The most famous fighter in video game history might be a little old, but it still packs a wallop

(Credit: Capcom)The most famous fighter in video game history might be a little old, but it still packs a wallop.

The most famous fighter in video game history might be a little old, but it still packs a wallop - And lots of Hadoukens. Believe it or not, Capcom's legendary Street Fighter turns 25 today. While it wasn't the first fighting game ever made (that honor arguably goes to the 1976 coin-op Heavyweight Champ), Street Fighter indelibly altered the genre with its intuitive controls, fantastic animations and deep gameplay. It's had an equally large impact on popular culture, spinning off into movies, cartoons, and even a fancy slot machine.

The secret to its success? To Russ Frushtick, senior editor of video game site Polygon, it's all about balance.

"[The Street Fighter series] has stood the test of the time because it's both accessible and extremely strategic," he says. "If you know nothing about the game and just want to jump around, kicking guys in the face as a green monster, Street Fighter will let you live out that fantasy. For the more serious players, there's a staggering amount of depth."

He's right about that. The Street Fighter franchise been a pro gaming staple for decades. Since 2002, it's dominated the popular EVO tournament, which gives thousands of players from over 40 countries a chance to prove their mettle in a variety of fighting games. Year after year, Street Fighter is the star of the show.

"It's a game that could take years to master," Frushtick adds. "Basically, it's this generation's chess."

And indeed, it owes a great deal to its legions of fans.

"The greatest legacy that Capcom has generated with the Street Fighter franchise is the company's unbelievable loyalty and availability to its fans," says Victor Lucas, host and executive producer of The Electric Playground. "Fighting games are a community-driven activity, and upon their arrival -- and Street Fighter's global ascension as the best of the breed -- they instantly dispelled the myth that gaming was a solitary affair, singularly enjoyed by pubescent boys in basements."

"The universally appealing, international roster of fighters that Street Fighter II delivered, its unparalleled level of depth, its state-of-the-art art and, of course, its quarter-gobbling addictiveness, instantly propelled the game to classic status, where it has remained ever since."

But it wasn't always such a big deal.

Released in arcades in 1987, the original Street Fighter was only a marginal hit. No one was quite sure what to make of it, and while it introduced plenty of elements that would turn into franchise staples (Ryu and Ken, six-button controls and those now-ubiquitous Hadoukens and Dragon Punches), it was more of a curiosity than a must-play. That was especially true of the Deluxe version, which featured two pressure-sensitive pads in place of the six buttons. The harder you punched the pads, the harder your character would attack in the game (and the faster the coin-cop cabinet would be rendered inoperable).

 

Street Fighter II (Credit: Capcom)That short-lived gimmick was quickly forgotten, however, the moment Street Fighter II tornado kicked its way to arcades. The 1991 coin-op was an instant classic, generating over $1 billion in sales during its first year thanks to its brilliantly balanced roster of now-iconic fighters. The first game to let players pick different fighters with completely unique move sets, it's the blueprint for every major fighting game franchise that's followed.

But it was also its own worst enemy. Sensing a turning tide, Capcom ported the coin-op game to the Super Nintendo system in late 1992. Its near-flawless transition made the console game a huge hit -- it remains Capcom's best-selling game ever -- but also struck a serious blow to coin-op culture by proving that these games could, in fact, work just as well at home.

Capcom continued releasing a variety of tweaked iterations of Street Fighter II through the '90s, catering to the hardcore fighting game crowd but losing touch with the broader gaming market. By the time they released Street Fighter III in 1997, graphical powerhouses like Virtua Fighter and Tekken were pushing polygons and leaving the 2D look of Street Fighter behind. For a good decade, the series would fall off the radar.

In 2009, however, it stormed back. Street Fighter IV not only gave the series back its mojo, but revived a fighting game genre that had become increasingly isolated. Slick, brash and tailored for both fans of the series and newcomers alike, it kicked off a fighting-game renaissance that's still going strong. Its next act, the PlayStation Vita version of the excellent Street Fighter X Tekken, arrives this October. Capcom's also celebrating its special year in grand style with a very cool 25th Anniversary Collector's Set.

Think you know Street Fighter? Capcom shared a few odd Street Fighter facts with Yahoo! Games. Did you know: It launched the career of a Mega Man.

Not Capcom's blue robot boy, per se, but his creator, Keiji Inafune. The acclaimed developer's first gig was designing the character portraits for the first Street Fighter.

Those names aren't entirely random.

