Street Fighter III series

[TheShend]

Couldn't see a dedicated thread in a cursory search....?

Anyway, thought it would be nice to have a dedicated thread for this series since I'm especially gay for all things 3rd Strike but haven't spent any time with the previous two which I intend to rectify.

So here's what we're talking about and all CPS-III:

Street Fighter III: New Generation (4th Feb 1997)
Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact 'Giant Attack' (30th Oct 1998)
Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike (12th May 1999)

So what do you know or like about the series or titles in particular?

I've never played New Generation although it looked so great it coin-op previews from the likes of Official Sega Saturn Magazine back in the day. Nor have I played 2nd Impact until last week when I was able to collect a JPN version of 2nd Impact ^_^
There's lots of differences between 2I and 3S, firstly the SFX is much, much improved but I'm enjoying the busyness of the backgrounds in 2I. i love the way one of the punks in the Enlgand stage for Dudley gives you the middle finger! That's such a cluster**** of english sterotypes it's hilarious, there's late 19th centruy ladies near a parked classic mini with a sherlock homes silouhette sign, big ben in background, late 1970's/early 1980's punks on the right, a red post box, it just goes on and on

I'm also a big fan of the 3rd Strike and really enjoy watching the high-level competition that's played out across Japanese arcades. Which has seemingly risen it's game again this year thanks to Game Spot Versus starting a Virtua Fighter esque Dan Ranking league for players to enter and rank up different characters. It's spread to several arcades now too but it's a great format to watch as you see much greater variety in the roster compared to straight Ranking Battles or Tournaments.

For those who don't know, I started making my downloaded collection of SFIII vids available on YT when it'd been up a couple of months. Didn't want to start uploading stuff and all be a waste of time because the whole online video venture thing collapsed, like it was expected to do. There's a hella lot of Japanese match videos for people to muse over.

http://www.youtube.com/TheShend

What about from an arcade hardware and parts point of view?

I've been informed the follwoing regarding what 3S cabs use in Japan:

Unless things have changed in the last three years, most 3S cabinets in Japan likely still have Seimitsu LS-32 sticks with the four way gate equipped. Buttons are usually Seimitsu PS 14s or 15s from what I could tell (but this was years ago when I was in Japan). Most of the Sega cabinets, Blast, Astro, Versus, all had Seimitsu parts. However the Erget cabinets and a few Sega cabinets had Sanwa JLF sticks (without the shaft cover) and Sanwa 30s.

Pretty much if you get a four way gate without a shaft cover and standard 30mm buttons in the close curves configuration you are getting the authentic 3S setup. I don't think I've ever encountered a 3S cabinet with a JLF with a shaft cover.

So I'm looking into recreating that set-up on my own Sega Astro City but I have heard that the parts they use in the Tougeki/Super Battle Opera event cabs are different again, I think I read Sanwa?

Oh and I'll also be collating and editing info into the 1st post for reference for folks ^_^

Edit: Much more to write about later on...work to do

[plopboy]

Couldn't see a dedicated thread in a cursory search....?
I'm especially gay for all things 3rd Strike

TheShend gay for SFIII: 3rd Strike never :p

As Shend knows I own New Generation, which still works though the battery could do with changing and SIMM3 is a little dodgy.

The Bgs are great in NG, I like Elena''s second stage with what looks like Adon having a fight in the background

I like looking at the secret file pics too because they give a bit of info about the development of the characters and various concept art, Urien was originally a black guy with an afro.

Ah the Secret files are great and I think there a some on ebay at the moment but they want over £20 each for them, but you can always view them for free here

NG: http://www.arcadeflyers.com/?page=thumb ... db&id=3558"
GA: http://www.arcadeflyers.com/?page=thumb ... db&id=3560"
3S: http://www.arcadeflyers.com/?page=thumb ... db&id=5095"

but the question I always have about the 3S secret file is that Haggar in the background and thus is he actually Q?

Evidence

sf3.jpg

[The Enigmatic Form]

Street Fighter III: New Generation (4th Feb 1997)
Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact 'Giant Attack' (30th Oct 1998)
Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike (12th May 1999)

Are those release dates correct?
I always had the feeling that 2nd Impact came pretty quickly after New Generation (less than a year) but that it took much longer for 3rd Strike to come out.

That's how your feelings can betray you.

