                ---===| SF2IBM Hyper Fighting Edition!  |===---

SFLIU200.ZIP
Version 2.00
Released Jan 19, 1994
by Derek Liu
Assistant Brian Chan


                            --==| CONTENTS |==--


    1   -   INTRODUCTION
    2   -   NEW FEATURES
    3   -   AUTHOR'S NOTES
    4   -   SPECIAL THANKS (CREDITS)
    5   -   NO THANKS TO... (TERMS and CONDITIONS)
    6   -   THINGS TO COME
    7   -   ADDRESS TO CONTACT


1.                        --==| INTRODUCTION |==--

    Okay, a bit of technical notes first, SFLIU V2.00 now runs independently
by itself, so don't unzip it in your existing SF2 directory or you'll be
sorry! (when you see 12 megs reported in your SF2 directory :)
The reason for this is that so many different things were changed that
with respect to filesize, it wasn't worth releasing just a patch; by
releasing the entire game the extra size was negligible.  Future patches 
from us will probably require SFLIU V2.00 to run.

    What is SFLIU? Well it all started when Derek Liu (that's me!) got very
bored at work and decided to work on something that will make the SF2 game
more fun.  I first worked on fixing some bugs, then I went on fixing the speed
and timing of some normal and special moves on the game, as Brian Chan (my
faithful assistant) had noticed the great improvements I've made (hee hee) and
suggested that my changes should be released for others to share.  And so I
continued working, added in special moves found in the Capcom's SF2 Hyper
Fighting game, aligned the frames of each character so they don't float and
bounce, adjusted the hit range of different moves, and after 150 hours of work,
the patch is almost ready to be released, Brian then help me out on Beta
testing the patch, and soon after it was released to the hundreds which enjoyed
SFLIU version 1.0. Then came version 1.1 and version 2.0 Alpha for SF2IBM 1.96.

    The hundreds of responses from different people had explained to me that
I had reached my goal of creating a quality patch for this wonderful game.
Their words are also the energy which drove me on to making my recent patch,
SFLIU version 2.00, and this time Brian had also help out on improving the
patch after knowing more about the format of the SF2IBM files too.
Thanks guys!

P.S. - Brian, thanks for the preliminary docs! (as usual)


2.                         --==| NEW FEATURES |==--

- NEW GRAPHICS
    Yup, the opening of this new SF2 might surprise some of you guys. All the
portraits had been rescanned!  Then there's the new title, new backgrounds, and
new graphics added to different characters!  Without Ben Cantrick, I might
still be wondering how to edit the face files and the new graphics.  Thanks.

- BALROG
    Balrog is here!  To my surprise this new character is actually played
pretty close to the arcade.  He is a new character so there might be need of
some fine tuning.  If there are need of any you'll see them in version 2.10.

- SMARTER COMPUTER
    With even better use of the KEY and SEQ files, I had made yet another
breakthrough in the computer's AI technology! :) Not only that there are more
computer combos and patterns done compared to version 1, but the combos are
more interactive and the computer will do more combos while slamming less!
Exprienced patch makers can see the changes in the KEY and SEQ files.

- GAMEPLAY
    As usual, one SFLIU is better than the other!  This new version has now
corrected even more hit ranges and aligned more moves and frames.  And many
moves might have the same frame (which look the same) but now have different
hit ranges.  Try Honda's standing kicks to see what I mean.

- NEW SOUNDS
    A few little sounds are made here and there. Enjoy.

    An informative text file on all the changes made between 2.00 Alpha and
Version 2.00 is included named as "SFCHANGE.TXT", courtesy of Brian Chan!



3.                        --==| AUTHOR'S NOTES |==--

    Version 1.96 of SF2IBM came as quite a surprise all right, offering some
wonderful improvements, while introducing a whole bunch of new bugs here and
there!  Ah what a head scratcher, overall version 1.96 is less fun if you're
combo oriented (like all advanced players) and that's a real pain.  All of my
own complains on the EXE limitations are listed below, so first, on to what
I like.

    This new SF2 now lets me put more than 400 sequence frames defined inside
the SEQ file. Hurray, that means more refined moves and more computer combos!

    And of course, who would forget about the new bosses and new VOC added to
the game?

    The new graphics had almost killed me for spending so much time for them,
basically I've spent about 60 hours alone just on the graphics!  Well, now with
more experiences things will progress faster, if I reall decided to work on
new graphics anymore. . .

    Little play testing had been done to the game because of all the time spent
on editing the graphics.  But believe me Brian and I've still spent a great
deal of time play testing.  Remember to report any bugs!

    And Brian says: "Derek and I both apologize for the late release of the
V2.00 patch.  However, the last academic semester was murder for the both
of us.  In addition, there were many unforeseen delays, as well as Derek's
5 week vacation in Taiwan, and my 4 month work term for NRC in Ottawa.  
All of these factors slowed work on the patch to a crawl.  Hopefully, the
summer should give us both the time to finish all the work we planned to do,
as well as provide us with the time for proper play testing.

    Also, due to the above reasons, the 2 FAQ's that I maintain will not be
released in V2.00, probably in V2.10."

    As usual everything is in english.  Thanks to Stan Warmen for first editing
the EXE out!  Or else expect yet another week of delay on this patch!

    This time, I would like to announce that nobody should take any material
out of our patch.  Reasons explained in the "No Thanks" section below.

    As usual there are always this'n that which doesn't match the "real thing",
it's due to the fact that either it can't be done or I've changed things
around because SF2IBM behaves differently.

