF?? A Chick!? Chun Li!?? I had to pick her so I did and just mashed buttons and tested out her moves...the game moved so fluidly! the backgrounds..the animations....everything about the game was perfection!

I decided to try Ryu....sure enough his fireball came out so easily! So I abused the shit out of it! Everyone was askin 'How do you do that!??" and I would explain...soon everyone was doing it....but I didnt even know how to block! Several months later this kid comes in and he's cocky as hell...picks Ken and just knocked me down and kept sweeping me over and over and over...I didnt know you could block! I would knock him down and try the same thing but he would get up blocking!?? WTF?? So when I lost I would watch him play and yep...he would simply hold down-back to block! From that point on the whole game changed for me.

I would be living Street Fighter 2 from that day forth...getting better with Ryu and learning strats on each fight....I can remember going to different Stop n Go's to look for comp. I remember going to the local go kart track to play on Saturday nights ...that place had 10 SF2 machines lined up with CROWDS of people lined up to play. This was where I met 2 awesome players named Bruce and Greg. These guys were straight up jive talkin stereotypical black guys but they were cool as hell. They played all out. They were the first ones to do combo's with guile on me....a redizzy?? I just couldnt beat them at all.....around this time was when I was discovering 2 in ones, combos, crossups and tick throws.....and back then tick throws was taboo...I got into quite a few fights because of that...but I didnt care. Soon you would hear about players coming from other areas to challenge the local champs and to see who was the best....God I lived for those days.

I can remember when the Video Wizard was the first place to grab a SF2 CE machine! This thing was the best lookin cabinet ever! New portrait art for Ryu, new colors! This was the shit! I picked ken and right away I felt the difference! He was faster, the jumps were smaller, and his uppercut was fucking amazing! Days passed and everyone got good with their fighters....learning about Ryu's invincible frames and faster fireball....guile was still good despite that they took away his long jab....everyone wanted to play Sagat Bison and Vega...this game breathed new life into what was already a craze for the time.

I think between SF2 and SF2 HF were the true glory days of Street Fighter. For those of you who missed it.......u should have been there....everyone was a noob and everyone accelled at their own pace......rivalries, trash talk, the jokes, the excuses, the knock out drag out fights, winning with broken controls, the glitches and the glory of staying on the machine longer than anyone else.... and a never ending amount of challengers just lined up to play you...just waiting to knock you off the top so they can be called King Of The Hill.

The highlights of my memories include:

Learning how to DP from reading EGM(Walk forward and do a really quick fireball)

Seeing and hearing rumors of the mysterious red fireball.

Seeing everyone go nuts over the Sheng Long fiasco.

Doing Kens crossup, stand fierce, into DP on CE and seeing all those hits connect! That was awesome!!!

Seeing Ken's eggbeater hurricane kick catch someone and register a shitload of hits.

Jumping in with Ken's Fierce punch for free on Guile players.

When someone would get dizzy all people would do was throw.

Getting stuck on Balrogs stage because the original 8 fighters had been beaten thats where u would end up

Seeing how bad ass Sagat looked compared to his old SF1 version. He looked wicked!

Paying some kid to steal an import copy from this local console gameroom.....I got the home version of SF2 before ANYONE in my neighborhood!!

Using the game genie to do that stupid boss code that glitched out all the time.

Peeling the sideart off of one of the SF2 machines so I could have that bad ass Ryu pic in my room.

Reading about Tomo in the SF2 Turbo guide by GamePro and reading about Watson vs Jesse Howard in a gaming magazine.... hoping that one day I might face them...

Man, I could go on and on.....so much to tell....so hard to put into words!

[shinblanka]

Man I remember the good ol days.:) I was always the 1st to beat the newest console game on atari or nintendo in my hood. I love playing video games and my grandfather own a arcade in the early 80's, so I grew up in the arcades. I couldn't be beat in pac-man and when ms pac-man came out I had to be draged out of the arcade by my mom because I would be there all day with $1. I remember when the lines were out of the door for Ms. Pac Man. Young and old players sit at the gas station, laundry mat, liquor store, or arcades trying to set the high score. That was my 1st taste of comp in the video gaming world. Not just to put the high score in Ms. Pac man, but to play against someone in a 2 player game. That's where I hone my shit talking skills and that translated over to karate champ. Karate champ was my 1st fighting game rush and then I played Fighting Street! (That's what SF1 was called in it's early days) I love the characters, but I wish I could play with anyone besides Ryu or his pallet swap Ken. I think that stuck with me throughout my time in the SF scene because to this day I will not play with any shoto's in any SF type game.:p

I remember when I 1st laid eyes on SF2. I just moved to Decatur, Ga.(a part of atlanta) and I was looking for something to do in my new hood. I saw we passed a mall on the way to our new apartment and I told my mom I was going to walk to the mall and see if they had an arcade. The mall was called Market Square (North Dekalb Mall now) and it was a hot summer day. I bought a large coke from the McDonald's right outside of the mall because I was parched. I walk into the mall and look at the mall map. Any 80's/90's mall rat know's that the arcades are usually listed under or next to the food court. I walk to the arcade and in the front of the arcade on a 52" big screen there was STREET FIGHTER II World Warriors' with no one at the machine. The mall just open and they arcade just rolled up the mall gate door. I stood there for 5 minutes looking at the intro before I even got my tokens. I didn't like the white guy knocking the shit out of the black guy in the intro, but I still wanted to play SF2. I got $5 worth of tokens and went to start an addiction I haven't kicked yet in 15 years. I was looking for the black character, so I could play with him, but all I saw was 2 karate guys(Ryu and Ken), a fat sumo(E.Honda), an army guy(Guile), a muscle man(Zangeif), a beeyotch (Chun Li), a rubber band man (Sim), and a beast (Blanka). I saw on the demo that the beast guy bites you and when I played a wrestling game on nintendo called "Pro Wrestling" I played with the Amazon. He was green and bite your face as a special move. Most people played with the Starman, but I always like going against the norm when it came to choosing charaters to play in fighting games. I been hooked on Blanka every since.

For 20 minutes I was playing the computer getting my ass whooped by the computer chun li. Then I finally beat her and zangeif killed me in 7 seconds. When he SPD me for the 1st time I was like "holy shit"!!! Then out of no-where came that statement that is carved into the back of every old schooler's brains. "Can I play against you?" I said sure because this computer is too hard for me. He put's in his token and whooped my ass badly. The thing that makes me laugh when I think about it is that this kid sweep me to death. hahahahahaha. I didn't know how to block low. He would jump at me and kick high and I would block, but then he would sweep and I would get hit. I lost this way for awhile. After losing to this kid for awhile in 30 minutes it was packed in the arcade, but by then I already lost $3 playing the computer and $2 playing this kid who knew how to play the game already and I only had $10 to start with when I came to the arcade. The line was long and I kept losing to the same shit. Once they saw I had a weakness everyone that played me did the samething to me.

Needless to say I spent $10 like it was nothing playing SF2 and at the time it was 1 token/.25. When I was leaving a guy told me that all I need to do is to hold back and down to block low attacks. I was salty because he could have told me earlier before I spent all of my $10.:bluu: But I guess they enjoyed watching me lose to the same shit over and over again. That was 1 of the many lessons I learned while playing sf over the years. The main thing I can take from the golden years of SF are:

"You can do the tightest combo movie ever, but if you don't have the fundamentals down you will lose in tournament play everytime." SF2 taunt me 2 things about fighting games.

1. Spacing/zoning your foes is key to winning. Knowing your and your foes priorities on moves, range with throws, sweeps, pokes, and projectiles are the fundementals you learned in SF2. Also learning when and when not to jump.

2. Mind games sepreate the good players from the great players. Most people lose to top players because they lose the mental part of the fight. Most old school players don't lose the mental battle. In fact everyone has that one old school player that is still good at some of the games you new schoolers play. You always say that he got that "OLD SCHOOL" skill that always keeps him in the game. Basically your saying that I can't mentally break him down to find a weakness in his game. He is always fundamentally sound in most of the games he plays and he rarely misses his bread and butter.

Everytime I went to a new state I hunted for new comp for SF. I think that's why I throw tournaments now. I love the thrill of people getting together and competing against each other. Also I want to keep the scene/ the way I grew up alive for the new schoolers. Now the arcade scene in the ATL dead now and all we have is consoles for the most part.

Oh how I wish for the "GODD OL' DAYS".

This is the best thread in SRK hands down. Sorry about the long ass post, but this thread brought up memories for years past and I had to type something.:cool:

[shinblanka]

P.S.

I didn't want to offend my white friends by my early comment. I was just shock when I saw the intro for the 1st time.:lol: :lol: He just cold cocked hommie in the grill.:lol:

It look like he was Like" what you say beeyotch?" POW-ZOOM Right in the kisser!

[Apoc]

Originally posted by watson
wow, this thread is quite a long one to read.. many things well quoted and many fun times to recall... sheesh, where has all the time gone.. if you are old school like me, 10 years of SF+ has gone bye.. WOW!! anyways my favorite memory of playing SF was a tournament that Apoc and I attended in San Diego. It was the best time ever and maybe apoc will donate his end of the story.

Me and Apoc dont really really know each other at this point so this was a cool trip to become homies. I brought a friend names Steve, who was this massive workout buff who could eat a house. So heres how the story goes... We all wind up at McDonalds somewhere near san diego and my friend orders up 2 Big Macs, 2 chicken sandwiches, and 2 20-piece nuggets and like 3 xl Ice Teas. (back then no free refills, and yes, 40 nuggets total) Apoc and myself were just laughing our ass of remembering how the bitch at the counter was trying to give him a total and the boy couldnt stop ordering... (had to be there) anyhow, we wound up at the hotel around 11pm i believe and i had like a major argument with my chick at the time.. Apoc can better describe this one, it was basically a NC-17 phone call... To sum it up, we had a tourney at Yellow Brick Road at the UTC in San diego. Disney channel was there and the tourney was a blast. Tomo took first, i took second, and your well known japenese player "KUNI FUNADA" was there. im telling you, he hasnt aged a day since i met him 10-12 years ago....

well, good times, and lets share more memories guys

Wow! I don't know wtf you're talkin' about:confused: lol j/k.

