The Shirt Off His Back
Nothing to gain and everything to lose.
Winner stays on.Loser walks away.
A kid from a broken home finds refuge in the most unlikely place of all, a video game. Fifteen years later he's on a stage in Las Vegas as the Street Fighter II world champion, about to face the greatest player alive.
In the arcade, the winner stays on and the loser walks away. You didn't have a screen to hide behind. You were sitting next to someone, shoulder to shoulder, and if they were bigger than you, that could be a problem. It was like the UFC for video games. If you lose, you lose your money.
The Fight Is All goes inside the arcade fighting-game scene of the '90s: Milpitas Golfland, where a hundred players ran the same broken character and thirty guys once waited in the parking lot. Sunnyvale, the mecca, where five players could have been number one anywhere else. Liquor-store machines at a quarter a play. Crews, cheap wins, real fights, and the unwritten rules that held it all together.
It's a memoir first and a game book second: two brothers, the code of the arcade, and what it takes to be the best in the world for one day. Written for the players who were there, and for readers who have never touched a joystick.
It doesn't matter how old you are, how much money you have, who your parents are. The only thing that matters is how good you are.
