Street Fighter 2 is one of those games that people refer to as highly influential but nobody ever explains how or why this influence was so far reaching and why its still used as the fighting game yardstick. Street Fighter 2 is said to have extended the life of the international arcade game industry by several years. It generated levels of obsession not seen before and caused crowds to gather round the machine at arcades or in South Africa’s case , at corner shops
2Bop draws inspiration primarily from games that were popular in South Africa at corner shops and arcades in the1980’s and early 1990’s when gameplay was key and graphics if they were good were an added bonus. Disadvantaged areas during apartheid South Africa had little to offer in terms of exposure to cutting edge international design or computer technology but the bootleg arcade games that used twenty cent pieces (a 2Bop) to play at the corner shop were a window into what was happening in the outside world. These games granted access to excellent electronic entertainment and exposed the 2Bop crew to intuitive and engaging interface design, game design, graphic and sound design primarily from Japan and North America. And so began a long fascination with the medium that shows no signs of stopping.