No vids of US SF's 'Golden Era' & best_ever player!?

[yourmother]

solcal was generally considered the top spot in the us. This was vouched for when other players happen to moved to solcal for college and played their players. further vouched for by sol cals continued dominance in SF games until SF4. Even as far back as the MWC at nickle city back in 94 where papa watts came and cleaned house with no effort.

I know. The point wasn’t that if he went elsewhere he wouldn’t have won, but saying he would have beaten x player or y player is stupid. The SF world was still fragmented to the point where you couldn’t accurately compare people from different parts of the states. So even if was SoCal was considered the best (which it was, i know), trying to say they would or wouldn’t have beaten Japan is just a waste of time.

[mr_punk]

As for OG Videos, they are extremely rare, and I don’t know of any video’s pertaining to these players during tournaments like World’s Finest (If anyone does have some, please post it up…we need this seriously!). The reason being I would guess is that, the cost of owning one of those OG video cam’s would be quite expensive, considering at those times, players like Tomo were in their mid teen’s only. Not to mention, carrying that hunk of a clunk monster camcorder around.

IIRC, I didn’t see a few guys show up every once in a while with their camcorders and laptops until around 96-97. at the time, i always thought it was weird because neither was cheap and broadband wasn’t as common or cheap either.

[ShinjiGohan]

I know. The point wasn’t that if he went elsewhere he wouldn’t have won, but saying he would have beaten x player or y player is stupid. The SF world was still fragmented to the point where you couldn’t accurately compare people from different parts of the states. So even if was SoCal was considered the best (which it was, i know), trying to say they would or wouldn’t have beaten Japan is just a waste of time.

I agree that to concretely compare tomo to japan was a waste of time since its impossible to tell one way or another who was stronger back then or even now. All was have are comparisons based on kuni and jeff.

maybe if HF makes a resurgance in tournaments in the USA that he or jeff may come out and show us what they played like. Then maybe HF will be at evo that year and if any japanese enter then we can compare it to some degree.

Not that HF with it being purely footies, zoning, and reaction counters would be that exciting to watch compared to the combo video type games we have out now.

[mtsac_kid]

AE is ass, that game is just full of shit that’s not supposed to work
plus it wasnt even in a tournament, just casuals at FFA
its pretty obvious that Daigo has no experience in HF/CE
you can tell by the hesistation he has while playing vs CE Guile
cant compare the two
apples and oranges
two different eras of SF (before ST/after ST)
both are legends in their own right
just a damn fucking shame there are no tourny vids of Tomo in CE/HF/SSF
thats the true tragedy in this story

[MKKhanzo]

Again:

What about the alive and well CE scene in Korea? How they compare? Have watts or some other OG watched those vids? What do they think?

[BoggleMinds]

Gerald Abraham (LAAkira), a good friend of Jeff’s and Tomo’s, once posted here on SRK in this very thread talking about Tomo. He mentioned that on one of his many trips to Japan during the height of CE ('92), the Tokyo arcades would be packed with monstrously strong players. He mentions that there indeed were players roughly on Tomo’s level in Tokyo, at the time. Tachikawa is a name that pops up a lot in these discussions.

Its just amazing how far the JP-US liinks go. It always seemed like Valle’s Team US was like Columbus landing on Japanese shores, but it goes waaay back. So Gerald, the big question: How would Tomo have done had that planned Japan trip actualy happened?

Jack & bettys was right under Kandas yamanote line station. The arcade would sort of rumble as the trains went by. Bickeys and the Gamest shop were walking distance from each other but that was the first time I went to tokyo and I really didnt know my way around. I think it was around the Kanda, Tokyo station area though. There was another arcade in a suburb called shimo-igusa where I went with Tachikawa and Itoyama a few times.

