The fighting video game genre has never been the same since Street Fighter was released back in 1987. The title Capcom He set a standard for the future on how to create intense, action-packed fights in a 1vs1 format that remains king to this day.
The launch of the title took place through one of the classic arcade machines of the time and, although it had the usual joystick, the peculiarity that the Japanese company introduced was that we had to hit the furniture. That's right, two huge rubber pads appear on the main panel, which are pressure sensitive and calculate the strength and speed of the characters.
Capcom released two versions of Street Fighter, so you could play a standard edition of the arcade or a deluxe one, which is what you can see in action in the video just above. Takashi Nishiyama, director of the work, reveals that the developer wanted to compete in the large arcade market, since Sega and Namco were doing very well.
“That's why we came up with the pads, and the idea tied directly into how we designed Street Fighter. The idea was that, ideally, the sensor would be able to detect how strong or weak you are. pressed, and that would translate into the type of movements that would be performed in the game, because a simple arcade controller couldn't accurately reproduce the complex movements of a human being, right? We wanted to compensate for that lack.
It basically came down to two particular objectives, two missions. The first was to create an arcade cabinet that the sales department could sell to their customers, and the other was to find a way to improve the game and compensate for the shortcomings of an arcade controller.
But it was very difficult to develop a pressure-sensitive sensor, and that was a technological problem that Capcom never overcame. So we ended up working with Atari and collaborated on the development of the sensor, since they were the ones who had the knowledge to make it happen.
However, the problem arose with repeated use of the system, since users ended up very tired and even with injuries from playing with blows. This is what Nishiyama himself recognized:
“The problem was that, during location testing, we realized that it was very tiring to hit the sensor over and over again. It was like exercising. The goal of monetizing this business was to get people to become regular customers, They put 100 yen coins over and over so we could win money. And when you get tired of playing, that's not going to happen.”
Joe Morici, senior vice president of Capcom USA, points out that “it had to exit the market because everyone was getting injured“, so the definitive solution was to place six classic buttons and the matter was over. In addition, there were fears in the company that a lawsuit would reach the offices because of one of its greatest hits.
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