A Rare VHS From Data East & Capcom’s ‘Fighter’s History’ Trial Has Been Found

Fighter's History
Image: Data East

A rare VHS created for the historic court battle between Data East and Capcom over Fighter’s History has recently been unearthed by the current EGM Media editor and former Game Fan editor Mollie Patterson.

The news was shared over on the social media website Blue Sky, where Patterson wrote, “HOLY F**K I THINK I FOUND IT. ‘It’ being GameFan’s copy of one of the exhibit tapes that Data East produced for Capcom’s lawsuit again[st] them over Fighter’s History.”

In case you’re not up to date on your fighting game history (or are in need of a refresher), back in the early ’90s, Capcom’s Street Fighter II was dominating the arcades, inspiring a wave of copycats to follow in its wake. For the most part, Capcom chose the route of ignoring many of these knock-offs that were brought to the market simply to try and capitalize on Street Fighter II’s success, but one, in particular, seemed to get under the skin of the (then) president Kenzo Tsujimoto, causing the Japanese company to initiate legal proceedings.

That game was Data East’s 1993 fighting game Fighter’s History, which had referenced Street Fighter II repeatedly in its initial design documents, and featured several characters and moves that were similar to those seen in Street Fighter II (such as Liu Fei-Lin who was described as a “Chun Li clone”).

The dispute ended up going to court in 1994, but, in the end, Capcom was unsuccessful in seeking damages from Data East, with the court deciding that anything that Data East did take from Capcom wasn’t copyrightable and that the game could be sold without issue.

The VHS seems to contain comparisons between Street Fighter II’s characters and those seen in Fighter’s History, judging from the label, and represents an interesting artifact from the important trial.

According to Patterson, the plan is to digitize its content, with the editor posting a teaser on the social media platform, which you can see above.

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