[TheShend]

I remember seeing pics of SF3 in CVG or something just after it launched in 1997, and I had to wait until the DC port came out to play it, those years were painful. I also read about 2nd impact coming out pretty quickly due to new gen getting a quite poor reception.

I wouldn't mind reading those CVG previews, thinking of the dates it must've been during their prime. Speaking of magazines, I made scans of any article regarding SFIII from my own mag collection a year or 2 ago, mainly OSSM, Edge and GameTM. I know Retro Gamer did a big article on it too but I haven't scanned that it in....yet

You can read them here.

I still want to own new gen one day, and probably will eventually, just play it until it dies or whatever and then keep the set for when CPS3 is finally sorted out by some wizzkid.

That's the biggest issue about CPS-III isn't it, the suicide battery, there's only what? 7 games for it? Two JoJo games, RedEarth/Warzard and the 4 in the SFIII series if you include the Ver.B of 3rd Strike. I do hope Capcom or a whizzkid sort something out to resolve the issue
I also wouldn't mind reading about the story about CPS-III, I bet there's some interesting tales to be had coming after the success of CPS-II?

2nd impact isn't bad, but I prefer 3s obviously much like anyone because Urien is better in it. Its funny how Hugo was meant to be in the first also, during the progress of CPS3 emulation they found his unfinished sprite in the game. And 2nd impact has a widescreen mode on the arcade version for some reason.

Yeah, Alex wasn't really quite the hulking killing wall Zangief-type that Hugo eventually turned out to be, looks like he was destined for the opening title. Oh and isn't there a half finished Shin Gouki/Akuma also knocking about in there too? Didn't know about the widescreen option either ^_^

I like looking at the secret file pics too because they give a bit of info about the development of the characters and various concept art, Urien was originally a black guy with an afro.

LOL, I've got the NG and 2I secret files with 3S on the way soon, but there's some great concept sketches like you say, the twisty dude and some of the other Zangief-types are really out-there.

Imagine if they'd actually not included ken and ryu in new gen as planned, it would have tanked even more with Sean as the only shotokan.

I remember reading about the fuss of no returning cast for SFIII but the fuss kicked up saw Ryu and Ken get thrown in quick smartish Sean's a fun character to play in 3S but it's uphill where he's quite a beast in 2I.

I've a shed load of SFIII related stuff in a dedicated collection, it's all strewn across a couple of albums on photobucket

[TheShend]

Street Fighter III: New Generation (4th Feb 1997)
Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact 'Giant Attack' (30th Oct 1998)
Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike (12th May 1999)

Are those release dates correct?
I always had the feeling that 2nd Impact came pretty quickly after New Generation (less than a year) but that it took much longer for 3rd Strike to come out.

That's how your feelings can betray you.

They're from wikipedia. Here's the details from the GGPO emulator for the titles:

[sfiii] Street Fighter III New Generatin (Japan 970930)
[sfiii2] Street FIghter III 2nd Impact: Giant Attack (Japan 970930)
[sfiii3] Street Fighter III 3rd Strike: Fight for the Future (USA 990512)
[sfiii3a] Street Fighter III 3rd Strike: Fight for the Future (Japan 990512) Ver.A
[sfiii3an] Street Fighter III 3rd Strike: Fight for the Future (Japan 990608) Ver.B

Aren't the numbers in the brackets the dates but in the japanese format of Year/Month/Day? So...

[sfiii] Street Fighter III New Generatin (Japan 970204) - 4th Febrary 1997
[sfiii2] Street FIghter III 2nd Impact: Giant Attack (Japan 970930) - 30th Sept 1997
[sfiii3] Street Fighter III 3rd Strike: Fight for the Future (USA 990512) - 12th May 1999
[sfiii3] Street Fighter III 3rd Strike: Fight for the Future (Japan 990512) Ver.A - 12th May 1999
[sfiii3a] Street Fighter III 3rd Strike: Fight for the Future (Japan 990608) Ver.B - 8th June 1999

...means the wiki dates for 2I are out in month and year?

[yosai]

Seimitsu LS-32 sticks with the four way gate equipped.

You sure that's right? Surely you need diagonals to play any of them.

