Street Fighter II

Street Fighter II
Developer: Capcom Publisher: Capcom Platform: Arcade (CP System) Released internationally: March 1991 This game has unused areas. This game has unused graphics. This game has unused abilities. This game has unused music. This game has unused sounds. This game has debugging material. This game has regional differences. This game has a prerelease article

A self-explanatory title if I ever saw one.

NOTE: This page covers all the CPS1 variations of the game. For the CPS2 variations, check out the Super Street Fighter II and Super Street Fighter II Turbo as well as Hyper Street Fighter II pages.

To do: Regional and revisional differences (between WW, CE, HF) - names of bosses, background color change, new colors, etc

Unused Moves

Chun-Li Flip Attacks

Despite having only officially been usable since Champion Edition, Chun-Li's back-flipping and forward-flipping command normals exist dummied out in World Warrior. According to developer interviews, they were present at the location test stage but eventually removed from the finished product due to balance concerns.

Ryu Roundhouse Axe Kick

Hyper Fighting adds an unused attack animation for Ryu that combines his far standing hard kick roundhouse and his close standing hard kick axe kick into something vaguely resembling the special kicks Ken would eventually gain in Super Turbo. The resulting attack can hit twice, just like the standard close standing hard kick, but seems to have no other special properties.

Unused graphics

Defeated Dictator (M.Bison/Vega) picture

In-Game(unused)	Fix palette

A post-stage picture of a defeated Dictator (M. Bison outside Japan and Vega in Japan; more on that later), unused only in Street Fighter II: The World Warrior. To see this would require playing as Bison and losing, since the screen is never shown after defeating him in 1P mode. However, the four bosses are not made playable until Champion Edition, which features some redrawn and tweaked character select artwork.

Alternate Subtitle

A typo of "Warrior" in the game's title can still be found in the ROM.

Unused Hurricane Kick Startup Frame

The startup animations of Ryu's and Ken's Hurricane Kicks have 4 frames, but the spinning animation starts before the last one is displayed. Ken's would eventually be seen in Super Street Fighter II (albeit for only 1/60th of a second), but Ryu's never saw any use.

Unused Projectile Impact Frame

The effect sprite for projectile impacts has 4 frames of animation, but it disappears after the third frame, leaving this last one unused.

Unused Stage Elements

• 

  Some large foreground chains for Ken's stage. Interestingly, the original sketch for Ken's stage as seen in a Street Fighter II artbook included these chains.

• 

  They're actually present in the stage in the final game, albeit layered behind all the other backdrops.

• 

  A trash can for Chun-Li's stage. It reads 讲究卫生 美化环境, Pay attention to sanitation, Beautify the environment.

• 

  An unused sign in Chun-Li's stage. As with the chains in Ken's stage, the sign and the trash can are present in the game, only layered behind the other backdrops. It reads 太平路, Taiping Road.

• 

  How these two items would probably look if they were layered properly and not hidden.

• 

  These windows in Dhalsim's stage are obscured by elephants in normal gameplay.

• 

  A hidden glitch tile on E.Honda's stage graphics layer. It's the "US" tile from the "WINNERS DON'T USE DRUGS" banner, mirrored.

(Source: T Akiba, felineki)

Debug Tools

There are a few leftover developer tools in the CPS1 versions of Street Fighter II that can be accessed via dipswitch settings.

Object Test

Anatomy of a HK

Allows you to view all character animations, along with associated data.

Accessing It

• World Warrior: Dipswitch A8 off, C8 on, hold P1 MP + P2 LP+HP on startup.
• Champion Edition: Currently Unknown
• Hyper Fighting: Dipswitch A8 off, C8 on, hold P1 MP on startup. (Note that the dipswitch settings cause a speed up effect that makes navigation difficult; to access the menu without this side effect, set RAM address FF08CE to B3 then press the service button.)

Controls - Modes

There are 4 modes in the Object Test, NORMAL, EDIT, CATCH, and an unlabeled mode we'll refer to as "CATCH2".

• NORMAL: offers the basic animation viewer as well as tile data for each animation frame.
• EDIT :displays hitboxes and their associated data.
• CATCH: displays 2 characters standing on the same spot, for some reason.
• "CATCH2": displays an opponent character with a specific sprite and position offset as determined by the value of the primary character's CATCH parameter. This allows you to review how an opponent who is grabbed with a throw technique will be displayed.

