It’s been a while since I’ve been here and there are a lotta new faces on SRK. I figured I’d introduce myself with a random Fame Douglas fun-fact…
Love what you guys have done with this site btw!
Everyone has their own story for how they got into fighting games and how they got as good as they are. Most played because their siblings were playing or because they liked kung fu movies but no reason is more unique than what I’m about to tell you as to what got me into fighting games…
A girl…
Yeah, you read that right…A GIRL! She was no ordinary girl. She wasn’t even the prettiest girl by any means (I look back now and I suppose there was a certain sexiness about her but I was aloof due to youth).
In 1992, I was in the 7th grade and livin on the south side of Go-Ill City - Chicago, IL for those that wanna know - on 36th and Indiana there was a small arcade room that had Street Fighter II. The girl I speak of would go to this arcade damn near everyday and played SF II over games like Ms. Pac Man, what the fe’s were “supposed to play”. She was good…mostly because she was the only one in the neighborhood who knew how to use the “Sure Fire Killing Techniques” or whatever lame translation Capcom had on the cabinet. This meant she would fireball you down and then…yup…you guessed it - SRK your ass as easy as taking a deep breath like the AI would do!
This may not sound all that impressive today as it was back in the day but understand that this was before the internet available to the public. Before strategy guides with SF II move lists were available, this girl - whose name I still do not know to this day - would wreck all the high school fellas in the most embarrassing way possible! Perfects and all with what we now call ZONING, not to mention there was no damage scaling. I ramble, forgive me.
When she wasn’t in the arcade yet I would get change for a dollar and go try and figure out how she used the fireball and that “spin kick move that go across the screen like a helicopter”. I saw the names of the buttons - Jab, Strong, Fierce, Short, Forward and Roundhouse.
Now, I knew what a roundhouse kick was from watching Bruce Lee movies and I knew what a forward kick was. So I figured I got the kick part figured out…makes sense like Karate Champ did right? I put all the pieces together in my head. The kick was in the air so UP had to be part of it and then to move forward with the spinning with it I press FORWARD and ROUNDHOUSE at the same time.
Needless to say I was FREE back in the day so I’ll fast forward to holiday season 92 when I FIRST saw the instruction booklet for SF II because my next door neighbor got SF II as a gift on SNES. We played for hours but I almost always won because…well, that girl kinda taught me how to play without me ever knowing her name! Once I saw how easy it was to do the moves I laughed at myself (still today sometimes) when I think about how I thought the moves were done.
Anyway, if you made it through that wall of text, Fame Douglas became the iconic player that he is today (no ego, right? lol) because of a girl! applause
Okay…at least a slow clap?!
