First pictures ~ earliest preview of Street Fighter II?

Gen-An · October 23, 2007, 7:24am

I still have that EGM issue buried somewhere…

Sorta OT, but was I the only one somewhat disappointed in the original SF2 ports? I definitely didn’t like the loss of animation or the sound effects and music.

vasili10 · October 23, 2007, 7:59am

Sure thing.

Pretty much.

System_1 · October 24, 2007, 12:57am

EGM review SNES SFII WW

http://www.imagepup.com/up/I0Wt_1193173123_rsz_SF2EGMreview.jpg

Video Games & Computer Entertainment review SNES SFII WW

http://www.imagepup.com/up/XLBY_1193174357_vgcesf2rp1.jpg
http://www.imagepup.com/up/adFx_1193174791_vgcesfIIrp2.jpg

SFII contest in EGM

http://www.imagepup.com/up/SXmr_1193175262_SFIIcontest.jpg
http://www.imagepup.com/up/qUqN_1193175756_SFIIcontest2.jpg

part of EGM’s huge 15-page preview of SNES SFII WW and Arcade SFII CE
from EGM Number 33, April 1992

http://www.imagepup.com/up/Dhpc_1193252006_SFIIsnesSFIICEarc.jpg

http://www.imagepup.com/up/DTT6_1193252851_SFIIceARC.jpg
http://www.imagepup.com/up/KLSY_1193253332_SFIIceARC.jpg

http://www.imagepup.com/up/FKAz_1193253934_SFIIconcept.jpg
http://www.imagepup.com/up/7px1_1193253978_SFIIconcept2.jpg

I didn’t really feel like doing the other 10 pages of this EGM feature since it requires not just taking the pictures but a.) seeing if they’re readable, b.) cropping them
c.) re-sizing them. (i don’t have a working scanner). they showed screens of SNES SFII WW and basic moves. not really that interesting. IF there is a big demand for those, however, I will concider toing do it sometime later this week or next.

I would rather spend my spare time looking for more obscure/interesting SFII stuff like Arcade/Genesis/PC-Engine/X68000/FM-Towns, etc articles.

Autocrat1 · October 24, 2007, 2:14am

I loved SF:CE on the ol’ Genesis so much to care. Still play it on emulator, actually.

remembers epic disable moves screen

Weta · October 24, 2007, 2:25am

Ah, ‘Special Champion Edition’.

I played this yesterday with some friends, busting out the Genesis… toggling punches/kicks with Start reminds me so much of Eternal Champions. I really struggled with Claw - charge down, up, kick, start, punch?

That disable moves screen rocks, though, you can even disable move variants like air hurricane kick. The balance seems to have been shot to hell in this port, Honda does ridiculous damage (also chip damage?) on his moving hand-slaps of doom. Anyone else know anything about this odd port?

System_1 · October 24, 2007, 2:26am

oh you were definitally not the only one.

Capcom’s original arcade SFII, as you know, was running on the powerful CPS board, using 58 megabits rom

despite all the positive previews & reviews saying how nearly perfect the home version was, in reality Capcom had to downgrade the home translation very significantly to the less powerful SNES, only using 16 megabits rom. these early home versions were not ports because a port uses all of the original arcade codebase, artwork, etc. so there were translations/conversions.

SNES SFII Turbo was 20 megabits,
PC-Engine SFII CE was 20 megabits,
Genesis SFII Special CE was 24 megabits.

Even the larger 32 megabit SNES Super SFII and 40 megabit Genesis Super SFII were still smaller roms than the 58 megabits of the original arcade WW.

SNES SFII WW
SNES SFII Turbo
Genesis SFII Special CE
PC-Engine SFII CE

all had

*lower screen resolution
*had boarders, not full screen
*smaller total color palette
*fewer colors on-screen
*smaller, less detailed sprites
*missing background objects
*fewer frames of animation in the characters
*reduced background detail
*fewer frames of animation in the backgrounds
*a few missing moves
*less parallax scrolling (or none) in the backgrounds
*choppier scrolling of the backgrounds
*lower-quality music
*worse sound effects
*fewer voices
*lower-quality voices

the first machine to get a true arcade-quality port of a SFII game was the obscure Sharp X68000 Japanese-only computer. it got SFII CE. there were no downgrades that I could see. all the color, animation, detail, sound, etc. was preserved. it was truly a 1:1 arcade port, aside from loading times and swaping discs (5 discs). X68000 SFII CE was released years before Saturn, PS1 Capcom Generation 5 / SF Collection 1.

pootnannies · October 24, 2007, 2:44am

those were the days. i remember being obsessed with sf2 and when it was announce for snes it was impossible to rent! and when i tried to buy it, they were all sold out! damn i wish street fighter was that popular again. maybe with sf4…who knows

Lebowsk1 · October 24, 2007, 3:19am

Wow… that was weird. Looking at that first link really took me back to the past. I mean, those early screen shots, just now made me look at SF in a way I only used to as a kid way back in the day.

Strange feeling.

Iapetus · October 24, 2007, 5:08pm

You read my mind, brutha. This thread is pretty golden, even if all this nostalgia is old news. :tup:

System_1 · October 24, 2007, 5:47pm

I have more (old stuff of course) but my neck & back are in ALOT of pain right now, got a doc appointment later today. when i’m doing better I will try to get around to posting the other pics.