Controls - Buttons

• P1 Start: Increment Stage (Seems to be involved with palettes; you have to change this value to display proper palettes for the boss characters).
• P1 Up/Down: Increment "P1" animation sequence.
• P1 Left/Right: Toggle "P1" direction (NORMAL and CATCH modes only).
• P1 LP: Decreases "P1" Chr Ctr value by 1 every frame while held down, thus playing back the current animation in realtime.
• P1 MP: Reset "P1" current animation sequence to its start.
• P1 HP: Toggle priority of "P1" and "P2" sprites (CATCH mode only).
• P1 HP + Up/Down: Increment "P1" character.
• P1 LK: Toggle tile display (NORMAL mode only).
• P1 MK: Disables character axis display while held.
• P1 HK: Increments "P1" animation frame (EDIT and CATCH modes only).
• P2 Start: Increment mode.
• P2 Up/Down: Increment "P2" animation (CATCH mode only). / Increment DX value of currently displayed hitbox (EDIT mode only).
• P2 Left/Right: Toggle "P2" direction (CATCH mode only). / Increment DY value of currently displayed hitbox (EDIT mode only).
• P2 LP: Decreases "P2" Chr Ctr value by 1 every frame while held down, thus playing back the current animation in realtime (CATCH mode only).
• P2 LP + Up/Down: Increment SX value of currently displayed hitbox (EDIT mode only).
• P2 LP + Left/Right: Increment SY value of currently displayed hitbox (EDIT mode only).
• P2 MP: Resets "P2" current animation to its start (CATCH mode only).
• P2 HP: Nothing?
• P2 HP + Up/Down: Increment "P2" character.
• P2 LK: Increment hitbox type selection (EDIT mode only).
• P2 MK: Nothing?
• P2 HK: Increments "P2" animation frame (CATCH mode only). / Displays/resets currently selected hitbox type of current animation frame (EDIT mode only). (The display does not update until P2 HK is pressed again, even if you move to another animation frame or hitbox type.)

Parameters

These are the parameter displays we've been able to figure out:

• CHR CTR: Number of frames of game time that the animation frame is to be displayed before advancing to the next frame.
• CHR DIR: Current character direction, 00 = facing left, 01 = facing right.
• (Unlabeled, under CHR DIR): Current animation sequence ID.
• HEAD: Head vulnerability box ID for current animation frame.
• BODY: Body vulnerability box ID for current animation frame.
• FOOT: Foot vulnerability box ID for current animation frame.
• WEAK: Weak point box ID for current animation frame.
• ATCK: Attack box ID for current animation frame.
• BODY1: Pushbox ID for current animation frame.
• KAGE: Ground shadow sprite ID for current animation frame.
• PRIO: Sprite priority for current animation frame.
• CATCH: Catch ID for current animation frame. Determines opponent sprite and position offset for when they are grabbed by a throw technique. Seems to be tailored on a character by character basis, for example every character has their own sprite selection and position offset for reacting to a Ryu frame with a Catch value of 01, etc.
• BLOCK: Blocking flag for current animation frame. 00 = no block, 01 = standing block, 02 = crouching block.
• Weak No: Extra effect to apply if weak point box is hit during current animation frame. 00 = nothing, 02 = double damage.
• SIT: Crouching flag for current animation frame 00 = standing, 01 = crouching.
• OBJ SUU: Number of tiles in current animation frame.
• DX: X offset of currently displayed hitbox.
• DY: Y offset of currently displayed hitbox.
• SX: X radius of currently displayed hitbox.
• SY: Y radius of currently displayed hitbox.
• ATCK DNo.: Damage table for attack box of current animation frame.
• SD CODE: Sound to play upon successful hit for attack box of current animation frame.
• ATCK EX.: Attack type for attack box of current animation frame. 00 = standard ground-based normal, 01 = sweep, 02 = jumping normal, 03 = special move (causes chip damage on block), 04 = normal with special property (knockdown, etc.).
• ADJUST1.: Additional random damage table for attack box of current animation frame when health is 3C or higher.
• ADJUST2.: Additional random damage table for attack box of current animation frame when health is 3B or lower.
• EX Code: Effect on hit for attack box of current animation frame if ATCK EX = 03 or 04.

