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.
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
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
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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 fck 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 fckin’ 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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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. I swear you went into beast mode the second the song Dare came on lol.
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!
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:
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.
But the look in the faces of the people that were watching the match…that indeed will stay with me for a long time.
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.