It's pretty obvious that each Street Fighter character has a certain fighting style, but how did they come up with those names? Capcom let us in on a few:

• Series foil Akuma was originally named Gouki ("Great Demon" in Japanese), but his name was changed for U.S. audiences as the Capcom USA team wanted to present him as an actual demon rather than a metaphorical one. So they went with Akuma (Japanese for "Devil"). Hard to say how many Americans would have noticed the difference, but they get points for trying.
• Chun-Li means "Spring Beauty."
• Ken's last name is Masters, derived from his 'mastery' of the fighting arts.

It's got character. Lots of 'em.

Though the original Street Fighter had only a dozen characters (including Ryu and Ken), the designers have worked overtime cranking out new ones. Taken together, there are over 66 playable characters in the Street Fighter universe.

It marked Raul Julia's final film appearance.

Yes, the 1994 Street Fighter movie was a train wreck, but it had one very bright spot: Raul Julia. The acclaimed actor was praised for his portrayal of Street Fighter antagonist General M. Bison, even nabbing a posthumous Saturn Award nomination.

It produced the most epic comeback in pro gaming history.

Speaking of drama, it doesn't get much better than Daigo Umehara's astonishing series of exquisitely-timed parries to rally and defeat his Chun-Li playing opponent Justin Wong at the 2004 Evolution Championship Series. It's about as clutch as pro gaming gets: ( Plugged In )

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Ten video game firsts

Ten video game firsts -  First job, first kiss, first pet -- firsts are a big part of life, and so it is with games.From MMOs to Madden, from sophisticated CG cinematics to gritty shooters, gaming's biggest franchises, genres, and techniques all had to get started somewhere.  Journey back in time with us as we excavate the obscure origins of the gaming world we take for granted today.

First 3D shooter: Wolfenstein 3D

 

Conventional wisdom holds that the first true first-person shooter -- combining texture-mapped 3D graphics, a first-person perspective, and arcade-quick shooter action -- was id Software's seminal hit, Wolfenstein 3D.  And, as it happens, conventional wisdom is mostly correct. Sort of.

Shortly before the release of Wolfenstein 3D (which is itself based on the classic 8-bit adventure Castle Wolfenstein), id took a dry run at the same technology with 1992's Catacomb 3D, a fantasy shooter in which gamers battled enemy goblins with an arsenal of fireballs.  All the pieces of the genre were already more or less in place, but Catacomb lacks the visible firearm and ammunition counter that make Wolfenstein seem so familiar to today's Call of Duty devotees.

Earlier games had already established some of the genre's touchstones — 1988's The Colony and 1986's Mercenary, for example, allowed users to freely roam a 3D rendered environment — and later titles, such as 1995's Terminator: Future Shock, which pioneered mouselook, would add essential refinements. But it's safe to say it all started with Wolfenstein.

First cutscenes: Space Invaders Part II

 

Cinematic cutscenes are such a ubiquitous part of video games nowadays that it's hard to remember it wasn't always that way.

Descended more from pinball machines and skeeball than from movies or television, the earliest games usually made storytelling a pretty low priority.  Still, a few key games laid the groundwork, beginning with 1980's Space Invaders Part II. The sequel to the iconic shooter featured brief intermissions between levels in which enemy invaders would fly offscreen, broadcasting an SOS.

The same year, Pac-Man featured comical interludes between stages, and the year after, Donkey Kong would open with a short scene showing the angry ape clambering up scaffolding with a helpless damsel clutched under his arm.  Perhaps it's no coincidence that three of the most iconic videogames were among the first to employ digital storytelling.

First real-time-strategy game: Herzog Zwei

 

Herzog Zwei -- released in 1989 for the Sega Genesis -- wasn't the first title to feature some form of strategic gameplay freed from the constraints of alternating player turns.  1981's Utopia (Intellivision), 1984's Air Support (Commodore 64), and 1988's Modem Wars (IBM PC) all featured certain elements of what would come to be known as the RTS.  But it was in TechnoSoft's quirky sci-fi offering — in which players commanded a transforming mech at the head of an army of smaller units — that everything came together.

Players could purchase and command a variety of units, while permanent outposts could be commandeered to provide more production resources.  The basic formula — gather resources, build units, go forth and smash the enemy — remains essentially unchanged all the way up to today's StarCraft II.  Considering the Starcraft series' enormous impact on e-sports as a worldwide pastime, Herzog Zwei may just be the most important video game most people have never heard of.

