ComboVid.com

The assumption is that most of the combo video makers in Japan share information with one another, including stuff like frame data, game engine info, bugs, glitches, crazy setups and so on. This is based on the fact that they namedrop one another in videos all the time, like special thanks and stuff. Also, it's very rare to have multiple people/groups releasing combo videos for any given game over any period of time. I mean, usually there's one person or one group making videos for any given game until that person/group quits.

For example, TZW as the undisputed overlord of ST for years and years. Then Tosaka showed up and started releasing crazy combo videos, but only after TZW had stopped making videos for a long time. Even when zerokoubou made that awesome ST video, it was a year after Tosaka had stopped updating their website. If you think back, the same is true for 3S because kysg didn't really get into making 3S videos until after Tosaka had become silent. Maybe it's just a coincidence or maybe there's some other explanation for these things working out the way they do, but either way it's pretty safe to assume that they all know each other and share info.

Another thing i've noticed is that almost all of these people's websites have a forum/BBS but they have virtually no activity going on. Every once in a while someone will ask a question, but there are usually less than half a dozen new threads made over a year. And there are probably less than 30 posts made over the same period of time. It seems kinda pointless to me, which is why Sonic Hurricane has never had a public BBS.

But the one thing that kinda bums me out is seeing someone like kysg release so many amazing videos and not get any feedback. So even though i'm really not a big fan of 3S, i've always made a point of leaving random short comments on kysg's forum to let him know that his effort is appreciated. I mean, everything i say is kinda ghetto because of the language barrier but it's better than nothing.

Anyway a while ago i asked Thongboy Bebop to leave a comment on there regarding the Necro video, but the forum wouldn't let him. So i tried to do the same earlier today and it denied me too. I tried changing around the message and i think the problem was that the BBS script doesn't approve of linking to combovideos.com for some reason. Cuz at first i thought maybe it considered "Thongboy" a bad word but that worked when i isolated it. Also i tried changing the wording quite a bit but it wasn't working. Then again, i was posting two links to both of the 3S tutorial videos so maybe it's just some kind of spam-protection to prevent people from posting multiple links. Whatever, i don't want to leave a dozen pointless messages on there just to figure out how the BBS script works. I'm just letting you guys know that if it gives you some weird error message that starts with "NG" then just try changing around what you wrote until it lets you post.

It seems like kysg/538 is a cool kid so the next time he releases a video, i think it'd be a good idea for some of the people here to give him props. Just try to keep it short and avoid asking questions cuz he'll respond in Japanese anyway. And he uses hella slang or something, cuz the online translators can never manage to process what he says into something coherent.

Well I'll post on the necro video. I didn't even realize he had a bbs. But I'll totally do it as that necro video was sick.

Edit: God I edited my post like 15 times and no go what the hell?

Most Japanese forums don't allow linking of any kind, so if you have an "http" or a "www" in your post, you get denied. There are probably all sorts of other restrictions that I'm not aware of, 'cause Japan has a big problem with spam bots bombarding their forums.

As for the lack of activity on those forums, I dunno why, but Japan doesn't seem to really care about combo videos, despite the fact that they make the best ones out there for most games. When I posted my Volume IX on T.Akiba's forums (a SUPER TURBO forum!!), I got a total of TWO replies. One was from some random dude who said basically "nice", and one from T.Akiba who said the same thing, more or less. It's an anomaly...

Wow, that's crazy, but i guess it adds up. When T-7 first showed up with those Storm videos, i asked bas and ozy about him and they had no idea who he was. In fact they hadn't even heard of the Storm videos being released.

On the other hand, T-7 mentioned that he was going go sell those videos at some kind of convention. Also i heard that there used to be a store somewhere in Japan where most combo video tapes/DVDs were sold, but that it closed down a couple of years ago.

I think it's possible that in Japan, the combo video scene is almost completely separate from the tournament scene. As in, there are small groups of people who make combo videos, talk about combo videos, and follow upcoming projects but those people don't really communicate with the arcade players. From what i understand, the popular arcades in Japan are packed (and foggy from cigarette smoke) so if you were to go without entering tournaments or starting conversations with people, nobody would know who you are.