Those were some times:) Let me throw my side into the mix!

The UTC tourney was great! The SF2 pinball/HF biathalon. I remember soooooo much. Where to start?

Ok, now, the way I remember Steve(Chicken nugget megamunching God!) was that he ordered all of that shit like you said and we were just eatin' in the Mickey D's and AFTER fool finishes, he goes back and gets ANOTHER box of 20. I was like, Wtf? It was pretty darned amazing to me. I couldn't fathom the depths of a stomach like that. It was a good laugh cuz, to him it was no big deal. To me? Dude was a freak of nature!!! lol

So, we get to the arcade. There were tons of ppl there. The tournament was capped at 128!!! Meaning, the next day, they would be turning folks away. So, me and Watts stroll in and separate and I'm starting to hear stories of Tomo on the SF2 pinball machine. Apparently, during his one and only practice session, he beat the game and it shut off. I dunno, something like that. Then I see, for the first time, a single controller SF2HF machine with a bunch of quarters on it! I ask around and find out that this machine is attached to another machine clear across the big ass arcade! This was my first head to head experience. I remember getting some wins and not thinking much of it. I was using Vega and was used to winning like most WF players so, it was kind of like, ho hum. Something was lacking since I couldn't see my opponent. I was whoopin' some Ryu's and thinking little of it since, the only Ryu's that were gonna have a chance at whoopin' my Vega were Watts and Tomo's. Yo, we were teens and head and shoulders above the average player. There was a natural cockiness in me, as a result. I expected to beat most ppl as I'm sure other WF players did. Anyway, I beat one Ryu and all these ppl come rushing toward me from the other side of the room. Steve Warwick(you may remember him from 4th at the first MWC tourney using Gief) comes running up, "Do you KNOW who you just beat like that!?!?" I shake my head as if disappointed that he couldn't realize that I couldn't see through a ton of machines all the way across the room AND play at the same time:p He says, excitedly, "That was Mike Watson!!!" This through me back since I wasn't playing like I was playing Watts. I was playing like I would any other Ryu. So, of course, I gotta go ask Watts why it went down like that. He explains that it was because he didn't have my joystick in his peripheral vision. Now, at the time, it was well known that you'd better be ultra sneaky when playing Mike because, unlike 99.9% of players, this nigga watched your hands! So, I pondered it and realized that he was ABSOLUTELY right! I played some games and realized that a lot of my reactions were based on what I saw with my peripheral vision. I always knew this but, I never paid attention to it until Watts pointed it out to me that it changes the game. So, in an odd way, this was a new revelation that I was pensive about. That gave me a new appreciation for SF. I had already used joystick fakes plenty but, I never stopped to consider the game without my opponent right next to me. After experiencing it. I found it extremely lacking. I came to the conclusion that night that SF was MUCH weaker on head to heads. 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. This is why I find it stupid that we must fact the Japanese on head to heads. American style SF is side by side and to me, anything less is just an average game, even SF. Unfortunately, the Japanese aren't used to that kind of play and at B5, a few of them were mighty interested in how we use the joystick to confuse what a player sees onscreen so that the opponent has trouble trusting his own instincts. I remember playing Bas for the first time side by side using joystick fakes and we both laughed as he let DPs fly just because my hands moved a certain way. This is a real bummer now since guys like me and Watts face the Japanese on what, to me, is a different and less intriguing game. Why SRK doesn't ensure that we are side by side, when playing on OUR homecourt, I'll never know. It's like cutting our skill in half, but whatever.

Moving along, we get our hotel room. This is where I learned that you don't f*ck with a fart done by Mike Watson!!! OMG! It was hard to even try to sleep because the odor would penetrate the covers I was keeping over my nose!!! LOL! So, we have a lil fun with our attached room neighbors just f*ckin' with them and a lil while later, Watts has to call his bitch(I was a teen. Bitches were bitches back then:p). I'm thinkin' if you wanted to spend time with your ho, why even come. That bitch is gonna fuck him up playing last night. So I try to get Mike to hang up by taunting him saying I don't want no excuses when Tomo rocks him because he got no sleep. No dice. They were in a heated conversation and it was best if I just tried to sleep. THEN, I hear the strangest lines ever!!! Mike says very loudly, "BITCH!?! I AIN'T YOUR BITCH, BITCH!!! You're MY BITCH,...BITCH!" ROTFL!!!! I started bustin' up while he was trying to have an argument with his bitch! I don't think I've heard a 10word spit consisting of that many uses of the B word. Mike sees me laughing and he silently laughs so his girl won't hear. Now I'm laughing even more because it's obvious that Watts is having fun yelling back and forth with his bitch!?! lol! How the hell was that fun? I couldn't fathom why he would stay on the phone!? Back then, if my bitch was talkin' to me like that, she'd be beggin' for forgiveness if she ever planned on getting the dick again. heh I was a dick, back then. We were kids. After justifying the situation in my mind by telling myself that they must have some nice heated sex due to their screaming foreplay, I hit the sack.

So, we head out in the morning after Mike pays this huge hotel phone fee because SD to LA was long distance(long before cells, heheh) and being dumbfounded that Mike had no issue paying it. See, I'd go home to my bitch and make her pay for that shit! Again, we were dicks.

We make our way down and see all the cameras and the big giant bracket(a la B5). We do our interviews where I embarass myself by doing a live-action version of my Rog re-dizzy, for the cameras. We get our goodies(SF2 keychains, etc) and sign-up. 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. I know, no wei, right? This fool had a mean Blanka and we knew that Blanka was one of the best in the game so, this fool knew how to pick a character. I watch and realize that this fool is no joke. The 2 most anticipated match-ups were Wei vs. Tomo and Watts versus Tomo. The night before, we stayed up a bit and Watts talked mad shit about how he was gonna throw Tomo to death because he had just done so at the last WF tourney and Tomo couldn't seem to do anything about it. I was doubtful but wanted Mike to win. Watts was more my vibe at the time. Mike was nice and cocky. I got along better with confident guys back then so, Watts and I clicked moreso than me and Tomo so, while Tomo was a great champ, I was still pulling for Mike. But hey, as long as one of them won, I'd be cool cuz, I could say that I'd beaten them both in tourney before. If this Wei dude won, I'd have to keep my mouth shut. Blanka owned up Vega and gave Rog HELLA trouble. Odds were I'd lose to that fool. He was on our level and used a character that countered BOTH of mine. FUCK that fool! lol.

I don't remember who I lost to but, I picked Vega throughout the tourney, for some reason. I think it was because I hadn't won tourneys yet with Rog so I left him strictly to counter Ryu if I faced Mike or Tomo. I got eliminated later, I really don't remember by whom. Then I get to see the finals with Mike and Tomo. I watch as Mike gets tossed around!!! Wtf? Then I see Tomo reversing Mike's shit and then tossing him some more!!? OMG! The exact opposite of what was supposed to happen was happening. Tomo was playing Dirty Watts own style and beating him! Sadly, Mike loses and of course, he's a lil pissed. We watch Tomo win the pinball portion too and bone out.

I'm not sure if this was the trip where I drove up the exit to the freeway because Steve or one of Mike's homies dared me to and I was a young roguish cat and wouldn't let anyone challenge my balls back then. But I think it may have been another time cuz Mike knew me by then and tried to warn his homie, lol. But, I guess that's another story.

I learned a lot that weekend and made some fun memories with Mike and Jeff.

On a side note, some fool there was talking about his SF3 info(of course we never saw SF3 til nearly a decade later) and he explained that in a new version you'd be able to cancel specials into specials like comboing a fireball into a dragon punch. I clowned the dude for thinking that was a good idea since it was blatantly stupid, imo. Then, years later, comes SFA2 and CCs!!!:eek: What? Did that asshole get a job at capcom!?! lol

Wow. I can't believe it was THAT long ago. Some of it feels like last weekend!

Apoc.

[L1qu1d]

ohh man, 8 years old there used to be this HUGE arcade/bowling ally. like at least 30 cabinets, picture like something twice the size of CTF only a lot nicer with carpet and shit. My mom use to take me there cause she knew a women that worked there so she could drop me off while she would do arrands and the lady would keep an eye on me. Well being that i was 8 years old it was heaven, i use to beast Joe and Max (the caveman game) on a huge big screen cabinet.

one day i go to play it and i see it is gone and get all confused. There was a SF2 there (don't remember wat version i was 8 years old) and there was another sf2 cabinet next to it. No one was there. So id pick ryu and play the computer. I learned how/when to block moves. and i beat my oppent by Jumping fierce and sweeping that was it.

About a week later kids starting coming i have never seen before. The lady now always kept an eye on me to make sure i was ok (i live in a safe area no shit ever goes down so it didn't really matter) 6 or 7 kids would come in every day and play. They brought their little brother who was my age and wed play other games and wait for our turn (they raped my spot a lot) then i got up and i beat one of them. He was pissed. But then his firends new kinda how to play. They beasted me. my tacts could not beat them. Hadokens and sonic booms ate me alive. i had never seen tactics like this. After weeks of going and getting beat they finnaly taught me how to qcf. It took time but i got it. I could hadoken. I couldn't srk or qcb kick but it was good enough for me. Id sometimes get wins. Then eventually they got a new version of SF and i would play with fei long, i still had no idea wat to do but it was awsome.

When 3s came out for DC i picked up a copy and then i got into fighting games for real, i was older and ready, and here i am today.

[Bogard]

This thread should be the Geriatric SRK House!


I don't feel alone anymore *snif*



:D


Bogard
(JJOztya)

pd: Hittin my 30's too, lol!

[urkangijordi]

Even after all this time, this thread keeps entertaining. :)

[BEWD]

Originally posted by urkangijordi
Even after all this time, this thread keeps entertaining. :)

Man,tell me about it.I saw this thread when it first started out and loved to see it grow with all these Golden Stories.Me only having played my first street fighter game when I was 6 or 7(SF2 Hyper Fighting,I'm 15 now)It's really cool to be able to hear the older players fond memories.This thread really should be archived or something it's history in itself. :D

[beowolf]

Well, I can remember when i first was introduced to Street fighter. I used to play SF1 in washington DC and the arcade in l'Enfant Plaza downtown.

