Went to FFA for years, playing DDR, Initial D, Maximum Tune, etc. Would watch tourneys held all the time, didn’t know the people I was watching were Pyrolee, 5 star, Frankie3s, and others. I happened to go the night of the World Championships of 3s held at FFA the day before evo i think it was, saw Daigo, k.o. and other players, Daigo complimented me on DDR, said I was good, I nodded and smiled, wondering who he was. That weekend he became a legend. I kinda started playing, but really didn’t get serious until I started talking to Naysayism, last feb.
I saw a pic in Edge (a console & arcade gaming mag) that showed pics of 2nd Impact, with the caption saying “Capcom’s 2nd update to their Street Fighter 3 franchise”. I was left thinking “2nd ?, I didnt even know there was a 1st ?” :sad: .
Anways, a year later and I got a DC & the DC port, then of course when the DC was hacked I was able to get the Jap version of 3rd Strike the minute it hit the net.
Suupas story is the best!
If thats how i came across street fighter…id like…work my ass off to play daigo at evo someday…and then tell him this exact same story…
I’ve been playing SF since it came out for the SNES, but I never went to an arcade unless my family and I were staying in a hotel that had a mini-arcade, you know like in Vegas or something. When I went off to undergrad, my school had an arcade but I didn’t spend any time there the first year. Second year I went in and was like, whoa, they made a Super Street Fighter II TURBO?? Cause I’d only ever seen the SNES SSF2. I started playing it often, got into it, only problem was that very few other people played it. The arcade also had Third Strike, and as I grew bored playing the ST cpu over and over, I started playing Third Strike. I just messed around with it for the first half a year, but then got serious a couple years ago. Turned out, I couldn’t have been luckier in the arcade situation; my school’s arcade, the Bearcade, was one of the premier Northern California arcades, and it attracted lots of big names, from Choi to Ricky, and my hometown is 10 minutes from Interface and 25 minutes from Family Fun Arcade. I’ve been fortunate enough to have played against most of the best Third Strike players on both coasts. I’m glad I picked the game up.
Although I still wish people would play Super Turbo more often.
me and my friend were like “wanna play 3s” and we did and we started playing it a lot!!!
Great story.
I got into 3s because about a two years ago, I started paying attention to a crowd that was always gathered around the 3s machine (in my local arcade) whenever I went. I went to the arcade a lot because I had just got really into DDR (this was a little bit before Anniversary Collection came out). So from my childhood memories (SF II and the srk’s, hadoukens, & tatsumakis) I thought I would at least give it a try to see what all the hype was about. These were grown-ass men playing street fighter, and I didn’t understand. So I played, got my ass kicked, thought it was a crappy rehashed version of SF II with that special thingy added on and never played again. When SF AC came out I decided to buy it anyways because I loved going back to my childhood days of SF II… at that point I decided I’d get a little good at 3s so I could go beat those guys in the arcade, but it didn’t happen for a while. It wasn’t until I realized the quality and complexity of the game that I started playing at the arcade more, bought a stick, bought a guide and followed it to figure out some combos. Then I started beating them… and I realized how good the game was, but I got bored. With no good competition in the area (or so I thought) I kinda stopped. Then in about the summer time (2005) people kept telling me about this arcade called FFA. I didn’t realize that the best 3s comp. on the West Coast was almost in my backyard. So since then I’ve gotten back into it and now I’m starting to attend the FFA ranbats (and getting some rep. as a 3s player)… and I’m loving it.
Played it once in the arcade when it first came out and forgot about. Bought EVO2k2 for CVS2 and saw Tokido do a full corner unblockable on Justin (99%) damage in the 5v5 ex. Then i just waited patiently for AE.
