Five easy pieces

Now that I have my own machine, and that I get the chance to play uninterrupted, I've been able to give more thought to some of those little mysteries I've always noticed but have never been able to really explain. Here are three realizations I've come up with that could be useful in competitive play.

Why does a normal throw come out when I'm trying to SPD?
I noticed this one when I first started playing T. Hawk back in college. Every so often I'd get that stupid fierce grab instead of a SPD when I was sure I was doing it right. I'm sure this happens to everyone. What's going on?
My theory is that you are ending your SPD in the forward or back direction, and that you are simply in range of your normal throw. Since the command for a throw is joystick towards (or back) plus punch, that means that if you do your 360 motion on the stick in such a manner that in ends in towards (or back), you're inputting the command for both a 360 and a normal throw. The easiest way to avoid this confusion is to simply make sure your joystick motion ends in defensive crouch. Note that this doesn't help Zangief, who has a down+punch grab. Another reason to play Hawk!

Why does a jump come out when I'm trying to SPD?
As in the situation described above, the problem is that the joystick is ending in the wrong position. If the stick is in any one of the toward jump, neutral jump, or back jump positions, you have a good chance of jumping if you press the button too early or too late. Just avoid this problem by ending in defensive crouch.

Why can I walk up SPD with a button press but not a button release?
This one was driving me nuts. I simply can't do a walk up, spin the joystick, and release punch to get an SPD. I get a jump, every single time. But when I walk up, spin the joystick, and press punch, an SPD comes out. Why? My theory is that when you press the button, a punch starts coming out for a few frames before it is interrupted into an SPD. This grounds your character for those crucial frames! When you do a button release, there is nothing to keep you on the ground as soon as the joystick hits up. So if I'm right, this means that the walk up SPD command is more like:

towards, down towards, down, back, down back, back, press punch, back up, up, up forward, release punch.

Why do some guiles charge faster than others?
This I just figured out today. Maybe it's old news to some, but it was news to me! It will definitely help in competitive matchups. I found out while experimenting with Dee Jay that you can do a sonic boom with the following motion:

back, forward, back, punch

instead of the usual

back, forward, punch

This doesn't seem like a lot, but it makes a difference. In the latter example, you go back to charging as soon as your sonic boom is released. But in the former example, you are charging before the sonic boom is released. This gives you those few extra frames needed to get your next boom out before the other guy.

Why does Dee Jay's low fierce interrupt when close but not when far?
The situation I'm thinking of here is one that has been driving me crazy. Dee Jay can cancel his crouching fierce into a sobat kick, sometimes. At least, sometimes for me. When the computer whiffs a fierce DP, I can do it every time. But when computer Dictator whiffs a roundhouse slide, it never comes out! Also, I can't seem to ever combo crossup forward, low jab x 2, low fierce, sobat kick. I can do crossup forward, low jab, low fierce, sobat about half the time. What gives?
I think what's going on is that the fierce has close hitting frames that exist at the beginning of the animation, while it's still interruptible. After a few frames, the hit box grows, but by that point the move is no longer interruptible. So that's why it combos
I'm less sure about this one, more investigation may be needed. I'll continue to work on it and see if I can solidify it.

I really wanted to find another tidbit so I could call this post "Six Easy Pieces" :)

Machine Gun Upper

For some reason, I keep coming back to Dee Jay. There's something cathartic about playing him against the inhumanly difficult CPU. The CPU is so hard that it forces you to really get every one of your moves down. I've been practicing combos around the Machine Gun Upper for the last few days, and there's mainly two I've been working on.

Crossup forward, low jab, low short, MGU
Crossup forward, low jab, low jab, MGU

These two combos seem very similar, but there are differences. It seems as if the low short interrupts faster into the MGU than the jab. However, I seem to get thrown a lot by the computer a lot in between the jab and the short when I am trying the latter combo. I think this is because the short button press has to happen faster than the second jab would. So I've been switching to jab.

I can't seem to get the last hit of the MGU. I get 3 hits on it, but the fourth remains elusive. I'm also not sure how to control the speed of the MGU. Sometimes they hit slowly, and sometimes they all hit so fast you can't see it.