Proto:Street Fighter (Arcade)

This page details one or more prototype versions of Street Fighter (Arcade).

This early prototype of the original Street Fighter was added to MAME on May 1st, 2002. The audio CPU gives this a build date of March 1987, while the final game is dated July 1987.

Attract Mode

Prototype	Final

• In the prototype, the wall breaks in a near-perfect square shape. It's a rougher octagonal shape in the final version. However, they never updated the brick-breaking animation to match the new hole; in the final version, the bricks on the top-left and top-right corners seem to spawn out of an intact wall.

Prototype	Final

• The ranking screen border colors changed from orange to blue, probably to make the scores and names stand out more. The "RANKING BEST 10" text is missing a border in the prototype.
• There are no gameplay demos in the prototype. The attract mode sequence is Wall Break Screen -> Title Screen -> Ranking Screen -> Loop.

Gameplay Differences

• The two-player mode and, in turn, Ken, are already fully functional in the prototype.
• The second player cannot start two-player mode during a single-player game. This was thankfully fixed for the final game.
• In the prototype, the player has to win 3 out of 5 rounds to move on to the next match. This was cut to 2 out of 3 rounds in the final game, greatly speeding up gameplay.
• Even though he's visually in the air, Ryu/Ken is always kept on the floor during the forward/back hopping animation, making it cancellable at any point. This was changed in the final game to making the player airborne during most of the animation, exposing him to attacks while walking.
• In the final version, the game goes into slow motion if an opponent is hit with a Hadouken/Psycho Fire. This feature isn't in the prototype yet.
• There's no aerial Light Punch.
• There's no aerial Light Kick.
• The Shoryuken uses a different motion input: Forward, Down+forward, Down, Down+back + Punch

• There's no Tatsumaki Senpukyaku/Hurricane Kick. Instead, the player is able to perform the scrapped Fire Kick, a neutral jump followed by a diagonal dive kick attack. It can be done with the following motion input: Forward, Down+back, Up + Medium/Heavy Kick.

• The flaming foot is actually a projectile and it's not attached to Ryu/Ken's foot. If the character is unable to move forward during the kick animation, the projectile will keep going and become disjointed.

• Invulnerability hasn't been implemented yet. Whenever the player is supposed to be immune to damage, like during hitstun, the game sets the hurtbox's position and dimensions to 0. This does not get rid of it entirely though. The hurtbox is just reduced to a dot in the origin point of the sprite and the attack hitboxes can still collide with it.

• The prototype has a very generous timer of 255 frames (over 4 seconds) for the motion inputs and it's never zeroed abruptly like in the final game, not even when the move is successfully executed. This makes it much easier to perform the special moves but can also force you to wait up to 4 seconds before using the same special move again.
• This prototype is missing any kind of stage selection. The game sequence is Retsu -> Geki -> Bonus Game -> Joe -> Mike -> Bonus Game. It's Game Over after the second bonus game ends.
• The second bonus game hasn't been coded yet, so the player plays the block-chopping game twice. There's a rough outline of the board-breaking game's background in the stage graphics ROM.

• There are slots allocated for the remaining six fighters, but each stage uses Geki as a placeholder fighter. Only Birdie, Eagle, and Lee have backgrounds - Gen and Sagat's stages are pure black, while Adon's stage only has a scrolling gray cloud background with no foreground.
  
  Put the following code in MAME's sfp.xml cheat file to get to the inaccessible stages:

  <cheat desc="Stage Select">
    <parameter>
      <item value="0x0000">Retsu</item>
      <item value="0x0001">Geki</item>
      <item value="0x0100">Joe</item>
      <item value="0x0101">Mike</item>
      <item value="0x0200">Birdie</item>
      <item value="0x0201">Eagle</item>
      <item value="0x0300">Lee</item>
      <item value="0x0301">Gen</item>
      <item value="0x0400">Adon</item>
      <item value="0x0401">Sagat</item>
    </parameter>
    <script state="run">
      <action>maincpu.pw@FF868D=param</action>
    </script>
  </cheat>

• The unused fighter stages have incomplete VS screens. They're missing the "VS" graphics, both player palettes are missing, and Ken (If he was playable) would appear on the left side of the screen instead of the right, as he does everywhere else.

If the screens are viewed in the Scroll Test, the enemy characters will use their collect palettes.

• In the prototype, the English fighters use the China stage backgrounds, and the Chinese fighters use the England stage backgrounds.
• There's no ending of any kind here; Beating Sagat just leads to a black screen.

Graphic Differences

Ryu

Prototype	Final

Ryu went through a bit of a design change between this prototype and the final version:

• His hair is messier and sticks up more in the prototype. His headband is also obscured more by his hair.
• In the prototype, he has a near-permanent scowl and a tiny, almost unnoticeable mouth. The final version makes him more expressive depending on what he's doing and more clearly defines his mouth.
• Ryu wears a pair of brown fingerless gloves in the prototype. The final game changes this to red gauntlet-style gloves, though it's a bit inconsistent - in some frames, it looks like he's wearing wristbands like Ken.
• Ryu's arms are a bit beefier in the prototype.
• A dark trim was added to the cuffs of his pants.
• His sandals are brown in the prototype and red in the final game.