First online multiplayer game: Snipes

 

Then again, 1983's Snipes -- a graphically crude maze game -- might give Herzog Zwei a run for its money.

A simple arcade game in which players must destroy the nests of annoying pests, Snipes had nothing especially distinguishing…except that it was designed for multiple players to join the same game remotely, using code that would evolve into Novell's influential Netware operating system.  Every pick-up game of Call of Duty or Counterstrike, every online deathmatch, and every Starcraft tournament can  ultimately trace its lineage back to this unassuming title.

First handheld game: Mattel Auto Race

 

Years before the Gameboy was even a twinkle in Nintendo's eye, Mattel, makers of the Intellivision home console, was pioneering the handheld gaming market with 1977's Auto Race.

A crude driving game in which the player cruised down a three-lane racetrack represented by simple LED lights, Auto Race used about half a kilobyte of memory — or, to put it in perspective, slightly more than this sentence takes up. Speed was controlled via a four-speed gearshift, and the car could alternate among three different lanes of traffic to dodge oncoming cars.  The more popular Mattel Football handheld would release soon afterward.

First virtual online world: Neverwinter Nights

 

Whether you still raid dungeons in World of Warcraft or prefer the far away galaxy of Star Wars: The Old Republic, you owe a lot to Neverwinter.

The design of most modern MMOs harks back to 1991's "DikuMUD," a text-based Usenet adventure coded by Danish Dungeons & Dragons devotees. DikuMUD is itself derived from 1978's Multi-User-Dungeon, wherein the much-used 'MUD' acronym got its start.

But enough history: the first commercially-released, graphical online role playing game appears to be 1991's Neverwinter Nights (not to be confused with 2000's Bioware title of the same name). Playable over AOL, Neverwinter Nights kept armchair adventurers busy until 1997, by which time it had amassed an impressive 115,000 subscribers, with up to 500 players interacting together on a single server.

First 'Sims'-type game: Little Computer People

 

Fifteen years before Will Wright's squabblin', workin', cookin', lovin' virtual humanoids burst on the PC gaming scene to spawn a seemingly-endless parade of sequels, spinoffs and expansions, Activision laid the groundwork with 1985's Little Computer People.

Though little remembered now, LCP was years ahead of its time.  Via a cutaway view of a tiny digital dollhouse, the game tasked players with feeding and caring for their computerized pet. The Little Person could talk on the phone, play the piano, and even type adorable letters to its caretaker.

First sports game: Odyssey Football

 

It turns out that the first home console ever released -- the Magnavox Odyssey, launched in 1972 -- featured Football as one of the original 12 games bundled with the system (three others were Tennis, Hockey, and Ski).

"Just like the pros," reads the Watergate-era ad copy.  "Plan your own strategy.  Pass, run, even kick.  Touchdown!"  In truth, the game was exceedingly basic and required a plastic television overlay to make it resemble a gridiron at all, a far cry from Madden's hyper-realism.

First full musical score:  Pitfall II

 

Video games have made use of music almost since the beginning: who could forget, for instance, the sinister, Jaws-esque two-note thrum that accompanied the action in 1979's Asteroids, accelerating as the number of rocks onscreen decreased?

But 1984's Pitfall II: Lost Caverns -- sequel to the Atari 2600 blockbuster -- upped the ante with a four-channel musical theme so sophisticated it required a custom chip built into the game cartridge.  A rousing march clearly inspired by John Williams's theme from 'Raiders of the Lost Ark,' the tune, composed by Tim Shotter, was cleverly integrated into gameplay in a way that anticipated today's 'procedural' music: the brassy main fanfare would kick in every time Pitfall Harry scooped up another treasure, while his death would trigger modulation into a mournful minor-key version of the same melody.  On the evolutionary path from primordial blips and bloops to today's full-orchestra extravaganzas, Pitfall II marked a critical step.

First downloadable game service: PlayCable

Steam.  OnLive.  Direct2Drive.  Xbox Live Arcade.  Digital distribution is usually viewed as a child of the new millennium.  Lost in the mists of history, though, are two online game distribution services that were literally decades ahead of their time.

1981's PlayCable allowed subscribers to download Intellivision games over their cable TV line, while 1983's Gameline provided a similar service to Atari 2600 users, albeit over the telephone.  Barely noticed in their own time, such services blazed a trail that wouldn't be followed up on for over twenty years.  Skeptical?  Check out this 30-year-old ad for PlayCable featuring none other than Mickey Mantle:

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PepsiCo says finds trace fungicide in orange juice

PepsiCo says finds trace fungicide in orange juice - PepsiCo Inc said company tests of its Tropicana orange juice showed low levels of a potentially dangerous fungicide, but levels were below federal safety concerns and did not pose a health risk.