It had those big punch buttons and it was not a great game. But I fell in love when played SFII in Georgetown and I played their on my lunch hour everyday. I was so obsessed that I contacted Capcom's offices and talked to a guy their to tell me the moves of my favorite characters, since their were no faqs or magazines at that time that talked about it.

I still play the game. I am not a fan of all the 50 combo, air guard type of play. I miss the ol chess game style of fighting that SFII provided.

I currently play SFIII third strike and a little of SVC2, but at 35 i dont have the edge that I used to have. But I still love SFII.

[PSX]

Originally posted by Apoc



Moving along, we get our hotel room. This is where I learned that you don't f*ck with a fart done by Mike Watson!!! OMG! It was hard to even try to sleep because the odor would penetrate the covers I was keeping over my nose!!!

I'm not sure if this was the trip where I drove up the exit to the freeway because Steve or one of Mike's homies dared me to and I was a young roguish cat and wouldn't let anyone challenge my balls back then. But I think it may have been another time cuz Mike knew me by then and tried to warn his homie, lol. But, I guess that's another story.

Apoc.


Apoc: I vouch for you on the fart thing :eek: While staying at Gunter's place during the summer last year for the SVGL tourney I had witnessed the power first hand. Let me tell you watts owns all 4 free with it. Seriouslly 4 free.

Apoc you gotta tell this going up the freeway exit story, im dieing to hear it.

[Apoc]

Originally posted by PSX



Apoc: I vouch for you on the fart thing :eek: While staying at Gunter's place during the summer last year for the SVGL tourney I had witnessed the power first hand. Let me tell you watts owns all 4 free with it. Seriouslly 4 free.

Apoc you gotta tell this going up the freeway exit story, im dieing to hear it.

LOL!

Sorry bro, that was pretty much the story, right there. Somehow, my craziness got brought up and one of his homies dared me to go up the exit. Mike warned him not to dare me cuz I'd do it. Dude didn't believe him and taunted me and like a good ridiculous teenager I high-tailed it up the exit and then turned around after homie was satisfied. IIRC, I only had to drive on the side of one car exiting. I could be mistaken though. I did all sorts of shit that I now view as idiotic. For all I've done in numerous vehicles, I SHOULD be dead. Me and my homie would play follow the leader, out of boredom, until one of us would chicken out and not follow. I've gone top speed through hundreds of red lights in the city just to not lose, lol. I should've been committed. I had this huge issue of being overconfident about EVERYthing.

I don't know if you know the LA/OC area too well but I once made it from Norwalk to Anaheim in 7 and a half minutes. I've also made the trip from Vegas to LA in less than 2 and half hours. Being cocky and having monster balls is a really bad combo, lol. I grew out of it. But, on the upside, there was nothing like getting a girl's adrenaline rushing on the way to the crib. lol Believe it or not, that was great foreplay. Uh...yeah, but not worth my life:eek:

That time with Mike on the phone was the funnest I've had watchin' a girl get put in her place. Usually I'd say to keep that shit personal but if you heard him on the phone that night!?? That nigga can get crazy, lol. I swear if he drove he would've driven right back home that night to get her to shut up, lol. Good thing I drove. Mike woulda missed the tourney! haha

Apoc.

[Ryu & Ken]

Yo Apoc, remember when I did that thread 2 years back about that SF mag that showed how 2 play SF2 Turbo on SNES and Megadrive with combos and stuff and showed a bit on SSF2 with the Tomo Ohira interview I found and it had the top 20 players from U.S in early 90's.

Did you ever play any of them esp TOMO OHIRA.?
Man if I didn't live in England I know I would have played them lost prob but still played them.

[PSX]

Apoc: So is it cool if I tell the story of you vs nelson at gunters place...., one of the few times we actually saw a $ match go down. :D I swear you went into beast mode the second the song Dare came on lol.

[Apoc]

Originally posted by abhi
Yo Apoc, remember when I did that thread 2 years back about that SF mag that showed how 2 play SF2 Turbo on SNES and Megadrive with combos and stuff and showed a bit on SSF2 with the Tomo Ohira interview I found and it had the top 20 players from U.S in early 90's.

Did you ever play any of them esp TOMO OHIRA.?
Man if I didn't live in England I know I would have played them lost prob but still played them.

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]

Originally posted by PSX
Apoc: So is it cool if I tell the story of you vs nelson at gunters place...., one of the few times we actually saw a $ match go down. :D I swear you went into beast mode the second the song Dare came on lol.

LOL! I'm not sure that I recall that!? Dang, I need my memory refreshed. I suppose I've played Nelson plenty of times to get 'em mixed up, heheh.

OOOOOoooooh! LOL! Nooow I remember! Wow, I haven't thought about that since it happened. I remember Nelson was talkin' out of his butt making ridiculous claims and, I think I was offered a free money bet, wasn't I? I remember knowing I sucked at what game we were playing(cvs2) but the bet was just so ridiculous...yeah, it was cvs2 cuz I remember f*ckin' around and picking different grooves. Damn, it's BARELY coming back. If you don't tell the story, remind me details at Evo:)

I just can't believe I'm having trouble remembering that!!! Were we drinking? Dang:( Now I'm going to be going over this in my head. I HATE losing memories I want. It's the old age, bro. :eek:

Apoc.

[Battosai]

Apoc: Does worlds finest still exist?

Man that sucks that no major U.S. arcades are getting the arcade version of SF2 AE, that would have been my chance at reliving the golden SF era. Do you think that the major arcades in CA might get it this year, I mean there is a USD version on coinopexpress.com where US arcades can buy it (so what gives).

Another thing, do you know if anyone recorded the SF2 AE matches at MWC? If so I want get a copy.

[Apoc]

Originally posted by Battosai
Apoc: Does worlds finest still exist?

Man that sucks that no major U.S. arcades are getting the arcade version of SF2 AE, that would have been my chance at reliving the golden SF era. Do you think that the major arcades in CA might get it this year, I mean there is a USD version on coinopexpress.com where US arcades can buy it (so what gives).

Another thing, do you know if anyone recorded the SF2 AE matches at MWC? If so I want get a copy.

Sorry, Battosai.

I think that's a no on every count. No WF:( Dunno about the Cali arcades but, I'd like to hope:)

I also haven't heard anything of the MWC tourney aside from results. I'd love to see 'em since I've only tried the game out once:(

Apoc.

[Judgment Day]

Originally posted by PSX
I swear you went into beast mode the second the song Dare came on lol.

Dare? Transformers The Movie Dare?!

Outstanding! :D

[Apoc]

Originally posted by Judgment Day


Dare? Transformers The Movie Dare?!

Outstanding! :D

LOL! I'll never live down that song! Darn JSF!!!

Shiet is tite tho! lol That and "the Touch!" 80's hotness in full efffffffffffect. heheh

Apoc.

[Bacardi]

I remember the first time I saw street fighter 2, my aunt owns a arcade in La Parguera Puerto Rico and she always have the newest games. I remember her even having those sega holoram games. Anyways I remember seeing alot of the older guys surrounding this arcade machine and my older cousin tells me "dude we got street fighter 2" I was so excited when i heard that, but I was to nervous to play and they were to many quarters lined up but my aunt promised to let me play the next day before the store opened. man I tell you I wasted days on end playing sf2 she got every version it was like heaven. I remember reading a gamepro magazine talking about a big ssf2 tourney in las vegas and there was the first time i saw the name Alex Valle he had won the tourney using Ryu and even put some combos for the magazine which was jump rk cr mk fb to many things to list to many memories :( man i miss the good ol days of sf

[Apoc]

Originally posted by Bacardi_J3d1
I remember the first time I saw street fighter 2, my aunt owns a arcade in La Parguera Puerto Rico and she always have the newest games. I remember her even having those sega holoram games. Anyways I remember seeing alot of the older guys surrounding this arcade machine and my older cousin tells me "dude we got street fighter 2" I was so excited when i heard that, but I was to nervous to play and they were to many quarters lined up but my aunt promised to let me play the next day before the store opened. man I tell you I wasted days on end playing sf2 she got every version it was like heaven. I remember reading a gamepro magazine talking about a big ssf2 tourney in las vegas and there was the first time i saw the name Alex Valle he had won the tourney using Ryu and even put some combos for the magazine which was jump rk cr mk fb to many things to list to many memories :( man i miss the good ol days of sf

Damn! The scene was hot in Puerto Rico too! Tite. Sups Bacardi:) Goin' ta Evo?

Apoc.

[Bacardi]

u damn right i am, only person from pr going this year I think :(

[Apoc]

Originally posted by Bacardi_J3d1
u damn right i am, only person from pr going this year I think :(

Shiet. Wussup with the PR players? Anyway, hit me up meign:) Gotta kick.

Apoc.

[Ryu & Ken]

Originally posted by Apoc


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.

all right stupid Q but whe you say Vega an balrog, is that the Spainish dude with the claw and and the boxer or the JPN version of them in other words Mike Bison and Vega
also what ever happened to Schaefer and Tomo ?

Why did he have probs with these 2 chars as I remember he played good with Guile and Ryu, also I never printed that page that you said and I am asking you to please print of those 20 guys names so I can print them of on my printer when it comes in 2 weeks and put them in that book ?
PLEASE APOC

[Apoc]

Originally posted by abhi


all right stupid Q but whe you say Vega an balrog, is that the Spainish dude with the claw and and the boxer or the JPN version of them in other words Mike Bison and Vega
also what ever happened to Schaefer and Tomo ?

Why did he have probs with these 2 chars as I remember he played good with Guile and Ryu, also I never printed that page that you said and I am asking you to please print of those 20 guys names so I can print them of on my printer when it comes in 2 weeks and put them in that book ?
PLEASE APOC

NP. Just give me some time to look for the page and I'll put up the list. I'm almost sure that there's a website with it up. Darn, I saved that link on my old pc:( Anyway, I'll put the names up within the next few days. Just gimme a bit of time:)

Gotta crash...too...tired. heheh

Apoc.