Also, Magnetro mentioned that a lot of the MvC2 combo people in Japan make videos to share amongst themselves without ever releasing them to the public. That would make sense too, if interest in combo videos really is low in Japan. Chances are that they're already friends with all the people who would be interested, so they could just share it in their underground network or whatever and reach all of the people who would care.

But then again, MvC2 isn't as big in Japan as CvS2 or 3S so that could be another reason for why joo releases videos via American websites. I've never seen his videos hosted on any Japanese websites since like vol3. I have a hard time imagining that nobody cares when Tosaka releases a 3S video.

Well since it's safe to share here.

http://www.geocities.co.jp/Playtown-Domino/3677/


/ Meikyousisui website although joo is pretty much the only guy doing anything with it anymore.

There was a time when 80% of SRK (slight exaggeration) had that website bookmarked. At the start, the Meikyo videos were actually hosted on there. But after like volume 3 or 4, he started sending all of his videos over to GCC for hosting and the only thing left on his own website were those screenshots. So everyone forgot about it cuz there's nothing left to see.

Dang, well maybe the people who understand Japanese and LOVE MVC2 still frequent his site but don't post. Maybe they just look at his combo blog and the ton of MvC2 data he has.

It's definately worth browsing through every few months, if you're a fan of Meikyo. Maybe you'll be able to extract something useful from the hopeless nonsense that translation programs spit out every time they process combo transcripts. I'm not saying that it's an empty website. I can see that it's full of info, but that only helps you if you happen to be able to read Japanese. If you can't read Japanese, then i wouldn't worry too much about it. I'm sure most of the imporant stuff has ended up in videos anyway.

Majestros wrote:It's definately worth browsing through every few months, if you're a fan of Meikyo. Maybe you'll be able to extract something useful from the hopeless nonsense that translation programs spit out every time they process combo transcripts. I'm not saying that it's an empty website. I can see that it's full of info, but that only helps you if you happen to be able to read Japanese. If you can't read Japanese, then i wouldn't worry too much about it. I'm sure most of the imporant stuff has ended up in videos anyway.

Not at all...haha.

He has a combo blog and sometimes he puts up ideas and such in it that he doesn't use for Meik videos he'll use it for something eventually

Um, i'm confused. I think you agree with me. Sometimes it takes a while for him to find a use for a new discovery, but eventually most of the good stuff ends up in videos. I mean, if he finds something really amazing, he'll put it into a video asap before someone else beats him to it.

Back when Sai-Rec was active, i would check their blog and BBS fairly frequently for video clips. I'd also run the text through online translators to see if i could salvage any combo transcripts. I still check kysg's "memo" pages cuz he posts screenshot sequences of works in progress. But if there's something i miss, there's no point in stressing over it.

If i put something into a video and someone copies the same exact thing into a later video, then they'll lose some credibility when they get called out on it. Likewise, if i tell someone about a combo or a glitch and they make a video out of it, i expect to get some sort of credit.

But if i bury some idea for a glitch or combo setup into a single post in some random forum thread that only 10 people read, then there's very little i can do if someone finds the same thing on their own and i get no credit for it. So yeah, there's a limit to how concerned you should let yourself become over what anyone else does. Between what you know about the game engine, what you can figure out yourself, and what others release publicly in videos, you have everything you need to make good combovids. No need to worry about what your hero/rival does on a day to day basis.

Seems kysg is working on a Darkstalkers video of some sort? He updated his homepage recently and added a Vampire section to his combo notes index. It's got some screenshots but not enough to figure out what's happening.

He doesn't seem to mention anything about a vid. It's all just game engine detail and whatnot.

Aw, weak. Sorry for getting your hopes up, James.

I forgot that Eidrian goes out of his way to know all the Japanese video makers or whatever, so I'm pretty sure he can get in contact with many of them somehow.

Well, even if he's not working on a Darkstalkers video, he's definately working on a 3S Yang video.

kysg's SF3 3rd Strike video index wrote:::next...Yang(coming soon...)
::Vol.9 -Necro-
::Vol.8 -Sean-
::Vol.7 -Ryu-
::Vol.6 -Elena-
::Vol.5 -Gouki-
::Vol.4 -Ken-
::Vol.3 -Alex-
::Vol.2 -Chunli-
::Vol.1 -Q & Twelve-

Dunno anyone who plays Yang anymore, but i'm still looking forward to this.

