From: maestasm@helium.gas.uug.arizona.edu (Mark J Maestas )
Newsgroups: alt.games.sf2
Subject: SFII story (long: 100lines)
Date: 14 Oct 92 06:17:45 GMT
Organization: University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ


     Well, there's not much to tell about the history of SFII at the
University of Arizona, so I'll tell the story of SFII and me.

The SFII commeth:
----------------
     On a night like many others, my friend Charles and I went down to
MetroMidway at Metrocenter in Phoenix.  As I rode down the escalator, I spied
2 new shapes (NEW GAMES!!).  One was RAMPARTS and the other was STREET FIGHTER
II!!!!  Being one of the few SFI players, I knew how to block and throw
fireballs already, so naturally I picked Ryu over the other assortment of
cool characters.  Needless to say I pretty much stomped on the people that
played it that night because 1)They hadn't the slightest idea how to play
and 2)I knew the important thing to keep me alive: BLOCKING.  While I played,
throws popped out every now and then and I was mad because I knew how to do
'everything' except throw.  I eventually learned how and moved on to learned
how to play the other characters.

Phases of SFII:
--------------
     Well, once people learned how to play somewhat decently the competition
started increasing.  And with this increase came the adrenaline 'rushes'
that always left me hyper and with a big grin on my face when I left.  
So after learning the characters and their moves, I eventually settled into
phases of character use.  After using Ryu for learning the basics, I moved
on to Honda.  I was the best with Honda in my area for years to come, crushing
and punching and kicking people left and right.  But I was not THE BEST just
the best person using Honda (which was still pretty deadly).  Then I moved
to Guile where I would stay for a long time, trying different characters but
always returning to Guile.  

Death in California
-------------------
     Well, as time passed I was probably in the top 5% in the areas that I 
played in.  I taught Charles how to play (he was intimidated by all of the
buttons) and he soon became my best challenge.  We always played against
each other, having a good ol' time and laughing hysterically whenever 
something wierd happened or when we totally missed many opportunities to
kill each other (I guess you had to be there).  
     On the way home from Midway I picked up the new edition of Electronic
Gaming Monthly.  It had neat tables of all of the move in SFII but it also
talked about a state tournament in San Diego.  We had to go.  So with a
call to my mom and his, on the following evening we made a road trip to
San Diego (ah, to be free and happy).  Well, after spending too much money
on snacks, we couldn't afford a hotel so we found a nice place to park and
slept in my car.
     The day of the tournament was full of adrenaline, the practice rounds
at the arcade were pretty nasty: Four-hit toe taps, Guile redizzy combos,
Zangief's low roundhouse-SPD.  Needless to say we didn't go go all the way
but we did manage to survive at least five fights.  We left with no victory
but we had the knowledge of combos to crush the people back home.

The Tao of SFII
--------------- 
     Well, one awesome Guile combo that I ported back to Phoenix was flying
Fierce, low Strong, Slice Kick.  I also learned neat tricks like Zangief's
rapid low kick (press down, hit short and then immediately start jamming on
the jab).  Anyway, we also started to have conversations on how shall I
say... "SFII philosophy".  Basically, we started discussing tactics, priorities
(ie which move comes out faster), possible combos, timing for throwing and
counter-throwing, etc.  With priorities we looked for moves that would come
out almost instantaneously such as Ryu/Ken/Chun Li jumping (staight up) 
Roundhouse or Guile's first low Roundhouse kick (risky kick though).
Tactics were like Honda's best chance against meeting Blanka in the air
is hitting Strong right when you jump for a mid-air sumo chop.  We learned
timing for throws found some pretty nasty ticks when timed right.  For
instance, Ryu/Ken flying Roundhouse as you pass behind the character
(aka neck kick) wait a second when you land then hit the throw, if you press
the button too early, you just do a normal attack.  These all evolved and
grew as time went on.

University of Arizona, Tucson
-----------------------------
     Wow!  College.  People from around the US and other parts of the world.
NEW COMPETITION!!!  It was here that I met Justin Hogue, aka Jowfus.  At
the time, he was only a part time SFII player, but I took him under my
wing and taught him all that I knew.  Soon, we were kicking butt all over
Tucson.  Jowfus was my best competition.  We never acted like those stupid
assholes that go, "ahh, that was bullshit man" or "well is that all you
can do is throw?"  (the last comment occurred after I played Chun Li and
he Ken.  He tried his little fierce, fierce, fireball combos only to see me
jump over the fireball right before it hit me.  So I forced him into a
corner and ran in and threw him after he whiffed a Roundhouse sweep or ran
under him and threw him when he jumped over me.  I won with no ticking and
no need to show off piddly little combos that don't work (effectively) when
someone blocks or avoids it).  Well, the local Gulf'N'Stuff had SFII,
but so did Wonderland ($2.00 to get in, $.05 per game, $.10 for SFII)!  
Aaah to go to an arcade once and spend less than $5 (including admission)
for 8 hours of play, I'm talking hard-core don't even think about stopping to
eat kind of 8 hours.  I'm not that much of a junkie now but we'll get to it.

Street Fighter II: Champion Edition
-----------------------------------
     Wow! SFIICE! More balance, less damage, more characters!  When we got
SFIICE at Golf'N'Stuff we were in heaven.  We figured out all of the new
stuff by the following morning.  Of course new combos and strategies evolved
and the activity peaked.  
     Today, SFII has slowed down some, after several years it's slowing down.
Not because of MK either, MK has already slowed down considerably here too.
They've got the new SFII 'super' chip in, but I don't like it.  The game
balance that was there before is all shot to hell.  The characters weren't
proportionally improved, thus Zangief, Honda, and Balrog are left in the wake.
It's degenerated to Ken and Ryu players fireballing and uppercutting to death.
I sure hope SFIII comes out soon!  Thanks for reading my long and boring
drivel.

                         Mark "Terminator" Maestas
             maestas@cs.arizona.edu  OR  maestasm@gas.uug.arizona.edu   
                       "Hasta la vista, baby!" - [8^!
Newsgroups: alt.games.sf2