Video Game Actor Autographs - Mortal Kombat I & II - Other famous in-game actors?

[MF_Luder]

So this post was inspired by the following ebay auction:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/SIGNED-Mortal-Kombat-II-2-Sega-Genesis-Daniel-Pesina-Johnny-Cage-AUTOGRAPHED-/322304170163?


It's an autographed copy of Mortal Kombat II for Sega Genesis, signed by Daniel Pesina, who played Johnny Cage and all the ninjas (Scorpion, Reptile, Sub-Zero, etc.) in Mortal Kombat I & II.

It got me thinking... in the '90s, with the influx of FMV style games and developers using digitized actors in games (like MK did), there was a whole era of games where real actors were used in video games. Nowadays, there might be a few famous voice actors to sign a game (say, for example, David Hayter as Solid Snake), and certainly game designer signatures on popular games are always a big deal.. but my question is, has there ever been a bigger in-game actor than Daniel Pesina in Mortal Kombat I & II? To be honest, I can barely even think of any other games that used in-game actors, let alone notable ones. Maybe Dana Plato in Night Trap. And Hulk Hogan appeared in a CD-i game for Thunder in Paradise, but like 1% of gamers have even heard of it. And those two were already celebrities, whereas Daniel Pesina and Ho Sung Pak (who played Liu Kang in MK 1 & 2) became famous because of the games. There has to be others, though. Who am I forgetting? What other popular games used in-game actors?

[Bratwurst]

The following eBay auction that also happens to be yours, huh?

[MF_Luder]

The following eBay auction that also happens to be yours, huh?

Haha, a fair observation Brat, but I promise I am genuinely interested in the question. I already did my shameless plug in the Everything Auctions section. I asked this question there as well, but obviously you get no answers there. So I decided to bring the question here. (I tried to downplay it here, so that it didn't seem like a plug, but I know nothing gets by you....)

But for real, I think it's a very interesting phenomenon that took place in the '90s where FMV games became huge while using real actors and also games like Mortal Kombat digitized actors into games. So, meeting Daniel Pesina and seeing that he is still a recognizable video game celebrity to this day inspired me to wonder...there must be more. It can't just be Johnny Cage and Liu Kang that obtained minor celebrity status from being in-game actors in a video game. So I'm posing the question, are there more games and more actors that had their 15 minutes of fame through video games? And not voice actors, but actual on-screen actors. And it's a trend that is almost exclusive to the '90s. Maybe a few games in the 80s, but I can't think of any post-90s console game that used real actors in the game.

[Bojay1997]

So this post was inspired by the following ebay auction:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/SIGNED-Mortal-Kombat-II-2-Sega-Genesis-Daniel-Pesina-Johnny-Cage-AUTOGRAPHED-/322304170163?


It's an autographed copy of Mortal Kombat II for Sega Genesis, signed by Daniel Pesina, who played Johnny Cage and all the ninjas (Scorpion, Reptile, Sub-Zero, etc.) in Mortal Kombat I & II.

It got me thinking... in the '90s, with the influx of FMV style games and developers using digitized actors in games (like MK did), there was a whole era of games where real actors were used in video games. Nowadays, there might be a few famous voice actors to sign a game (say, for example, David Hayter as Solid Snake), and certainly game designer signatures on popular games are always a big deal.. but my question is, has there ever been a bigger in-game actor than Daniel Pesina in Mortal Kombat I & II? To be honest, I can barely even think of any other games that used in-game actors, let alone notable ones. Maybe Dana Plato in Night Trap. And Hulk Hogan appeared in a CD-i game for Thunder in Paradise, but like 1% of gamers have even heard of it. And those two were already celebrities, whereas Daniel Pesina and Ho Sung Pak (who played Liu Kang in MK 1 & 2) became famous because of the games. There has to be others, though. Who am I forgetting? What other popular games used in-game actors?

There are tons of current gen games with much more prominent actors than the guys from Mortal Kombat. Hayden Panettiere stars in Until Dawn on PS4 and her voice and likeness are used in-game. Similarly, Ellen Page in Beyond Two Souls has her name and likeness used. There are many, many other examples, especially when you factor in well-known European talent.

[MF_Luder]

There are tons of current gen games with much more prominent actors than the guys from Mortal Kombat. Hayden Panettiere stars in Until Dawn on PS4 and her voice and likeness are used in-game. Similarly, Ellen Page in Beyond Two Souls has her name and likeness used. There are many, many other examples, especially when you factor in well-known European talent.

Thanks Bojay. I figured someone would go that route, but I was thinking more actual in-game actors. Not the likeness of an actor being used. I agree, there are tons of examples of that in modern games. And, quite frankly, it's much better that way than using in-game actors like they did in the 90s.

