Reminiscing about console ports of Street Fighter 2...

StevenK

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I bought the snes SF2 console bundle not long after the game came out. I already had a megadrive and I'd never had two consoles at once before, I was worried it was a waste of money but I just had to play that game. I needn't have worried, I played the shit out of it, just endless hours. I never bothered to learn to play with the shoulder buttons though, so I only played with soft kick, hard kick, soft punch, hard punch. Lazy.
 

yagamikun

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I bought the snes SF2 console bundle not long after the game came out. I already had a megadrive and I'd never had two consoles at once before, I was worried it was a waste of money but I just had to play that game. I needn't have worried, I played the shit out of it, just endless hours. I never bothered to learn to play with the shoulder buttons though, so I only played with soft kick, hard kick, soft punch, hard punch. Lazy.
I'd venture to say this was the case with many of us. Even though I found myself obsessed with fighting games after I discovered SF2, the Fierce buttons were the only ones I bothered with early on because they "do the most damage." Thankfully by the mid-90's I discovered the error of my ways and began to play more strategically.

I have a good buddy in the UK who just started getting back into gaming in general, especially fighting games. As he's been playing SF2 CE on Fightcade I'll get random texts like, "why are people poking me with crouching medium kicks and winning!?" lol - It's been fun revisiting SF2 lately teaching him how to play more competitively with a strong focus on footsies and fundamentals.
 

basic

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Its weird how time changes things. SFII was $100 when it came out in Japan, $120 by the time you imported it...and about $1 in Japanese used shops after Turbo came out...even crazier was the PCE version which was also 9800 yen but more less required that you buy two new controllers...it was only the most up to date console port for exactly a month until Turbo came out for SFC.

And then somehow Super Turbo wasn't even worth porting to any decent contemporary console...and now its the version everyone plays.
yes wow. it's so weird how economics work...so mysterious.
 

SignOfGoob

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Haha, yeah. Back when we thought specials and supers were everything. I could kick my 19 year old self’s ass with a single button knowing what I know now.
 

pixeljunkie

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I think it's fair to say the only games that got more play on my Genesis than SCE were the early NHL games. I even had that awful official Capcom arcade stick.
I still have my Capcom stick, it's honestly not bad. It was one of the only sticks you could get with microswitches
 

100proof

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Yeah I remember renting an SNES and SF2 for my birthday the year it came out and inviting my friends over to play. A group of 7 nerds piled in front of the TV and, at one point, I asked my dad if he would join us so we could have an 8-man tournament. At this point, he hadn't sat and played video games with me since the 2600 days but, sure enough, he sat down and played with us for like 3 hours. I think he won once the entire time (he picked Gief and had no idea what he was doing) but he laughed and ate shitty pizza and seemed to enjoy himself nevertheless. Years later when I'd play in local/regional tournaments in college, he'd always ask me if "Zangief was in this one" and he'd laugh and flex like Gief if I told him that he was.

I guess it was his equivalent of "are you winnin son?" but it always made me smile that he remembered that.
 

Takumaji

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And then there was the 3 buttons on Genny vs. 6 buttons on SNES thing. For those who don't remember, you had to press Start on the Genny 3 button pads to switch between kicks and punches which caused endless razzing of SNES owners who felt that their pads were better. Of course that didn't mean anything because noone played the game competively at first, then the wonderful 6 button pad appeared in shops and remedied the situation once and for all.

I never had a problem playing SF2' on Genny with 3 button, I'm still able to pull off simple jump-in 3-hit combs involving kicks and punches with the classic pad. Of course it's way better to play with 6 buttons so we never really looked back once the new pads were available but it wasn't that big of a deal. It also was kinda hilarious to play with my SNES-owning buddies on my Genny and watch them desperately trying to cope with the 3 button pads... :D Ah, the memories.

I also beat a friend of mine once with Chun-Li using my feet! It was during one of those long SF2 sessions when I was on a winning streak with Chun against his Ken. Tom gradually became more grumpy and thus made even more silly mistakes so I could beat his ass with ease. Then I dropped my pad to the floor and used me left foot to grab it. Just when I wanted to pick it up I accidentally hit start, then the game came up and I started playing with my feet for shits 'n giggles. Tom said that he won't play SF2 ever again if I manage to beat him with my feet so we went into battle and I beat his Ken with only a faint bit of energy left... that was so cool. Luckily, Tom kept playing the game afterwards.
 

joe8

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Its weird how time changes things. SFII was $100 when it came out in Japan, $120 by the time you imported it...and about $1 in Japanese used shops after Turbo came out...even crazier was the PCE version which was also 9800 yen but more less required that you buy two new controllers...it was only the most up to date console port for exactly a month until Turbo came out for SFC.

