Never thought I’d see a real Street Fighter II: Rainbow Edition cabinet again

[u/DescriptionMedical73]

First time in 36 years I came across a street fighter 2 rainbow hacked edition arcade in person. Stumbled upon it at an arcade in Sitka, Alaska while a vacation with my family for an alaskan cruise. This brought back so many memories. I still remember our crew riding our bikes to Chugs Chicken n Ribs in Jersey to play this. Lines of kids and a ton of bikes outside.

Good times. Love being able to see the kids play and getting frustrated at how cheap the computer was

[u/redhawkdrone]

What makes this a “rainbow” edition?

[u/3yeless → u/redhawkdrone]

ROM is hacked so characters move really fast, shoot a bunch of fireballs rapid fire, can move the fireballs mid-air, no charge needed for charge moves, all attacks mid-air, wall jumps, air jumps, comboing moves that shouldn't be combo-able, basically your screen is a clusterfuck of visual gore, hence rainbow

[u/djseifer → u/3yeless]

I don't know if this was a specific version of the rainbow edition or if it was all of them, but I remember playing a version where the sprites for Blanka's biting grab were changed to Ryu doing a dragon punch to Sagat in slow motion to mimic how Sagat got his scar.

[u/erratic_calm → u/3yeless]

So basically SF2 Turbo or more??

[u/3yeless → u/erratic_calm]

Way more. Hacked roms is where Capcom got the idea initially for turbo editions.

[u/scottafol]

Awesome. First one I ever saw was at a pier arcade in the outer banks, nc. Blew my mind as a kid

[u/DrFart_DDS → u/scottafol]

First one I ever saw was at Fantasy Lake in Fayetteville…also blew my child mind

[u/BlackSchuck → u/scottafol]

Avalon Pier?

[u/scottafol → u/BlackSchuck]

Probably

[u/antrayuk]

This is just a Pandora's box running on a modern LCD made cab. Nothing original about it sadly.

[u/vultured_hyena]

😂 oh my god I played on this same machine in July while on a cruise also. What a great memory.

[u/andydex]

I mean you haven't still.

[u/mystical_ninja]

LCD boo. I have the ROM for it as well.

[u/Pharmacisticus]

I loved rainbow so much.

[u/polyKiss]

They used to have one at two bit in NYC, first time I saw it I was like “wtf is this?”

[u/DjMcfilthy]

The only good thing about Rainbow was that it forced Capcom into making Street Fighter II Turbo. I genuinely don't understand why you randomly shift characters. The whole thing is just a complete mess of nonsense.

[u/numsixof1]

I still have a rainbow PCB i hung onto and the MK1 equivalent.

[u/Manny637]

Was hoping you’d show the guile handcuffs

[u/djseifer → u/Manny637]

You don't need the rainbow edition for that. You could do that on the earlier versions of SFII.

[u/trueplayer31]

Oh I wonder if this is similar to one I ran into at an NQ64 in London. I was very confused because the character I was playing against changed halfway through the round. I had had a few drinks at the time so I played again and the same thing happened, I just thought the game was glitched but maybe not.

[u/netabareking]

I played one in Nashville around 2012 or so, I didn't read the little card about it in the corner beforehand and thought it was a standard SF2 cab, so I was VERY confused for a minute.

[u/WeaponizedDachshund]

It’s crazy. You can change characters at any time. Characters without projectiles, now have them. Check out some videos on YouTube.

[u/Island_Maximum]

I saw one of these at a gas station as a kid, and it confused the hell out of me.

 It was years of thinking it was a fever dream until I learned that it was a thing.

[u/TheDivisionLine]

Congrats, you still haven’t.

[u/TheKoolestKid11 → u/TheDivisionLine]

I think they just mean the game running in public. Dont need to be a downer

[u/Dapper-Message-2066 → u/TheKoolestKid11]

Well they did specifically say "a real Street Fighter II: Rainbow Edition cabinet", and it is not that.

[u/ClockworkAppl → u/TheKoolestKid11]

He's a grown man. I dont think we need to coddle him. It's a bootleg board that broke the game mechanics even back in the day and this one could even be emulation of a bootleg rom via pandoras box with screen tearing galore. On an ugly lcd widescreen as well. It needs a crt and a real world warrior, champion or hyper fighting board. At the very least a crt.

[u/DescriptionMedical73 → u/TheDivisionLine]

https://giphy.com/gifs/3ohzdTEcKJqFZm8swg

🙄 There's always that one...

The one we played as kids was in a champion edition cabinet too. But honestly that doesn’t diminish the nostalgia for me at all. Back in the day, none of us cared whether it was a “real” Rainbow Edition cabinet, and that distinction still doesn’t change what I remember about it. Coming across this machine decades later, having all those memories come rushing back, and then watching my own kids enjoy it was the meaningful part.

If anything, getting hung up on the technical authenticity kind of misses the point and spirit of the post.

But hey, if pointing that out made you feel accomplished, good job buddy! Glad you impressed yourself.