FORT90 forum

I put up two new videos, the most recent one is a bit of a TvC match between Joe and Matt. I have a couple of decent photos I'll post soon as well.

http://www.youtube.com/user/wizardpeople

I got some photos of Street Fighter School up at dmauro.com/photos.

Oh, and I downloaded Melty Blood: AC ver. B for the PC. It's a slightly newer version than the one for the PS2 and it will run in 480p instead of 480i (couldn't get it to run in 240p though). I also got a translation patch for it in case anyone wants to play story mode. :P

Yeah... I guess it is a bit on the weird side.

We need Katie's report on how her Street Fighting at Chinatown Fair went.

Reporting!

So I was at Chinatown Fair yesterday with a friend as planned. I've never actually played there before, just watched, and so this was totally fun. We actually never got on the SF4 machines because I think the same four people played the entire time we were there. But we did get to play SF2 and I did okay! We also played a little Blazblue and he ended up beating the arcade version which was awesome. I think I'm starting to really like that game now that I've spent more time playing it. Then I played Melty Blood by myself for awhile but I only lasted two rounds. I played Raiden Fighters later too but I didn't really like it. And then I had to play Time Crisis 4, which was AWESOME

Some notes:
-No one played KoF the entire time we were there
-There was a big group of people sitting around watching people play Tekken 6, which looked nice, but isn't it sort of old?
-Someone smelled like pickles

All in all it was totally fun. SFS Class of 09!

WOW I was just posting when you posted that!

oh yea, they have Melty Blood there; they got rid of Arcana Heart 2.  i kept switching it in my mind.

anyway, glad to hear the hardcore training paid off.  keep playing Blazblue.


also, Tekken 6 is the newest entry in the series and comes out sometime in the fall for consoles.  the weirdest thing about watching people play Tekken 6, i think, is how they bring their PS2 controllers to play it and then hold it reallllly strangely.  so that they can hit the buttons with their fingers.  it's like, why not use the joystick then?

We can play BlazBlue online because I'm not very good at it either.

Oh man. I was just taking a little break with Melty Blood ver. B and played through the Arcade mode with Wolf Cock. This version seems to have a bunch of much nicer levels added to it, but most importantly, when you beat arcade mode with Wolf Cock, it unlock Neko Wolf Cock!

Damn, Joe and Karl and I just played fighting games for seven hours straight again. Joe abused us at Melty Blood until the game crashed for unknown reasons. We realized we need to make an ASCII art neko fighting game.

Why wasn't I invited? :(

He was just coming over and we just ended up playing for a ridiculous amount of time.

What's that Double Dragon fighting game I need to download?

Rage of the Dragons!!

I was just trying to give BlazBlue another shot and it only increased my frustration with this awful game. If someone starts a combo, you don't get out of it until your life is half gone. I'm pressing the button to recover, but it doesn't work all the time, sometimes they are able to just keep attacking and it's so goddamn obnoxious. Also, I can't figure out what the deal is with blocking not working sometimes. You're sure you've blocked something, and it gets through. I think some medium attacks must just be high and it doesn't show it. The girl with the guns for instance. She shot me with a distortion attack. That should be a mid right? Well a low block didn't catch it, so I don't know what the hell is going on with that.

I just need to sell this game so I don't try putting it in the machine again. It's not so bad playing against someone else who doesn't play it a lot, but even then, I've got plenty of other fighting games, that though they may not look as nice, they don't suck, and they don't have Cloud in them.

</rant>

Sorry to hijack the thread, but since it seems to early in the game to have yet a third fighting game thread, I'm just gonna hijack this one and make it somewhat general, not just BlazBlue again...

First off, anyone download MvC2 yet? I got the demo and think it's pretty gay that you can't even play single player with just two hand-picked characters for just a test run.

Also, Joe, have you had any of these crazy issues with KOF XII on your end? Had no idea it was so buggy...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y45AlvLFHYQ

hahaha, that's pretty glaring.