I remember seeing 3s at the UCLA arcade for the first time thinking it was a really nice looking game…I played it (picked Ryu) and it didnt make sense to me at all (my favorite games at the time was Alpha 2 and ST) so parries were really odd for me to do since I was used to holding back to block…then some random chun player came in and beat me badly…I didnt touch it til I moved to Granada Hills and I got a job working at an arcade called FFA…everything there was over priced when I started working there (MvC2 was 75 cent per game, 3s was 50 cents per game)…everyone in FFA played Alpha 2 like it was the best game in the world…only about 3 dudes would touch 3s…then I started hearing about a new player that came in one day…they said he was some bald headed mexican gangster lookin cholo dude that came in one night and started whoopin everyone’s butt in 3s (all 3 dudes :lol: )… then one morning while working, I saw the bald headed dude beating the regulars again with Ryu SA 3…I’ve never seen any Ryu player pick SA3 til I saw this dude play…I went up and said hi, played him one game and I think I almost got double perfected…I was shocked to see Ryu move the way he used it and the way he would set up his SA3 supers on me…I asked for his name…he said his name was Frank (Frankie3s)…at the time CvS2 came out so it was the game everyone started to play…and for the first time ever, Evo2k2 was gonna be held in socal…I remember playing CvS2 a lot and driving down to the SHGL CvS2 weekly tournaments…I went to the SHGL pre-evo tourny to see the japanese cvs2 players…I saw how RC was getting abused, and I didnt like it very much…at Evo2k2 while everyone was in line to sign up, KSK and Mester brought over a 3s tournament video for the cannon bros. to play…they put it in the big screen for everyone to watch while we were in line to sign up…it was Shirube…it was the best 3s vid I’ve ever seen…After I saw that vid, I said to myself that I’d quit CvS2 after Evo2k2 and start playing 3s…since then, I manage to lower the prices at FFA and guys like Frankie, Vic, Pyro, Rockefeller, Gee-O, 5 Star, Adolfo & JR Rodrigues became regulars…3s became the hottest game there
wtf you lowered the 3s cost? It still costs 50 cents a game here 
I go to ARC (American River College) and my friends told me we had a pretty decent arcade connected to the lunch room a while back. It’s kind of shabby, 50 cent MvsC, SFA3, CvsSNK (my favorite game in there) and handful of other fighters. We have MvsC2 which everyone plays cause it’s only 25 cents, but I’ve tried playing it and I just don’t get it. To much going on for my taste.
I’ve met a few people while hanging out in the arcade and this one guy and I started talking about videos for different fighting games. He told me about the Diago full parry video and as soon as I got home from school I checked it out. I was amazed. The fact that given enough practice someone could parry a full super really impressed me and since then I’ve been convinced 3S is one of the most technical fighters out there.
Since then I’ve downloaded a lot of RanBats (I love the commentary) and have been reading a bunch of strats. Until recently I’ve only been able to troll 3S through vids and what not, but I went to San Diego and Portland for Spring Break and I was able to strack down some machines. I picked Ibuki (love the look and the fact that she is speedy, a common trait I always gravitate towards in any game) and had some great matches in San Diego whileI got rapped in Portland. Since I’ve gotten back I’ve been trying to track down good places to play in Sacramento but I haven’t had any luck so far.
The first time I ever played 3rd Strike was when it first came out for the Dreamcast. I saw it at the local video rental and decided to give it a shot. I didn’t really think much of it, I thought it was “just another Street Fighter.” I wasn’t very amazed. Then years later Anniversary Collection came out. A couple friends of mine really got into it, so I gave it another try. This time I didn’t think it was that bad. What really got me hyped about 3rd Strike was when I saw the Daigo full parry video. After I saw that video I realized that this game is golden. I’ve been hooked ever since.
Ahh yes, the memories I had with SFIII-3rd Strike
It was back when I was 11…that was 1999, at a local chinese fried chicken shop, they also had a few arcade machines. I bought a mash potato cup for 50 cents, and while waiting for my order, looked over and watched people huddled over Marvel Vs. Street Fighter, Metal Slug, Alpha 3. There were 2 arcades empty, Viper Phase 1 and…drum roll…3rd Strike. I watched the Viper demo for a little bit then went over to watch the demo on 3rd Strike: a silent jaw dropping scream…the coolest animation I ever seen…I saw some white dude tripping Ryu with a long ass purple leg (c.rh Necro), damn COOL!
