Building a Gaming Empire In 1984

Fighting games, at their core, were still built around competition. Balance was a topic that could never be avoided.

"Why can't I find the character Brandon is playing?"

Mike's voice suddenly rang out beside him, interrupting his train of thought.

"Huh?"

John snapped back to reality and looked toward the screen. There were only nine characters on the selection screen, displayed in groups of three along the bottom.

Aside from the group Schwarzenegger had selected, none of the remaining six looked anything like Brandon.

But John noticed something else. Beneath the character roster was a small icon. It was an animated prompt telling the player to insert a floppy disk. That was definitely something he'd never seen in Street Fighter.

Vivian's voice sounded at just the right moment.

"Let's see which three characters Brandon chooses as his starters. Oh? It looks like he wants to add the Psycho Soldier Team characters!"

"Add characters?"

The audience immediately turned their attention toward Brandon, curious about what kind of trick was being pulled. Then they saw him suddenly reach into his pocket and pull out a floppy disk.

The cover featured artwork of three unfamiliar characters. On the left stood an old man with white hair and beard. His eyes were covered and invisible, while his nose carried the distinctive flush of a drunkard.

Brandon was clearly doing it on purpose. He pushed the floppy disk right up toward the camera, making sure it got a proper close-up. The director promptly enlarged the image on screen.

"An old man?"

John scratched his head, unable to figure out the design logic behind it. But after a brief moment of confusion, Mike's face suddenly lit up with realization.

"It's him! We've seen a movie with him in it!"

Seeing John's blank expression, Mike slapped his hands together.

"It's that movie, what was it called again? Oh, right! Drunken Master!"

Hearing that, John frowned and thought for a moment before his eyes brightened.

"No wonder he looked familiar. It's practically identical!"

In Drunken Master, the character Beggar So, portrayed by Yuen Siu-tien, was a famous drunken boxing expert renowned throughout the martial arts world.

After watching that movie, Mike had even said about wanting to learn his kung fu and dragged John along to down several bottles. Though in the end, aside from vomiting all over the place, neither of them learned anything.

Besides Chin Gentsai, whose design was clearly a tribute to Siu-tien, the character on the right was obviously the original model for Brandon's cosplay, Sie Kensou.

If those two characters both carried a strong kung fu style that gave people the feeling of returning to Street Fighter. Then the purple-haired girl standing in the middle completely shattered the atmosphere they had worked so hard to build.

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"What kind of random mess is this? They don't even go together."

This character named Athena Asamiya didn't look like a fighter at all. What kind of martial artist wore a cropped sailor uniform and a miniskirt into the ring? Was she here to fight or walk a fashion runway?

But that being said, the girl was genuinely beautiful. With such an innocent and cheerful appearance, she must fight very gently too, right?

Surely, she wouldn't do something like chain kicks into Phoenix Arrow loops, launch people into the air with a rising attack, zap them while airborne, then finish everything with a super move, right?

"But why did he take out a floppy disk? Could this generation have multiple versions like Pokémon?"

Reluctantly tearing his gaze away from Athena, Mike looked curiously at Brandon holding the disk.

John didn't answer. Looking at the insert-floppy icon beneath the character roster, an absurd thought suddenly formed in his mind.

As if to confirm his suspicion, Brandon suddenly inserted the floppy disk into an inconspicuous slot on the arcade cabinet. It appeared to be a floppy drive interface.

After more than ten seconds of loading, three new selectable characters suddenly appeared beneath the character selection screen. They were exactly the three characters featured on the floppy disk cover. Everyone who witnessed the scene fell silent, then came a thunderous uproar.

"An additional character pack! Doesn't that mean The King of Fighters can keep adding new characters forever?"

"Not just that! Listen, the background music changed too!"

At those words, many people perked up their ears and listened carefully. Sure enough, at some point the music had switched to a new track. This expansion pack seemed far more flexible than they had imagined.

Many eyes turned toward the floppy drive mounted on the cabinet. It looked like this arcade machine was simply a NovaBox wrapped in a new shell.

Which meant the technology that had just been demonstrated wasn't exclusive to the showcase. Ordinary players like them would be able to enjoy it too!

"Wait a second, everyone. Doesn't that mean we'll have to buy another reading device and spend even more money on extra cartridges?"

"So what? If you won't buy it, I will! Shut Up And Take My MONEY!"

"Exactly! Paying money to get new characters, there's nothing better than that."

"I hope Street Fighter adopts this system soon too. There are way too few characters right now. It's really not enough."

The shock brought by the new hardware system was quickly overshadowed after Brandon selected the Psycho Soldier Team lineup. Everyone wanted to see exactly what made this brand-new IP different.

"ROUND 1"

"READY"

"GO!"

The instant the match began, both players moved without hesitation.

Athena Asamiya, Brandon's opening character, immediately performed a short hop on the spot, then began maneuvering for space at an outrageous speed. The two commentators, Ethan and his partner, quickly adjusted their state and began explaining the situation.

"Alright, we can see Brandon's Athena Asamiya planning to control the neutral and create some distance, wait, she threw a Psycho Ball!"

"Athena uses Psycho Teleport to get behind Lucky! He blocks the light kick! Brandon immediately short-hops over his head, cross-up Phoenix Arrow! It connects!"

"Pressure on wake-up! Close C canceled into Psycho Sword! As Lucky gets back to his feet, Brandon keeps him pinned with a Psycho Ball!"

"What a shame. We can see Brandon's power gauge isn't full. Otherwise, a super move here would probably have taken more than half of Lucky's life bar."

After two consecutive combo sequences so fast, they were nearly impossible to follow.

Lucky Glauber, Arnold's starting character, had his entire health bar erased before he even had a chance to attack. At that moment, the in-game countdown timer had only just reached the tenth second.

"...?"

John's mouth hung open. For a long while, he couldn't find the words to say. You call this a fighting game?

What just happened, man? Where did the health bar go? What happened to the back and forth exchange of attacks?

Mike stood up from the floor and picked up the ticket stub he had accidentally dropped.

"That was close. I almost lost my ticket. Did the match start yet?"

"The first round has already ended…"

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