The many forms of Ryu...

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid22881388001?bctid=30214306001

Dave please report on Rage of the Dragons


I haven't had hug issues with KoFXII yet, other than slight disappointment.

As for MvC2, I might wait for the PS3 version as I heard it's slightly less buggy. But not sure yet.

I've only downloaded it. I haven't loaded it up yet. I was waiting for a good excuse.

I tried playing online recently and there were no matches found for someone at my puny level, so I could only play people at level like 40+ and I felt like I couldn't block anything! It's definitely more fun to play against the CPU or, like you said, someone else who isn't that great.

But I don't think it's that terrible game in general. Let's just play each other! Taokaka 4evr

Rage of the Dragons seems a little lame. Character design is definitely completely bland except for the Raiden looking wrestler, and possibly the girl that's done up like Mila Jovovitch in the Fifth Element.

Just tried going a few rounds of SF4 online. And EVERYONE was using Akuma. Kinda lame.

Oh, also nabbed Marvel vs Capcom 2. I already own the Dreamcast version, which is vastly superior, since it's on the Dreamcast, but figured what the hey. Especially since all the characters are unlocked by default, something I never got around doing.

0_o

Very surprised Capcom didn't fuck that up.

on Kotaku, the guy reviewing it actually complained that all the characters are unlocked from the get go.

i really don't know why i keep going back to that site.

the reason they didn't fuck it up is probably because it was worked on by the guys who did HD Remix and, for the most part, they all seem pretty much on the level.

That makes me want to go to kotaku just to leave a comment.

I've been wanting to start a "let's laugh at all the baffling shit that Kotaku posts" thread since day one, but am too chickenshit since I'd still like to work for them someday. Hey, what can I say, I could use the money!

But I most certainly am not gonna stop any of you guys. Hint, hint, hint...

Kotaku makes me want to burn my video games.

I kind of want to install this costume mod for SFIV:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAi7RNo-2ns

Here's a list of them by the way:
http://forums.shoryuken.com/showthread.php?t=199446

edit: oh shi-
I need to install these:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XQ_TX_UUyo

Already mentioned in the NYC section, but once again...

(http://mishkanyc.com/bloglin/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/StreetFighterIITournie.jpg)

so i'm sure everyone hear has already heard, but it turns out that "Super Street Fighter IV" is a reality.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9dITMggFc0

the initial rumors reported a pretty interesting cast (no Elena, though :[ ), with up to about ten characters.

of course, most of these characters appear to be "old," as in from previous games, but if the reports on who the characters actually are turn out to be true, they're at least more interesting than the plain old SFII cast.  some of the decisions already seem odd, like for example, who really cares about T. Hawk?

maybe they'll turn him into a powerhouse like Zangief.

anyway, i'm most looking forward to the tweaks to the gameplay they're implementing.  if it ends up addressing the issues i had with IV, then this could absolutely rekindle my interest in the title.

possible Spring 2010 release

get the astrocabs ready

fuck yeah. I guess I'll have to get a second controller adapter after all because I'm sure they'll release this on the 360 first like they did with the original.

Once again, I'm far more hyped for Tatsunoko vs Capcom +, but any new faces, provided they play differently from Ryu/Ken is golden in my book.

To be bad this guy isn't local, since both Dave and Joe could make some easy money...

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/vgm/1395856083.html

Those things are generally really hard.

http://www.versuscity.net/2009/10/02/everyone-has-to-start-somewhere/

This is pretty much me after a losing a few rounds to a Shoto.

Aren't the Japanese supposed to be a little more respectful of their arcade cabs, or is that just a misconception?

Most folks I saw playing during my trip behaved themselves. As do most Americans... you hardly see any needless banging on the buttons at your average Dave & Busters. Its just when we get into the realm of "hardcore" players that stupid shit starts to happen, i.e. your typical Chinatown Fair regular. Who also sweat a lot, smell bad in many cases, and have a host of other issues.