As for the Tomo question, its impossible to answer unless he actually played over there. You can speculate all you want, but at that level its just gonna come down to who is more precise, who can employ their strategy better and who outguesses who. Tachikawa was surely on Tomos level and one time I talked to him, he told me that there were some incredible players in Osaka during the time of WW and CE so who knows, there might have been too many top notch players for Tomo to handle. I dont know. On the other hand, not only did tomo hand everyone in the US their ass in SF, he also scored a billion points on one ball at the HF biathalon tourney in san diego and none of us had ever even seen Tomo play pinball before that.

(link)

[The_Electrifying_One]

That tomo pinball story is an all time srk classic

[shoultzula]

Originally Posted by L A Akira View Post
Jack & bettys was right under Kandas yamanote line station. The arcade would sort of rumble as the trains went by. Bickeys and the Gamest shop were walking distance from each other but that was the first time I went to tokyo and I really didnt know my way around. I think it was around the Kanda, Tokyo station area though. There was another arcade in a suburb called shimo-igusa where I went with Tachikawa and Itoyama a few times.

As for the Tomo question, its impossible to answer unless he actually played over there. You can speculate all you want, but at that level its just gonna come down to who is more precise, who can employ their strategy better and who outguesses who. Tachikawa was surely on Tomos level and one time I talked to him, he told me that there were some incredible players in Osaka during the time of WW and CE so who knows, there might have been too many top notch players for Tomo to handle. I dont know. On the other hand, not only did tomo hand everyone in the US their ass in SF, he also scored a billion points on one ball at the HF biathalon tourney in san diego and none of us had ever even seen Tomo play pinball before that.

so I looked up these old school pre ST jap players and I actually found some footage of japan back in the day on another site that has youtube links.

http://www.neoempire.com/forum/showthread.php?t=6013

quoted from a member @ neoempire.com*
*
“my understanding though is that shin-dhalsim was also “first generation” (ie started during WW), as are the maekawa brothers and higaki-san (shooting D)”*

if you’re familiar with shooting D, this guy says he’s been there from the start apparently which I didn’t know. Not quite sure if the post can be trusted so who knows. I like watching shooting D, he’s got hella solid shoto fundamentals.

[Jtwelve]

so I looked up these old school pre ST jap players and I actually found some footage of japan back in the day on another site that has youtube links.

http://www.neoempire.com/forum/showthread.php?t=6013

quoted from a member @ neoempire.com*
*
“my understanding though is that shin-dhalsim was also “first generation” (ie started during WW), as are the maekawa brothers and higaki-san (shooting D)”*

if you’re familiar with shooting D, this guy says he’s been there from the start apparently which I didn’t know. Not quite sure if the post can be trusted so who knows. I like watching shooting D, he’s got hella solid shoto fundamentals.

I am rather new to the fighting game community and I’m so glad I saw those videos that you just referred to. It definitely opened my eye to what the tourney atmosphere was like back then. Well first off it definitely open my eyes to the importance of zoning and how intense zoning battle can get. Even though SF4 has like fadc and all that stuff, the vids definitely encouraged me to work on the zoning game a lot more. Also the tourney atmosphere was more local and hostile. In a way it’s good pressure for players to get better because you wanna show everyone up when they talk shiz. Good stuff…:tup:

[ilitirit]

I am rather new to the fighting game community and I’m so glad I saw those videos that you just referred to. It definitely opened my eye to what the tourney atmosphere was like back then. Well first off it definitely open my eyes to the importance of zoning and how intense zoning battle can get. Even though SF4 has like fadc and all that stuff, the vids definitely encouraged me to work on the zoning game a lot more. Also the tourney atmosphere was more local and hostile. In a way it’s good pressure for players to get better because you wanna show everyone up when they talk shiz. Good stuff…:tup:

You should check out korea_sf2ce’s youtube channel for more CE and HF tourney vids. He’s recorded lots of great matches that showcase what old school SF2 was really about.

I like this match:
[media=youtube]rBhB9Mx7UHY[/media]

[bytex]

I noticed how young those oldschool japanese players were. No 20 to 30-something guys like nowadays, more like 12-15 years old kids?
I guess the “games are just for kids” attitude was alot more present back then.

