Reminiscing about console ports of Street Fighter 2...

pixeljunkie

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Remember when those came out? I'm playing Super SF2 on the Genesis Mini 2 and just remembering how BIG a deal these ports were initially. I remember renting SF2 on SNES at release and peeps showing up to my house just to see it in action and play. It was a BIG DEAL. Plus, most of us had to rent it because the cart was like $80, seriously.

Just kinda cool to think back on. It's easily dismissed nowadays, but those of us that were there when it came out remember just how big a deal it was. Same with Mortal Kombat to a lesser degree, but not nearly as hype as SF2.
 

joe8

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Remember when those came out? I'm playing Super SF2 on the Genesis Mini 2 and just remembering how BIG a deal these ports were initially. I remember renting SF2 on SNES at release and peeps showing up to my house just to see it in action and play. It was a BIG DEAL. Plus, most of us had to rent it because the cart was like $80, seriously.

Just kinda cool to think back on. It's easily dismissed nowadays, but those of us that were there when it came out remember just how big a deal it was. Same with Mortal Kombat to a lesser degree, but not nearly as hype as SF2.

SF2 (the SNES port) was more expensive than a normal game, when it first came out. SF2 Turbo was $149 AUD (when first released) in Australia, where an average SNES game was $99 (which were just about double that, in today's dollars- $300 and $200 respectively). But at the time it seemed somewhat justified, as the SF2 games were more megabits than usual, and the games had a lot of replay value. Nothing compared to playing World Warrior for the first time on SNES, as SF2 Turbo was just an update of the same game, with more moves & faster speed, but with watered down bosses from the arcade SF2CE. By the time SF2 and SF2T got to the SNES, a lot of the bugs (such as Guile's handcuffs) and imbalance issues (such as redizzy combos) had been removed, which arguably took some of the fun out of it. The games were never going to have good character balance, as long as Ryu & Ken had invincible dragon punches.

Some people might have owned both World Warrior and Turbo (on SNES), but only rented Super SF2 when it came out. You would still keep World Warrior, as it had the stronger versions of Guile and Zangief (that Turbo didn't have), bosses that were actually tough to beat, and it had a code for both players to use the same character, just like Champion Edition.
 
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terry.330

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I remember getting ST for the 3DO and being absolutely blown away. Before that I had always preferred FF2 over SFIICE and only owned a Genesis. I never really got to play SF in the arcades because the cabs were always so busy and when I did get a chance to play I'd get my ass handed to me with the quickness. But being able to sit down with a port that at the time blew everything else out of the water I was really able to appreciate it. It just sucked that the 3DO has one of the worst controllers ever made, which is only made worse with 2 players. One of the only games on that system that I look back on with any fondness.
 

SignOfGoob

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Its weird how time changes things. SFII was $100 when it came out in Japan, $120 by the time you imported it...and about $1 in Japanese used shops after Turbo came out...even crazier was the PCE version which was also 9800 yen but more less required that you buy two new controllers...it was only the most up to date console port for exactly a month until Turbo came out for SFC.

And then somehow Super Turbo wasn't even worth porting to any decent contemporary console...and now its the version everyone plays.
 

neo_mao

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I was a pretty damn lucky kid in that I got SF2 WW and Turbo Hyper Fighting for the SNES and CE for the Genesis. And yes the hype was always huge...partly school yard talk and partly all the magazines I used to read back then. What a great time to be a kid.

I never got into Super Street Fighter though and actually even to this day I don’t really play it all. Fucking T Hawk.
 

sirlynxalot

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I got the terrible SF2 dos port that was converted by one guy that only had two attack buttons, high moon jumps, and other things that were inconsistent with the real game. I still played the hell out of it because it was the only port I had a system for
 

LoneSage

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I never got into Super Street Fighter though and actually even to this day I don’t really play it all. Fucking T Hawk.
Yeah ditto. It was only a few months ago I internally realized how silly it is for me to still think of Cammy, T. Hawk, Deejay and Fei Long as the new challengers despite them being out close to 30 years now.
 