Anyhow, have Dave, interested in expanding? Via drozdal... http://www.neo-geo.com/forums/showthread.php?t=203362

I was kinda interested in that Net City (there was another offer for stand up net city in Philly week ago (http://www.neo-geo.com/forums/showthread.php?t=202772) for 1200$), but it's just too expensive IMHO - 850$ + freight + new CP and sticks/buttons (new ones are about 1K).

There might be (http://www.neo-geo.com/forums/showthread.php?t=203326) new group order on neo-geo boards in few weeks and I will try to get one or two Egret II's from them.

I actually think the Net Citys with New Net City artwork are some of the best looking cabs, and I even like them fully upright (without having the legs chopped off, you'd just have to gets ome tall stools), but that seems expensive for a cab that would have to get repaired to look good. Astro Citys are the best deal for your money.

Astros are cheap, nice & all, but I really want the monitor rotation mechanism of Egret II. Honestly I do not mind paying 150$-200$ more for a cab that has a bit fresher monitor than Astro.

IIRC Chinatown Fair has one standup NetCity cab, those things look sleek.

An Egret II here on the east coast is going to cost you about twice as much as an Astro though. They're actually very easy to rotate. I rotate mine myself without laying it on its back.

Astro monitors are about as good as they get too.

Sweet, thanx for the tip! Now I think I'll just stick with one Egret II (one that I committed to IF the order happens) and if I ever gonna need another cab I'll go with Astro.

How hard was to order that Wei-Ya chassis to change astro monitor into a tri-sync?

(we should probably start new thread about cabs themselves and move some of our posts over there, to keep this one on topic)

That's what this thread is about! Getting the Wei Ya chassis was as easy as ordering it from a place in Florida. $150 plus maybe $15 or $20 shipping I believe. Once you do that though, the monitor isn't quite so nice with 15KHz though. It takes a little hit with the geometry, but well worth it if you plan on putting some consoles or a PC in the cab.

Excellent, I won't mind hit in geometry department if it allows me to play newer Mame and PC/Xbox games on it. At some point in the future I will try to get Sanwa 29 PFX tri-sync replacement monitor for it.

In other news, there is a lot of forums around that deal with arcade hardware troubleshooting, but yesterday I found first (to my knowledge) and rather new blog (http://www.arcaderepairtips.com/) entirely dedicated to servicing all kinds of cabinets. Blog covers mostly basic stuff, but for the person like me who has almost zero background in electronics it's an excellent alternative to asking basic questions on message boards (that were asked there thousand of times) and dealing with all the fallout/drama.

 

That's what the search function is for! :)

It's a shame about Killer Cabs going down though; that place had a thread for EVERYTHING. Arcade Otaku is doing a good job though. If you don't see a question answered there, then go ahead and ask it so that it becomes part of the ongoing archive.

Two more characters officially revealed for Tatsunoko vs Capcom...

http://tinycartridge.com/post/212521404/mega-man-xs-zero-makes-his-tatsunoko-vs-capcom

... Still no Speed Racer. That kinda sucks.

couldn't access the link at work, but apparently Zero from Mega Man X4 is in the game.  looks like a really good character!

gotta say, though, the MMX designs haven't really held up well in my eyes.  Mega Man Zero is a bit more...stylistically pleasing than how garrish this Zero appears to be.

anyway, looks like the new characters are shaping up pretty nicely.  and looks like that list someone posted a while back is turning out to be pretty much all true.

Instead of dumping this in the animated gifs thread, where most won't see it, since it's Street Fighter related...

(http://pics.fort90.com/journal/guileonthestand.gif)

Didn't we have a dedicated SF thread or was that on the old forum?

Anyways, we've been had: no new characters announced, the super/ultra system not explained at all.

So no Vega's kid sister character revealed after we left? Though even if we had stuck around for such a reveal, we wouldn't have been able to see shit.