[plopboy]

Street Fighter III: New Generation (4th Feb 1997)
Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact 'Giant Attack' (30th Oct 1998)
Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike (12th May 1999)

Are those release dates correct?
I always had the feeling that 2nd Impact came pretty quickly after New Generation (less than a year) but that it took much longer for 3rd Strike to come out.

That's how your feelings can betray you.

They're from wikipedia. Here's the details from the GGPO emulator for the titles:

[sfiii] Street Fighter III New Generatin (Japan 970930)
[sfiii2] Street FIghter III 2nd Impact: Giant Attack (Japan 970930)
[sfiii3] Street Fighter III 3rd Strike: Fight for the Future (USA 990512)
[sfiii3a] Street Fighter III 3rd Strike: Fight for the Future (Japan 990512) Ver.A
[sfiii3an] Street Fighter III 3rd Strike: Fight for the Future (Japan 990608) Ver.B

Aren't the numbers in the brackets the dates but in the japanese format of Year/Month/Day? So...

[sfiii] Street Fighter III New Generatin (Japan 970204) - 4th Febrary 1997
[sfiii2] Street FIghter III 2nd Impact: Giant Attack (Japan 970930) - 30th Sept 1997
[sfiii3] Street Fighter III 3rd Strike: Fight for the Future (USA 990512) - 12th May 1999
[sfiii3] Street Fighter III 3rd Strike: Fight for the Future (Japan 990512) Ver.A - 12th May 1999
[sfiii3a] Street Fighter III 3rd Strike: Fight for the Future (Japan 990608) Ver.B - 8th June 1999

...means the wiki dates for 2I are out in month and year?

Gamefaqs claims GA was released in October 1997 and the Secret Files have 1997 date on them, so it may well be 97 not 98

[ReplicaX]

Well, 2nd Impact was the first CPSIII my arcade received. I tossed it in a 50" Showcase and made a new CP for it. After about 2 weeks ppl finally realized it was a new SF and it finally made cash and was getting popular by locals. The last game I tossed in a cab before leaving that job was 3rd Strike, it was somewhat of a nice ending to working 5 years there.

As far as the series, I feel Capcom had the best 2D sprite artists during that period. I really love the artwork from concept to finished product, especially in 2nd Impact. 2nd Impact just had beautiful background and a great soundtrack to go with everything. I played the hell out of GA when I owned it and really the only thing I didn't like was the overhead execution. When I got 3rd Strike there was really no reason to keep GA so after a battery swap I sold it to one of my local friends who is a big Dudley fan, plus I can just go over and play it.

Capcom states it's biggest mistake with the Street Fighter III series was the higher ratio of new characters Vs returning and that impacted sales and will never be done that way again. My feeling on this is quite simple, Street Fighter III never had the start Super Turbo or the Alpha Series got. Late 90s alot of arcades in the US were dead or close to it and less people went to them in the US due too consoles. Also so many companies were flooding the industry with fighters it just became stupid for Operators. Truly the only fighter that made decent money in my arcade were, SFII, ST, MK, Tekken 3, VF2, KI and the highest grossing was MKII. 2nd Impact made money but it just died off to quick.

[TheShend]

Seimitsu LS-32 sticks with the four way gate equipped.

You sure that's right? Surely you need diagonals to play any of them.

Well, wouldn't a 8-way gate just provide an extra seperate contact for the diagonals whereas the 4-way gate a diagonal would register via making 2 relevant contacts i.e. DOWN + BACK?
As long as those get hit in the right order a move will come out. For example, try a 360 move with say Hugo or Alex, you can cut it down to just HCB or HCF* then UP+P/K and it'll come out but still completely misses out 2 diagonals. Plus in SFIII, you can short-cut some moves as the game compensates for you. For example, Makoto's HCB+K choke special can be done without the F at the beginning, the game see's your DOWN-FORWARD through to BACK+K and makes the assumption you wanted a choke and so fills in the FORWARD for you. These sort of leniencies are exploited most in the advanced techniques for the game, especially 3rd Strike.

*clockwise otr anticlockwise work for 360's.

[yosai]

The LS32 has a restricter gate on the underside that will limit movement of the stick dependent on how it is set.

On two way, only the left and right microswitches can be activated. On four way, up, down, left and right can be activated but none of them simultaneously.