[Ryu & Ken]

Originally posted by Apoc


NP. Just give me some time to look for the page and I'll put up the list. I'm almost sure that there's a website with it up. Darn, I saved that link on my old pc:( Anyway, I'll put the names up within the next few days. Just gimme a bit of time:)

Gotta crash...too...tired. heheh

Apoc.

also could you also answer that paragraph
all right stupid Q but when you say Vega an balrog, is that the Spainish dude with the claw and and the boxer or the JPN version of them in other words Mike Bison and Vega
also what ever happened to Schaefer and Tomo ?

Why did he have probs with these 2 chars as I remember he played good with Guile and Ryu
and were you in that list in the book as I don't know your real name

[lung]

Although i am only 17, i remeber the days when SF2 first came out. And i loved it. Anyone who lives in the cleveland area can remeber that the arcade in the Great Northern mall has been around for ages and changed shape and form and name so many times its not even funny. Way back into the days when it was called Pocket Change, it was the place with the street fighting. There of course was parma and the aladins castle shit, but i always was and will always be a patron of that fucking arcade in North Olmsted at the great northern mall. It even got shut down plenty of times, but always came back. Today its pretty out of date, but still with some good titles.

[Yansoma]

To relive my old memories; I bought a CE cabinet.

[Richard]

Originally posted by JumpsuitJesse
Around 1988 I got into playing Double Dragon pretty hardcore... discovering that the mighty elbow punch could take you to the end of the game with ease...

Haha, yeah. That move was pretty safe on the first game...

my first SF1 machine....and I will never forget the guy who was playing. He was a tall geeky looking guy and he knew how to play cuz I could see him do fireballs with ease.

Blimey... Nobody could do fireballs until at least 6 months after release here. And even then, nobody could do them 80%...

I wanted to get to Thailand and face the Muay Thai Masters...Adon and Sagat! I remember there were days when I would beat Joe and Lee with ease and then there were days when these fools would rush me the fuck down!
Yeah, it was totally about the 1P game back then. It was all about clearing those countries, and nobody even gave Ken a second thought.

I remember seeing one guy get totally pissed off when he had several credits in the machine and he accidently hit the 2P start button... He was like "WTF? I just started a 2P game when I was about to beat Geki! I don't wanna play anymore..." and he just left the machine to the two of us that were watching.

[Nash421]

Hmm I'm 25 now, so I was pretty young when SF came out. I can't relay my experiences nearly as well as some others before me, but I can try. Alot of this stuff is disjointed and out of sequence, since I was pretty young when I started playing SF. All the memories just kinda got mashed together.

Just some random SF playing schmoe from NY so I don't have anything interesting, but just alot of memories of trying to get good at the game.

I saw SF1 for the first time while on vacation as a kid in florida. We stopped at a rest stop while driving and it was like wow looks cool. Me and my brother used to alot of Karate Champ at this Chicken Place down the street. I promptly owned him a few matches by button mashing on the roundhouse button. o.O

Quite some time later I ran into Street Fighter 2 in NY at the Smith Haven mall on Long Island. I think I pretty much fell in love with the game right there. I used to get 5 bucks a week, which I'd promptly spend in 1 long marathon session at the arcade on saturdays.

I was pretty young at the time, and arcades were considered dirty and full of asian "gangsters" as my parents put it, so I was never allowed to go into the arcade in Chinatown on Mott. I do remember dominating alot of the local arcade competition using Ryu. My "invincible" strategy was to use fireballs to get them to jump at me, and then promptly jump straight up and stick a roundhouse in their face. It's funny when I think back on it.

The first time championship edition came out, I went out to the Chuck E Cheese around the block and saw people doing the dreaded Psycho Crusher back and forth. I was too intimidated to play against such elite strategies tho,and promptly stood there watching the super powered boss characters owning it up with psycho crusher -> throw.

I evolved my strategy from reading EGM and other such mags, it turned into jump in and meet them in the air with jab, and then cr. short em to death till they were dizzy. I remember accidently doing cr. fierce -> fireball 2 hit combos and getting oohs from the crowds ahaha(I guess there was no real competition in Long Island at the time).

I mostly started really getting into SF2 CE or it may have been HF at this Flea Market called Englishtown in New Jersey. My parents used to work there, and they had an arcade in the indoor spots. All the kids that had parents that worked at the arcade congregated around there. I remember being one of the "better" young'uns, and trying to learn tips from the older teens.

My first sight of Guile was from this kid (we called him the rich white kid), who kept bragging about how he placed #3 in a New Jersey tournament. It was the first time I ever saw any real combos besides the generic cr. forward -> fireball that alot of the "asian" kids around the block could do. I do remember him getting promptly owned by someone named John and his Ken. Just to be able to bust out those DP's back then were an amazing feat to someone my age.

Me and the other kids at Englishtown used to spend the entire day playing Street Fighter. The arcade had 2 machines back to back. The older good kids played on one, while the scrubby younger kids practiced on the other machine against the computer. Usually only playing against each other to be saved against a loss against the computer.

There was this one kid named Tom. I remember him pretty well, he was the only guy there that played Bison. I think his parents knew mine so he used to give me 2nd round with his Bison while owning up the other kids. There were these 2 black kids that used to come up all the time and talk crazy trash. I think they played Ken, but I remember Tom playing them for 20 bucks. But he had to leave after beating them 1st round so he let me finish the game. Sad to say I got my ass handed to me promptly.

Hehe, there used to be alot of Street Fighter action at Roosevelt Field Mall in Nassau county in NY. I was really sad when they shut that place down. I remember playing the most amazing Dhalsim player. I think I spent like 6 bucks playing him over and over. He felt bad for me and kept giving me rounds and tips, but I was too young to realyl absorb of any of it in.

Ah, well, I was kinda too young to pick up any real SF skills, but the talk of that SF book from gamefan and all the shady arcades bring back soooo many childhood memories. My first time at CTF, with the SF machines in the back right corner. There were MK machines nearby and I remember watching some E. Honda player whomping ass.

I still have that Gamefan book, with that interview. The first 3 chars they teach you to play are Ryu, Guile and Chun Li. And then they had those funny rankings for combos like Master, Cheesy, Cheap, and Wacky. I used to look at that Guile Re-dizzy double sonic boom combo with complete awe. Then they had the story of someone named Goddard owning it up in some Street Fighter Challenge where he promptly owned like 100+ kids. Finally, they had the interview with Tomo Ohira and the picture of the Rankings chart. it wasn't until I hit AGSF2 that I recognized those names on that ranking chart. The whole thing with talks that Tomo had a manager was crazy to me. There was a story about how Tomo once lost to a local player named "Mike" because of cheap tactics but then the next tourney, Tomo said he used cheap tactics right back and defeated him.

Blah I feel old.

[Ryu & Ken]

Originally posted by Nash421


I still have that Gamefan book, with that interview. The first 3 chars they teach you to play are Ryu, Guile and Chun Li. And then they had those funny rankings for combos like Master, Cheesy, Cheap, and Wacky. I used to look at that Guile Re-dizzy double sonic boom combo with complete awe. Then they had the story of someone named Goddard owning it up in some Street Fighter Challenge where he promptly owned like 100+ kids. Finally, they had the interview with Tomo Ohira and the picture of the Rankings chart. it wasn't until I hit AGSF2 that I recognized those names on that ranking chart. The whole thing with talks that Tomo had a manager was crazy to me. There was a story about how Tomo once lost to a local player named "Mike" because of cheap tactics but then the next tourney, Tomo said he used cheap tactics right back and defeated him.

Blah I feel old.

Yeah that book killed it, Guile was number 1 I think, Ryu was 2 and Sagat was 3 and Ken was like 5. I think thats the order as I have 2 find my book to see the real score
Yeah that

[Apoc]

I'm STILL trying to find that page, lol.

I swear that I have it!

Apoc.

[*InVeRs3*]

Man, I remember how magazines used to cover SF2 every month. It's like they've forgoten it now though

[DrunkenGhost]

The first time I played, Circus Circus Burnsville MN, I was at my freind Ryan's birthday party... I must have been 6 or 7... Barely old enough to see the screen, yet I remember the crowds around the machine. I remember playing as Blanka because the j,j,j was easy to do, and pretty much the only thing I could do.

Simply put I loved this game immedietly even at 7 years old, I LOVED competition.

There was pretty much a crowd around the machine all night, all my other freinds were off playing games for tickets and stuffed animals. After awhile the smoke started to clear one of the kids from earlier in the night approached me as I was playing Ryu, I had pretty much just been mashing buttons in a fight against Dhalsim... This is the part I will never forget, probably one of the most defining (dorky... but true) moments in my life, the kid that approched me had to probably be at least 17. (He had stayed on the machine for a majority of the night earlier in the evening)

He tossed in his tokens, he gave me one round right off the bat, he knew that I wasn't doing much other than just mashing my buttons, trying despretely to keep good distance from my opponent, second round he took the stick and showed me how to throw a fireball. He was playing Sim if I remember correctly, he kept letting me attempt to throw them as we would alternate off and on throwing Hadokens at his down on energy Sim, trying to get me to perfect my first move. We practiced this until he took over the controls and finished off what little life he had left. He told me to keep practicing and took off.

Ill never forget that, part of it was the fact that I had this guy that was way older than me show me some attention and helped me out. The other part that makes me remember this, is the fact that I realized just how much depth to this game there was, I asked myself "How much more is there to know?"

After that, I tracked the SNES game through all stages of development until it's intial release picking it up like the day after my birthday 2 days before the release (early shipment at Kaybee BV, MN 79.99) Only playing scantily here and there when my parents would take me to an arcade, until it dropped. Studying EGMS profiles of the characters, I even knew their blood-types.
I got to play it at Powerfest in the mall close to me, I got to stay on the machine pretty much the entire time just laying it down on anyone that touched the machine, just from the stuff I had learned from magazines and whatnot. I remember some of the stages were incomplete from the release version. Vivid.

*sigh*

After that it was animosity people lined up all over to play the console version Target, Blockbuster... anwhere that had it, me and my freinds would get together and play for hours on end.

We all did the updated versions thing, and then it pretty much died out... MK was considered superior, the boat wasn't big enough for a long while. Alpha came out, I DID like it... but it wasn't quite the same.

I started picking up games of tekken, and toshinden with the release of the ps... but remained pretty much in the mainstream console shit for a while.