I wouldn't be surprised if they had something extra up their sleeves but decided to hold off due to fears of inciting a full scale riot.

EDIT: Alright, just combed NeoGAF, and sentiments from others who were there are not exactly kind...


Also found a couple of vids. As noted above, in addition to Justin Wong, they let some other folks play the thing, those associated with Empire Arcadia. lulz, I know.

First we have what I believe is the only other demo of the night, featuring T-Hawk and the new Korean chick...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nkNv6xeVnY

... Again, Juri is pretty cool and T-Hawk still sucks. Next is Justin talking about... stuff...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFdKpehDh2c

... Nice hair. Also, watching people that I don't know talk about fighting game techniques is beyond boring. IMHO. Next we have some dude who goes by Marn...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uY-RPfpJ1gQ

... So let me get this straight, and this is not me being a whiny game journalist, honestly; they wouldn't let the press touch the game due to possible less than kind words. And then they let this guy play. lol.

Out of curiosity I went to Empire Arcadia's website (never heard of them before), clicked around a bit and I'm confused. There is no real info who they are - just generic statements about "servicing gaming industry", their news feed takes you to gamespot.com, site looks like it was designed in early 2000 and never updated. Are they supposed to get paid by gaming companies to attend their events and "show their skills"? I honestly hope they do.

One more vid from the event TvC:

http://www.youtube.com/user/casualweaponry#p/a/u/1/p6-jk9w7neQ

Oh shit, I never thought to look for an Empire Arcadia website. This site is making me pretty nostalgic for 1995.

I've written about them before, mostly for my big NY gaming piece that's in the second zine, but was never able to uncover much solid info.

They're just some dudes that made some minor waves back in the early 2000s by offering their services to PR firms that needed help connecting with the gamer audience. This mostly meant just demoing whatever new title, usually a fighter, at press events, which is actually a novel concept, and maybe they were ahead of their time? I recall them being a fixture at New York-Tokyo's Gamer Nite Grooves, which was the perfect platform for them to spout their dogma (that statement only makes sense if one is familiar with GNG), which was somewhat of the problem.

Aside from their services no longer being in any sort of demand, the core group was absolutely grating and did more harm than good at press events. Because most PR folks are supposed to... you know... well dressed, friendly to everyone, not smell, speak coherently, etc.

Their leader, Tricforce, was definitely there, with Power Glove on. I forget if I mentioned in my anime fest report how he tried asking a stupid question, which I totally shot him down on, and he left in a semi-huff. What a goof. I think he's just pissed that he's not some superstar from his lame ass shot at reality show superstardom from a few years back.

Ok, I will look it up - got Fort90 zine #2 few days haven't got around to reading it.


I totally understand those guys - seems like this service looked like VG nerd (nothing wrong with being one btw.) wet dream come true, with Justin Wong's name slapped all around their website kids who joined most likely felt that they were part of something "big" and "special". Something you could brag about to your friends at school and get some cred on the internet ect. I say - good marketing move on their part. But it ended like so many other ideas with them not being aware of what the outside words expects from you before they hand you some money to promote their product...being friendly, reasonably dressed and well spoken.

And I love the fact that Empire Arcadia is incorporated. :D

Good morning, mister Masters

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uZWArSOmCc

The URL says it all...

http://kotaku.com/5411575/super-street-fighter-iv-getting-three-more-fighters

hey, Guy and Cody, neat!

and Cody is still on the run (all these years since the last prequel? huh).

haha, yea, i think storyline continuity has gone quite out the window with 4.  Sakura either never ages or is unwilling to give up her school uniform.

anyway, here's the new trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAz9mJWAt9A

i guess to someone who either doesn't really like those characters or doesn't see it a certain way, it probably looks like more SF4.  but, to me, this video is really exciting and makes me super pumped for the game to come out.

that anonymous source seems to have been right on everything thus far, so i assume Dudley, Ibuki and Makoto are next up to be revealed.

