Street Fighter II CPC

[Shaun M. Neary]

This is quite interesting as the fact that the Wikipedia page of the game lists also the Amstrad version and all the rumors stuff on the Amstrad magazine at the time of the porting releases. I agree that wiki texts should be always be taken with great care but I also usually tend not to think everything strange or uneven should necessarily be fake or uncorrected.
My point is, as when I started this topic, is: ok, there was no release of SFII on CPC . First: we are sure about that? Not even very few copies maybe distributed with great delay against the C64 and Spectrum before the end of CPC market and 8-bit games led to the decision to stop every kind of distribution? I admit it is too imaginative but has US Gold EVER stated officially, after a lot of rumoring that they were porting the game for the CPC and announcing that, even listing this version on the promotional and publicity campaign, that they DIDN'T released the CPC version?
Second: in case they effectively didn't finally release the game on the market, maybe the CPC version was anyway a realty. One thing does not rule out the other. Maybe there's still a prototype (or finished version) somewhere. Remember the Atari 8-bit version of Commando, completed but never released and then surfaced years later.  Another example could be the recent spotted prototype of Sim City for NES.

Basically the publicity campaign was gonna happen as all versions got released roughly around the same time, While US Gold never publicly admitted that there was never any intention of a CPC release, that admission would have come from the if you had contacted them directly, which I actually did do back in 1993 when they practically admitted that the writing was on the wall for the Amstrad in 1991 as far as they were concerned. While the c64 was still selling machines at the end of 91 with the Terminator 2 pack and the Spectrum machines were still being produced up until 1992, the buzz had been going around since late 1990 that the plus sales didn't not do as well as they'd hoped. I'll go out on a limb and say that the major software houses got wind of this and saw it as one less machine to worry about.


Bottom line, it was never going to happen due to US Gold viewing it as a secondary machine that wasn't going to sell. Especially as Final Fight didn't exactly do very well for them on the Amstrad in terms of sales, even if it wasn't actually a bad game.

[dragon]

But not make sense. If cpc was drop, why they release indiana jones and fate of atlantis?. Lucasfilm yes, but capcom not?.

[chinnyhill10]

Spectrum disk games were much less prevalent than Amstrad ones, mostly because only the +3 had a disk drive and it wasn't an overly successful model and certainly nowhere near as popular as the tape based +2.

Came out at the arse end of the Spectrum's life. Game was probably planned a year in advance and the Speccy market collapsed practically overnight. A decision on a CPC version was probably taken after the Speccy version was in development and it would have become clear it was a 128k only game thus limiting the audience. So why bother? US Gold fobbed off the magazines for as long as they could. It was never going to happen. We never even got pre-release screenshots.


The Speccy market collapsed so quickly the game was rushed onto budget in Summer '93 and sold at £4.99 (presumably to reflect how new the game was and also to recoup the cost of the C60 needed to house the game). Someone on a forum who worked in a computer shop at the time told me a whole load of copies turned up as the wholesaler was trying to ditch them. No market. Of course those Kixx copies are now extremely collectable.

[chinnyhill10]

Spectrum machines were still being produced up until 1992, the buzz had been going around since late 1990 that the plus sales didn't not do as well as they'd hoped. I'll go out on a limb and say that the major software houses got wind of this and saw it as one less machine to worry about.

Anyone seen a Spectrum with chips with date codes later than mid 1991? Finding one with '91 date codes is hard going. Never seen any '92 models. Suspect Amstrad just had a load of '91 models in their warehouse they just filtered out.

[chinnyhill10]

But not make sense. If cpc was drop, why they release indiana jones and fate of atlantis?. Lucasfilm yes, but capcom not?.

It would have been a 128k only game thus halving the sales. Why bother?

[Shaun M. Neary]

Anyone seen a Spectrum with chips with date codes later than mid 1991? Finding one with '91 date codes is hard going. Never seen any '92 models. Suspect Amstrad just had a load of '91 models in their warehouse they just filtered out.

Haven't gone looking so I haven't seen, I'm new to the Spectrum scene. I may have worded my original post, source was Wikipedia but I really should have said that it was discontinued in 1992 in order to avoid presumption that they were still being produced up until then.

It would have been a 128k only game thus halving the sales. Why bother?

This! There had already been a few 128k only games coming out by 1991 and they weren't great, and by then nobody was gonna upgrade from a 48k to 128k machine when 16bit was the next obvious choice. Especially when Sega's Megadrive was either just on the verge of release here or had just been released.