Scroll Test

Scroll away, scroller.

Allows you to view backdrop elements.

Accessing It

• World Warrior: Dipswitch A8 off, C8 on, hold P1 LP + P2 LP+HP on startup.
• Champion Edition: Currently Unknown
• Hyper Fighting: Dipswitch A8 off, C8 on, hold P1 LP on startup. (Note that the dipswitch settings cause a speed up effect that makes navigation difficult; to access the menu without this side effect, set RAM address FF08CE to A4 then press the service button.)

The unused stage 10. Note the broken bottom of the cage.

Stages 01-0C correspond to the stages of all 12 characters, 0D-0F correspond to the three bonus stages, 11 is for the title screen and the high score list, 12 is for character select and VS screens, and 13 and 14 are for the characters' endings. Stage 10, however, is unused: it is a smaller version of Vega's (Claw) stage, having the same size as the bonus stages, and is located after the "flaming barrel" bonus stage. It's possible that a fourth bonus stage was planned at one point.

Controls

Initial Screen:

• P1 Up/Down: Select scroll type.
• P1 LP: Confirm scroll type. / Increment stage (after scroll type has been confirmed).
• P1 MP: Confirm stage (after scroll type has been confirmed).

Upon Scroll Type / Stage Confirmation:

• P1 Up/Down/Left/Right: Scroll, speed varies according to "SPEED" parameter.
• P1 LP: Increment "SPEED" parameter.
• P1 LP+MP: Return to initial scroll test menu.
• P2 Up/Down/Left/Right: Move cursor. Information in the right-hand column reflects to cursor position.

Following keys work only in SCROLL123 mode:

• P1 Start: Switches the P2 arrow keys between scrolling layers 2 and 3.
• P2 Start: Changes the order of layers.
• P2 LP: Increment the P2 "SPEED" parameter.
• P2 Up/Down/Left/Right: Scroll the selected P2 layer, speed varies according to "SPEED" parameter.

Enemy Test

Huhzewha?

The functionality of this test is currently unknown. There are "Single" and "All" modes, both of which trigger some text and numbers that advance extremely quickly.

Accessing It

• World Warrior: Currently Unknown
• Champion Edition: Currently Unknown
• Hyper Fighting: Dipswitch A8 off, C8 on, hold P1 HP on startup. Can also be accessed by setting RAM address FF08CE to C4 then press the service button.

Controls

• P1 Up/Down: Select mode.
• P1 LP: Initiate test.

Unused Sounds

Sound Code 12 is an unused fanfare. A victory music, perhaps? It wasn't ported to the CPS2 versions of SF2.

Two grunt voice clips go unused, a generic male one (sound code 40) and a female one for Chun-Li (sound code 42).

Also what is presumably a KO cry intended for Vega exists in the PCM data, but cannot be accessed from the sound test.

Regional Differences

• On the continue screen, the Japanese version provides advice and tips to improve your game; the World/US versions remove this.
• In the Japanese version, each character has several different win quotes. The World/US versions gave each character just one win quote.

Names of Boss Characters

Perhaps one of the most notable regional differences in video gaming is Street Fighter II's change of boss characters. Sagat, which already debuted in the previous game, is the only boss character not to have been renamed.

(Pictures are from Champion Edition, where the bosses can be selected by the players for the first time)

Japan	US/World

The disgraced African-American boxer is known as M.Bison (M for Mike) in Japan and Balrog elsewhere. This was changed due to concerns of a lawsuit from real-life boxer Mike Tyson, upon whom the character is based.

Japan	US/World

The Spanish claw-wielding, mask-wearing bullfighter is known as Balrog in Japan and Vega elsewhere.

Japan	US/World

Finally, the leader of Shadaloo and soon-to-be-world-dictator is known as Vega in Japan and M.Bison (what the "M" actually stands for has remained inconsistent across the series - Alpha 3 uses it to refer to "Master" [Vega-sama, in Japan], whereas Street Fighter IV uses "Mighty") elsewhere. This was because Capcom USA thought Vega was a weak name for this character.

Hyper Fighting title screen

Japan	US/World

The Japanese release of Hyper Fighting added the word "Turbo" to the title screen, whilst the US and World version went for a recolored Champion Edition title screen. The Turbo suffix would be used for the SNES equivalent in all regions and the word Turbo is actually used in the US marquee.