Takumaji

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When SF2 hit the arcades you had to get in the queue for the cabs, everyone wanted to play it. We talked for months about combos, tactics and whatnot.

Then it hit the home consoles and I went to my fav store at half past six in the morning to be the first one to pick up the MD version. Well, I wasn't, there already were about ten people waiting and by the time the shop opened, dozens of people were pouring in to get their SF fix. Took a day off from work and played the game for almost 8 hours on the first day, both in 1P but most of it were memorable 2P bouts with my buddies. My favorite character back then was Chun-Li but I soon changed to Guile and stuck to it for a long while.

I even bought a new TV to play the game on a bigger screen and re-arranged half of the room to have the speakers of my stereo next to the TV for proper sound.

Next in line was Super Street Fighter II, I still consider the MD port to be a great representation of the arcade original. The new character were a welcome addition and we played it almost as much as SF2'.

In the coming years, I would play the new SFs on various systems, PSX, PS2, DC, Xbox, etc. The Alpha/Zero series, SFIII series, up to SF4 when I gradually lost interest in the series.

SF2 is an epochal title that changed the world of video games forever. It not only was a game people went crazy about but also was hugely helpful in taking the arcade scene into the 90s and beyond. Versus fighting used to be a social event and if you wanted to experience the real thing, going to the arcade was the only way for long time. I'm sure if SF2 would not have been invented, arcades would have withered quicker than they did after the old order was gone. It was the atmosphere the game created in the arcade with lots of people playing it competitively that could not be recreated anywhere or anyway else, and that still is the case today.

Shine on, you crazy SF diamond.
 

prof

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Going back and playing all the ports on SNES and Genesis, I find that I like Turbo on the SNES the best. Not jacking up the speed to Benny Hill levels or anything, just normal, it plays and feels perfect to me. And I think Championship Edition on the Genesis plays better than the later updated Super. Although I think the latter is the largest cart on the system, 36 megs maybe, something like that.
 

Takumaji

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SSFII on Genny has 40MBit (5MB). It's the largest official cart. Unofficially, Demons of Asteborg beats it with a whooping 117 MBit (14MB).
 

madmanjock

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First port I had was on the Gameboy and I recall it being surprisingly solid for 2 buttons and a black and white screen. The speed was good, music recognisable, and it had a fair amount of fighters from the main game but no E.Honda, Vega or Dhalism. I believe it was roughly based off Super Street Fighter 2.

Neat trick that the colour stages appeared as the screen borders when playing this through the Super Gameboy.

 
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blakeb8111

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We had an old projection TV, i think it was 52”, with the Super Nintendo and World Warrior hooked up. Everyone wanted to play on it and I remember getting a blister on my thumb from the Super Nintendo controller. I did get turbo just to play as the bosses, but never coughed up the extra cash for super turbo. Still have them today.
 

HornheaDD

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I remember having to put my name on a list to call for when a SF2 SNES cart would be available or returned from a rental. Where I grew up, flea markets were a thing and I saw one table set up with two SNES consoles/tvs/SF2 carts. Dude was charging $0.25 per game, and like the arcades, there was a line and a row of quarters on the tables.

I honestly don't remember paying $80 for these games at all. I know for sure i got Chrono Trigger at a flea market for $26 in 1996, maybe I got SF2 there too, I cant remember. I do remember buying Street Fighter II Turbo for the SNES new at K-Mart, but I don't remember paying $80.
 

blakeb8111

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I don’t remember WW or Turbo costing $80 either, i got them both new. I do remember Super costing more than the others, but i can’t remember how much.
 

SignOfGoob

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SSFII on Genny has 40MBit (5MB). It's the largest official cart. Unofficially, Demons of Asteborg beats it with a whooping 117 MBit (14MB).