[jason9]

the fact it's listed only for 6128 goes in the way of Final Fight, as someone else stated previously on this topic. And I agree it would make no sense to include the CPC instructions in the manual if they were still only considering such version or were uncertain about it. But everything is possible... just let say that for me something went wrong when they were very close to release or, most likely, approaching and beginning distribution phase of that precise version when video-gaming scene immediately started to change so fast. But frankly I think they at least already started to code the CPC version (perhaps completed, who knows?) and also I could be wrong but I remember some advance sprites capture popping up on magazines...
And for me Final Fight was a really good porting...

[andycadley]

The 128K issue is an interesting point. The Spectrum scene had been swinging heavily in favour of 128K only titles since about 1990 and it didn't really impact things so much because most Spectrums were 128K machines (anecdotally I've seen it said that probably the +2A or at least the combined +2 figures represent the most sold machine). The CPC scene, on the other hand, still had a fairly broad 64K base and there had never really been that same drive to upgrade in quite the same way. Given the basic assumption that the CPC version would almost certainly be a quick port of the Speccy version, it's entirely possible the poor sales of Final Fight coupled with the negative reactions in the press to the other 8-bit versions, may have been enough to shelve any plans that may have been considered.

[Shaun M. Neary]

the fact it's listed only for 6128 goes in the way of Final Fight, as someone else stated previously on this topic. And I agree it would make no sense to include the CPC instructions in the manual if they were still only considering such version or were uncertain about it. But everything is possible... just let say that for me something went wrong when they were very close to release or, most likely, approaching and beginning distribution phase of that precise version when video-gaming scene immediately started to change so fast. But frankly I think they at least already started to code the CPC version (perhaps completed, who knows?) and also I could be wrong but I remember some advance sprites capture popping up on magazines...
And for me Final Fight was a really good porting...

I think people are reading too much into this, given the fact that the Spectrum controls were often very similar to Amstrad controls in terms of both joystick and keyboard. Didn't grow up with a C64 so I wouldn't know there, but a lot of games I played on both as a kid had the same controls, I used to use the keys a lot cos many others were so used to joysticks and I went through joysticks like there was no tomorrow! So the chances are that the box art and instructions were the first thing to be produced, long before the game was produced (which makes sense from a marketing perspective especially if they want promotional posters done ahead of time and with so many games looming on the horizon). Which probably explains occasional errors in instruction manuals, but more often or not, the keys were QAOP Space, or ZXKM Space or the usual suspects.

Again, mere speculation on my part, but it fits.

[chinnyhill10]

I think people are reading too much into this, given the fact that the Spectrum controls were often very similar to Amstrad controls in terms of both joystick and keyboard.

Indeed. Manuals would be printed in advance and they can make assumptions about what the controls may be. CPC version could have been dropped at any stage even at the planning stage.


Someone said a magazine had screenshots yet I don't recall AA having any. Seems unlikely if they did exist that AA wouldn't have printed them. Probably the case they planned to port the Speccy code with new graphics but it became clear the Speccy version was not working well and trying to make it work in 64k with a 16k screen was just a non-starter.

[Shaun M. Neary]

AA definitely didn't have screen shots. They used illustrations any time they printed off one of their (many) features on the game.

I'm forever amused that so many people treat SFII like it was a conspiracy theory or something. It really wasn't. It was business. By the time Street Fighter II was due for release on the 8bit markets, The Amstrad wasn't shifting units like it had been, be it on a hardware or software level.

Had it done so, it more than likely would have been a lazy Speccy port and 128k only just to save time.

[dragon]

Indeed. Manuals would be printed in advance and they can make assumptions about what the controls may be. CPC version could have been dropped at any stage even at the planning stage.

Yeah, for example, amstrad made the cpc manuals when the computer is in production in factory.

AA definitely didn't have screen shots. They used illustrations any time they printed off one of their (many) features on the game.

I'm forever amused that so many people treat SFII like it was a conspiracy theory or something. It really wasn't. It was business. By the time Street Fighter II was due for release on the 8bit markets, The Amstrad wasn't shifting units like it had been, be it on a hardware or software level.

Had it done so, it more than likely would have been a lazy Speccy port and 128k only just to save time.

You can't know  what happend. Indiana jones of megadrive is finished and u.s gold never sold it.


Another example, back in the 90 a   a sonic game was planned by u.s gold in amstrad cpc but its cancelled because sega cancell the license to u.s gold due to megadrive.

