An Endangered Legacy
Fighting Games and netplay are not very friendly with one another. The amount of focus and precision needed to excel is normally compromised by the limitations of playing online. This makes local multiplayer the tournament standard, which coincidentally also keeps the arcade roots of this community alive. In the wake of Covid-19, however, the competitive community has been left in shambles. With both major and minor tournaments cancelled, players have been forced to adapt to netplay to keep their hobby alive. While modern day titles such as Granblue Fantasy: Versus and Mortal Kombat 11 are made with the complications of online play in mind, older titles made before the boom of online gaming find themselves in a questionable position.
Titles such as Street Fighter 3: 3rd Strike, Super Street Fighter 2: Turbo and Capcom Vs. SNK 2 are all games that have dedicated followings to this day. Fan-favorite Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 was to make its grand re-entry into the tournament circuit by being featured at the Evo Championship series, the premier international tournament for the community at large. With the current state of affairs caused by this nefarious virus, these games have seemingly met with a terrible fate. Though there is a light at the end of this tunnel, and one man and his team are providing hope for those who want to keep their favorite games alive.
Here Comes A New Challenger!
Bevan Piercy, or BevP902 as he is known on Discord, has been running the CapNet Club for almost 2 years. Normally the service he provides within his server is a niche one, providing a place to play older fighting games online. Though now he finds himself and his Discord server a rare oasis to the eager fighting gamer who is thirsty for competition in these classic titles.
Duel Screens caught up with Bev on Discord to talk his Club’s origins, the future and how this global pandemic has affected his humble Discord server. Check out the interview below:
Thorne Stone of Duel Screens: What made you start the Capnet Club?
Bevan Piercy: Being 21 and growing up being the youngest of 5 my brothers and sisters, we were fortunate enough to receive Playstaion 1 and Sega Megadrive consoles that came bundled with Street Fighter 2. We had a lot of time to sit, play, and compete with one another. I just started really thinking about these memories both good and bad, thinking about good times we had growing up and how much fun we had playing these classic games. When my cousin later gave me his old Pentium 3 computer I shortly discovered the actual CPS1 and CPS2 (Capcom Play System) versions of these games and I immediately started playing using the keyboard. I had such a blast going back and playing these old games! Which made me then pass on the emulators to my friends and we got really competitive at school lunchtimes emulating these games. So in short, fond memories of growing up and with my early experience of playing online using Kaillera, although really really rough being stuck on Wifi at the time, had so much fun playing the Alpha games and losing badly.
DS: Oh man Kaillera! That’s a blast from the past. Next question, how did you get the netplay up and running?
BevP902: Yeah I really wanted to relieve those memories and make a group so that I could meet more people with similar experiences, whether from arcade tournaments or playing Xbox Live back when it started. With the netplay side and emulator side, I just spent a lot of time playing around with the build of PCSX2 netplay made by Alex Sharoff. My goal was to make using the emulator and netplay as easy as possible, which I feel I have achieved by making a downloadable package that I had setup. Meaning that it was as “plug n play” as it could be. It was also important to me to have full save files so people could jump in and play their favorite characters. The titles I selected came mainly from fond memories and watching old tournament footage and XBL footage. So Hyper Street Fighter II was a big one for me, because my brother and I played it all the time! Played a lot of Marvel vs. Capcom 2 when I was 9 and then later 3rd Strike on my pc. The main drawback is that only certain titles run on PCSX2 netplay due to it being sorta in beta stages, but I guess with my online testing I got very lucky. And it also works because the people want to play these games competitively online, the demand is strong for Marvel 2 and Capcom Vs. SNK 2 especially!
DS: You’ve done a great job making the entire experience streamlined and accessible to anyone who wants to try it out! This is especially true with the current Covid-19 situation. Speaking of that, this situation has rocked the fighting game community. As a competitor, do you feel as though netplay will become the standard for competitive play due to this crisis?
BevP902: That’s another interesting thing as well I think, people think I’ve kinda taken advantage of the situation by making this group but I’ve actually been running it for a year and a half now. But if this can bring people some entertainment and amusement in this tough crisis then I’m all for it. On the topic of netplay, for now I think it could be, I mean I couldn’t hold a candle to the performance of Xbox Live, PSN and Steam online. But this is a fun little diversion, and because of the accessibility and ease of setup I think it’s attracting people to the group along with the community side and friendliness. We’ve actually been working on something new with designs and emulators to bring something fresh to the group and really update the online play. I haven’t mentioned it to many but we’re very excited about it.
DS: That does sound exciting! It was surprising to see a frame delay based netcode. Was that something that was in the original code or did you come up with that angle?
BevP902: Yeah that was in the original code, Alex Sharoff worked on and studied about making and designing it all using a document he found. We did try to speak to him about possibly coming to Capnet Club and working on developing his netcode further to improve it but he sadly declined. I was looking to pay a developer and do have some people interested in working on the netcode, but we’re yet to have those conversations. For now though, we might be making a switch to another emulator. Even though the utility is familiar from what I mentioned earlier, with modern fast speed connections it runs very very well. With little to no delay.
DS: That is amazing. You have a lot in the works! Currently, your offering of supported titles is robust and caters to many different types of fighting game player. What titles can we expect to see with the next step?
BevP902: We’re hoping to be offering Street Fighter Alpha 3 Upper, Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo, and Capcom vs SNK 1 to the main line up as well as more arcade accurate versions of the current titles for online play. If testing goes well, I imagine people will be very excited to play as it’s in high demand to play those games. We’re considering racing titles and maybe some Namco fighting games. We also want to offer the very best versions of these titles along with others currently supported, such as optimal versions of MVC2 and CVS2. We are very excited, but we’re waiting to see how long we keep the name of Capnet Club, the name I originally came up with and my buddy helped me design the logo for the group. At the moment I’m working with another member in the group who I’ve known since the start, it’s why I’ve made him admin as he has been such a huge support and help.
DS: After all this, let’s talk about you. Who is the man behind the Capnet Club?
BevP902: My name is Bev, born and raised in Essex in the UK but moved to the county called Suffolk. I work a full time job just like everyone else, but with a passion for these old games I really just wanted to make a community who shared the same interests in these games as me. We’re doing something new and who knows who is watching. I was very surprised to see some vets form the Fighting Game Community viewing my work and a couple had joined my Discord. So if all goes well this will really bring in the people with our next update and rebrand.
DS: It’s a great thing you are doing. In this uncertain time, it’s great that you are preserving these old games for everyone to enjoy. Thanks a lot for your time!
BevP902: Thank you very much for your time as well! It has been brilliant talking to you.
