I have set upon myself a quest.

Growing up, I was a fighting game champ. Street Fighter 2 Turbo was my weapon of choice. My friends wouldn't play me in it, they got tired of being destroyed. I never dug into many of the other big 16 bit fighters, Mortal Kombat for instance.

Smash Bros on the N64 was my next obsession. I mastered that game quickly, learning the smash attacks and how to combo with items. I dabbled with some other fighters in between, some Tekken, Soul Caliber, Darkstalkers, (heck, I'll even admit to loving Clay Fighter). The movie theater I worked at got an old cabinet of Street Fighter 2, I used to stay hours after my late shift playing my coworkers on that thing, those were the days.

Then I discovered FPS, and PC gaming. My fighting game days seemed to disappear.

Fast forward to today, Street Fighter 4 is upon us. It's beautiful art style combined with the addition of new technical aspects on top of the classic SF2 gameplay made my mouth water, I HAD to get back into it. Unfortunately for me, the PC release was delayed until July, and I no longer buy current gen consoles.

Expo Icrontic 2009, Rolleggroll tells me he's bringing SF4. I get pumped. He shows up with his A game and his custom built arcade stick.

I get obliterated. No, not obliterated, absolutely DOMINATED. I mean, shameful, completely. That night, I made a decision. I needed to get back on top of my fighting game abilities, I was going to MASTER Street Fighter 4... and I was going to do it with a stick.

Inspired by Eggroll, I sat down with his stick and trained each day. Much to his (and others) frustration, I tried again, and again, and again, and struggled with sloppy stick handling and new game mechanics.

But I will master it.

I'm going to buy SF4 when it comes out on PC, and I'm buying a stick. As per Eggroll's suggestion, I'm buying the MadCatz SE joystick, and swapping out the parts for official arcade parts found at www.lizardlick.com. I'm grabbing a sanwa compatible stick with an 8-way octogon gate, and replacing the pushbuttons with Sanswa buttons.

It will be glorious. I just need to get the parts.

I'm tracking my progress loosely as I learn the game and the stick. Mark my words, I will be a fighting game champion again.

And Eggroll, at EPIC 2010, we shall fight, and ICHQ will crumble to the ground as our epic, storied rivalry meets it's wonderful bloody apex.

I cannot wait.