I never got to play it though, my family is rather poor, and my mom is absolutely against “wasting cash” on trivial stuff like arcade machines. 3 years later, I saw the same arcade machine when I went ice skating…still…didn’t play it.
2002-2006 The same image stuck in my head for years to come…some cool looking dude tripping Ryu… Damnit, now that I finally get my own cash, I can’t find a damn arcade that still has it. One day I was browsing through gamespot, stumbled upon Anniversary Collection, watched a few vid clips and…AHH! NECRO!, needless to say the game was no where to be found for PS2 when I checked 5 stores, I had to buy it off ebay, but it was worth every cent. FINALLY, after all these years, the best looking 2D art, not to mention best fighting game engine ever made is in my hands!
I’ve known the Chinatown Fair arcade for probably all my life but avoided it like the plague. It was full of gang members and the whole smell of cigarette smoke was too much for me, I was scared of getting beaten up or mugged, but after walking past it recently, I noticed it got “renovated”, no more people smoking, and it looked quite welcoming: 2 Tekken 5 DR machines, 2 MvC2 machines, 2 3rd Strike machines, and a ton of other classic and old fighting game arcades like SSF2, KOF, SFIII:2I, MvC not to mention a few DDR machines. But the people who come here…they are insane, I’ve never seen such competition and skill, people on DDR machines at the craziest speed and difficulty. 11 year olds pulling off Genei-Jin juggle combos, damn. Gonna definitely try my luck at the machines after I hone my skills a bit more, and hopefully not get killed too badly.
Found out that I could play 4 player ninja turtles arcade game on kaillera in like 2007 lol lucky for me some outdated players or loyalists to West Wonderland were playing sf3. I was like what!?? Street fighter had a 3? Then shortly after sf4 came out -_-. Played that for a while then saw the evo moment 37 vid on YouTube in like 2011 and was like man I need to try this game…been crack every since. Before fighters I only played Madden nba2k and fight night.
Goddamn look at that decade old necro
I used to play SF4
Then I had sex
3s showed up soon after.
First time I encountered it was when I went to see “Road to El Dorado” in theaters with my brother. There were a buncha kids and teens lined up at the sticks and I decided I’d try my hand at it (I was 7 years old at the time). I remember picking Dudley and being blown away by how fast he moved across the screen and how hard he hit. I lost every match I played, only managing to win maybe 2 rounds out of all of the matches I played which was about 2 or 3 before we went to get our seats, but I thoroughly enjoyed the game regardless. It was love at first sight, but I didn’t get my hands on my own copy until the “Street Fighter Anniversary Collection” for PS2.
My man has a special talent for reviving the deadest threads.
I was gonna say I’ve seen a few of these lately. Sadly I never discovered 3s until after 4 had already come out. Grew up on Samurai Showdown 2 and KOF 98 cause those were the only cabinets at the godfathers pizza I lived at. OE got me hooked though, and try though I might I can’t stick with another game for long before I gravitate back.
Before Super SFIV came out, I heard about this “Dudley” character and how people wanted him to be in the game. I told a friend of mine about SSFIV and about this character, and he said, “Oh, dude, he’d be an awesome character to have! He says stuff like ‘gutter trash’ in a boss British accent and tosses roses at people.” At this point, I’m super curious, so I google “3rd strike dudley” or something like that, and I think this is the video I saw:
And I was like…wow, this game looks awesome! I watched more match videos, got to know more of these strange SF characters that I never knew about before, and eventually got it on the PS2, and later 3S:OE on my Xbox 360.
As far as art style and aesthetics go, I think this is one of the most unique games I’ve ever played, fighting game or otherwise. Yeah, Chun and Yun are broken, but who cares? Just parry everything and you’ll be fine 
Chun is broken. Yun and Ken are merely OP. Why do people love to leave Ken out of the equation, I’ve fought way more good Kens.