I was very rarely beaten in the arcades in the early 90's on that game using only two buttons (strong punch and kick). I could also beat the computer in single player mode off one quarter without using any special moves.
I find this difficult to believe. The game is more balanced than that. You cannot beat that game on one quarter using only strong punch and strong kick. There are characters, particularly the four bosses, who will eat your lunch if you cannot parry their attacks, and it takes more than two buttons to parry the various attacks.
Sorry about the resurrection. I liked to this thread from the various controllers thread and I'd never read it before.
Just for the record, I meant "fierce" rather than "strong". At the time I made that post I hadn't played on a real SFII machine in years and had forgotten what the button labels said. I always used the punch and kick that were the most powerful, but also the slowest (fierce and roundhouse).
Also, I was talking about the CPS-1 Street Fighter games (WW, CE, and HF). As such, there is no such thing as "parrying" in those games. And yes, they are very beatable on one credit using only those two buttons.
I have an SFII: WW machine these days, set on the hardest difficulty setting via the dipswitches, and I beat it every time I play on one credit using only those two buttons, same as I used to do in the early 90's at the arcade; and same as I used to do on the SNES port on the hardest difficulty level back then as well.
The only time I ever use any of the other buttons is when I want to change the speed of a "Hadoken" (fireball), which isn't all that often, neither is it something I need to do to beat the game on one credit. In fact, I can beat the game on one credit using just those two buttons and no special moves at all. If I had to, I could beat it with just the "roundhouse" kick and nothing else.