Background on Street Fighter 2

[KingDrool]

I just received SF2 for PC Engine (Thanks Michael H) and have a couple questions:

So what's the exact reason for the "larger" HuCard?  I realize the game needed more space, but what's the technical reason for it?

What are the main differences between this version and the SNES/Genesis versions?

And finally, why the hell wouldn't they release this on CD or SCD?  Seems odd.  I guess they wanted to reach a larger user base, but if they could have a kick ass version of SF2 on CD, it would have moved some CD units, I would think.

Thanks!

[Odonadon]

Cosmetically, I prefer the PC Engine version to the other systems.  It has nice vibrant colours, and the sound fx are nice and bassey.  I really like that in a fighting game.

If SF2 was on CD, there would likely be huge load times, and that's something you don't want in an arcade game.

OD

[Kaminari]

if they could have a kick ass version of SF2 on CD, it would have moved some CD units

No, because by the time SF2' got released, every NEC fanboy already had a CD-ROM based system.

[zborgerd]

So what's the exact reason for the "larger" HuCard?  I realize the game needed more space, but what's the technical reason for it?

The game required more space.

[zborgerd]

Cosmetically, I prefer the PC Engine version to the other systems.  It has nice vibrant colours, and the sound fx are nice and bassey.  I really like that in a fighting game.

If SF2 was on CD, there would likely be huge load times, and that's something you don't want in an arcade game.

OD

The color pallette is lacking compared to the SNES version, but it's the play that counts.  It certainly plays very well.  The audio is distorted and tinny, and lacks depth, but the songs are fairly true to the arcade.

As for the CD, you may have forgotten that several Neo Geo "arcade games" were ported to the PCE, and made use of the "Arcade Card".  These were top-notch ports.  Though they were not "arcade perfect" (nor is Street Fighter 2), they are superb conversions.  I suspect that they wanted to be able to offer the game to a much larger userbase.

[nodtveidt]

So what's the exact reason for the "larger" HuCard?  I realize the game needed more space, but what's the technical reason for it?

It needed more space to hold extra memory banks and additional switching circuitry. This is the same reason that the arcade card also has a raised area.

[KingDrool]

Thanks guys.  I appreciate the answers.

As far as "every" NEC fanboy having a CD unit, I guess I meant that if they could have released it on CD, it would have been very import friendly, helping to move a few extra CD units in the states, where hardly anybody (relatively speaking) had them.  At the height of SF mania, it could have helped.

[NEC Avenue]

SFII CE on PCE looked less vibrant than the SNES version because the arcade version looked less vibrant than the SNES version. In fact SFII on SNES looked TOO vibrant. Not only that but the SNES version used a compressed video resolution that made everything look squashed. Also the reason why the HuCard had a raised hump was due to the fact it was a 20 Mbit game the largest PCE HuCard ever. PCE version of SFII CE used sampled music like AirZonk instead of the regular FM synthesizer channels. What many people didn't know was that SFII CE was to have been the first HuCard/SCD combo game ie the CD would've been used for red book music while the HuCard held the game content. Later this idea was transferred to the Arcade Card games.

[nodtveidt]

NEC decided against the hucard/cdrom combination because they said they would have too many problems with synching. That was their official statement.

[soco]

PCE version of SFII CE used sampled music like AirZonk instead of the regular FM synthesizer channels.

technically speaking, all of the PCE sounds are sampled as each of it's 6 channels have 32 samples used for playing. this game uses a lot more direct PCM tracks than normal games, but it also uses quite a lot of normal ones as well. otherwise the music alone might've taken up all 20Mbits the soundchip was way ahead of it's time, as far as consoles go.

[RCduck7]

The snes version looks good to in it's own way but the characters aren't true to the arcade and look friendlier instead of the mature way they should look.
That's why i like the PC engine version more.

[nodtveidt]

I don't recall the PCE even having FM synthesis...afaik, all six channels are dedicated PSG...I could be wrong though, because sound isn't one thing I've dabbled in too much for the PCE (ADPCM only)...someone care to clear this one up?

[Keranu]

The PCE version of SFII' is a superb conversion. The graphics look more vibrant and clearer than the Genesis version and even sort of better than the SNES because of the reasons NEC Avenue mentioned and even the mature thing RCduck7 mentioned. Not only are the graphics top notch, but the sound is terrific; music, sound effects, and voices! I haven't played the SNES version in awhile, but I loved the music in SFII' for the PCE more than the Genesis version.

Also I found out that the PCE version even fixed this annoying gameplay problem. I am normally used to play Super Street Fighter II on my cousin's Genesis, so I'm not sure if this is in the other versions, I'll have to try checking it out. Anyways, if you Bison (or Vega as the Japanese versions) and do a psycho crusher, you have this incredibly easy chance of throwing the opponent if the opponent blocks the psycho crusher. In SFII' for the PCE, this problem seems to be fixed, which is great because that throw was so annoying and unbalanced the game a bit.

[esteban]

Well, I thought you folks might dig this blast from the past...

SFII ' released in June '93 from DuoWorld #1. Dig that prototype of the 6-button controllerr!

[NEC Avenue]

NEC decided against the hucard/cdrom combination because they said they would have too many problems with synching. That was their official statement.

Hmm..that's pretty strange because synching would've been trivial since all you'd be doing is playing a music track for the duration of the stage. At the end of each round you'd just fade the music out and start the track from the beginning again.

I don't recall the PCE even having FM synthesis...afaik, all six channels are dedicated PSG...I could be wrong though, because sound isn't one thing I've dabbled in too much for the PCE (ADPCM only)...someone care to clear this one up?

I think technically they weren't FM channels, but they functioned in the same way ie generate tones. They were sine wave synthesizers. They weren't ADPCM though since only the CD system cards added that channel/feature.

technically speaking, all of the PCE sounds are sampled as each of it's 6 channels have 32 samples used for playing. this game uses a lot more direct PCM tracks than normal games, but it also uses quite a lot of normal ones as well. otherwise the music alone might've taken up all 20Mbits the soundchip was way ahead of it's time, as far as consoles go.

You're probably right, I just don't remember its exact configuration. I just know that 99.9% of the HuCard games used tone generation for the music similar to FM synthesizers. The only HuCards that I know of that used sampled music tracks were SFII CE and AirZonk. I think the reason why SFII CE was 20-mbit was due to a combination of things. It used sampled music tracks, lot's of sampled voice and sound effects, and many stages and animation frames. I think they managed to fit all the sounds in by using very low resolution sound samples as evidenced by the raspy music and sound effects. Not that it was bad or anything, but that's the cheat they used. I think SFII CE was a testament to how great the PCE was for it's time.

Well, I thought you folks might dig this blast from the past...

SFII ' released in June '93 from DuoWorld #1. Dig that prototype of the 6-button controllerr!

Oh man that just brings tears to my eyes.

Anyway I owned SFII CE for for PCE for awhile, but lost the game. I still have the neat double jewel case though.

Oh I also have that NEC Avenue pad 6.