Posts Tagged ‘midway’
Brutality: The History of Mortal Kombat 4 and Other Media
Oops! Last ep was posted stating that we talked about Mortal Kombat 4 and we didn’t get to it. This time around it’s a shorter show, but Fred and Jam pack in the fourth and final arcade iteration along with MK’s transition into many other media including movies, television, and even music. There are a bunch of audio clips so we’re going to give credit where credit’s due in order of appearance:
- Goodbye (Demo Version) – Gravity Kills
- Burn – Sister Machine Gun
- Juke Joint Jezebel (Metropolis Mix) – KMFDM
- Lover – Lords of Acid
- Techno Syndrome (Mortal Kombat) – The Immortals
- Utah Saints Take On The Theme From Mortal Kombat – Utah Saints
- Halcyon and On and On – Orbital
- Fire – Scooter
- Meglomaniac – KMFDM
- Encounter the Ultimate (Theme From Mortal Kombat Annihilation) – The Immortals
Mercy: The History of MK3, UMK3, MK Trilogy, and Spin-Offs
Fred and Jam delve back into the history of Mortal Kombat with Mortal Kombat 3 and its many iterations including Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 (UMK3) and Mortal Kombat Trilogy on consoles. Finally they reluctantly delve into the awful spin-offs of Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces.
Two Mortal Kombat Documentaries
As promised, below are two documentaries found on the bonus discs of premium editions of Deception and Armageddon. The first is a brief (only six minutes) documentary of the Mortal Kombat franchise, produced by Midway, and found on the Deception bonus disc along with an arcade port of the original arcade game by Digital Eclipse. The second is a much longer documentary on the history of the fatality and plenty of stories from the staff. This was also produced by Midway and included in the bonus disc of Armageddon along with another Digital Eclipse port of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Enjoy!
The History of Mortal Kombat (Part 1)
This week Fred and Jam are heading all the way back to 1992 when an intended Street Fighter II clone starring Jean-Claude Van Damme resulted in one of the most violent and popular fighters of all time. In this episode we delve into the history, development, release, home console releases, and of course inevitable violence discussions spawned from the first title and it’s inevitable sequel.
This is part 1 of a multi-part series on the franchise.
Closing Song: Encounter the Ultimate (Mortal Kombat Theme) by The Immortals off the Mortal Kombat Annihilation Soundtrack
Joust Review
Joust. Yes, that ostrich game you may have read about in the fiction novel Ready Player One by Earnest Cline. Well I’m going to talk about it today because the site needs more arcade love and its about time Joust had a review. Full disclosure, I did review this game across a few emulators including MAME and multiple Midway Collections on Mega Drive (Genesis), PSP, and Xbox. This review will feature some brief discussion on the cabinet itself, which I have been fortunate enough to try at retro gaming conventions.
Released in 1982 by Williams Entertainment, Joust is single screen joystick and one button flapping mash fest. You play a knight riding on the back of the magnificent ostrich. With a lance in hand, your goal is simple: take out every enemy rider on screen. Then you repeat that wave after wave until you run out of lives. The single button on the cabinet is responsible for flapping wings of your feathered beast. You have to rapidly press the button to get your bird off the ground, but once you have the momentum going it becomes quite the skill to take down the other riders. You need to be slightly above the other rider and hit them to take them down. Once they are out of action an egg will drop which you’ll need to collect before it re-hatches a new rider and you have to take them out all over again. It becomes a juggle of priorities, choosing to take out the other riders or collect the eggs. The first wave, titled “Buzzard Blitz,” is fairly easy. Just three opponents spawn to ease you into the game, but like with a lot of these Williams games don’t be disappointed if you do loose all your lives on the first wave. It can take a few attempts to come to grips with the controls and figure out your strategy. By this point – back in the arcade days – you would have sunk a decent chunk of change into the cabinet.