Were there any 12-year olds at EVO for instance? Or was the entire player base more in their mid 20’s-30’s?

[MKKhanzo]

You should check out korea_sf2ce’s youtube channel for more CE and HF tourney vids. He’s recorded lots of great matches that showcase what old school SF2 was really about.

I like this match:
[media=youtube]rBhB9Mx7UHY[/media]

This. Im posting that since 2 pages ago… Korea SF2CE are very good players thast still play.

[ShinjiGohan]

I noticed how young those oldschool japanese players were. No 20 to 30-something guys like nowadays, more like 12-15 years old kids?
I guess the “games are just for kids” attitude was alot more present back then.

Were there any 12-year olds at EVO for instance? Or was the entire player base more in their mid 20’s-30’s?

a lot of our players started out when they were in their teens too. There just hasn’t really been a push of new young players since most of them spend time on other genres now (MMOPRG, FPS, sportgames etc…). But most of our older younger players from back then are still playing and have gotten older thus the 20-30 year olds like myself.

Besides its not as though a 12 year old can ask his parents to take him to las vegas for a tournament lol. I knew I had no chance of going to a specific city for a tournament when I was that age, much less Vegas of all places.

[Shin_Jr]

its all a scam to make you eat pig ham

[Blackstarninja]

I still hold out hope one day we will see a tape with tomo playing HF

[True_Old_School]

I know this is an old thread but I just wanted to share my L.A. “old school” sf2 memories. I don’t have any videos but I do have a couple personal stories about Tomo. I mentioned this story before on here but it should have been posted in this thread.

I played at Family Fun Arcade in Granada Hills from 92-94 so I know and have played with a lot of the guys mentioned in this thread. The first time I played Tomo was at Family Fun in a Champion Edition tournament in 92. I was like only 14 years old at the time and I’m pretty sure he was around the same age. It wasn’t that first big tournament they had for Champion, but he was there and I ended up being matched up in the first round with him. I remember being pissed at Bob (FFA employee/tournament organizer) for having me play him so early in the tournament. Anyway, he picks Guile and I go with Ryu. In the very first round, I get him in the corner with a fireball trap and win pretty convincingly. Tomo hardly ever lost a game and usually didn’t lose rounds to a no name player (at the time) like me. Everyone rushes to the machine and is like “oh shit”! Well, that was the only round I ever won against him. He was a pretty humble guy and I never saw him lose his cool or talk shit to other players.

When I get more time to post, I also have another tournament story about Tomo and a buddy of mine named James Cha. It’s a funny story that involves a close final match and a challenge that was later set up at FFA.

[Ergothyme]

Pics or it didn’t happen.

[jpj1983]

just read this whole thread start to finish in one go many thanks to crayfish, jeff, mike, alex, graham, charles, and everyone else for all the cool stories and info

that’s me being quoted by shoultza on the previous page. i don’t know what it is with SRK and all this USA vs. Japan stuff. as gerald said somewhere between page 7 and 10, tokyo had tons of strong players during the early days (10x as many as LA is what i think he says). HF wasn’t that popular in japan because capcom released it due to all the sped up chinese CE hacks, and many thought it felt like a ‘bootleg’ version, and CE is still the preferred cps1 SF game in asia.

anyways, just a polite thank you, and bump

[gamer1987]

im hoping Tomo will show up on EVo10, because for all we know…Tomo is probably training on his SF2 skills again… most likely since his last interview with mike watson…A fan can only hope!!! YJDK!!!

[Already_There]

i’ve got no doubt that Schaefer’s good, but what about the notion that the HF/CE characters are pretty damned strong in general?

The notion is rubbish for sure. Those characters have no Supers, they don’t need any, and it makes good players even more fearsome.

People who complain about balance are the ones that take the hits and not are giving any in return even though they have the chance to use those stronger characters too.

If it’s too hard, play another game, or better yet, a puzzle game. Collect stamps, mow the lawn, read books, take a hike, etc. The possibilities are endless and no one will stop you.