The company said in a statement on Saturday it was conducting additional tests after the Food and Drug Administration announced on Wednesday that it would temporarily halt orange juice imports and remove any juice found to have dangerous amounts of the fungicide carbendazim.

The scare was triggered when soft-drink giant Coca-Cola Co, maker of Minute Maid orange juice, said it had discovered carbendazim in shipments from Brazil and alerted U.S. authorities about a potential industry-wide problem.

Carbendazim is used in Brazil to combat blossom blight and black spot, a type of mold that grows on orange trees.

But in the United States, its use is limited to non-food items such as paints, textiles and ornamental trees, although U.S. authorities allow trace amounts of carbendazim in 31 food types including grains, nuts and some non-citrus fruits.

The FDA said low levels of carbendazim are not dangerous and the agency had no plans for a recall.

Oranges are loaded in a truck on a farm in Limeira January 13, 2012. REUTERS/Paulo Whitaker

"The results we have to date confirm that the levels of fungicide in the imported Brazilian juice we tested are below the levels the agencies said raise safety concerns," PepsiCo said. "We will continue to test, as we take this matter seriously, and we're working aggressively to address any concerns."

Orange juice futures prices hit record highs on the fungicide reports, then declined.

On Friday, U.S. health regulators cleared the way for the first shipments of imported orange juice to enter the country since January 4, when authorities began testing for the fungicide in juice products from Brazil.

The FDA said final tests confirmed that three samples of Canadian orange juice were negative for the fungicide carbendazim. Test results have yet to be announced for 28 import samples from Brazil, Mexico and Canada. ( Reuters )

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Radiation Levels in West Coast Milk 5,000 Times Lower Than Danger Threshold

Radiation Levels in West Coast Milk 5,000 Times Lower Than Danger Threshold - Experts Say Milk Still Safe to Drink - Milk from America's West Coast containing trace amounts of radioactive iodine is safe to drink, health officials say.

The Environmental Protection Agency and the Food and Drug Administration reported higher-than-normal levels of radioactive Iodine-131 in milk samples from California and Washington Wednesday. But the levels are 5,000 times below the danger threshold.

"These types of findings are to be expected in the coming days and are far below levels of public health concern, including for infants and children," the EPA said on its website.

A March 25 radiation reading from milk in Spokane, Wash. -- 0.8 picocuries per liter -- is more than 4,000 times less than that of a normal banana, which naturally contains radioactive potassium.

"Radiation is all around us in our daily lives, and these findings are a minuscule amount compared to what people experience every day," FDA senior scientist Patricia Hansen said in a statement.

A person would have to drink almost 1,500 gallons of milk -- two firetrucks full -- in eight days to reach the conservative safe limit.

The agencies will continue to measure radiation levels in milk and other food products in the U.S. during Japan's ongoing nuclear crisis.

"Radioactivity levels in milk products are monitored, so it is unlikely that any significantly contaminated milk would make it to the marketplace," said Dr. Timothy Jorgensen, associate professor in the department of radiation medicine at Georgetown University Medical Center. "The U.S. population need not be concerned about this level of Iodine-131."

On March 28 the EPA reported very low levels of radiation in the air over Alaska, Alabama, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada, Saipan, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands and Washington state.

"The major food concern is with milk, because the I-131 gets concentrated in cow milk, when cows eat I-131 contaminated grass," Jorgensen said. "So although other foods might contain I-131, the major route of human exposure would be through milk products."

On March 22, the FDA banned milk and produce imported from Japan's Fukushima, Ibaraki, Tochigi and Gunma prefectures.

Jorgensen said the levels of radioactive iodine in milk on the West Coast do not warrant the use of potassium iodine tablets.

"It is possible to overdose on potassium iodine tablets, particularly if small children are given adult doses," Jorgensen said. "It is best to follow the advice of public health officials with regard to both food consumption and potassium iodine use."
Radiation Fears in U.S. Still High

Despite reassurance from various governmental agencies, public fears about radiation in the U.S. persist.

"It's very hard to head about radiation and iodine in milk and not be concerned. It sounds scary," said ABC News chief health and medical editor Dr. Richard Besser in an interview on ABC News' "Good Morning America."

But Besser said the ongoing monitoring efforts mean problems would be reported very quickly to the public. And as the situation at Japan's crippled nuclear plant improves, the levels will drop dramatically.

