Goldfish Plays Street Fighter 2

There is something special in arcade fighting games. They seem to be so different from any other genre of video games. I don't know how to explain it. In the any other game - you have some sort of order - certain way of playing it. Because otherwise - the entire thing will be utterly pointless. But in the fighting games - these things do not apply. There's an element of sheer inanity and savage randomness in the gameplay.

I think it is so because of it stupendous simplicity - you need to beat your opponent twice or thrice if he managed to beat you once and then beat another and another and another and then the end or you can fight with your friends until the heat death of the universe or something. And you can try again and again and again and every time it will be different and you will be transformed. You will gain some sort of experience. It is a lot of fun either way. A neverending cycle of thrills...

Sure, there is a lot of strategy and tactics employed. You try to predict actions of your enemy - you do fake-outs, showcase try-outs, you push to the point of figuring out his entire strategy and then counter it with something far more advance and subversive. You play mind games - try to fool him, take a step awry, force him to make the wrong move and get busted. You carefully calculate the exact moment when to use certain kind of combo attack. You wait for it - you play your enemy and lead him right to the moment when you make The Move and it is over.

That is what you usually trying to convince yourself you are doing while playing fighting games. In reality, more often than not - it all turns out to be some utterly random button-mashing contest. Garish shenanigans - free of sense, free of logic, free of reason - pure expression of the momentary whirl of emotions caught in the instinctive muscle reactions. True surrealist act of indeterminacy. Empirical aleatoric experience...

It is beautiful if you think about it for a moment. I thought about it for approximately six minutes before jumping at my laptop and starting to write this very text. And here's why.

There is an ongoing joke about bitcoins - it is being compared to Bison Dollars. And for a reason - bitcoin seems to be erratic and the whole things starts looking like a farcical catastrophe in the making. I was reading one of the articles about Bison Dollars and in the very end of the text there was "you may also like" section. And there it was - the majestic thing of beauty.

Two goldfish are playing Street Fighter 2. Two goldfish are playing Street Fighter 2. Two goldfish are playing Street Fighter 2. Not with a bang but a whimper.

Here is the story. There are two goldfish who are living in the same aquarium. One is named Aquarius, the other is Robert the Bruce. In the midst of 2014 they started playing Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo. Or should i say their were subjected to play Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo (i just like to write the title). It is fair to ask "how?" - here's how: the aquarium was separated into nine zones - each with its own action. Special program tracks the movements of the fishes and activates certain actions depending on their positions. In certain cases the movement can activate special moves.

It was developed by Andrew Hill. Apparently he thought it was a good idea. And certainly it is. It is one of the inspiring things i have seen lately. Look at this fight:

The resulting bouts are inherently strange. They look nothing like traditional sessions in fighting games. There are no gestations, no pauses or lockdowns. It is bizarre. The characters are often stuck making repetitive movements - such as jumping or moving away backwards from one another. Sometimes fishes move into attack sectors and the fight really takes on. It is weirdly awkward but essentially a legitimate fight.

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