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Author Topic: Fighting Games: How Did '90s Arcade-Goers Learn Special Moves?  (Read 4062 times)

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DrakeTungsten

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How did one learn the special controller motions for fighting games when they were first released? I've seen a few games where some of the moves are explained on-screen, and I think I've seen where some were documented on the cabinet somewhere, but these are the exception. Were gaming magazines the go-to resource? Or were you expected to just pick up the concept and then learn the specific moves through trial-and-error (or learn from a friend who already went through the trial-and-error) for each character for each game? 
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Malenko

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Re: Fighting Games: How Did '90s Arcade-Goers Learn Special Moves?
« Reply #1 on: March 04, 2018, 03:53:25 pm »
Samurai Shodown  would show special move commands when the CPU did them under the life bar. With street fighter, there were only 4 commands so you just tried them all with kick and punch and you know them all.    Quarter Circle, Dragon Punch , charge back to forward, charge down to up

Mostly though, I think people got the move lists from game magazines and start up internet sites like SegaSages.com
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Re: Fighting Games: How Did '90s Arcade-Goers Learn Special Moves?
« Reply #2 on: March 04, 2018, 05:30:08 pm »
Yeah it was definitely game magazines. I kinda miss the times when I was a little kid and I would go to an arcade and see an older guy that would know all the moves and fatalities for the Mortal Kombat games. People would be in awe and at the time almost everybody would think the guy was a genius, but we know now that he probably got all the moves from magazines, I also remember there were hotlines you could call for special moves and game tips.

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Re: Fighting Games: How Did '90s Arcade-Goers Learn Special Moves?
« Reply #3 on: March 04, 2018, 06:47:46 pm »
Thanks for the answers.
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Re: Fighting Games: How Did '90s Arcade-Goers Learn Special Moves?
« Reply #4 on: March 04, 2018, 09:09:35 pm »
Honestly, too, I think a lot of it came via word of mouth.
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Re: Fighting Games: How Did '90s Arcade-Goers Learn Special Moves?
« Reply #5 on: March 05, 2018, 07:33:20 am »
You could commonly look over someones shoulder when they were playing as well. And at least some moves you would stumble on by just playing. Most every character has a least a couple moves easy to figure out. Do a quarter or half roll on the joystick and hit punch or kick after, and you can figure out a third of them.

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Re: Fighting Games: How Did '90s Arcade-Goers Learn Special Moves?
« Reply #6 on: March 05, 2018, 09:09:22 am »
Nothing makes a "fighting game" guy more angry than when you button mash him to death.

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Re: Fighting Games: How Did '90s Arcade-Goers Learn Special Moves?
« Reply #7 on: March 05, 2018, 09:17:35 am »
Depended on the game I think.

Street fighter you could work out most of them by experimenting.

Things like MK you could get some but others you would need to look up or someone to tell you.

I got most of my info from gamer mags or “code books”.
Never see them anymore lol

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Re: Fighting Games: How Did '90s Arcade-Goers Learn Special Moves?
« Reply #8 on: March 05, 2018, 09:50:04 am »
Things like MK you could get some but others you would need to look up or someone to tell you.

Yeah, and good luck figuring out a fatality without a mag or book. In retrospect, it was a good ploy, you get to show off that you were a 'legit' player, it bumps replays and sales for gamer mags.

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Re: Fighting Games: How Did '90s Arcade-Goers Learn Special Moves?
« Reply #9 on: March 05, 2018, 10:24:32 am »
Johnny Mnemonic would tell you special moves in MK if you scored high enough I think. I know there is something about it in the manual.
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Re: Fighting Games: How Did '90s Arcade-Goers Learn Special Moves?
« Reply #10 on: March 05, 2018, 10:48:14 am »
Brother's and I would ride our bikes to the local Library with a hand full of dimes. Find the latest game magazine or code books and make a bunch of copies.

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Re: Fighting Games: How Did '90s Arcade-Goers Learn Special Moves?
« Reply #11 on: March 05, 2018, 11:18:04 am »
Brother's and I would ride our bikes to the local Library with a hand full of dimes. Find the latest game magazine or code books and make a bunch of copies.

I used to go to the back of Waldenbooks or B. Dalton in the mall and get all the codes from the game strategy guides and write them down in a notepad.

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Re: Fighting Games: How Did '90s Arcade-Goers Learn Special Moves?
« Reply #12 on: March 05, 2018, 11:31:26 am »
Johnny Mnemonic would tell you special moves in MK if you scored high enough I think. I know there is something about it in the manual.
From my post in the Chuff thread:

Looking at the rom data theres 2 MK logos at 0x449 and 0x44A


There is also a 6 square box but no MK3 symbols

So its likely the box is filled with numbers like 010010 (which disables blocking in MK3)

AND:
Raiden's in the crowd of World Cup Soccer 94 pin, which I thought was cool.