"Once they're able to control this reactor, radioactive iodine does not stay around for very long," Besser said. "The half life is eight days, and so after 80 days it's gone from the environment."

In the meantime, the levels are far too low to cut out milk, he said.

"I drank milk this morning. I'm going to continue to give milk to my children." ( abcnews.go.com )

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Tea and coffee reduce heart disease risk

Tea and coffee reduce heart disease risk, study suggests - Regularly drinking tea and coffee can significantly reduce the risk of developing heart disease, one of the biggest studies of its kind suggests.

Researchers found that moderate consumption of both drinks can reduce your chance of death from a heart attack by at least a fifth.

At the same time, it showed that risks for other diseases such as stroke were not increased.

"Our results found the benefits of drinking coffee and tea occur without increasing risk of stroke or death from all causes," said Dr Yvonne van der Schouw, professor of chronic disease at the University Medical Center Utrecht, Netherlands.

According to research moderate consumption of tea or coffee can reduce your chance of death from a heart attack by at least a fifth

For the research her team studied tea and coffee consumption among 37,514 people, and followed the participants for 13 years to monitor heart disease and death.

They found that tea had the biggest impact on heart disease but that all but heavy consumption of coffee was also beneficial.

Those who drink between three and six cups are 45 per cent less likely to suffer coronary problems compared to people who had less than one cup daily, a study found.

And drinking more than six cups was associated with a 36 per cent lower risk of heart disease.

It was good news for coffee drinkers too, with the study saying that a modest intake – two to four cups a day – may lead to a 20 per cent lower risk of heart problems.

The researchers believe that the health benefits are down to antioxidants found in both drinks which remove damaging free radicals from the body.

The team, whose research is published in Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology: Journal of the American Heart Association, also noted that tea and coffee drinkers have different health behaviours – with more coffee drinkers prone to smoke and have a less healthy diet.

This is the latest research into the relative health benefits of two of the world's favourite beverages.

It has been claimed that they can reduce risks of some cancers, diabetes, stress and even acne.

But they have also been linked to increased rates of cancer, rheumatoid arthritis and high blood pressure.

Ellen Mason, Senior Cardiac Nurse at the British Heart Foundation, said: “This study adds further weight to the evidence that drinking tea and coffee in moderation is not harmful for most people, and may even lower your risk of developing or dying from heart disease.

“However, it’s worth remembering that leading a healthy lifestyle is the thing that really matters when it comes to keeping your heart in top condition.

“Having a cigarette with your coffee could completely cancel any benefits, while drinking lots of tea in front of the TV for hours on end without exercising is unlikely to offer your heart much protection at all.” ( telegraph.co.uk )

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‘Kebaya’ honored at city fashion event

‘Kebaya’ honored at city fashion event - Around 159 fashion designers will showcase their stylish collections at the city’s biggest fashion event, the Jakarta Fashion Week (JFW) 2010/2011, which opened Saturday at the Pacific Place shopping center in South Jakarta under the theme “Styling Modernity”.

This event, organized by media group Femina, was opened with a show titled “A Tribute to Kebaya”, which featured the beauty of kebaya (traditional Indonesian blouse-dress combination) from noted local designers such as Anne Avantie, Ari Seputra, Edward Hutabarat, Harry Darsono, Lenny Agustin, Musa Widyatmojo, Priyo Oktaviano, Raden Sirait, Ramli and Suzy Lucon.

On the catwalk: Four models display the kebaya during a “Tribute to Kebaya” fashion show at the opening of Jakarta Fashion Week in Jakarta on Saturday. JP/Nurhayati

Designers participating in the JFW event include several from the Indonesian Fashion Designers Association (APPMI) and the Indonesian Fashion Designers Council (IPMI), as well as other independent designers.

APPMI, for instance, will stage six shows with 30 fashion brands, while 10 designers from IPMI will also display their collections.

Sebastian Gunawan is scheduled to bring fun and joy on Sunday through his very own children’s clothing line, Bubble Girl.

This year’s fashion week, which runs until Nov. 21, will also feature a special show from independent designer Ghea Panggabean, celebrating her 30-year journey in fashion.

Not only showcasing local labels and designers, the JFW also always features the creative works of international fashion stylists.

This year, local designer Oscar Lawalata will show his latest creations, made from traditional textiles in collaboration with the UK’s Laura Miles, in a segment titled “Weaving the Future”. ( .thejakartapost.com )

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