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- neomantraThe true social media. Walk up and stick a quarter on the cabinet. With the ever present sounds of bowling balls hitting pins at the Sports Center, you know exactly which one is yours out of the seven up there. Everybody hovering around, watching and kibitzing. Emotions bounce from stoic concentration to exuberant trash talk. Respect is briefly granted to the kid running the joystick for a half-hour until the hollers and applause when a frame perfect dragon punch knocks him out mid-kick, dethroning the current champ. Quarter laid up again, back in the line for the next dopamine hit shared with strangers.We are more connected than ever, yet still so far apart.
- 578_ObserverAs a Japanese banker who grew up in 90s arcades, this deep dive into SF2’s "World Warrier" fix is a profound lesson in what I call "Forging" (鍛錬).The anecdote about Akiman discovering the typo after the GFX ROMs were already set in stone is the perfect metaphor for the "Steel vs. Scaffolding" debate. In modern development, we often rely on the "scaffolding" of high-level abstractions, assuming everything is fixable later. But here, the hardware was "Steel" (unchangeable).Akiman’s solution—using a single-pixel "pencil tile" from Guile’s calves to manually mask an 'l' into an 'i'—is a legendary example of "Mitate" (見立て): the Japanese art of seeing one thing as another to overcome an absolute limitation.In the world of Japanese "Shinise" (long-established companies), this obsessive attention to detail is never called "inefficient." It is the only path to survival across centuries. Akiman famously insisted on the muscular thickness of Chun-Li’s thighs, refusing to compromise because he believed the "Steel" (core logic) of a fighter lay in that foundation. If the legs were weak, the character’s soul was dead.SF2 remains a legend 30 years later because its creators treated every pixel as "Steel" that carried existential risk. This article proves that while "speed buys information," only this level of "Forging" buys true longevity. Most fast-scaled software disappears in three years; the "World Warrier" still stands after thirty because of that one-pixel pencil.
- rishabhdAmazing story. Here is one of my favorite ones as well, when Naughty Dog intentionally exploited EULA to fix Ratchet and Clank.https://kylehalladay.com/blog/2019/12/04/Recreating-A-Dirty-...
- egypturnashThere is a SF2 cabinet in a burger joint near me. It’s got hand-painted sides instead of the standard stickers. Just last night I was noticing that it says HYRER FIGHTING across the top, and thinking that it is appropriate given the WORLD WARRIER error.
- DweditDid you see that recent YouTube video about it too?
- taericSaw this story earlier today and had the same curiosity on how that worked. Neat to see it fully explained.Is really neat to consider the way that text was done. I know there are countless stories on how text is difficult on here, but it is hard to remember that "drawText" is not a given. Indeed wasn't there on early machines.
- mvkelAbsolutely love stories like this. It's such a departure from traditional software where the emphasis is on having "elegant" code, being DRY, etc.This thing just needed to work once, in whatever way it could be hacked together. And the player never knows the difference! Beautiful.
- W0lfThank you for playing Wing Commander!:-) Hits the same nerve for me.
- tommicaSuch a good solution to the problem. It's really fun to know the various ways people patch things in creative ways to get things shipped.
- nickdothuttonReminds me of Continental Circus [1].[1]. https://www.arcade-museum.com/Videogame/continental-circuit See section on trivia.
- nntwozzOne of my favorite memes:https://youtu.be/eyGU6pGf_VIYou've got a lot to learn before you beat me. Try again, kiddo!
- anonundefined
- bluedinoNow if someone could patch Double Dragon so it doesn't say "Bimmy and Jimmy"
- LarsDu883 whole draw calls to draw 3 pixels using Guile's calves. Madness
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