Crayfish · October 24, 2007, 8:58pm

Man I want that T-Shirt!! Thats the coolest retro SF T-Shirt I’ve seen. Pls someone tell me they’re reprinting those on e-bay or something…

btw, great work guys, keep em coming
First place I saw SF2 was in the ‘In the Arcades’ section of one of my brothers Commodore Amiga magazines (Amiga’s were huge in the 16bit era in UK). It had a pic of Ryu doing s.HK with Ken crouching under it about to c.MP him in the nuts (which I thought was a pretty cool innovation). The section also featured SNK’s King of the Monsters 1, just shows how advanced SF2 was for the time!! I remember the article said the game had 6, ‘count em’ 6 fire buttons, I just thought that sounded like a silly gimmick!
About a couple of months later I finaly got to have a quick go on it, in a local coastal arcade. I picked Gief right away coss he looked the biggest & toughest. As the match started, I just looked at the controls and thought WTF do I do!!! At the time 6buttons and command specials were like something from outer space…

Crayfish.

Tone_1 · October 24, 2007, 9:31pm

Seeing as how positive the feedback for SF2 is, does anybody have anything like reviews of CE and HF? I’m curious as to how well revisions were received back then, seeing as magazines nowadays seem to hate them.

System_1 · October 24, 2007, 10:55pm

I will look but I doubt it. I am sure I have some previews of CE and Turbo.

If I don’t have them in my own collection, I will hunt the internet because I might have seen magazine scans of SNES SFII Turbo, Genesis SFII Special CE, PC-Engine SFII CE. etc. more previews than reviews, IIRC.

I’d really be curious to see a review of SFII CE for the Sharp X68000 as that was the first home machine to get an arcade-quality SFII (it’s pixel for pixel the same with original arcade artwork, etc, no noticable downgraded like the other home versions.

so, I will look for you, but so I don’t disappoint you or anyone, I will say for now: don’t expect me to find anything. if I do however, it’ll be a nice treat.

ProfessorS · October 25, 2007, 1:25am

If I remember correctly, all SF2 revisions were received pretty much as well as the original(even the shitty Genesis regular CE version) up until Super. When Super came out, it got 6’s and 7’s from EGM which made Capcom pull ads from the magazine to which EGM did their whole usual “only WE have journalistic integrity” song and dance.

System_1 · October 25, 2007, 1:27am

GamePro preview of PC-Engine SFII CE
(plus talk of a MegaCD/SegaCD version that never came out)
http://www.imagepup.com/up/uZQ8_1193356282_SFIIcePCEpreview.jpg

GamePro’s ‘overseas prospects’ review of PC-Engine SFII CE

http://www.imagepup.com/up/Got7_1193261296_pceSFII.jpg

System_1 · October 25, 2007, 3:00pm

this is off-topic since this thread is really meant for early previews of SFII arcade but I should post this somewhere

with a RAM upgrade the X68000 16-bit computer from 1987 could run SSFT

it’s probably closer to the arcade than 3DO SSF2T

Syxx573 · October 25, 2007, 4:14pm

That is the best main stream review of any fighting game i’ve ever seen

System_1 · October 26, 2007, 2:38am

it was okay. they did similar previews/reviews for SNES SFII, WW, Turbo and Genesis SFII Special CE. I’ll try to post those here later.

edit, here:

GamePro SNES SFII WW review
http://www.imagepup.com/up/dWYj_1193353811_SFIISNESreview1.jpg
http://www.imagepup.com/up/Qr7y_1193353892_SFIISNESreviewP2.jpg

Gamepro multi-platform SFII preview (SNES Genesis PC-Engine)
http://www.imagepup.com/up/j7c8_1193356785_SF2multiplatformpreview1.jpg
http://www.imagepup.com/up/KqEz_1193356795_SF2multiplatformpreview2.jpg
http://www.imagepup.com/up/Em5L_1193356884_SF2multiplatformpreview3.jpg

GamePro Genesis SFII Special CE preview
http://www.imagepup.com/up/Aj8P_1193355119_SFIIsceGenesis1.jpg
http://www.imagepup.com/up/XUa5_1193355178_SFIIsceGenesis2.jpg

GamePro Genesis SFII Special CE review
http://www.imagepup.com/up/Gqjf_1193355401_SFIIGenesisSCEreview1.jpg
http://www.imagepup.com/up/AmV4_1193355462_SFIIGenesisSCEreview2.jpg
http://www.imagepup.com/up/pSo7_1193355471_SFIIGenesisSCEreview3.jpg

However this really is not what I’m looking for. I’m looking for previews/reviews from other mags that i saw scans of online not too long ago.

Endless · October 26, 2007, 4:49am

It’s funny because I have or have read almost all of these magazines one time in my life.

Gamepro had monthly inserts on reviews/movelists/combos/damage for all of the characters in WW, with 3 characters every month. There was a poster included also. The art was terrible, lol

System_1 · October 26, 2007, 8:41pm

there was a picture in GameFan magazine for PC-Engine SFII CE. it was not even a preview, just a pic with a comment. it was either in their Japanese coverage or their “Otherstuff” rumor column. I don’t know what issue it was. that single picture convinced me to import the 20-meg HuCard for my TurboDuo.
I wonder if anyone has that specific GameFan pic. I’ve never seen it online.

Also, there’s a much larger 1 or 2 page preview/ review, also for the PC-Engine ver, that I saw on the internet not so long ago. I can’t find it yet because I am probably putting in the wrong search words…

for as many interesting old SFII articles that I have found and put in this thread, there are an equal or probably greater number that I haven’t found…