I’m pretty sure it’s only 40Mb because it requires more code to do the same thing on a Genesis. IFAIK I doesn’t have a single frame of animation more than the Super version, the sprites are all the same size, and obviously the color and sound aren’t an upgrade so where the 40Mb went is anyone’s guess.
 

Dr Shroom

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I got the terrible SF2 dos port that was converted by one guy that only had two attack buttons, high moon jumps, and other things that were inconsistent with the real game. I still played the hell out of it because it was the only port I had a system for

it can get worse though

 

Tarma

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Being a Mega Drive kid back in the day I remember talking with my mates about whether we'd see SFII on the console. The SNES owners were pretty smug about it, but we rallied around our Fatal Fury port... until of course SFII SCE was announced.

I still vaguely remember going to pick it up from Software City one evening after school. Good times.

Although I wasn't to play it until many many years later, I was very impressed with the screen shots I saw in magazines of the PC Engine port, especially when you saw it running on the GT (portable SFII!!). I was more impressed when I got to actually play the PCE version - it's become my favourite port from the 16-bit era, and I still play it on ocassion.

Still own my copy for the MD as well :)
 

Takumaji

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I still have many of the SF compilations I've bought over the years starting withh Capcom Generations 4 (?) on PSX. Capcom really milked the franchise with all those different versions and minor upgrades, Hyper Turbo Dash Super Special Championship, whaaaa.... the two games of the later SF era I played the most were SFZ2 and SFA3 on PSX and DC, respectively.
 

yagamikun

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I started with World Warrior on SNES, but got it a bit late around the end of 1992. It wasn't until I got Turbo (Hyper Fighting) on SNES that my obsession really began. Hyper Fighting is still my favorite version of SF2, hands down.

Like @terry.330 I somehow managed to get both a 3DO and the Super Turbo port (along with Samurai Shodown shortly thereafter) around Christmas 1994 and my world changed completely on what I expected out of console ports going forward. ST on 3DO isn't perfect, and that 3DO pad is more than sub-optimal for any fighting game, but I didn't care. As a 13 year old kid, I was in heaven. lol - One of my favorite gaming memories opening up that big box on Christmas Eve.

hummm, 3DO - I need to play Twisted again soon... :unsure:
 
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I still have many of the SF compilations I've bought over the years starting withh Capcom Generations 4 (?) on PSX. Capcom really milked the franchise with all those different versions and minor upgrades, Hyper Turbo Dash Super Special Championship, whaaaa.... the two games of the later SF era I played the most were SFZ2 and SFA3 on PSX and DC, respectively.
The fact capcom released a dlc for dead rising 3 mocking themselves over the ridiculous naming upgrades they've done for SF2 makes it even better.
 

Ajax

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Shit was massive. It's fun to look back on. I got a bundle of SNES stuff a few years ago and the seller included all these junk or common carts. Among them was a copy of SF2 with a label that is all but torn completely off. I fired it up to relive those times and was shocked how well it still holds up.
 

yagamikun

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Is it actually fun as a pass the controller / party game with friends even in 2023? Hard to get a feel for it from watching YouTube videos.
I had a blast with it as a kid. Good 90's humor. Does it hold up? Well...not in today's politically correct climate. If I remember right, there's a lot in there for folks to be offended by these days. lol

If you have a group of friends who aren't easily offended - I can see it being quite a bit of fun if you're all drunk or high. Had a blast with it in college.
 

GohanX

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I do remember Turbo on SNES being $79.99. It's all I wanted for Christmas one year and my parents were mad that it was so expensive at the only store in town that still had it in stock. For those that don't remember it being that expensive do remember that there was a bit of a price difference between the various stores. A specialty shop or a place in the mall would charge more than a department store most of the time. So SF2 might have been $60 or $65 at Brendles or something the mom and pop would be charging the full $79.99 and didn't mind waiting for the department stores to run out.
 
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