Now we're speaking my language...

I have two Big Blues (one originally SSF2, the other originally Alpha 2), a Z-Back, an old candy cab, and a HS-1 all running Hyper Fighting. I actually ran the Hyper Fighting tournament at CAX last year (and use to be on the EVO staff ). SF2 was also the first pinball I purchased, so I love me some SF2.

Which is better? Super Turbo > Hyper Fighting > the rest of the "II" series. One of ST's major flaws is that the AI is ridiculous, so some people throw down 200-300 bucks for the board and then are miserable when they don't have anyone to play with and can't make it two characters versus the CPU. Never allow a friend to ST alone...

I haven't fired up GGPO in forever, but if I really wanted to play ST and couldn't get people together to play, I would go that route. I find it is way more difficult to find good matches on HDR XBL/PSN than regular ST on GGPO (unless things changed in the last 6 months). On HDR: you blow someone up and they ragequit/hate mail ASAP OR you find someone good that is building a streak, you break the streak and they disappear forever.

The UD-CPS2 seems like a cool idea for people who want the authentic software, but are lacking on the hardware end (as in a SuperGun or JAMMA cabinet). I could also see doing up a few of these for ST for the sake of running a modern-friendly tournament, where playing with your own sticks and not on a cabinet has become the norm.

It's too bad that HDR didn't escape the ST porting curse. It's the best of the efforts to port ST, but the release didn't wind up becoming the end all, be all solution to getting the ST community to play on an accessible version of the game.

Oh well. There's always GGPO...