I grew up, got a job in the mall that held powerfest, Started REALLY picking up games of Tekken Tag, that's what brough me back, that and a machine of SF3- New generation. Nobody played much SF, but tekken was always full of people.

It was good. It led to my eventual return to the Street Fighter series, Picked up 3S on the DC and never looked back.

I always looked up the legends at our arcades, I was to young to really be one at that point, but even though I was young, I still remember those early days of the lightly lit arcades packed with legends surrounding the machine feeding off each others will to be recognized.

I was young then, but I am glad I got to taste the Golden Era.

It's great hearing peoples stories


:cool:

Excellent thread.

[DrunkenGhost]

Originally posted by Eggo


This matchup is pretty hard for Guile. Good ryu players will sweep your low forward and roundhouse with a low roundhouse. They can see the move come out and react.

Anyway, try walking backwards to start, throwing nothing but fast sonic booms in the projectile war. See if you can draw him out into jumping to come get you. If you have him jumping towards you, you'll most likely win.

If he doesn't jump towards you, you're going to have to keep throwing sonic booms till he falls asleep, then jump with a late roundhouse to kick him once in the head. Then proceed to run away and guard the lead. This match is all about getting a lead (no matter how minor) and holding it. Time is your best friend.

Once you've got Ryu jumping, then you can low fierce, low strong (it will whiff) then immediately throw (Ryu's jumping RH with mysteriously miss), low jab, standing RH, standing forward if he's right on top of you, air throw, low forward or RH if he's far, or jump early RH. Once in a while, you might want to block too. Basically, whenever Ryu jumps on you, do something different, so he never knows what to expect and when to RH.

If you're losing, then you have to play close range and throw the hell out of him. This should be your second choice. Never play close range if you can avoid it. Here, throw a slow sonic boom and follow it. If he matches with a fireball, backhand or low forward (he'll have time to block), but it buys you time to setup another boom.

A good OG trick is after doing a low forward which they block, immediately do a backhand. If they try to throw a fireball, you'll hit them clean before the fireball comes out. Your goal is to get them to block a sonic boom with you right behind it. Then you just walk in and throw. The alternate is walk in and at the last second low RH. Or you can walk in, pause, then walk forward and low RH. Walk in, standing jab, throw. Endless variations of cheese. If he spin kicks, low fierce. If he fireballs, block it, then jump towards him with a fierce, low strong, razor kick in case he throws another.

If Ryu corner traps you with fireballs, it can get really bad. Try razor kicking out - cutting off his head like a guillotine and going through the fireball. Or else trade a backhand with the fireball just to throw off his timing. Good Ryu players will back you into the corner and make you block at least 5 fireballs every time you fall down. If you jump up, they'll alternate fireball speed till you finally fall on one. You do not want to be in the corner against a good Ryu player.



Yes.


Awesome GF was my mag in the olden days. Funny SFers are like ronin. We devote our time to the perfection of our pursuit, we are spread out all over the world, yet we all have one common bond. It is a strong bond but it is also one that is competitive. Everyday feeding off of the competiton in an endless pursuit of perfection. Small in minority, some of us outcasts some not, coming from all different walks of life & always adapting. We are indeed a strange breed with a very rich history.

[Antos]

Man, I still barely remember the day Mohsen and i met Tim, and Watson and the others.....(and i still don't remember if it was at Time Out or at Western Arcade...).

Of course the SF2...hmm..let's see......
Time Out arcade (Cerritos Mall) thinking that SF2 was some joke or something, and Jim deciding it was better to buy 2 "Michael Jackson's Moonwalker" game machines, instead !! JESUS CHRIST !

Mohsen and I had to go to Long Beach arcade to find a SF2 machine...

Eventually Time Out realized they screwed up and got a SF2 for 50 cents/pop.

Sf2 was everywhere.
Donut shops all over, 7-11's, small liquor stores....

And Charles, and World's Finest Comics in Pico Rivera...I'll never forget that. (even though I had more interest catching up on missed issues of THOR magazine than the comp....LOL !).

And that one time Mohsen beat Tomo's Guile, with Ken, by doing a whiff jump (no attack), which caused Tomo's standing RH to pass right through Ken and then Tomo got thrown to death...lol!).


Day 1 of champion Edition....
I forgot what place had it first......either Western Arcade, or a doughnut shop off Pioneer Blvd (I THINK it was off Pioneer...it may have been off Norwalk....)but there was a HUGE line of people waiting to play. I mean, a line almost extending outside the arcade, and *was* extending outside the Doughnut shop....

And Mohsen managing to get in, and saying "Guile's still good". (remember all the talk about Guile no longer being able to do Sonic Boom+Fierce anymore....)

And the fun parts, like me teaching Chris Lee, at the 7-11 by his house in Cerritos (who I'll probably never, ever see again) how to uppercut....dear god.......
Sigh...I miss those days....

Chris, or Paul.....are you reading this? you remember Ike Miller, don't you??? @_@ (dreams for a response.....)

[Ultima]

Heh. I feel blessed. In my country (Trinidad), HYper Fighting is in every arcade, and is STILL played EVERY. SINGLE. FUCKING. DAY. Some days are obviously more busy than others, but the machines are there, and you WILL find someone to play against eventually. Not everyone is good, though, but almost everyone thinks they're top shit with Ken, so you can usually get at least a few wins smacking hapless shotos around until they realise what they're not going to win. :p

(On the other hand, there are still some genuine beasts hanging around, but you usually have to go looking for them).

Just today I had to beat up some poor schmoe with Bison (the only character I play in HF, heh). It wasn't particularly fair - while he would hardly have beaten me anyway, his stick had a short in it, where tapping forward on my stick would cause his character to randomly jab. On the other hand, my side wasn't great either. Charge motions were a bitch, and blocking low was touchy (does this sound familiar to anyone? Many arcade here are still stuck in 1993, which isn't a bad thing bcause there are still good games, but on the other hand, the condition of the games is often suspect; not to mention, there are some places that, depending on your skin colour, you don't want to venture into them without back up and/or not after it gets dark). Still put up a good fight. He had Ken first, naturally (99% of the people here play Ken and.or Ryu.. mostly Ken though). After I got rid of him, he switched to... Dhalsim? I don't think I've played against Dhalsim in HF since 1998 or something. And that time I actually got my ass handed to me very very badly, but that was then. I'm a much better player now than I was then, not necessarily that much better at HF, but that much better, period. Anyway, he kinda seemed to know what he was doing, but I thikn the stick fucked him over. I don't fear 'Sim, so he was gone. Then he switched to Vega. Now outside of a particular stupid situation, I think VEga dies to Bison. Oddly enough, in this fight was when my stick decided to act up, so he actually had me pinned in the corner for a couple rounds, not to mention randomness like wall grabbing me out of torpedo. Then I said "Fuck dis shit", and torpedoed and thew the hell out of him.

As I said, it wasn't particularly fair, but he wasn't going to really win anyway.

I finished the game, and then moved onto SS4 (after beating the guy who was on - he was the same guy who I beat in HF before, poor guy, though had he continnued he probably would have given me more trouble here since I suck at SS4; sad to say I then lost to a scrub with my scrubby Amakusa, then switched to the even stupider Slash Sogetsu and won with his usual crap), and MvC1 (got a 26 win streak with... Captain America and HUlk? I pissed the hell out of this one guy who kept picking Morrigan and Wolverine, but really didn't know how to play either; some guy who sorta knew what he was doing with Strider, War Machine and Wolverine came in when I was around win 18, but my OLD SCHOOL SKILLs beat him down several times more even when I clearly should have lost; even at the end, I only lost due to time and a small energy difference; then I switched to a real team of Hyper Venom/Strider and demolished him for good).

Interestingly enough, I'm probably one of the few "old guard" gamers still playing. I'm one of the few who has been actively playing since Sf2 came out in 1991 here, and even though I absolutely SUCKED back then, and still sucked for many years afterwards, I have been playing for so long that I've outlasted most of the other old schoolers. With some exceptions, most of the really good players here are fairly young - they probably wouldn't even have been able to reach the controllers when SF2 first came out.

It's interesting that there have been new players replacing the old here, though of course things aren't quite as busy as they were back in the early 90s. Ah, the benefits of living in a 3rd world country, where fighting games still reign supreme at the arcade, where HF is still seen as THE game to settle disputes on, and you can still find decent competition in any of a dozen places, depending on what time of the day you go. On a random Saturday you can still go and find a good 5-7 person crowd around HF. On the other hand, there's a dearth of new games. If you like 3S, CvS2 or MvC2, you're outta luck. I think there's maybe 1 or 2 places in the entire country total that have them, and two of those places are places I wouldn't dare of walking into without a posse. And since I don't have any friends who really play arcade games much any more, it's kinda of a problem. If I want to play new stuff against good competition, I would have to go back to living in NY. :(

[Ryu & Ken]

Originally posted by Apoc
I'm STILL trying to find that page, lol.

I swear that I have it!

Apoc.

If you want I can find the book, as I have the names but I want that mini FAQ you did as to who where those guys in terms of game play and where are they now

[LAAkuma]

Hello.

I was at Tomo's house 2 weeks ago, when I got the call.

Gerald Abraham called me and told me some version was out called aniversary edition. I was like WTH is that? he explained...then he asked me if I wanted to come show dominance like the old days. Since I am 33, and Tomo is like 28 I was asked Tomo..."Tomo, you want to show these jackasses who's boss?"

He declined, hes too busy. However. I told Tomo I would do it for old time sake to show people even after 11 YEARS and being too old to compete I can still be one of the best in the world.

Jason (Apoc) Tell these guys how it was on CE, Hyper Fighting and Super.

I would come to the tournament with Tomo. Charles would bracket me and Tomo in different brackets. And everyone else, including Watson, was playing for 3rd place. I have, the most Wins at Worlds finest behind Tomo, at over 30. And I was #1 or #2 on the board, only behind Tomo for 3 years straight. Watson was always #3.

Tell these dudes the time ALL the vegas players challenged me to SF and I came and what was it? 40-0 until I had to go to the bathroom!

Loves those days brother. Jason, your a great man.

Also, youll find me name in the Hyper fighting Book, youll see my name is right below TOmo's at #2 on the rankings.
Youll find me in the Super/Super Turbo book in the back under "your worst nightmare"
And youll find me as a lead author in the A2 book, which was a rally good guide. My name is on the cover.