Elena ;_;

So what's the point of Cody's shackles if they allow completely free movement of his arms? He would be much cooler if this attacks involved using the chain as a weapon and he had limited arm movement.

I can believe they brought back Adon, he kinda blew. What's next, Birdie?

Cody on the other hand is pretty cool, if only because he's only been in one SF game.

I too want Elena, but more so Skullomania from EX (remember him) or any of the new girls from Alpha 3, especially Kate Winslet.

Skullomania is fucking awesome, i agree, but i'm under the impression the EX characters belong to Arika or something. 

anyway, you know what would be better than recycling old characters?  MAKING NEW ONES

ah, but i guess we remember how well 3 did when it came out.


Juri looks pretty fun to use, so, at the very least, this version of 4 is looking a lot more inviting.

SSFIV showcase - some new ultras and few new costumes.

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/exclusive-features-super-street/60457?type=flv

Ken and Ryu dap now. Yessssss. Nice new costumes too.

edit: saw this over at PA:

(http://i47.tinypic.com/snmb1j.jpg)

MUCH cooler character select. I really hope that's how the final thing looks.

My kitchen is now equipped with a WRT54G loaded with DD-WRT so that it can serve as a wireless bridge for my PC and 360. What this means is that the arcade machines have an internet connection available that is much more reliable than what I was doing before (basically the PC was sharing it's shitty wireless connection with the 360).

I just gave it a test run with some GGPO and tore this guy up with my regular characters. He said he had never seen a good Blanka before. :/

Makoto, Ibuki, Dudley, Hakan (new Arab grappler), and possibly Shadow (post-experiement Charlie) next to be revealed for SSFIV?

http://news.vgchartz.com/news.php?id=6292

If they can make Dudley look almost as good as his third strike sprite, I might have to start playing with him.

Has then been any word yet on SSFIV about whether they're going to try to make the online aspect not completely god awful, or are they just going to use the same nightmare inducing net code?

I've been playing mostly third strike on GGPO lately, but I threw in SFIV to change it up and I really did not enjoy myself. If there were a blanka in 3S I wouldn't need to bother with IV, which would be nice because it's just so ugly and the range on everything feels way too short after playing so much 3S.

Like Street Fighter 4's character designs weren't bad enough...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9zG34SM1jc

yea, i dunno man.  i actually think he's the most interesting new character that they've made so far.

Oh, he's interesting, I'll give you that.

wtf

I'm vaguely interested in checking this out...

http://www.shoryuken.com/showthread.php?t=228537

... Not to play, but to watch ($10 to play is a bit nuts, though at least its going towards something good)

Nice.
I wonder if I have a video from when we played third strike like that that I could taunt them with :P

edit: and done :)

So anyone else down for stopping by and watching the spectacle? I might be writing about it for an outlet, hence why I'll be there with a camera and taking notes. Though whether I'll be able to actually piece together something from it remains to be seen.

It's probably going to be too crowded to even see the action, but I'm going to be there I think.

lol at the idiot trying to give Dave shit. Dude's just jealous. Who is also the organizer of the tournament btw. lulz

Can't wait to start dialogue with the guy, since I want possibly develop a story out of the thing for a potential third party, and then casually mentioned I'm friends with the "sad" person!

A lot of videos from SSFIV played at PAX. (http://www.youtube.com/user/FrameAdvantageDotCom#g/u)

Shitttt, where was SSFIV? I only saw SFIV :(

I also haven't seen SSFIV. It might have been setup at the console freeplay room.

Yeah, I heard about it and Seth Killian being at the show, but only after the fact. I believe, once again, only members of Capcom Unity were clued in on this.

And you know, that's cool and all, since pretty much everything was impossible to check out, so even if we had known, none of us would have had to chance to check it out, but it's still sorta irritating. I hope that doesn't make me sound like a jealous person, cuz I couldn't be any less of the average member of that community.

