In my last blog post I briefly mentioned the book I've been working for the last several years, a book detailing the history of fighting games. The book is titled "Hadoken! The History of Fighting Games", and I've decided to post a brief snippet from the Introduction chapter in order to whet your appetites (hopefully!).

I was at one time in talks with a major publisher about getting this tome published, but the deal eventually fell through. Hopefully with the mainstream popularity of Street Fighter IV and the resurgence of the fighting game, it may have another chance.

But enough rambling, let's get started shall we? Please keep in mind that this particular section has not been updated for quite some time, and as a result may contain outdated information:

"The time, March, 1991. The place, Anywhere U.S.A.

The American arcade, an electronic playground of vast imagination that had thrived and prospered during the previous decade, was sorely in need of a fresh coat of paint. The spark and originality of the initial boom period, which created such timeless video game classics as Asteroids and Donkey Kong, was fizzling out quicker than a minute-old sparkler on the Fourth of July. Now the arcades were filled with racing games and repetitive beat-’em-ups that were interesting diversions, but did little to sustain the long-term interest that was vital to keeping players coming back for more.

And the creative crisis wasn’t the only issue. Home video game consoles such as the Super NES and Sega Genesis were finding their way into an increasing number of homes across the country, producing games that were coming ever closer to their arcade counterparts. As a result, gamers were finding fewer reasons to take a trip over to the local arcade.There was no doubt about it — the producers of coin-operated video games needed to introduce a new and compelling type of arcade experience, otherwise the once-thriving scene was all but doomed to go the way of the dinosaur.

Then, like a flying side kick from the gods, came Capcom’s seminal Street Fighter II. And just like that, the arcade scene was given a brilliant new lease on life.

The original Street Fighter was a one or two player fighting game that featured two martial artists squaring off against a variety of exotic opponents, as well as Punch and Kick buttons you could actually pound on. And while the button pounding approach was an ambitious and original concept for a videogame, once the novelty wore thin, the problem was that the game itself was rather underwhelming. It certainly showed little promise of producing anything remotely resembling an interesting sequel. Even though Street Fighter may have been a moderate success in the arcades, the fact is that you’d probably be hard pressed to find anyone back then who would think Capcom would give the green light for a follow-up game.

But the experts went on undeterred, and instead of jumping on the next arcade trend, they went back to the drawing board and rebuilt the concept of the fighting game from scratch. Using a state-of-the-art arcade board capable of generating an unprecedented level of graphic detail (named the CPS, or Capcom Play System), the company did nothing short of producing one of the most memorable, compelling, and downright entertaining experiences in the history of video games.

To date, the Street Fighter series has sold over 500,000 coin-operated units and over 24 million console games worldwide, and has generated more than a billion dollars in revenue. The franchise has generated a staggering amount of game-related merchandise, not to mention two American live-action feature films, an American animated series, three Japanese animated feature-length animated films and a Japanese animated series.

But perhaps more importantly, the phrase “Street Fighter II” became a call to arms for a generation of gaming enthusiasts who were quickly growing bored with the staleness of their favorite pasttime, the game itself becoming an often duplicated but never quite equaled icon amongst its arcade brethren. Only a handful of video games can claim to have singlehandedly inspired an entire genre, Street Fighter II is one of those games.

Indeed, if the word “important” can be attached to a videogame, then it can also be argued that this word applies to Street Fighter II every bit as much as it does to Pong, Space Invaders, Donkey Kong, Super Mario Bros. and the Final Fantasy titles. It breathed new life into a lagging industry that has since been revitalized, and now  rivals or exceeds the motion picture industry in terms of both creativity and sales figures. So while Nirvana was preparing to blaze up the music charts with a revolutionary approach that forced the world to take notice, Street Fighter II was tearing down the arcades in much the same fashion."

©2005-2009 Bill Wood. All Rights Reserved.

How fondly I remember my first experience with a Street Fighter II cabinet all those years ago, in the corner of a dingy little 7-Eleven here in L.A. that managed to survive the Rodney King riots and who knows what else. Over a decade and a half later and I still play a lousy Ken... guess I'm what you'd call a slow learner.

However, one thing that has remained a constant in my love affair with Capcom's fighting series has been a deep and profound appreciation of the game's artistic merits, which are certainly nothing to sneeze at. In fact, I credit the series with giving many Westerners their first true glimpse of the Japanese aesthetic, years before anime and manga broke through the mainstream and series such as Dragonball and Naruto became a part of the public consciousness.

Being an artist myself, it was only a matter of time before I put pen to paper and tried my hand at drawing the cast of Street Fighter. After all, Ryu, Ken and Co. inspired me creatively as nothing else had since the DC and Marvel Bronze Age. There's been a lot of hit-and-miss on my part over the years, several projects ended up as clumps of paper in the waste bin, while some made it to the coloring stage, but will never leave my hard drive due to personal dissatisfaction.

The images I've posted to my profile are the portraits I feel especially proud of, the same portraits that have been on my Street Fighter fansite for years. I hope you enjoy them, and get a sense for the love and appreciation I've had for the series since its inception all those years ago.

And for the record, my illustration gallery isn't the only Street Fighter related project I've been working on. Perhaps one day I'll be able to share the "History of Fighting Games" book that's been on the stove for the better part of a decade. :)