Jeff Schaefer

[Battosai]

Originally posted by LAAkuma
Hello.

I was at Tomo's house 2 weeks ago, when I got the call.

Gerald Abraham called me and told me some version was out called aniversary edition. I was like WTH is that? he explained...then he asked me if I wanted to come show dominance like the old days. Since I am 33, and Tomo is like 28 I was asked Tomo..."Tomo, you want to show these jackasses who's boss?"

He declined, hes too busy. However. I told Tomo I would do it for old time sake to show people even after 11 YEARS and being too old to compete I can still be one of the best in the world.

Jason (Apoc) Tell these guys how it was on CE, Hyper Fighting and Super.

I would come to the tournament with Tomo. Charles would bracket me and Tomo in different brackets. And everyone else, including Watson, was playing for 3rd place. I have, the most Wins at Worlds finest behind Tomo, at over 30. And I was #1 or #2 on the board, only behind Tomo for 3 years straight. Watson was always #3.

Tell these dudes the time ALL the vegas players challenged me to SF and I came and what was it? 40-0 until I had to go to the bathroom!

Loves those days brother. Jason, your a great man.

Also, youll find me name in the Hyper fighting Book, youll see my name is right below TOmo's at #2 on the rankings.
Youll find me in the Super/Super Turbo book in the back under "your worst nightmare"
And youll find me as a lead author in the A2 book, which was a rally good guide. My name is on the cover.

Jeff Schaefer

That sucks....I was hoping that he would make a comeback with the new SF2 AE, and I was looking forward to having matches with the best, I want to see him against Daigo and Kurahashi.

Jeff, lets get a petition going to get SF2 AE in U.S. arcades and rally up tournies bro.

Keep trying to get him to make a comeback.

[Ultima]

Holy crap it's Jeff Schaefer!

Last time I heard from him, he was on alt.games.sf2 ranking Alpha 3 characters based on what character Valle was kicking his ass with that week. LOL. :p

*Checks his A2 book* Hey, his name IS on the cover! (Along with Jason Cole, Matt "Slasher Quan" Taylor, Mike Watson and Graham Wolfe). I actually never noticed before. I thought I had read every square inch of this fine fine book, but I guess I missed a spot. :p

Tomo's 28? Hey, that ain't that old! Besides, you're never too old to beat people up at HF. ^^

[Ryu & Ken]

Originally posted by LAAkuma
Hello.

I was at Tomo's house 2 weeks ago, when I got the call.

Gerald Abraham called me and told me some version was out called aniversary edition. I was like WTH is that? he explained...then he asked me if I wanted to come show dominance like the old days. Since I am 33, and Tomo is like 28 I was asked Tomo..."Tomo, you want to show these jackasses who's boss?"

He declined, hes too busy. However. I told Tomo I would do it for old time sake to show people even after 11 YEARS and being too old to compete I can still be one of the best in the world.

Jason (Apoc) Tell these guys how it was on CE, Hyper Fighting and Super.

I would come to the tournament with Tomo. Charles would bracket me and Tomo in different brackets. And everyone else, including Watson, was playing for 3rd place. I have, the most Wins at Worlds finest behind Tomo, at over 30. And I was #1 or #2 on the board, only behind Tomo for 3 years straight. Watson was always #3.

Tell these dudes the time ALL the vegas players challenged me to SF and I came and what was it? 40-0 until I had to go to the bathroom!

Loves those days brother. Jason, your a great man.

Also, youll find me name in the Hyper fighting Book, youll see my name is right below TOmo's at #2 on the rankings.
Youll find me in the Super/Super Turbo book in the back under "your worst nightmare"
And youll find me as a lead author in the A2 book, which was a rally good guide. My name is on the cover.

Jeff Schaefer

If this is Jeff Schaefer, its an honour 2 hear from a legend, I wish Tomo would come here and post also with Mike Watson.
I remember when me and the school read that mag here in England and wondered how ood were u guys

[Rockstarboy37]

man imagine how long a quote whould be from that second guy, jesus you guys have some good stories. all i can remember was that i was like between the age of 4 and 7 when my nextdoor neighbor had street fighter 2 alpha on snes and i had super street fighter 2 turbo and the new challengers or something on genesis. either way i had 2 on genesis. man street fighter 2 was the shizznit back then. mortal kombat 1 and 2 was the only thing that rivalled that game in my tiny world back then. god being a kid was fun. i wish i could relive those days. me and my neighbors would always play alpha 2. but they where like 9 and i was like 6 so you could imagine how badly i got beaten.can't remember much from back then though, all i can remember is that SF2 is the bomb. im gonna try to buy some old snes games at the mall today if i can find any. great stories guys. im gettin anniversary collection next month too.

[*InVeRs3*]

What's up with Tomo nowadays???? Why'd he quit???

[Ryu & Ken]

Originally posted by *InVeRs3*
What's up with Tomo nowadays???? Why'd he quit???

I think Apoc OR somebody else told me, that he had disagreements with Jeff or Mike Watson on who was better or peeps thought that one of those guys were better than Tomo or something like that

[nothingxs]

Man. In Villahermosa, Tabasco, all the SF2 we ever got were like the crazy cheater hacks (this one was 'dubbed' Alpha Magic) where you could Shoryuken and get like 903 fireballs coming out of Ryu/Ken's armpit (and the one-hit kill Tiger Uppercut that made a Yoga Flame come out of Sagat's armpit).

Then, well, KOF'94 came out, and EGM was having ravaging orgasms over it. So I played it, loved it, and well, now I'm an SNK homo.

I feel cheated for never having a good SF2 scene. Sucks that all the cool shit about SF2 I *should* have learned I didn't learn until this year.

[zapatistab]

I just remember playing StreetFighter II at the arcades and Liquor stores, then coming home and playing with my friends all night on the Sega Genesis. I would always get wooped at the arcades, but beat the same friends on the home version. Maybe it was the pad, even though I prefer a stick now.

[fire2ash]

I remember this tricked out version of SF2 at a Maynards store back in its early days. First of all you could do air hadoukens, and then jump again, all the moves were do-able in the air. With MBison pressing start changed what character you were. Also the hadoukens were huge....Now that I think about it, I have no idea how it happened at a local arcade store back then..like 1993-4? Clearly it was hacked...but how?

[Bill Wood]

Many of the posts in this thread are both informative and just plain awesome to read. I'm wondering whose permission I would need to use a few quotes here and there for a book I'm authoring about fighting games.

[nameingway]

seriously. dope.

[Bill Wood]

This may be the best video game related thread in existence, like, ever. Seriously, I had no idea there were so many old-school players out there who were willing to share their experiences. Simply awesome.

And while I won't ramble on too long with my own old-school story, I will tell you my first SF experience took place in a grimy 7-Eleven store in Hollywood, the same 7-Eleven I would later bear witness to looters storming and pillaging during the L.A. Riots. I was on my lunch break when the SFII cabinet caught my eye and kicked my ass. I ran back to tell my boss "you've gotta see this new game!", and we ended up taking an extended lunch break as I remember. ;)

Anyway, a few months later I ended up trading like a gazillion Genesis games to Game Dude (yes, THAT Game Dude) for an SNES and a copy of Street Fighter II. The guy behind the counter was like "are you sure you wanna do this?", and I'm like "c'mon man, it's Street Fighter!"

BTW, I still have each and every Gamepro SF guide, and yes, I still have much to learn from them. ;)

[Tantin]

Heads and shoulders better than any thread on the site.

[eddymasta]

This thread is too good. Props to all the old school players :p

I was really young when I first saw SF2:WW at some random arcade that my dad brougt me to. Me and my bro played eachother; I played Blanka, and my bro picked Honda... I lost.... It was funny, as we were picking our characters, this girl that was even younger then me told me to "pick the girl" and tried to move my cursor to chun li to "help me" pick her. Also while she was watching us play she would mash on my controls every now and then, prolly trying to "help" me again :p

Ahh the memories.

[Ducky]

...I first played Street Fighter at the 7-11 in jcasetnl's post. Small world.

[ToXY]

Awesome thread, best on SRK, just makes me sad when people talk about the death of SF :sad:
i played SF1 on c64 and WW at at the arcade a bit but i was very young back then and dont remeber much.
Anyone in here from australia that was actually a teenager or adult or something back then that played this game seriously and remebers stuff from the golden days? that would be great if i could hear a story about the OG Aussie SF scene since i was too young back then to travel to diferent arcades and stuff.

[KING]

wow. someone revived a 3-yr old thread. =/
they should sticky this thread. =D

[nothingxs]

I agree. This thread is too good.

[Jion_Wansu]

I first saw World Warrior in the fall of '91 at a bowling alley off of Capitol expressway in San Jose. I saw some guy get to Vega, and I was like "did he just jump out of the crowd" (fence jump)Then I saw some kid who was like 2 years older than me get to Bison with Zangief and he lost. He said it's impossible to beat Bison and no one has beat him yet.

A few months later I saw the game in a local 7-11 store in Morgan Hill. There was fierce comp in there (before SF I played Double Dragon at the local Round Table Pizza, etc). So you can see I was an arcade junkie. At my school someone said they got a new SF II game where you can pick the bosses. I was like yeah whatever man. Low and behold the 7-11 had Champion Edition. They fixed it also to where they had a Final Round because there were always people on World Warrior hogging the game for hours with 2 quarters. They play until their health meter runs low, then make their meters equal so that when time runs out it's a draw. I saw like Round 15 fight one time. Eventually every convinient store, bowling alley, golf land, pizza place, arcade in general, malls, gas stations had Street Fighter II World Warrior/Champion Edition. Like in fall of 1992 a hacked rainbow edition made its way to none other than the local 7-11 store. There were even hot girls playing SF back in the day.
I was one of the best if not the best in my area. I abused people with Champ Sagat so much.
When MK1 came out I kinda defected and MK2 made me play more MK than SF. When UMK3 and MK4 cam out I went back to SF. Now I play more CVS2 and Hyper than I do MK Deception.

On MAME I still play old school World Warrior, Champ, Super Turbo, MK1 and MK2 3.1 and MK2 Challenger Hack....