Lost Treasures of Gaming: Smash TV
There was no episode of Lost Treasures of Gaming, but that never stops Syd from talking about another classic on the OMG! Hour. This week was a treat that I loved back when I was playing in the arcades, Smash TV. A twin stick shooter with ultra violence in a futuristic gameshow, this Robotron 2084 inspired title was a blast. Not only that, but thanks to how I captured the game we have interview footage with Midway developers Eugene Jarvis and Mark Turmell.
Check out the Lost Treasures of Gaming podcast at http://www.omgnexus.com.
Now & Then: Mortal Kombat 3
Switching It Up
A lot happened both in the talent pool of Mortal Kombat players and in the game design overall between the release of Mortal Kombat II and Mortal Kombat 3 (MK3). For starters there was a mass exodus of on screen talent due to royalty disputes, so almost no one from the original two games returned for the third release. In addition, Boon and his team were trying to turn Mortal Kombat into a viable fighting game with things no one had ever seen before and mechanics that could compete with the massive rush of fighters in arcades. The game was completely Americanized, with all hints of Eastern influence including symbols, locales, and the soundtrack completely absent without a trace and instead replaced by urban stages, 90s hip-hop soundtracks, and cyborgs replaced the signature ninjas. These locations were now composed of pre-rendered 3D backgrounds and the character sprites were almost totally digitized as opposed to the digitized/hand drawn hybrid of the previous games. Along with it came an overhaul of the controls, including combos and a “run” button to address rightful claims that defensive players ruled the previous title. It’s all one giant 90s metaphor but that doesn’t change the fact that MK3 (and it’s update Ultimate MK3 or UMK3) stands as the moment I felt the series went into the mainstream fighter territory. Couple this with the fact that it was on just about every console that existed at the time, still dominated arcades, and had more content than rival Street Fighter II could ever dream to do with its iterations and I see why it’s creator Ed Boon’s favorite. Mortal Kombat 3 definitely upped the ante.
Smash TV Review
Platform: Arcade, microcomputers, NES, Master System, Game Gear, SNES, Genesis/Mega Drive, Xbox/Gamecube/PS2/PSP (part of Midway Treasures)
Released: 1990
Developer: Williams
Publisher: Williams/Midway
Digital Release? Yes, it had a digital release on XBLA (360) but was delisted in Feb. 2010
These days there is a good chance any gamer is familiar with the “twin stick shooter”, a concept where you move with the left stick and shoot with the right. Back in 1982 when fantastic game designer Eugene Jarvis premiered the concept in Robotron: 2084, it was unlike anything we had ever seen. The merits of that game, and what it brought to video games, cannot be denied and if you want an idea of how Robotron played you need look no further than recent neo-retro release Rock Boshers Dx. It wasn’t until almost a decade later, in 1990’s fantastic Smash TV, that Jarvis along with a talented team at Williams created one of the most addicting arcade games from my youth. Set in the year 1999 – oh how we thought so much was going to change with the year 2000 back then – Smash TV has you and potentially one other person shooting it out in a room-to-room TV studio playing the most violent game show of all time (Running Man anyone?). It takes the building blocks of Robotron: 2084 and brings it into the nineties by giving you a second player, having you kill tons of humans instead of rescue them like in Robotron, and of course you’re doing it all for cash prizes to selfishly grow your wealth. I loved it then and I love it now.
Primal Rage Retrospective and Comparison Video
Primal Rage was one of the more notable Mortal Kombat clones in arcades in 1994. The popularity of this Atari Games fighter secured multiple ports to the home consoles of the time, a true cross-gen title that was on most portable, 16-bit, and 32-bit CD consoles. GH101 looks into the history, gameplay, and home console versions of this dinosaur brawler.
Version: Mortal Kombat
In this new video series we dissect the home versions of the arcade classic Mortal Kombat. Check out the roughly 10 minute video for a quick retrospective on the title and the craze that resulted in September 1993 as many kids brought this violent title home.
Gaming History 101 