The Street Fighter

The year: 1991. The kid: determined. The machine: coin-operated. Abel spent all of his time at the arcade. To say he was an avid gamer would be an understatement, Abel was a professional. It was his time to shine; the Street Fighter II (1) machine had just been hauled in days earlier and Abel was ready and able to learn all of its secrets. As the buttons clicked Abel executed combos and grapples as if the machine was an extension of his own body. He wasn’t interested in much else.
For years he attended government-mandated High School trudging through the hallways rarely lifting his head. His bent figure was sometimes seen skulking in the shadows behind the cafeteria, sucking on a cigarette. There wasn’t much else to do between classes. Anti-social, maybe, but he just preferred learning combos and throw escapes, counting frame-by-frame the movement of Player One across the display.
He thought of making friends, but only to amuse himself. They were all useless, much like Lemmings (2) he watched them move across the screen one by one, mindlessly following one another. A girlfriend might be fun for a while but he’d rather save his quarters.
As he rocked the joystick back and forth while chewing on his favorite gum he felt a slight tug on his sweatshirt. He remained standing there like a statue executing dragon punches and the infamous shoryuken (3) much to the dismay of his digital opponent. It wasn’t until after the match that he found the book (4). Thumbing through it the words “unblock Abel attack” crossed his eyes and immediately grabbed his attention. Why was it spelled like this? Was this book meant for him to find?
He soon realized that it must have been written by one of the games developers, for there were notes pertaining to the games complex code strewn all through the book. There was no title but it still had literary qualities, explaining in great detail how to completely demolish ones opponents in the game. It was like having a conversation with the developer and that night Abel read the book cover to cover.
Returning to the arcade the next day Abel immediately inserted his coin and watched as Player One dominated the other computer controlled fighters; it was as if the book held every secret the game had. From glitches to exploits in certain moves Abel learned everything there was to be learned of the game. He felt as if playing this game was his destiny, so he did.
For weeks on end he stood there silent, stone cold, with his expressionless face fighting CPU opponent and the occasional challenger. Champion Edition, Tournament Edition, (5) it didn’t matter. He knew the game inside and out. He never lost. He had become the ultimate Street Fighter. Abel was happy, for there wasn’t much else in the world for a teenager to be excited about. No one could beat him for he held the secret. The book was always in his jacket pocket but he never again needed it, he had become an extension of the game.
(1) Street Fighter II hit arcades worldwide in 1991, one of the most critically acclaimed fighting games of all time it has grown to become the definitive title and remained on top since its release. It is still played competitively by players around the world.
(2) Lemmings was a game originally released for the Amiga home console and then ported to the arcade. The player does not control the lemmings in the game but rather their surroundings; the lemmings follow each other one-by-one in the game sometimes to their death.
(3) A vertical attack used by Ken and Ryu in the Street Fighter games. Abel liked using Ken because of his dragon punch as well.
(4) It is believed by many video game historians that the book was the private journal of Akira Yasuda, Street Fighter II’s chief game designer. While touring American arcades to celebrate the games release he had lost it along with many of the games secrets. The misspellings were attributed to Mr. Yasuda’s recent fascination with written English, he had recently learned how to write in the language and was hoping to use the English language as the gatekeeper of his secrets upon returning to Japan.
(5) Subsequent releases of the game with added characters and competitive modes. These games were often played at player vs. player competitive matches in arcades in the early 90’s.