[Visceral_1]

Geez, I haven't seen this thread in years. It's classic material along with the "Justin Wong and Fries" thread. I'm glad these sort of things aren't lost. They're such good reads.

Visceral

[unsmart]

Great thread. I remember reading the Gamepro Strat guide in the early 90s with the "Cheap", "Wacky", etc combo ratings.

[tsubame]

I remember giving mine to Jason Malone back in the old SFA2 tourney days...

Took me about 10 minutes at a real arcade to figure out that shit don't fly against real people, of course then, I really got interested.

[T0B0R]

SF will never truly die
besides now you can play it on xbox live how awesome is that?
this thread rules

[ax0r]

Online SF sucks

[Muskau]

didn't you win online SF though? lol

[bbq sauce]

Damn.. I know these posts are like 3 years old.. but what jcasetnl wrote up is like some of the best stuff I've ever read on the net.

Makes me wish I was older enough to actually realize the depth in SF2 back then, instead of just being a little 6 or 7 year old that played around at the movies or somethin'.

[Jion_Wansu]

You guys surely remember the string/quarter trick....

The one where you can get like X amount of credits with 1 quarter.

[CyanideAssassin]

this has gotta be the best thread ever

[f1are]

great thread. I'm on old school sf player as well..too tired to post my own sf stories right now.

anyone ever seen Bang the Machine? this thread made me think about it... always wanted to see it.

[SNK Guitarist]

Shit, I may be late on this thread, but I remember clearly when SF2 hit.

For me, it was 1991. I was 10 years old, and I had been living in Okinawa, Japan for a couple years (father was stationed there at Kadena). I used to frequent this little place called "The Tiki" because it had a row of arcade machines at the back (right next to Baskin Robbins - the perfect combination). One day I saw SF2, and was immediately hooked. The characters were large, looked incredibly cool, and threw fireballs (which was a huge plus for me, because I was an insane Dragonball fanatic at the time as well).

I remember not playing it, but rather watching others play it for the first couple of days. I would ask the people all sorts of annoying questions such as movelists and such. I remember one teenager explaining to me qcf, dp, and charge motions, which at the time were alien to me. It took me a good while, but in the beginning I was basically just trying to get that fireball out each and every time. That was my goal of the game - to let everybody see that fireball that was watching me.

With more time with it, and more competition, it became less about "let's see the karate man throw a fireball," and more of "let's see the karate man whoop that ass." Where I lived, we got no U.S. gaming mags. At all. We didn't get combo lists and whatnot, we just sort of stumbled upon them. It was great, mostly in part because it felt like you yourself were bringing out what the game engine had to offer, rather than have somebody else do it for you (from reading mags and whatnot).

There were two arcades where I lived, one was The Tiki, and the other was the standard arcade by the Commissarry (can't remember the name of it for the life of me). The standard one was always packed, and usually had to wait in order to play. The one in the Tiki was almost always free. So when you wanted to get practice, you went there. When you wanted to craft your skills against other players, you went to the other. Times like these, I remember being 10 and only having a dollar, and walking 2 miles from home just to play 4 games. It was definitely worth it, though.

After being one of the top players in my arcade, I felt like I was the best of the best. I was constantly beating other good players, and I could use that dollar of mine and spend a good couple hours on it. Then it hit me like a ton of bricks. One day I went off base to a Japanese arcade, which was open 24 hours (which I thought was extremely odd at the time). I went in and saw just a long row of SF2 machines, and a few people playing them. I strolled up and showed the guy my 100yen piece, acknowledging that I would like to play him. He smiles and nods, so the destruction of my ego is well on it's way. The guy murders me. With ease. It was embarrassing for me. However, I played him several times afterwards and (seriously) began to study the game, and most importantly, why I was losing.

I began to game there from then on. I hardly, if ever, played at the other two arcades. I cost a bit more to play in the Japanese arcade, but it was most definitely worth it. I began to take notes when I got home after a day of beatings. I believe I still have those notes somewhere, and bring them out about once a year for nostalgia's sake. I'd never do my homework from school, but you can bet your ass I did in SF2. That's all that mattered at the time.

At least until Champion Edition arrived. That's when a whole new paradox of smart gaming occurred for me. As the characters changed (some for the better, some for the worse), I began applying that knowledge to my overall game. Learning matchups, and being keenly aware of what to do and not do. I would even bring my Japanese friend along to the arcades just so I could socialize with them and talk strategy. We didn't need combo mags, just each other. In the couple years with the release of CE and Hyper Fighting I was competing with my peers on the same level. I was no longer the gaijin punchingbag. Sadly, that arcade was relocated further down what I was able to travel (at least at my age), so I started to go back to my old arcades.

I had a friend from school who was good at SF2, so we would bike to the arcade with him on the handlebars and literally tear everybody else up. Looking back, it's somewhat comical. We used to take money matches with the off-duty airmen and win every time. We were only 12, and beating them down, taking their money, and then when we had enough we would take a cab to the Japanese arcade to play real competition. It was so great back then. I'd give anything to go back to those days.

Then came Super SF2, which just totally put me off. I hated the slower speed. Around this time I began to get more into SNK games, also partly because they had a Neo 50 inch with Samurai Shodown and Fatal Fury Special which rocked my world, but this is about SF2.

Then came 1994. Super SF2 X came out, and I only had a couple months to play it seriously. My father was stationed back to the USA, and shortly thereafter I didn't see any arcade near me to play the newest games and the best competition. I completely missed the boat on games like Alpha 3, the X-men/marvel games, CvS2, SF3 series, etc. Which is terrible because my only source for competition is online, and with that you can't tell for sure if it's a legit tactic or something you're getting away with because of lag, OR the person isn't good enough to get around it. It's a real pain in the ass trying to distinguish between the two, and everybody is quick to call lag (tactics) when they lose so you're never 100% sure.

Give me the old days where I didn't have any gaming mags, combo movies, or the internet and the only way you got better was to pony up your 100yen and get smashed.

[Christ0pher]

:sad: <<< Me after reading this thread.

[metrock1]

SF1 was fun. I remember pounding those huge ass buttons to get fierce or round house to come out. And upclose shoryuken was a killer. I had to be about 13 then and then came SF-WW. I had never been so amazed at something else before.

Me and my best friend would go back and forth ryu/ken matches. We used to play at the local tilt. I duunno why we thought whoever had ryu would always win cuz we thought his FB was slightly faster giving him a huge advantage. It wasnt until he started skating and not playing as much that I started to play more and more then he was no match for me.

I remember my first ass whipping was by the asian kid. I was (I think)in 8th grade and he was in 6th grade. At this time is when I first heard the stereo type of asians at how they are good cuz they made the game and that sort of stuff.(In my part of town there were not that many asians and I was young and nieve.) He had skill and killed me off but not without a fight. I guess I was one of his first victims cuz soon after I started hearing about some kid name Isaac.

Oh Isaac is the best. Before we had played by no means did I think I was the best but I knew I had some skill cuz I could beat peeps sometimes by a big lead. After hearing the buzz from around the mall is when the burning desire to play more and more. I never wanted to be the best, there was never that desire only of playing cuz it was so addicting. Playing matches till the very end would get my adrenaline going sometimes cuz I would almost be gone and come back with a last minute shoryuken off of someones mistimed jump in or whatnot.

The next time I played Isaac I managed to defeat his ryu and I thought ok I had done it,Hes not so tough. Then he picks guile and proceeds to pummel me. So being the poor kid that I was ran out of money. I was only able to get at the most at that time was about a dollar or 2 what ever the change was from running to the store for my mom. Getting my ass beat never stopped me from playing especially him.

For some reason he knew all the moves before we could figure them out. From now on when ever he was playing no one would play him so he would be facing the computer while everyone watched cuz they did not want to waste there money. I would walk straight to the change machine and then put my quarters in and challenge him. We got to the point of our matches coming very close and to me this meant that I was advancing in skill. Yea for me. This also sparked our competitve relationship but also sparked our friendship. I was always shy and never spoke to anyone I didn't know, but he spoke to me. He said that I was pretty good and where did I learn to play at. I told him that I had always played at the tilt. From there on we played whenever we seen each other and compared moves and talked SF. Before we became friends I still had this idea about asians being superior, afterwords I seen that he was cool and not the mythical stereotype that all others had talked about.


In starting to know Isaac a lil better and he told me that he learned his style from his cousin Peter from up north in the Bay area. He just didn't completely byte his style he also played smart on his own. Not just a copy and paste style. On one of his short trips to Bakersfield I got a chance to play him a few times. When I played Peter for the first time I felt helpless, very helpless. And at this time he was demonstrating how guile was a montser moreso that Isaacs ever was. At that point I knew there was a SF world bigger than Bakersfied cuz I had never seen this guy before and he couldnt be good. I know all the good players so he cant be good. Well I was very wrong. Peter was very good. Got me 2 rounds before I could do anything. Then Isaac introduces me to his very tall cousin Peter. He really didnt say much to me. i guess he thought I was just a scrub friend of Isaacs. At that point I thought of myself sort off Isaacs disciple kinda, but with my own mind. There were tons of kids who would just copy & paste stuff you would show them. All with no brains monkey see monkey do attitudes.

Now around my mid freshman year(92) I've actually ventured out of the tilt to other aracdes in town. I was without transportaion. I could take the bus but that would cut my Sf playing money. The only way I could get there was on foot or my bike. So I hear of this place called The Regency arcade where you can get a very good deal on tokens plus the comp is pretty good cuz there are a lot of players. But this place is all the way across town and the bike was too tiring for me to go that far. I actually got a lil more money so I went on the bus around 4 or so(keep in mind that the busses stopped about 6) and would play a few games to check it out. There were a lot of peeps there and I kinda lost track of time so I had to walk about 12 miles home around 10 at nite. Not very fun but hey ANYTHING for SF. The comp there was ok but here were lots of players and I wasnt playing the same people over and over. For some reasons people had there own territories(arcades) that they never parted from for some resaon. I had no transpo but these people had money cars and jobs and could easily go to other places but they chose to stay in there domain and be the KING in there own mind since no one there can beat them.