And then somehow Super Turbo wasn't even worth porting to any decent contemporary console...and now its the version everyone plays.
I think it's true to say that in Japan, people get excited about products that are new, but that quickly cools for things that are not new, or superceded by a newer version of it.
The PCE version of SF2CE was the only accurate port, and CE is arguably a better game than Turbo. You could say that Turbo has too much speed, and it's not selectable (in-game) like later SF games. Too many quickie moves, that that the opponent can't react to in time (defend themselves). Demand for new versions of the game (for two player gameplay) from the American market was what brought about CE and Turbo. The Japanese programmers of SF2 were happy to leave it at World Warrior, and happy with it's normal speed, and bosses that were actually bosses.

I've never liked SSF2 Turbo that much. Guile was nerfed (from SSF2), the AI difficulty was ridiculous, and the gameplay mechanics were changed a lot. Although, it did introduce Akuma, and it finally had proper endings for the bosses. The Alpha and SFIII games are better than the SF2 series.
 
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theMot

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I got this bundle for my 12th birthday. Hands down, best present I got as a kid. I played it non stop and finished it with every character.

20190628_103230.jpg
 

joe8

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I got this bundle for my 12th birthday. Hands down, best present I got as a kid. I played it non stop and finished it with every character.


20190628_103230.jpg
You still have it? That's an actual photo of it?
 

Azathoth

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As a Genesis owner, the first 8 months or so after the SNES release were a rough time for teenage me. I loved SFII and lapped up every magazine I could that featured it. Once the SNES port was announced, and all the hoopla about it over the next few months (16 meg! Big giant prototype cart! Screenshot comparisons!) all made my Sega fanboy heart shrivel.

The EGM with the Capcom/Sega announcement and the CE spread was read and reread by me so many times it eventually fell apart. I picked up a 6 button controller as soon as I saw them in the store, which was a couple months before SFII and MK hit. I remember how much better Fatal Fury played with it versus the 3 button, and I just salivated at the idea of having SFII on Genesis.

The SNES owners were pretty smug about it, but we rallied around our Fatal Fury port... until of course SFII SCE was announced.

FF was an awesome port. Fighting game fans that were Sega owners had a tough row to hoe, all we had was Slaughter Sport, Fighting Masters, and Deadly Moves.
 
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HornheaDD

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I remember reading previews in EGM or Gamepro, and they would kind of spell out the moves for fireballs, shoryukens, etc and instead of using arrows, they'd write it out like

"To throw a fireball with Ken, press down, down forward, forward and punch"

Looking at it now it makes perfect sense. But for a kid of 12-15 it just looked like you had to TAP , down, then down, then forward, then forward again. It was weird. But then when someone was like "No dude, it means basically quarter circle forward" my friends and I were like OH that makes more sense. We thought they had changed the inputs for the SNES port.
 

terry.330

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I remember reading previews in EGM or Gamepro, and they would kind of spell out the moves for fireballs, shoryukens, etc and instead of using arrows, they'd write it out like

"To throw a fireball with Ken, press down, down forward, forward and punch"

Looking at it now it makes perfect sense. But for a kid of 12-15 it just looked like you had to TAP , down, then down, then forward, then forward again. It was weird. But then when someone was like "No dude, it means basically quarter circle forward" my friends and I were like OH that makes more sense. We thought they had changed the inputs for the SNES port.
This is so true especially since MK had such stupid controls, which is what I was mostly used to. I remember finally seeing in a manual or guide the quarter circle, D-U, L-R and Z movements and felt so stupid. Granted I was only like 9 or 10. I also blame not getting to play SF in the arcades much, I'm sure I would have picked up the proper joystick movements pretty quickly just observing other people play more. When it's just you, some magazines and a couple friends that's a pretty limited pool of information lol.
 
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yagamikun

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This is so true especially since MK had such stupid controls, which is what I was mostly used to. I remember finally seeing in a manual or guide the quarter circle, U/D, L/R and Z movements and felt so stupid. Granted I was only like 9 or 10. I also blame not getting to play SF in the arcades much, I'm sure I would have picked up the proper joystick movements pretty quickly just observing other people play more. When it's just you, some magazines and a couple friends that's a pretty limited pool of information lol.
Arcades in the US, at least across the mid-west where I grew up, were less community gathering spots and more just lines of people waiting to play the game with very little sharing of information. Each person's strategy was a closely guarded secret and they didn't want to help you win or give you pointers - it was a very "every man for yourself" kinda deal. If you didn't already have the knowledge to play, you'd get no help from anyone. How I understand it, it was a very different experience in Japanese arcades where each game center would have a dedicated community that sprang up.

