According to the developers, they were originally planning to have Ryu and Ken Masters from the original "Street Fighter" as the main protagonists, but that idea was scrapped for a new plot and new settings. Instead, many elements from the game and its story were inspired by the 1984 film, "Streets of Fire". Many members of the production staff are fans of the movie. One of the main characters from the game, Cody, was even inspired by the hero of the film, Tom Cody, who was played by actor Michael Paré. The story of the movie also dealt with the kidnapping of an attractive young woman by a city gang. The street gang the player faces in the game, the Mad Gear Gang, takes their name from the 1987 overhead racing game of the same name by Capcom; the game was released as "Led Storm" outside Japan. Many of the characters are named after 1980s rock musicians such as Axl Rose (Axl), Slash (Slash), Gene Simmons (Simons), Sid Vicious (Sid), Billy Idol (Billy), King Diamond (Abigail, named after King Diamond's second album, also dons facepaint similar to King Diamond's), Sodom (Sodom), Roxy Music (Roxy), The Damned (Damnd) and Poison (Poison), with another, 2P, being from the Capcom game "Forgotten Worlds". Hugo Andore, another notable boss character, is based on André the Giant. Because Capcom believed that "players would feel bad beating up a woman", they noted in the manual that the female opponent Poison was a "newhalf".