This is the first time also I heard people talking trash over a video game. Nothing more than a video game. I walk into Regency and find lots of players. I walk up to the machine and put in my tokens and I hear this guy saying something like"Im gonna have fun taking your money"in a demeaning voice. So Im just stare at him. I had seen that he was playing Blanka so I picked my standard Ryu and went on to defeat him. He had an ok game and made me think in a couple of situations but nothing to be scared of. Then I meet the Notorious Cody. This cowboy ish stalky white guy with a mouth full off chew. I thought Cody was disgusting and not only that he looked very mean.Later getting to know him he is very cool. I then seen him get upset over the game cuz this guy was talking smack to him plus the controls were screwy. He took the stool and bashed the stick and walks out of the arcade. Well thats 1 machine thats down for the night

It turns out that all the players there were OK but there was lots of them. So I'm just taking fools out till another guy challenges me by the name of Bobby B. Our match was very close but I had lost. From then on I knew I had to give it my all when playing Bobby B. Just like playing Isaac and I had to do whatever it takes to win. This is another point when I realized not to underestimate people. I thought he was another Regency scrub.

With these guys(Isaac and Bobby) they never complained about c-short into throw or FB in there corner shit. they were always able to deal with whatever I threw at them. Most of the other players would comoplain about those tactics and then dubbed the name CHEEZY. After a while all 3 of us would go back and forth playing each other with Isaac on top and Me and Bobby shortly behind him in skill.

To me when the majority of players complain about your playing style u must be doing something right. Even against the complainers we would not use certaina tactics and still defeat them with ease. Those were good times seeing scrubs cry when beating them at there own game.

I made a lot of friends playing SF just hanging out at the arcades. Its been one of my life learning experiences. I witnessed so much just from being at an arcade. Consoles play is ok with a few friends but it will never replace an arcade.

I got my first real job from one of my SF friends. I got into criminal activity cuz of my SF friends. So much fun the you grow up.(Well not really) I am 28 now with a job and family but for some reason I cant get it out of my blood. I say I want to quit and when I do, the next thing you know I go out and buy a whole fucking arcade machine. Its in my blood forever and now I have 2 machines and about 6 sticks. Crazy shit and good memories that I would never trade for anything..........

[metrock1]

PART 2


As with other posters here Champion came out and that changed things very much. There is no more race to Guile or Sim. And now peeps can finally have there RYU vs RYU match without the WW glitch. Of course I was able to transfer my skills over with no problem. Here locally is when a lot of players stopped playing. now only the more dedicated players were playing along with the newcomers that were scarce. It seems that WW brought out everyone and CE was too much for the usual arcade goer. It wasnt until hyper fighting that brought out all the players but that was only for a short spurt until the super and super turbo then only the hardcore players were still around. Then came the splurge of all other fighters taking attention away from SF. Its about 94-95 and I step back from SF for a few years due to life. Like getting a job and becoming a father. It wasnt until Mvc2 came out I got my desire to compete again. I've been playing of and on since it was released. Its a lot more complex than SF but Ive been able to hang in my local scene. Well theres not much of a scene but I can hold my own.

[Jion_Wansu]

metrock1

do you remember the coin/string trick on the machines? where you get a lot of credits with 1 quarter...

[Sabin]

metrock: i know about that trick. i also used to do the penny trick back in the day when i was young, IE rip off the bottom cover, and jam pennies up the coinslot for a free game...but it would go in the changebin so the ownwers would catch on quick, haha

[Dasrik]

Bad Art... *wags finger*

[metrock1]

I knew the quarter trick all too well. I was once threatened to be arrested for it and threw out of the arcade. My friend was able to drill a quarter with a hole but that was no good. All that work and u can only use it one time. I found that using hole reinforcers made best for that. They are the little stickers with holes cut out so they would fit into the binder rings and they came in packs of around 100 or so. It was a delicate art. Also the arcade operators would find the stickers on tokens or quarters or what ever and start beefing up security(more trips past our favoite machine to do it on.) around the arcade. Even doing that during the busiest times was sort of a rush since the cabs were in front for everyone to see like the main attraction.

[DJSystem]

Anyone else like to read this thread (Especially Jcale's stuff) sometimes? BUMP for GOOD MEASURE! :clap:

[CyanideAssassin]

I do. I grew up with SF, its in my blood :) Ive actually got a bunch of CDs that have all the old songs on em, including remixes!
One of my favorite games of all time, thats saying a lot as Ive been doing this gaming thing for almost my entire life lol.
Another BUMP for the unenlightened :) Ive gotta get this thread saved on my computer just in case it ever gets deleted.

[Fudd]

I started reading this thread around a month+ ago and only finished it a few weeks ago. I am so grateful to have found it.
I wasn't old enough to have taken full part in the old school arcade experience.
But my older brother did.

He did the whole "after school, 7-11" thing and even remembers the EGM Sheng Long April Fool's. By the time I was old enough to tag along with him, it was normally at home on our SNES. As much as I wish I could have experienced the Golden Age of Street Fighter, I have only the tales and memories left to me by my brother. I did not realize until I was a teenager just how big the competitive world can be. At the same time, I see that I am blessed to even have an older brother to at least tell me his share about the old days. Some people younger or the same age as I don't even have that.

However, we all have SRK. It was so incredible to read such detailed stories of a time before my time. It must have been even wilder to have experienced it firsthand. And so I give my thanks to those of you who reached deep into your memory box to pull out some old nostalgia, dusted it off, and showed the rest of us it still shines, and will continue to.
Thank you for being our "older brothers".

This is my own way of adding to the thread, since I can't talk about having seen 20+ kids crowding around a SF II machine. Tomorrow, I'll be leaving on a solo trip to my very first EVO, and only second-ever "official" SF tournament event. Tomorrow, I'll be leaving to claim my birthright and be with my brothers from other places.


...Actually, I've got one little story of my own. It's not exactly old school, but I think it certainly adds to the legend.

My Junior year of high school (Two years ago), there was a senior named Allen Chiu. We shared a Journalism class. One day, he says almost loud enough for everyone to hear:
"I bet I can beat anyone at this school at Street Fighter II."
I overheard him. I thought he was being really arrogant. That's the way a lot of players can seem to me, I guess. Even my own brother likes his share of shit-talking.
Anyway, I figured I could take him on. It had been years since I had played Street Fighter II on SNES. So we eventually got around to playing in Mr. Nguyen's class at lunch. Allen was there with a few of his other older friends, adding to the shit-talking scene and overall hype of the game. Yep, this is Street Fighter, all right. Everyone was so excited, playing casuals such a classic game. The bet was $5, I believe. One game. My Ryu faced off against his Guile. He did his little sonic boom factory complete with flash kicks and backbreaking air throws. Let's not forget the double sweeps. I was amazed at how slow the game was and also trying to figure out how I used to play. I lost, of course.

Fast-forward a couple months. I told my brother, who lives out of state, I wanted a SNES for Christmas. He pulled through and shipped me a used one and I went out and bought SF II cheap. I was going to get my groove back. I eventually got around to issuing a challenge back to Allen. He says he wants to play for $20. I tell him I only want to play for fun. He won't do it. I give it a lot of thought, and reluctantly agree to play for a "dub", as he put it. $20 on one game. Only a few people are watching. Ryu VS Guile in Spain, I think it was. We go a round a piece until the third round. He was rusty. We both get down to low health and I manage to get a throw in. I relax after throwing him, thinking the match was over. I noticed the screen didn't slow down like it always does when a round is over and I see Guile getting up, thinking "That throw should've killed him!" But I remember that Allen liked to play on one-star damage, so the game would last longer, I guess. I did manage to finish him, though.

Lunch ends and we're cleaning up, I confront Allen about the $20 and ask him to step outside with me. As he's explaining about how he's "going to get it" for me, I tell him to keep his money. I only wanted to play for fun, and I meant it. I could not get him to agree to playing me any other way, so I took a $20 risk. I think I got lucky he was rusty and I was in good shape again. In the lamest way you can think of, he says to me:
"You're a true street fighter."

I set up this endeavor for myself to get a good experience out of it, and I did.
That's just my little tale. Hopefully I'll have more in the future. Better ones, even.

Thanks again for sharing, guys.

[YuH8TNG]

I remeber those were my days and when the competion got good the only few that were unstoppable were the ones that knew how to invisble slam with guile or knew how to use zangief with the super fast short then switch buttons to the jab and it would do a super fast short kick plus he also had this combo that was unstoppable you would jump in with foward then c.forward, spinning pile driver almost imposible to counter WOW. I remeber dhalsim had a pause glitch that was good too. I recenlty played an OG SF2 game and i was doin all those it brought back memory's. :karate:

[Storming Flower]

Lunch ends and we're cleaning up, I confront Allen about the $20 and ask him to step outside with me. As he's explaining about how he's "going to get it" for me, I tell him to keep his money. I only wanted to play for fun, and I meant it. I could not get him to agree to playing me any other way, so I took a $20 risk. I think I got lucky he was rusty and I was in good shape again. In the lamest way you can think of, he says to me:
"You're a true street fighter."



That is too good. haha

[CyanideAssassin]

^^I was just about to say the same thing lol. a true street fighter, that IS classic:lol::tup:

[KoftSF]

That was deep.

[cricket_egg]

This thread IS SRK.

[Jion_Wansu]

I knew the quarter trick all too well. I was once threatened to be arrested for it and threw out of the arcade. My friend was able to drill a quarter with a hole but that was no good. All that work and u can only use it one time. I found that using hole reinforcers made best for that. They are the little stickers with holes cut out so they would fit into the binder rings and they came in packs of around 100 or so. It was a delicate art. Also the arcade operators would find the stickers on tokens or quarters or what ever and start beefing up security(more trips past our favoite machine to do it on.) around the arcade. Even doing that during the busiest times was sort of a rush since the cabs were in front for everyone to see like the main attraction.

Yup the quarter trick was top tier. Did I mention that these two guys played on 50 cents and kept on drawing the game until like Round 14 Fight!. That's why Champ had Final Round Fight. Also me and this kid busted open a Galaga machine and stole all the quarters in it. Split it in half. Half of mine went into the Final Fight game at the time and then I spent the other half over a few weeks. After that the Pizza Hut put those iron bars with masterlocks across every game. LOL