abstract | background |
process | screenshots |
download | links
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Abstract
During the initial stages of development for my final project I was
fixated on two mediums of communication, messageboards and the early nineties
video game, Street Fighter II. While the former is pretty much open-ended
(users log in, post comments about various topics and create conversations
that they control), Street Fighter II is a close ended medium communicating
a predetermined message, specifically (at least, the message that was always
funny to me) the message about the characters and their background that determine
how they interact within the game. My idea was to take interactions that takes
place on messageboards (through user posting and conversation topics, as well
as the interface of the messageboard) in integrate them into Street Fighter
II.
In the end however, what became most interesting to me was the levels that the characters fought in. When I imported screenshots of the messageboard into the levels, it became an entirely new thing. I manipulated the colors and arrangements of the levels and because of the moving backrounds (and other glitches) the levels end up reacting to the Street Fighter's actions. The players interact in constantly evolving environments that are combinations of the original levels, messageboard screenshots, and flat colors.
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Street Fighter II was released in 1991 (originally in the arcade and later on home video game consoles) and was instantly accepted as the coolest video game of all time. It featured 12 characters (8 main characters and 4 bosses) from countries around the world.
Being only 9 when it was released, my interest in the game mostly lied in the story behind each character. These stories were established throughweird things the characters would say after each match as well as biography stats (displayed when the game isn't being played) and the game endings. Through these small bits of information, a pseudo-personality is created for each character.
This aspect parallels my fascination with messageboards. When visiting a messageboard, each user develops a personality (which may be similar or dissimilar to their real-life personality) through posting comments on different topics and interactions with other users. Personally, when interacting on messageboards, I tend to develop a bias of which users postings I pay attention to (similar to bias's of Street Fighter characters).
Inspirations and Precedents
From the very beginning of my final projects development, Cy Twombly's chalkboard drawings were an inspiration.
As far as using videogames as a medium, the most popular artist would be Cory Arcangel. His most popular work consists of minimal landscapes created by hacking old nintendo cartridges.
Here is an article about video game art.
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Development Sketches (from OCT. 31st 2005) 1 2 3
The very first thing I did was set up a messageboard for our class to post on. They were reluctant at first, but slowly people started posting, and passionate conversations broke about Christmas. The messageboard can be viewed here.
I have never worked with video games before,so I had to start from scratch. Most of everything I learned was from a video game hacking site, called Zophar's Domain.
The
version that I worked with was from the Super Nintendo, which uses the hexadecimal
system. Hexadecimal is a system based off of binary. Instead of using 1's
and 0's, hexadecimal uses the digits 0-9 and the letters A-F, representing
16 different values. In Super Nintendo games, hexadecimal values are given
to addreses and specific functions (in the picture to the right, the left
side represents an address and the right side represents a function).
The
only way to translate these values is to use a hexadecimal editor, which translates
the hexadecimal codes into (slightly) readable phrases (this only applies
to the text in the game). So I used the text from different posts on the messageboard
to change the winning statements of each of the characters as well as most
of the other text in the game. I also used the hexadecimal editor to change
some of the games functions ( shorting the fights to one round, taking the
energy bar off, altering the music, etc.)). I used game genie codes from different
websites to find the address of these functions.
To
manipulate the graphics of the levels, I used something called a Tile Editor.
In Super Nintendo, fractions of graphics are stored in 8 x 8 squares, which
are in hexadecimal language. The tile editor's translate these squares into
pixels, so they can be viewed and manipulated. Most of the time these squares
are arranged in a semi-random order, but sometimes you get little arrangements
where you can see what's going on. In most cases, I found the level sections,
imported screenshots of the messageboard, and arranged them in differnent
configurations to see what worked best.
Future Developments
Since I could only make the game for one specific messageboard, at one specific period of time, my main wish would be to make it dynamic, so you could use any messageboard at any time to alter the game.
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Emulators (program you need to run the game):
Mac:
PC:
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MT
messageboard (the messageboard used for this project)
Wiki pedia entry on
Street Fighter
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Thanks and Copyright Notice
The State I am in is for educational purposes only and created in an educational context! Street Fighter was created by Capcom in 1991. Also "The State I am In" is the title of a Belle and Sebastian song.Sorry!
Thanks to the Core3 class for posting on the messageboard (esp. Theresa)!