« Seth Killian Talks Old School Arcade Culture and Street Fighter II in Latest Interview »

Penny Arcade posted up an interview with Seth Killian (aka clothhand) where he reminisces about the old school arcade culture with players slowly figuring out new, cheap tactics for Street Fighter II to beat their opponents. He talks on the mentality of what it takes to win in that type of environment and the trill that came with beating someone -- even if only 25 cents was on the line. 

Hit the jump for a small excerpt and read the rest here.

Then something interesting happened: Players began to share information online. “It was like the birth of the Internet, there was a lot of things going on in Usenet,” he recalled. The conversation about Street Fighter overwhelmed the general video games discussion, so they were kicked out to begin their own group. “I remember arguing about whether there was such a thing as a combo. People were talking about getting hit with a jump kick and then a sweep and they couldn’t block it, and they were told that they had to block down-back, and people said that didn’t work. It was super basic stuff, but people didn’t know.” There was no easy way to share videos or proof of your exploits, if you read about a strategy or a glitch, you could only confirm it by going to your local arcade and attempting it yourself. After a while arguing online turned into trips to other arcades to challenge local players in order to see the strategies of other players outside of his area.