KOFiend!

Yang <3

Majestros wrote:Well, even if he's not working on a Darkstalkers video, he's definately working on a 3S Yang video.

kysg's SF3 3rd Strike video index wrote:::next...Yang(coming soon...)
::Vol.9 -Necro-
::Vol.8 -Sean-
::Vol.7 -Ryu-
::Vol.6 -Elena-
::Vol.5 -Gouki-
::Vol.4 -Ken-
::Vol.3 -Alex-
::Vol.2 -Chunli-
::Vol.1 -Q & Twelve-

Dunno anyone who plays Yang anymore, but i'm still looking forward to this.

Yang is prolly my favorite secondary, sei-enbu for fun!

Ibuki can't get no love. Hossy and Aruka should just record several hours of casuals and release it on DVD. I'd buy it (and love it).

Is Zerokoubou a single person or is it a group of people? anyway if someone can ask them how they did that bouncing high effect on their alpha vids that would be good.

So did the Reversal wake-up CC for the dummy not work? I'm actually quite curious.

- James

Yeah i tried it and it didnt work.
And what else is weird about their combos is that they do a normal combo befor they do an attack than launches into the air, and when they launch they go really high, whereas even if i just make p2 do a reversal on wakeup and then do something with p1 e.g c.lp xx dp , player 2 will just launch as high as he normally does, only seems to make them fly really high if the first attack is the launcher one.

Looks like Tosaka is getting ready to release a new ST Combo Video DVD. I would ask him for more details, but it seems that his BBS died. No idea when it's going to be released, but he's going to be sticking to the console versions for this video. I wonder how much of it is going to be new and how much is going to be recycled. The screenshots definitely don't look new.

Hrm...maybe I'm just not seeing it, but I searched his site for a minute, and I couldn't any other info on the DVD. I'm not sure if it's going to be new material, or just a collection of his old stuff. All he says is "I finished the cover", with no mention of contents.

In another post, he says, "There are probably people who just want to see the combo exhibition on The Starting Over, but they don't wanna buy the DVD/book because it's expensive."

So I wonder if it's just going to be his combo video from The Starting Over?

Has TZW released his new video yet? I'd like to buy it if it's available anywhere.

Well...the thing about TZW is that he doesn't really "sell" his videos. He just circulates them among the Japanese SF players and combo enthusiasts. Luckily in this case we have a mole (ME!!), so I'll ask him what's good with gettin' that baby circulated outside of Japan.

I just realized he never replied to me with his thoughts on my ST Shenanigans video (maybe he hated it...?), so I guess I've got two reasons to shoot him an e-mail.

More e-hugs: adaki's BBS

Now we know adakino speaks English, or at least knows someone who does.

Crap. DARK-san paid me a compliment on youtube and I damn near wet myself.

I have no idea how to respond.

This is basically a 1000-to-1 longshot but can we find a way to contact the company that makes those programmable controllers? The web address on the box is http://www.ascii.co.jp/et which now redirects to http://asciimw.jp which also has a link to http://ascii.jp which seems to be their hardware department or maybe only their computer department. There's also a http://ascii-store.jp link but i have no clue how to navigate it.

Anyway, if we could find a couple of contact email addresses, it's worth a try to ask them if they have any of those ASCII Pad V Pro controllers in a warehouse somewhere. We could buy 10 of 'em and divvy them up amongst whoever wants (to buy) them.

Maj wrote:This is basically a 1000-to-1 longshot but can we find a way to contact the company that makes those programmable controllers? The web address on the box is http://www.ascii.co.jp/et

If you look all the way on the bottom, there are 5 links separated by | symbols. the 4th one, "お問い合わせ", means inquiries. It takes you to a javascript form that lets you send them questions, etc. The boxes are then: title, inquiry, name (last THEN first), email.

That was all just with the Rikaichan add-on for Firefox. Didn't really even need my bits of J-knowledge...which also means, I can't really help you write an inquiry; might have to take that up with NKI or a bilingual friend.

I don't mind translating, but a big-ass company like ASCII will certainly have at least one English-speaking person on-hand.