These changes apply to almost all of his animation frames in the prototype, though the following animations already use his final design:

• Neutral stance
• Jab, strong punch, and fierce punch
• Short, forward, and roundhouse kicks
• Crouching and sweeping kicks (not all frames)

A few frames use a cyan color on Ryu's gi, a remnant from when Ryu's gi was blue instead of white.

Prototype	Final

Ryu's walking animation was apparently copied from Ken's and drawn over. In the prototype, one of Ken's walking frames somehow slipped through unchanged.

Prototype
Final

Ryu's right leg is bent in a different position while crouching in the prototype.

Prototype	Final

Ryu (and most other fighters) get little stub legs when they do a sweep kick in the prototype.

Prototype	Final

Ryu no longer attacks directly with his heel while jump kicking.

Prototype	Final

Ryu's jump punch is a mix of his final design (the top half) and the older design (the bottom half) due to the tiles being spread across two different banks.

Prototype	Final

Ryu's arms bend a little bit when he jumps in the final version. Probably a good thing.

Prototype	Final

Ryu seems to lose his neck when performing the Shoryuken in the prototype.

Prototype
Final

Ryu barely makes an effort to deflect damage taken in the prototype. Right on the chin. Not sure what's going on with his mouth, either.

Prototype	Final

Ryu's victory pose is different too. Let's just assume that the brown stuff under prototype Ryu's arm is just shading and not a giant patch of armpit hair.

Ken

Prototype	Final

Ken went through a fair number of changes too, but compared to Ryu, they're not much. In the final game, his hair is slightly longer, his pupil is twice as wide (it barely registers as a pupil in the prototype), and his armbands are shinier.

Prototype	Final

Ken's hair in the prototype seems to keep a consistent shape while walking, which can't be said about the final animation. Something went wrong there.

Prototype
Final

Like Ryu, Ken's right leg is in a different position while crouching. It's easier to see Ken's longer hair in these frames.

Prototype	Final

Ken has come down with an unfortunate case of stub leg.

Retsu

Prototype	Final

Both of Retsu's jumping frames have slight differences, though the differences in the second frame are more noticeable - check out how his legs are bent between versions.

Prototype	Final

Retsu's jump kick stance seems a little reserved in the prototype, while in the final version, he's fully into it.

Prototype	Final

Retsu's intermediary ducking frame is barely different from his standing height in the prototype. A rogue pixel by his left arm was erased from the final sprite.

Prototype	Final

If you thought that Retsu wouldn't have the stub-leg, you'd be wrong. Another rogue pixel on the bottom-right of the second frame was fixed.

Geki

Prototype	Final

Even Geki has leg length differences.

Prototype	Final

Geki's teleport smoke was originally supposed to be yellow, apparently. It seems that they were already thinking of changing it at this point, because what would be the lighest yellow color is white, and what should be white is a dark gray color.

Prototype	Final

Geki holds a black shuriken in the prototype and a silver shuriken in the final game.

Proto	Final

The same change can be found in the shuriken proper. This was likely changed to make them easier to see, which is a dumb move for a ninja, but smart for a developer.

Joe

Joe is missing all of his animations, so he shows up as a black rectangle. His tilemap is complete at this point, it's just that the graphics are mysteriously missing.

Mike

Mike is missing his victory and crouching punch frames in the prototype. All other graphics are the same as the final version.

Lee

Prototype	Final

Lee's VS portraits are the only evidence of his existence in the prototype. The prototype Lee has a gray color scheme, as opposed to the rich blue outfit he has in the final game. The shading is in rough shape; His face isn't as detailed, and his cap uses a single shade of gray.

Prototype	Final

His defeated portrait is closer to his final design, with a teal blue color scheme. He's missing the top of his head, though.

Gen

Prototype	Final

Gen isn't in much better shape than Lee. His default VS portrait is a shade of burgundy, not purple, and his eyes are a strange yellow color. It looks like they started detailing his facial hair at the mustache and gave up when they reached his ears. His shirt has no detail at all except for the lighter color used to mark the neckline. A small tuft of hair on his forehead was removed from the final sprite.

Prototype	Final

Gen's defeated portrait is closer to his final sprite, though the hair still needs some work. His outfit changed from burgundy to plum in the prototype. There's an incorrect tile on his forehead that was fixed in the final version.

Adon

Prototype	Final

One of the colors in Adon's palette is an odd olive hue in the prototype. This was fixed in the final game to match the rest of his palette.

Stages

Prototype
Final

In the final version of Retsu's stage, there are more leaves blending into the roof tiles on the left and right sides of the screen.

Prototype
Final

Geki's stage's sky uses a darker color palette in the final version.

Prototype
Final

Mt. Rushmore is in bad shape in the prototype version, with incorrect tiles all over the place, especially on the right side of the monument.

Prototype
Final

The sky in Mike's stage is brighter in the final version, and there's an extra layer of clouds at the bottom.