[felow]

Frankly, not. Never thought of STII on the CPC as a kind of conspiracy... oh my, really not. If this was my kind of thinking I should had it this way since the day the CPC was released, in respect to other machines ;-) More likely I too think at the end it was a business and market choice. That said, more simply: I don't think the Amstrad version was scrapped at the beginning/planning, with all the buzz  activated (by U.S. Gold itself too) around that porting and Amstrad games previous story on that label. Just this. Very simply. No conspiracy at all J
And maybe my interest in understating the episode is just due to my great expectations at the time for that version and maybe for the great possibility (to me) that version could have in respect to the Speccy and CBM64 ones, considering how Final Fight on CPC was good for me.
Also, my point of view is that they could have scrapped the CPC version in a development (already began) phase when they started having serious doubts about the market success due to the fact that printing, packaging, copying and distributing would perhaps cost quite much more than coding, so maybe it was preferred to leave it alone even if in an advanced coding/developing. Gaming history has other certified examples of game completely released, also just specific ports, never released on the market. Nothing strange, nothing new, no conspiracy. Just business-market considerations. That's all  [size=78%] [/size]

[felow]

By the way, the MSX version was ever officially released? For what I know the only official 8-bit portings of the game released was the Speccy, C64, Master System (Brazil only) and GameBoy. Is that correct?

[dlfrsilver]

Yeah, for example, amstrad made the cpc manuals when the computer is in production in factory.

 




You can't know  what happend. Indiana jones of megadrive is finished and u.s gold never sold it.


Another example, back in the 90 a   a sonic game was planned by u.s gold in amstrad cpc but its cancelled because sega cancell the license to u.s gold due to megadrive.

I heard something else : Sega wanted an Amiga only version, and us gold wanted to make the game on Atari ST, CPC, C64, et so on.....

[dragon]

I heard something else : Sega wanted an Amiga only version, and us gold wanted to make the game on Atari ST, CPC, C64, et so on.....

There is a magazine in u.k back in the 90, that tell u.s gold have announce the game to all 8 bits plataforms.


View the magazine secrion

https://info.sonicretro.org/Sonic_the_Hedgehog_(home_computers)

[Shaun M. Neary]

You can't know  what happend. Indiana jones of megadrive is finished and u.s gold never sold it.


Another example, back in the 90 a   a sonic game was planned by u.s gold in amstrad cpc but its cancelled because sega cancell the license to u.s gold due to megadrive.

That works both ways. You can't know for sure that an Amstrad version was ever written and is sitting in a vault somewhere either. 😉


I'm fairly certain we'd have known by now if it was.

[chinnyhill10]

By the way, the MSX version was ever officially released? For what I know the only official 8-bit portings of the game released was the Speccy, C64, Master System (Brazil only) and GameBoy. Is that correct?

Way beyond the MSX's commercial life. In fact many later MSX releases of big games were made for the Spanish market and were the laziest ports of Speccy games you can imagine. I think it's Gemini Wing that is so bad it still has the Kempston joystick option on the menu. Games literally ported in a day!

[chinnyhill10]

I'm fairly certain we'd have known by now if it was.

All the buzz came from the magazines, mainly AA as well. US Gold weren't pushing it, AA were desperate for column inches to fill the magazine.


It's also not like Toki where the CPC version was mentioned on the magazine adverts and there were screenshots. Street Fighter 2 was pure vapourware.

[Shaun M. Neary]

All the buzz came from the magazines, mainly AA as well. US Gold weren't pushing it, AA were desperate for column inches to fill the magazine.

Again, so much this.

What people tend to forget was when we went up to our games/record shops and asked about it, they were none the wiser. Now if the distributors of the games can't give the stores any further information about release dates to, y'know, HELP SELL the games, then you can take it to the bank that it's either been heavily delayed, or just cancelled. That's just business.

[felow]

Way beyond the MSX's commercial life. In fact many later MSX releases of big games were made for the Spanish market and were the laziest ports of Speccy games you can imagine. I think it's Gemini Wing that is so bad it still has the Kempston joystick option on the menu. Games literally ported in a day!

This then confirms the only 8bit official portings were for C64, Spectrum, Master System and Gameboy right?

[Joseman]

This then confirms the only 8bit official portings were for C64, Spectrum, Master System and Gameboy right?

And PC Engine 

[dragon]

And PC Engine 

Pc engine looks great. Its a shame the plus range can't beat it developed more later. 

[felow]

But can the PC-Engine really be consdiered an 8bit amchine considering its 16-bit video color and controller?
Also: so the following NES porting is actually a non-official/pirate?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hQjFpGB6_k

[dragon]

The nes have a lot of street fighter pirates, but is curious, the chinese guys always put the worst version the 12 people  in alliexpress cartridges jaja.