Star Tech Journal

STAR*TECH Joumal
December 1997
Capcom Street Fighter II
High Refunds & Service Problems
Steven Brefka
L.A Games
Torrance, California
SUBJECT
Players in the So Cal area have learned to freeze
and unfreeze the program with a series of control
inputs. If the player's time runs out while in
"freeze," the program crashes and you've got a
dead game. The CPU must now be reset.
Freezing the game has become the "in" thing to
do and has brought new inspiration to the word
"refund". Up to $50 a week in refunds has
caused an increasing conflict between cus-
tomer, location and operator. Many a scam, and
many innocent coin losses are occurring due to
the freeze. A month ago, calls were sporadic. On
10/15/91, seven SFIIwere frozen at a distance
up to 30 miles apart.
FURTHER COMPLICATIONS
This is complicated by two old problems that we
deal with daily. Locations that don't call for
service may have the game down for days before
the collector comes by, and in many 24 hour C-
stores, we hide the on/ off switch from the night
attendants who turn the games off between
about 10:00 p.m. and when the owner is ex-
pected in the morning.
I contacted the folks at Capcom and found that
they have been aware of the glitch, but were
unaware that it had become a serious problem.
In fact, a player that can "freeze" and "unfreeze"
the program plans to do a demonstration for
them soon.
SOLUTION
How does Capcom plan to handle this problem?
From my discussion, I found that they aren't
knowledgeable of the exact problem or how it can
be solved. An Eprom update was mentioned, but
it is not known yet if that is a solution or not.
In the past few days we have been successful, in
a well controlled location, by putting up a "no
refunds on SFII" sign in stopping the freeze/
refund situation. This probably won't work in all
locations and won't solve the "game down" prob-
lem in rough areas.
Williams System II
Diagnostics
Response
John Michael Bevar
Ries Amusement Inc.
Denison, Iowa
In regard to my article "Williams System II Diag-
nostic" in the August '91 issue of STAR *1'ECH
Journal, I would like to thank the two who re-
sponded with different solutions to the problem
(see S*1'J Sept '91 and Oct '91).
Although my way works, their approach to the
problem is much more simple, and that's what
we're all looking for. It's good to know that there are
others out there with similar problems and also a
place where we can share our knowledge together.~
Like the old saying goes ...
"Two Heads Are Better Than One."