Street Fighter Alpha EX (Enhanced version)

[strygo]

Download and instructions at arcadepatches.com
Current version: rc3 (November 3, 2026)​

Street Fighter Alpha EX aims to be the definitive version of the first Alpha, bringing together features from its console releases and the CPS-1 Changer version. It builds on the regional restoration, with the hidden fighters on the select screen, six colors each, and a console-style menu for the extra modes and options.

What's in it​

• All thirteen fighters and Random on the select screen, including Akuma, Dan and M. Bison.
• Six colors per fighter. The original two are joined by four colors from Alpha 2. Pick with one of the six attack buttons.
• CONSOLE mode adds a green title and Arcade, Versus, Training, Dramatic Battle, Survival, Akuma and Options. Versus returns to fighter selection after each match.
• Training has recording and replay, computer behavior, stage and gauge controls. Health drops to show combo damage, stops at 1 HP, and refills after a delay.
• Dramatic Battle offers the classic Ryu and Ken encounter and an EX route against Adon, Sagat, M. Bison and Akuma. EX lets you choose your team; play with a computer teammate or two human players.
• Survival uses Alpha Anthology's opponent order and health recovery, with the refill animated during FIGHT.
• The original Akuma challenge is directly accessible from the mode menu, named Gouki in Japan.
• Options covers difficulty, timer, rounds, damage, speed and sound. Operator settings add the Console/Arcade choice, original or six colors, extended Turbo and slow speeds, and optional CPS Changer route selection in Arcade.
• Three builds: Street Fighter Alpha EX for USA, with the regional restoration's English story, quotes and endings; Street Fighter Zero EX for Japan, in Japanese; and Street Fighter Zero EX for Asia, in English.

Street Fighter Zero EX, Japan.

All thirteen fighters and Random on character select.

Ryu and Ken team up against Adon in EX Dramatic Battle.

Difficulty, timer, rounds, damage, speed and sound in OPTIONS.

Training with computer controls and recording.​

New in rc3​

• Fixed the corrupted SCORE RANKING heading, and set the default ranking initials to CHN for Chun-Li and CHL for Charlie in the USA and Asia builds.

New in rc2​

• Character-select and victory portraits now match your chosen fighter color, including the extra Alpha 2 colors.
• Simplified and centered Versus and Training setup: LP/START confirms from any setting; LK/Coin returns.
• Moved GAME MODE to the first row of EX CONFIGURATION and localized the Japanese EX menu and help.
• Added the console infinity symbol during unlimited Training practice.

Getting it running​

• Supply your own original Street Fighter Zero (Japan 950727) arcade romset, sfzj, and QSound device ROMs. The patch kit builds all three regions from these arcade inputs. No console disc is needed.
• It runs in MAME and HBMAME and on MiSTer. The kit writes MAME and HBMAME archives and MiSTer MRAs. Keep the original QSound firmware in the emulator ROM path.
• The MiSTer MRAs start in CONSOLE mode. MAME and HBMAME start in ARCADE mode; choose CONSOLE under GAME MODE in EX CONFIGURATION, then save and exit for the home-style menu.
• In Console fights, Coin or a START hold opens pause. Quit returns directly to the title.

Full instructions are on the project page.

This is a release candidate. Bug reports and suggestions are welcome. Tell me which build you ran and what you saw.

Fan work, unaffiliated with Capcom.

 

[Ipla]

Amazing work, Thanks so much for this patch. I honestly think this is the definitive version of Street Fighter Alpha. Absolutely fantastic!

 

[ShinMamoruX]

This is more like the complete edition of Street Fighter Alpha. I'm definitely enjoying this.

 

[ShinGouki94]

This is another incredible patch, can't believe you've crammed so much in. Any plans to release a HSF2ex, SFA3ex? I'd love to see the versus / console mode in those games too. Would love to see if it's possible to add to SSF2Tex too?

 

[Ipla]

Thanks for the new Street Fighter Alpha EX release, strygo! Nice to see this one continuing to evolve.

I also wanted to ask if you're planning to update or standardize the ROM naming for your FBNeo-supported releases at some point. I've noticed a few inconsistencies in how some of the sets and modified ROM files are currently named.

I put together a short naming guide for FBNeo/MAME hacks that might be useful as a reference. The idea is mainly to keep each hack clearly identifiable, rename modified ROMs consistently, preserve the original names for unchanged ROMs, and keep the parent/clone relationship clean.

I'm attaching it here in case it's useful for your future releases.

 

[strygo]

Thanks for the new Street Fighter Alpha EX release, strygo! Nice to see this one continuing to evolve.

I also wanted to ask if you're planning to update or standardize the ROM naming for your FBNeo-supported releases at some point. I've noticed a few inconsistencies in how some of the sets and modified ROM files are currently named.

I put together a short naming guide for FBNeo/MAME hacks that might be useful as a reference. The idea is mainly to keep each hack clearly identifiable, rename modified ROMs consistently, preserve the original names for unchanged ROMs, and keep the parent/clone relationship clean.

I'm attaching it here in case it's useful for your future releases.

Thanks for sharing. Yeah, unfortunately, people were adding these sets to FBNeo and renaming them in the process, so now there is divergence. I'll make sure the naming is friendly to both HBMAME+FBNeo going forward, but we'll have these split ones to deal with (unless we rename a bunch, which perhaps we should).

 

[Ipla]

Thanks for sharing. Yeah, unfortunately, people were adding these sets to FBNeo and renaming them in the process, so now there is divergence. I'll make sure the naming is friendly to both HBMAME+FBNeo going forward, but we'll have these split ones to deal with (unless we rename a bunch, which perhaps we should).

They're your hacks, so I think you should feel free to rename the ROMs however you think makes the most sense, just keeping FBNeo's naming conventions in mind so the sets remain consistent there as well.

Also, while testing SFA EX (FBNeo), I noticed a small issue with the title on the ranking screen. I've attached a screenshot so you can see what I mean.

 

[strygo]

They're your hacks, so I think you should feel free to rename the ROMs however you think makes the most sense, just keeping FBNeo's naming conventions in mind so the sets remain consistent there as well.

I've inventoried all the FBNeo sets and you can now emit them from the builders. For anything new I'll do, I'll make sure things are fbneo/hbmame friendly and I'll publish the sets directly to their tree so hopefully we'll have fewer deviations going forward.

I'll look into the other issue.

 

[strygo]

Street Fighter Alpha EX rc3 is a small update. It fixes the corrupted SCORE RANKING heading that @Ipla reported, and the default ranking initials are now CHN for Chun-Li and CHL for Charlie in the USA and Asia builds. Thanks for the report!

Download rc3 and instructions

Rebuild each region you use with the rc3 kit, or update the MiSTer MRAs. If you're coming from rc1, rc2 is included too: portraits now follow your chosen fighter color, Versus and Training setup is simpler, GAME MODE is the first row of EX CONFIGURATION, and Training shows the infinity symbol for unlimited practice. The first post lists both.

This is a release candidate; bug reports are welcome. Please include your region, platform and the steps to reproduce the problem.

 

[Ipla]

Thanks, @strygo ! sfaex rc3 is working fine in the FBNeo core.

Now I'm just waiting for Street Fighter Alpha 3 Double Upper... or maybe an EX version someday.