Top, four way
Middle, eight way
Bottom, two way



http://www.slagcoin.com/joystick/restrictors.html"

[TheShend]

Cheers for the info yosai. Ooooh! thread split ^_^

Playing on 2nd Impact i've found it to be very easy, CPU just doesn't seem to want to block high, so I 'd that to win Still, walk-over that it is, this still takes some skill!

Skill Smith - SFIII: 2nd Impact 'DESTRUCTION'

Introducing a new feature: 'Scenes You Seldom See in 3S' #72

[Lordstar]

BIG LOVE
big love for street fighter 3 and third strike. I kinda feel that the two chatacters who i used to use in 3.0 and 3.2 were pulled back a bit.
I was a huge Sean and ibuki player in the first two but by the time 3.3 came out i used to play with oro and yang. then i moved on to Makoto in about 2000,2001 later in about 2003 I started to use Hugo.

[Lordstar]

Capcom states it's biggest mistake with the Street Fighter III series was the higher ratio of new characters Vs returning and that impacted sales and will never be done that way again. My feeling on this is quite simple, Street Fighter III never had the start Super Turbo or the Alpha Series got. Late 90s alot of arcades in the US were dead or close to it and less people went to them in the US due too consoles. Also so many companies were flooding the industry with fighters it just became stupid for Operators. Truly the only fighter that made decent money in my arcade were, SFII, ST, MK, Tekken 3, VF2, KI and the highest grossing was MKII. 2nd Impact made money but it just died off to quick.

lets face it when capcom made Street fighter 2 they got really lucky. We could of easily of gone the way of King og fighters fans. If it was released at a difrent time or the marketing was not right.

[speedlolita]

I love going down to Casino and playing Third Strike against CPU - someone ALWAYS comes and challenges me. Usually they're way better too, but still, I love it.

[Lordstar]

its such a shame there is no real local competition to me. I have a lot of fighting games but im never going to get really good unless i fight people who are better than me.

[MmSadda]

its such a shame there is no real local competition to me. I have a lot of fighting games but im never going to get really good unless i fight people who are better than me.

I feel ya - I'm not very good, myself. There's local competition that's better than me, but not a ton of it.... and most of the guys who ARE better just blow me out of the water entirely.

[speedlolita]

I'm glad I live near London for it really.

[tony starks]

I remember reading about Street Fighter III back in 97 and being **** off that there was not going to be a Super Nintendo port due to technical limits Anywayz I never got to really play Street Fighter III until about 2001 when I got a dreamcast and finally put my Nintendo fanboyism behind me

I loved the fact that you got both Street Fighter III and 2nd Impact on one disk. I honestly was not blown away though when I first played them to be honest and was really hung on the fact that most of the original cast was missing. Also I was a control pad freak and parrying was just too damn hard. I then bought third strike and really liked it and indeed it felt like a true successor after SFII. I think it really was ahead of it's time, and just like vintage wine gets better over time.

Going back to Street Fighter III and 2I prsent day, I really started to notice things that I like which I never noticed back then, maybe it because I am older or the fact that new 2d fighters are few and far between. Awesome series and a great start to getting me into the Dreamcast

[tony starks]

N64 almost had a port, it was being developed, and saturn apparently.

you lie.
Seriously though the N64 would be a joke but the Saturn on the other hand

[Phyeir]

its such a shame there is no real local competition to me. I have a lot of fighting games but im never going to get really good unless i fight people who are better than me.

I feel ya - I'm not very good, myself. There's local competition that's better than me, but not a ton of it.... and most of the guys who ARE better just blow me out of the water entirely.

I've had the same experience, even if I do get to play others after I've practiced, I'm still getting beat. Biggest thing (maybe this is just me) but I can't just play one arcade or any video game for too long before I want to play something else. Fighting games require taking the time to learn all the moves, timing, the little specifics that mean the difference between good & great. I dont have the patience for that. There are crack addicted hamsters with more patience to play one thing than me.

Hah no, kern don't play. N64 port was mentioned in a CVG but got cancelled, and saturn one was merely in a list of games but neither made it. I think they were aiming for it to be the 'sf2 snes' for the 64 at the time, hence its 6 button pad layout also.

That would have been crazy to see on the N64. Maybe not if it had happened naturally at the time, but when you look back, really weird. Hell, I can barely think of any Capcom support for the N64 until they ported over PSOne titles. Even then, it was just ports.