    Even today neither me nor anyone I've know of could actually get in touch
with the original author.  I really hope that I can talk to the original
author of SF2IBM some day.  ):-)

    Again, here are the list of SOME of the limitations in the EXE file which
I cannot change, and of which gave me a lot of trouble:

 1. Computer can do ground slams in the air!  Resulting the coputer floating
    in the air from time to time...
 2. One can slam whever one is on the ground! No matter if you're getting
    hit or lying down!  (Note that I've made a stupid little change so you
    can't slam while the other person's lying down.)
 3. The game do not slow down when it's playing VOC files, making combos
    REALLY hard to do! Arggghhhh!  (try running EMS when playing the game,
    it helps seldemly.)
 4. No ending, I've tried but it won't play, too bad . . .
 5. KEY files cannot exceed a small number of lines or the game will crash.
 6. Cannot adjust vulnerable range!
 7. Cannot specify a move in the air without the person "floating" down to
    the ground (so I've got to take air-cyclone away...)
 8. Cannot specify a hit flag so jumping jab couldn't last for whole jump,
    Blanka's roll cannot bounce back, etc.
 9. Cannot adjust dizzy power of moves.
10. Cannot have "real" charge moves. I know how to do it but the character
    loses his charge once a button is pressed, or if he/she jumps...not to
    mention Guile cannot jump and charge in time for his combos...I prefer
    having better gameplay instead.
11. Characters can overlap, so many changes were made regarding hit ranges...
12. SEQ entries are limited to around 550, although it's not as much as
    a problem as it was before.

    And Brian says: "The offer of a free update of the SFLIU patch for knowing
where SFU is, is now officially over. :)"


4.                        --==| SPECIAL THANKS |==--

    Thanks again to Ben Cantrick for his knowledge on how the RE files and R
files work, and his converters for editing the graphics in SF2.  More thanks
goes to Chan Chee Meng and the guys in PuRpLe FuStRaTiOn plus many others
which made some valuable suggestions on improving the patch.  Also, thanks a
bunch to Stan Warmen for his help through out the patch here and there,
you'll see their names again in "SFCHANGE.TXT".

    This was in the V1.0 doc, thanks to the person (Dodger?) who first released
the English SF190.EXE and CHARACT.SF2!  Other thanks go to Brian, Kee, and
James for their support and their beta testing!?  Also, thanks go to whoever
(Rucky?) who made the first DALSIM.IDE (Dhalsim) file.


5.                      --==| AND NO THANKS TO... |==--

    I greatly appreciated all the help from my dearest fans which wrote to me
concerning how to improve my patch.  But there are always some "fans" of mine
which took a step further, basically those guys just copy everything from our
patch, made a few bytes of changes and/or add a few VOC files, and simply name
the patch as his. (By the way Stan did not do this, others, which I would not
even care to mention, did that.)  Till today I still haven't seen anyone
reading a book, found a spelling mistake, correct it and call himself the
author of the book itself.  Maybe I should make my points more clear in my old
doc.  I said feel free to use materials for references, but in these cases many
are simply doing straight forward copying.  Now that's sad . . .

    Some other extraordinary people even did a simple search and replace on the
text files and change all appearances of "Derek Liu" and "Brian Chan" to his
own name and released his "own" patch.  And that had drew the line, from then
on I decided to simply state that no one can take any material from our patch.
This might sound selfish to many of you, believe me this idea sounds selfish
even to myself, but it hurts even more to see worthless patches out there.  I
enjoy playing other patches with different gameplay and special moves, but
certainly NOT another one of my patch with what? A few "newly recorded" VOCs???

And Brian says:
    "No part of the SFLIU patches may be used in another SF2IBM patch without
permission from either Derek or myself.  We're sorry to have to do this, as
it hurts any legitimate patchmakers out there.  However, before, we had given
permission for the patch to be used as a starting-off point for another patch,
and the amount of people abusing this privilege was unbelievable.  At one
point, we were considering not even releasing the 2.0 patch to the public at
all.  As for the people trying to pass off our work as their own, you know who
you are ..."

    Enough of the sad stuff, enjoy the patch!  Let the fun last so don't kill
off the computer with your killer combo everytime! :)

6.                       --==| THINGS TO COME |==--

Things to come (hopefully!) in SFLIU 2.1:  (Expected release date:  July 1994)

-Vega!
-More new graphics and character frames!


7.   --==| Questions? Comments? Complaints? Suggestions? Bug reports? |==--

If you're in the (604) area, mail to:

                Lancer (Derek Liu) on Prototype Generation BBS
                          Derek Liu on Basic'ly BBS
                                    or to
          Brian Chan on PuRpLe FuStRaTiOn BBS (604 dist site for SFLIU)
                   Brian Chan on Dillinger's Cavern BBS

Better yet, if you have Internet access, mail to:

                        deliu@unixg.ubc.ca (Derek Liu)
                          chanav@sfu.ca (Brian Chan)

Remember that we check E-mail much more often, and either way both me and
Brian will get to read your message, so you only have to send in one copy.

Also note that Brian will not be back in Vancouver until the end of April,
so local e-mail on the aforementioned BBS's wouldn't do much good, eh?
Of course, Internet e-mail still works.  

Feedback is welcomed and encouraged!!!  Have fun!!!

            
                                                       Derek Liu + Brian Chan,
                                                       January 19, 1994.

