TL;DR
Three days before Street Fighter II shipped, lead graphic designer Akiman found the subtitle misspelled as "World Warrier." Because the artwork tiles were already burned into the CPS-1 GFX ROM, he improvised by reusing and overlapping existing tiles and switching palettes to visually convert the mistaken letters into an acceptable 'i.' Later releases replaced the tiles properly.
What happened
Akiman, the lead graphic designer on Street Fighter II, discovered the subtitle on the game's logo had been misspelled as "World Warrier" just three days before the deadline. By that point the game's graphics (GFX) ROM had already been burned, so individual tile art could not be rewritten. The CPS-1 hardware draws tiles from GFX ROM and cannot alter them, but the 68000 CPU could still control draw calls and palette selection. Akiman located the logo on sheet 0x7B00 and identified the 16 tiles used to render it. He removed three trailing tiles and substituted two others to approximate the intended character shape, producing "Warrlor." To turn the leftover 'l' into an 'i', he exploited an unrelated tile (0x96 from Guile's calves) and the CPU's ability to apply different palettes: by drawing that tile with the logo palette and issuing three overlapping draw commands, he effectively cut the top of the 'l' and produced a dot-like shape. Later versions of the game contain a proper "IOR" tile set, though the subtitle itself was later superseded by other releases.
Why it matters
- Illustrates how software and hardware constraints on arcade boards forced creative, last-minute fixes.
- Shows the practical use of palette control and draw-call tricks when tile graphics were immutable.
- Provides a documented example of how a tiny visual workaround can become part of a game's public history.
- Highlights the interplay between ROM burning processes and late-stage changes during development.
Key facts
- Akiman, Street Fighter II's lead graphic designer, found the typo three days before the shipping deadline.
- The error read "World Warrier" in the game's subtitle.
- CPS-1 hardware draws tiles directly from a GFX ROM; those tiles cannot be altered by the video hardware.
- GFX ROM and the 68000 instruction ROM are burned separately; the CPU could still change draw behavior.
- The logo is located on sheet 0x7B00 and was drawn via 16 draw calls using tiles 0xC8–0xCF and 0xD8–0xDF.
- Akiman dropped tiles 0xDD–0xDF and reused 0xCD and 0xCE to approximate the correct letters, creating "Warrlor."
- Tile 0x96 (from Guile's calves) was repurposed with a palette change so one pixel could act as a drawing pencil.
- Palette index 14 differs between Guile's palette and the logo palette, letting the repurposed tile appear in the logo's color.
- A sequence of three overlapping draw commands using tile 0x96 produced a small cut that made the 'l' look like an 'i'.
- Later releases included a corrected "IOR" tile set, though the subtitle later changed to other versions like "Champion Edition."
What to watch next
- Look for the corrected "IOR" tiles in later Street Fighter II revisions to compare how the logo was ultimately fixed.
- Not confirmed in the source: whether the same palette-and-overlap technique was used elsewhere in CPS-1 titles.
- Not confirmed in the source: whether any surviving arcade PCBs contain the original unpatched "World Warrier" artwork.
Quick glossary
- CPS-1: An arcade hardware platform that renders graphics by drawing pre-made tiles from ROM; used by Capcom for several arcade games.
- GFX ROM: A read-only memory chip that stores the graphic tiles and sprite data used by the video hardware; typically not changeable after burning.
- 68000 (CPU): A microprocessor used in many arcade systems that issues drawing commands and controls palettes and game logic.
- Tile: A small rectangular graphic unit assembled by the hardware into larger images on screen; many tiles combine to form sprites or logos.
- Palette: A set of color entries that the hardware uses to map pixel values in a tile to actual display colors; palette selection can alter a tile's visible hues.
Reader FAQ
Who discovered the typo and when?
Akiman, the game's lead graphic designer, noticed the misspelling three days before the shipping deadline.
Why couldn't the artwork simply be changed?
Noted in the source: the graphic tiles were already burned into the GFX ROM, which the video hardware reads directly and cannot modify.
How was the typo fixed without editing the GFX ROM?
Akiman substituted and overlapped existing tiles and used a repurposed tile (0x96) drawn with a different palette in overlapping draw calls to reshape letters visually.
Was the logo later corrected?
The source states that later versions included tiles with a proper "IOR" sequence, though the subtitle was later replaced by other edition names.
FABIEN SANGLARD'S WEBSITE CONTACT RSS DONATE Dec 23, 2021 STREET FIGHTER II, THE WORLD WARRIER This article is part of a series about Street Fighter II and the CPS-1. It…
Sources
- Street Fighter II, the World Warrier (2021)
- Capcom once fixed a typo in Street Fighter 2: The World …
- Street Fighter II – 1991 Developer Interview
- It sounds dumb but they really fixed a typo with a human leg
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