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Re: Fighting Games: How Did '90s Arcade-Goers Learn Special Moves?
« Reply #13 on: March 05, 2018, 01:03:15 pm »
Yep. Codes. Not special moves. Doh!
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Re: Fighting Games: How Did '90s Arcade-Goers Learn Special Moves?
« Reply #14 on: March 06, 2018, 10:58:20 am »
Brother's and I would ride our bikes to the local Library with a hand full of dimes. Find the latest game magazine or code books and make a bunch of copies.

I used to go to the back of Waldenbooks or B. Dalton in the mall and get all the codes from the game strategy guides and write them down in a notepad.

Yep, that was pretty much how I did it, too.  Also had a subscription to GamePro....




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Re: Fighting Games: How Did '90s Arcade-Goers Learn Special Moves?
« Reply #15 on: March 07, 2018, 09:17:19 am »
How did one learn the special controller motions for fighting games when they were first released? I've seen a few games where some of the moves are explained on-screen, and I think I've seen where some were documented on the cabinet somewhere, but these are the exception. Were gaming magazines the go-to resource? Or were you expected to just pick up the concept and then learn the specific moves through trial-and-error (or learn from a friend who already went through the trial-and-error) for each character for each game?

For me Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat I really only learned and mastered the moves once it came to home consoles. Busted out that instruction booklet and you wouldnt see me for a week. Then I went to the arcade to show off... lol.
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Re: Fighting Games: How Did '90s Arcade-Goers Learn Special Moves?
« Reply #16 on: March 13, 2018, 01:58:27 pm »
My first thought were movestrips - you guys telling me earlier fighting games didn't have them in the arcades? Is this an exclusively Japanese thing then?

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Re: Fighting Games: How Did '90s Arcade-Goers Learn Special Moves?
« Reply #17 on: March 13, 2018, 02:12:01 pm »
I remember them being on Tekken and some street fighter games (alpha series maybe?) , never on MK games.
Even the games that had move strips were usually incomplete lists.
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Re: Fighting Games: How Did '90s Arcade-Goers Learn Special Moves?
« Reply #18 on: March 13, 2018, 11:10:07 pm »
I remember some of it coming from the likes of game pro magazine , but a lot came from word of mouth and watching Other players. When mk2 came out everyone was learning the fatalities and all the extras and I recall writing down ones I heard from other people and attempting them at the arcade.

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Re: Fighting Games: How Did '90s Arcade-Goers Learn Special Moves?
« Reply #19 on: March 14, 2018, 09:04:01 am »
A friend of mine used to carefully type out all of the moves and fatalities for all MK2 characters onto a single 8x10 page and he would actually sell the sheets to people for a buck or two!

I think a lot of the moves were learned by playing the game and through word of mouth.  That is why his sheets included various versions of the rumoured (but non-existent) Kano transformation. 

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Re: Fighting Games: How Did '90s Arcade-Goers Learn Special Moves?
« Reply #20 on: March 15, 2018, 01:39:24 am »
My first thought were movestrips - you guys telling me earlier fighting games didn't have them in the arcades? Is this an exclusively Japanese thing then?

Yeah that. I usually saw them on Marvel Or Street Fighter cabs.
KOF I didn't get into after I had access to the internet.

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Re: Fighting Games: How Did '90s Arcade-Goers Learn Special Moves?
« Reply #21 on: March 15, 2018, 09:08:04 am »
I stole a bunch of those move strips back in the day.  I regret such actions now, but they looked pretty damn cool on my bedroom wall in 1995....


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Re: Fighting Games: How Did '90s Arcade-Goers Learn Special Moves?
« Reply #22 on: March 17, 2018, 12:40:42 pm »

Other games before fighting games had their cheats too of course.

I hate to think how much I spent in the 80's trying to master the "Nagoya" method in Space Invaders.
The big problem with that trick was it was "all or nothing", If you got it wrong, that was not just a life lost but the entire game.

Then there was shot-counting on the spaceship, for max score when it was hit. All the cheats were passed around by word of mouth in pubs before the days of the Web.

I didnt really master these moves 100% until I had a tabletop machine at home. I was lucky enough to acquire one when they were still current and earning fortunes for the operators so were like gold dust. The only reason was Taito produced a game called "Field Goal" which turned out to be terrible and didnt sell, so the importer sold a few off cheap. I found they used the same logic board and could be converted to Invaders by swapping the ROMs and changing some components in the sound circuitry.