Prototype
Final

The sky in Lee's stage is a single shade of yellow in the prototype. The final version makes that color transparent and placed a yellow version of the sky background behind it. The outlines of the bricks are darker in the final version, and the brick floor is brighter. An incorrect tile in the upper-left corner was deleted.

Prototype
Final

Gen's prototype background is missing a lot of tiles, mostly on Siu Wah's Bargain Centre. The final version fixes those tiles but mistakenly adds a duplicate tile to the bargain centre's sign. Bargagains ahoy!

The money exchanger shop is less purple in the final version, and the signs are brighter but more worn. The city streets changed from dark gravel to a brighter cement texture.

Prototype
Final

The sidewalk has a slight purple tint in the prototype - the final game changes this by taking some of the blue out of the sidewalk colors. The car is in worse shape in the final version, and the buildings in the back are more detailed. The final game adds an Ian Dury and the Blockheads poster to the left wall and graffiti of former Capcom USA VP Bill Cravens to the Blockheads pub. A blank tile on the rightmost building was filled in.

Miscellaneous

Prototype	Final

The VS graphic is shinier in the final version.

Prototype	Final

The Japan and USA flags are plain-looking in the prototype. The final game makes the colors brighter and adds a few folds to make them look like actual flags.

The other countries' flags have yet to be drawn in the prototype.

Prototype	Final

In the prototype's world map, the Atlantic Ocean is called "Western Ocean", a literal translation of its Japanese name.

In the bonus round, the graphics for the roof tiles and the lower half of Ryu's body are missing in the prototype.

Early	Final

As mentioned before, the prototype just has a rough outline of the second bonus stage in the ROM. The timer would go in one of the black boxes, but it's not clear what would have gone in the other one.

Prototype	Final

The name entry screen is pretty simple in the prototype, lacking the two tigers and ornate border seen in the final game.

Text Differences

Prototype	Final
RUY WON THE 1ST ROUND RUY WON THE 2ND ROUND RUY WON THE 3RD ROUND RUY WON THE 4TH ROUND RUY WON THE 5TH ROUND	RYU WON THE 1ST ROUND RYU WON THE 2ND ROUND RYU WON THE 3RD ROUND RYU WON THE 4TH ROUND RYU WON THE 5TH ROUND

Ryu is consistently misspelled "Ruy" in his round-winning text.

Prototype	Final
ENEMY WON THE FIGHT OVER KEN ENEMY WON THE FIGHT OVER RYU KEN WON THE FIGHT OVER ENEMY RYU WON THE FIGHT OVER ENEMY	ENEMY WON THE FIGHT OVER RYU ENEMY WON THE FIGHT OVER KEN RYU WON THE FIGHT OVER ENEMY KEN WON THE FIGHT OVER ENEMY

The text for winning the match uses the wrong names in the prototype: Ken uses Ryu's text, and Ryu uses Ken's text.

Prototype	Final
WHAT STRENGTH!! RUT DON'T FORGET THERE ARE MANY GUYS LIKE YOU ALL OVER THE WORLD	WHAT STRENGTH!! BUT DON'T FORGET THERE ARE MANY GUYS LIKE YOU ALL OVER THE WORLD

Just a typo fix here, changing "RUT" to "BUT."

Prototype	Final
CHAINA	CHINA

China is incorrectly spelled on the country flag screen in the prototype.

Audio Differences

All but one audio track (the high score entry music) and all sound effects were redone in the final version. There are no voice clips in this build.

The VS. music doesn't play in the prototype when the two-player mode starts. This was fixed in the final game.

Music

ID	Prototype	Final	Notes
28			This is used for Retsu and Geki in the prototype. In the final version, this is only used by Retsu and Geki gets his own theme. The melody and tempo are the same, but some of the instruments are different and the percussion is louder in the prototype.
33			The VS screen theme. More harmonics are added here, almost unpleasantly so, in the final version.
34			This is used for both USA stages in the prototype. This was repurposed for the stage select screen in the final game, though it never gets to play in its entirety. The prototype has a 1.5-second intro that was cut from the final track, and the tempo is about 10% slower.
37			The victory screen music. In the prototype, the intro is 1.5 seconds longer, the tempo is 8% slower, and the pitch is lower.
39			The ranking screen tune. They really made a conscious effort to make these tracks more shrill.
3C			Continue screen music. In the prototype track, the intro repeats two times before the song continues. The final game adds a small drum section to the intro and only repeats it once. And it's more shrill, thanks to the added harmonics. What a surprise.

Changed Sounds

ID	Proto	Final	Context
01			Punch impact
02			Heavy hit
03			Kick impact
04			Crouch kick
05			Roundhouse kick
06			Hadouken
07			Hadouken impact
08			Attack blocked
09			Knockout
0A			Round bonus tally
0B			Round start
0F			Coin inserted
1C			Wall collapsing (intro)
21			???
22			Shuriken blocked

Unique Sounds

ID	Sound
0C
24
25
26

Sounds 24 to 26 are used for the plane taking off, flying, and landing on the world map. They were all replaced by a digitized sound of a plane in the final version. Sound 0C isn't used in the prototype, and it's not clear where it would have been used.