I had a VIP badge so I could have gotten in on stuff if I really wanted to. :(

I seriously wouldn't be surprised if VIPs were not included. Those Street Fighters, they live and breathe by their own rules... True warriors in every way. Except for the still living at home part.

Sorry, this SF3 tournament/fundraiser that I'm currently covering has really soured me on that crowd.

SSFIV and balance:
http://forums.penny-arcade.com/showpost.php?p=14288546&postcount=767

Claw gets a really good Ultra and some better priority apparently.

yay

but i'm probably going to go for the following four characters before i go back to Claw:

Cody
Guy
Juri
Ibuki

if none of those characters are viable, then i'm going to pretend SFIV no longer exists

just read through that whole post.  if everything it reports is accurate, then i'm a bit more psyched for Super than i was before.  my biggest issue with 4 had to be that turtling was the dominant and encouraged strategy.  maybe you could say it's my failing as a player not to conform to what would make me win, but i just DON'T like to play a super-defensive game as it's the complete opposite of fun for me.

knowing that other strategies may have been opened up is encouraging, as is the fact that certain things have been nerfed (thinking of Rufus here with his RIDICULOUSLY overpowered EX moves).

it will probably be a better game, but truth be told, i wish there were more "new" characters.  it's still my biggest problem with SF4.  hopefully they'll make some kind of spinoff game in the future that follows SF3's approach more.

but it probably won't happen

SSFIV will get arcade version (http://www.eventhubs.com/news/2010/apr/04/arcade-version-super-street-fighter-4-announced/)

I wonder how this will do in arcades. It seems like SFIV did pretty well so I wonder if operators already recouped enough to pitch for the SSFIV cabinets. It would be awesome if they made it so that you simply send in your SFIV kit and some money and get back SSFIV, but I would imagine Capcom is greedier than that.

My thought exactly.

I think SSFIV will be sold as a kit, for the operators who already have SFIV machines and MAYBE as separate cabs too (but I doubt anything except for marques and board will be new in them). Way easier to recycle cabs you haven't sold than manufacture new ones.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAFvw94qdXA

On a realted note (http://kotaku.com/5515896/this-guy-lost-everything-in-a-fire-gamers-help-him)...

I wondered where why that video was being passed around by pals. And I say this a lot, but holy shit at the stupid Kotaku commenters. They sorta top themselves here.

someone should probably mention that Marvel vs. Capcom 3 is happening and there's some trailers and leaked artwork

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzvE7e94Z_A

It's like Tatsunoko vs Capcom and SF4 merged, visually, and not in a good way.

I just want to see some in game videos, not the silly teasers.

Apparently that is in-game. Or at least in-engine. I'm sure that's not how it will play out, but it doesn't look as bad as SFIV at this point. I mean, Morrigan isn't rippling with muscles, so that's a good sign.

They seem to have gotten better at the sumi-e effect so that it looks a little less Japanese, and a little more comic book pen and ink. It's hard to tell though because they kept everything in a very dark setting.

The main reason why I liked Marvel vs Capcom is cuz I liked the way Spider Man and company looks, as handled by Capcom's sprite artists, which looked distinctly Japanese, as opposed to how they usually look and feel in the American comics.

So... whose getting Super tomorrow? High on everyone's list, or, not so much?

I think I'm gonna wait on it. Grab it when it's cheaper or wait and see if there's gonna be a PC release.

I has Super since Saturday. My live account ran out, so I haven't played against Ken's, Akuma's (or Juri's) on-line yet, but so far it is pretty solid.

I like Hakan and Makoto - they force you to re-learn the way you play SFIV again.

FYI...

http://www.newyork-tokyo.com/wp/nytgn/

I found SSFIV for $34 shipped on eBay so I picked it up.

'bout damn time!  get on there and let's BRO FOR BROKE

Juri is only B+ tier btw