Issue 093
October 2012
UFC featherweight and video game enthusiast Antonio Carvalho is a danger to anyone inside the Octagon, but when it comes to gaming he’s truly on another level They say you never forget your first games machine. What was yours?
“My dad was always a tech guy growing up. I was born in Canada so originally it was the Atari 2600. When I was about three or four I remember my dad having all these games in a suitcase and playing Space Invaders and Defender and Pac-Man and then later going to the arcades. It was always a dream looking at those big machines and I always wanted one like everyone else. My first computer was the Atari 800XL. I used to play all the classics like Bruce Lee and Bounty Bob, but when I moved to Portugal I got into the ZX Spectrum and that’s where I played all the Ultimate games, Robocop and Chase HQ – which was a great conversion.”
That’s quite the impressive lineage. Where did you go next?
“I eventually got a Commodore Amiga and I still love them to this day. I still have an Amiga 500+, a regular 500 and a modified Amiga 2000 with an old PC 386 board in it. I had a NES at that time and I was playing a lot of Super Mario Bros. 3, but I remember going to a friend’s house and he had an Amiga and I played Pang, Blades of Steel and Fire and Ice. I never stopped playing the Amiga, even through the 16-bit generation. Eventually I got a Genesis and a SNES but I never stopped playing Amiga because there were so many quality titles.”
The SNES and Genesis really started taking over when the arcade ports came along to back up their traditional franchises like Mario and Sonic. Was it one of these games that made you buy a 16-bit console eventually?
“Yeah it was Street Fighter 2. It’s probably what made most people buy a SNES at that point. US Gold’s version on the Amiga was just butchered and as soon as I played the World Warrior I just knew I had to pick a SNES up. It was the Treasure games like Gunstar Heroes that made me buy a Genesis, but I was really into this Nintendo magazine called Super Play. It was UK-based and they covered a lot of cool import stuff and adventure games, especially like the Final Fantasy series.”
Where next then? PC or 32/64-bit consoles?
“Both, really. I had a PC powerful enough to play Doom, which was all that mattered at that point, and I got hold of a Saturn and a PlayStation finally but I think at that point the PC had become a lifestyle accessory and they were in everyone’s houses.”
That sounds quite impressive. What’s the jewel in the crown of your gaming collection, then?
“My Neo Geo. That thing’s the holy grail of machines. I picked up one when I came back to Canada for $100 with two of the huge arcade stick controllers. There’s something about that machine that’s so special. The 2D graphics on that thing still stand apart. I’ve still got the Neo Geo Pocket, Neo Geo CD and a PC Engine. SNK will always be my weakness, I think.”
QUICK FIRE
Three games on a desert island?
“Strider, King of the Fighters 95, Bubble Bobble.”
Sonic or Mario?
“Both.”
Ryu or Ken?
“Ryu.”
Sega or Nintendo?
“Both!”
Castlevania or Metroid?
“Castlevania.”
Separated at birth
Fei-Long and Vaughan Lee
Vaughan Lee may not have the ability to set his leg on fire on command – not that we’ve seen anyhow – but his resemblance to fellow martial artist Fei Long is more than striking.
Both Lee and Long enjoy professional fisticuffs, flying round the world to throw down and, more commendably, embody the spirit of martial arts tradition.
Video Game History of MMA: streets of rage 2
Streets of Rage 2 saw a band of fighters – on a mission to rescue a kidnapped friend – punch, kick, grapple and submit their way to super villain Mr Big’s mansion. There were fights with boxers, Thai fighters and robots along the way but one particularly dominant wrestler always seemed to present a huge unmovable problem.
The stranglehold that wrestlers have imposed on the development of modern-day mixed martial arts can never be overlooked. Mark Coleman’s era-defining tactic of mixing takedowns, head-butts and smothering control soon became the preferred modus operandi for diffusing explosive strikers.
If more folks would have referred to Axel Stone’s in-cage debut against dominant grappler Abadede, however, the results could have been very different indeed.
Stone used the distance game, coupled with knees and uppercuts to ensure the wrestler never got near him. It’s always easy when you know the answers, though.
LAUZON’S BEST BITS
UFC lightweight contender Joe Lauzon shares the latest from his life in video games...
Lauzon on: Skills to pay the bills
“You had to develop gaming skills through hours of practice with early games. You couldn’t check YouTube and see how other people had done it or anything like that. I spent forever memorizing the disappearing blocks on Fireman’s level on Megaman and I could tell you exactly the order that those things were going to appear in. That took forever but the first time you got it right it was all worth it.”
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