My saving grace was a local comic book shop that was about 5 minutes from my house that had a lone World Warrior machine. I was in there enough that the guys would throw in some credits when I'd come in and teach me some basics on how to use special moves and the like.

Also, anyone remember the "etiquette" in mall arcades? Like, if you threw the opponent too much people would call you out for not using "good etiquette" when playing. lol
 

terry.330

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Arcades in the US, at least across the mid-west where I grew up, were less community gathering spots and more just lines of people waiting to play the game with very little sharing of information. Each person's strategy was a closely guarded secret and they didn't want to help you win or give you pointers - it was a very "every man for yourself" kinda deal. If you didn't already have the knowledge to play, you'd get no help from anyone.
Not only that it could be a little intimidating as a 9 or 10 year old kid playing against guys that were like 15-18. Those guys had mullets and smoked cigarettes lol.

That's why I usually ended up playing the Neo cab by myself after standing in line for 20 minutes only to get my ass beat in SF.
 

HornheaDD

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Also, anyone remember the "etiquette" in mall arcades? Like, if you threw the opponent too much people would call you out for not using "good etiquette" when playing. lol

In my area, throws were considered "cheap shots" and you'd be razzed for using a cheap shot.

To this day, I hate throws in fighters.
 

theMot

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You know, I sometimes wonder if I enjoyed reading the magazines more than playing the games
Those British gaming mags were the best back in the day. I looked forward to getting those just as much as playing the games. I’ve still got a box in my garage of them that have been through 5 house moves that I haven’t look at it in 20 years but I just can’t bring myself to throw them away.
 

100proof

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Arcades in the US, at least across the mid-west where I grew up, were less community gathering spots and more just lines of people waiting to play the game with very little sharing of information. Each person's strategy was a closely guarded secret and they didn't want to help you win or give you pointers - it was a very "every man for yourself" kinda deal. If you didn't already have the knowledge to play, you'd get no help from anyone. How I understand it, it was a very different experience in Japanese arcades where each game center would have a dedicated community that sprang up.

My saving grace was a local comic book shop that was about 5 minutes from my house that had a lone World Warrior machine. I was in there enough that the guys would throw in some credits when I'd come in and teach me some basics on how to use special moves and the like.

Also, anyone remember the "etiquette" in mall arcades? Like, if you threw the opponent too much people would call you out for not using "good etiquette" when playing. lol

The "etiquette" nonsense was a scrub thing. You'd definitely run in to individuals and small groups of people who would get pissy about tick throws and mercy rounds and fireball traps in the early days of fighting games but those losers were largely gone by the mid-90s. That said, depending on the size of the guy and how deep they were rolling, you occasionally had to mind your P's and Q's.

In general, the "community" aspect was largely based on the place you played. There were mall arcades that I went to where nobody knew each other and it was insular and lame but there were others, even early on, that would have move lists next to each cab and groups of regulars that would meet up, make friends and share tech. Tough to explain to people who weren't there at the time but it was like family for a lot of kids growing up in tough areas.
 

pixeljunkie

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Not only that it could be a little intimidating as a 9 or 10 year old kid playing against guys that were like 15-18. Those guys had mullets and smoked cigarettes lol.

That's why I usually ended up playing the Neo cab by myself after standing in line for 20 minutes only to get my ass beat in SF.

This is the main reason I got into Neo Geo - I was paying Fatal Fury instead and enjoying myself while the SF2 cabs were like a mosh pit you couldn't even get to the front of.
 

Johnny16Bit

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For me SFII will always be WW on the super famicom - though I did have Super and Super X on 3do later on.

It was such a case... Among my circle of friends, I was the only one who had imports, so I got SFII WW early. And then when my friends had their shitty PAL system, they got 2 turbo which I said wasn't that much better - and then I got Super, which they said wasn't that much better than Turbo :beer:
There was also the famous phrase in the magazines about "who will surpass SFII?" and such, all these games you really wanted to believe they they were better, or just not that bad - Mortal Kombat, Fatal Fury... And then came Fatal Fury 2, Art of Fighting...
Born in 1979, the highlights of my videogame memories :cool:
 

roker

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I really wanted that PC Engine port of SF2 even after I found out Turbo was coming to the US. I finally picked up a copy 4 years ago with the NEC 6 button. Later on I picked up a Hori 6 button for 2 player gameplay. Still one of my favorite versions of SF2 and my favorite of the ports (I'd rather play Turbo on the PS2).
 
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