Also, you're naming people who were already famous actors and then starred in a video game...I agree, there's plenty of those. I'm more thinking of people who became famous thanks to appearing in a video game. Or, at least mildly recognizable thanks to appearing in a video game.

[RARusk]

David Bateson (Hitman) has quite a following from what I understand. And let's not forget those who participated in Grand Theft Auto III, Vice City, and San Andreas.

[Aussie2B]

I don't think there's much in the way of unknown actors who appeared in digitized or FMV games and became famous because of that/those game roles. Even with the Mortal Kombat cast, I would venture to guess that the vast majority of players have no idea who any of those people are and don't commit the names in the credits to memory.

Really, across the board, I think the average player doesn't care too much about the people behind their games. They know Miyamoto and Kojima and such, but I think a lot of people would struggle to name even 10 people who work on games in some capacity. It's to the point that many collectors think an autograph is actually a bad thing that lessens the value of a copy of a game, as if the signature of a creator is no different than some random kid scrawling their own name in sharpie on a game.

Me, I have quite a few autographed games, but the autographs are nearly all composers (I prefer getting soundtracks signed, but in lieu of that, I'll hand over the game itself that their music appears in). I do have one signed by an actor, but he's just a voice actor, not somebody who physically appeared in-game.

[CelticJobber]

I don't think there's much in the way of unknown actors who appeared in digitized or FMV games and became famous because of that/those game roles. Even with the Mortal Kombat cast, I would venture to guess that the vast majority of players have no idea who any of those people are and don't commit the names in the credits to memory.

Just judging by the kids at my school during the peak of MK's popularity, most MK fans seemed to know who Boon and Tobias were, as well as most of the major actors like Daniel Pesina and Ho Sung Pak.

Magazines like "Video Games" doing big cover stories on the MK actors that some of us read until the covers were falling off, probably helped a bit with that.

[Emperor Megas]

The following eBay auction that also happens to be yours, huh?Oh man. ^_^

[Pete Rittwage]

I'm curious to see where your auction ends up. I wouldn't think this autograph would be of much value, but who knows?

Nobody has bid yet, but they could all be sniping.

[MF_Luder]

I'm curious to see where your auction ends up. I wouldn't think this autograph would be of much value, but who knows?

Nobody has bid yet, but they could all be sniping.

Thanks. To be honest, so am I, very much so. And not because of the money at all--I own and sell more valuable games than this. It is more about the concept and the uniqueness of it that has me very intrigued. Especially since I've never seen another signed MK game by Pesina (or any other early MK actor) on ebay, and especially with MKII being the most famous game of any that used in-game actors and still having a good following today. I NEVER promote my auctions (you won't see any old posts on here about any other auction I've ever done), but I have promoted this one in the "Everything Auctions" forum here--motivated by pure curiosity. While we could guess at values, I figured, "well I have an extra copy so let's see what the market tells us this is worth." That's why I listed it as an auction rather than "Buy it Now", and that's why I've tried to promote it a little bit so that enough people are aware of it to inform potential bidders (because, otherwise, people who already own MKII are not going to search it on ebay in order to come across the auction).

As for the lack of bids, it wouldn't shock me to get no bids. But it's a bit early now. For an auction starting at $99, I would expect people to wait until the last day to place bids, if they're going to. No good reason to place it earlier, unless you're trying to mark your territory and maybe deter other bidders.

[bb_hood]

While we could guess at values,

I would guess around 10-20$... i cant see this guy's autograph being worth 100$ to anybody.

[MF_Luder]

I would guess around 10-20$... i cant see this guy's autograph being worth 100$ to anybody.

Considering that the game itself is worth more than $10 on ebay, that's a smart answer... (And I've received much higher offers than that.) But I'm with you in a sense--you might be right that it adds little value to the game. I guess we'll see. I'm not going to be heartbroken if it doesn't sell- it's just an experiment. If it only adds $4 of extra value, then I'd rather hang on to it; hence the high start price for now. However, I will say this--when pricing it I was guided by the "Sold" prices of other signed retro games (even some with less desirable signatures), and this was easily in line with them or cheaper. One man's trash is another man's treasure, and a signed game could be a showpiece for an MK collector.

[Gameguy]

I have a Mission Impossible soundtrack CD autographed by Tom Cruise, I would be lucky to get $20 for it. People actually know who Tom Cruise is and it's still not worth much.

I have a few books signed by their authors or illustrators too, they're not worth much either. You need an autograph of someone incredibly famous or important who's also dead, those are pretty much the only ones worth anything.

[bb_hood]

I have a Mission Impossible soundtrack CD autographed by Tom Cruise, I would be lucky to get $20 for it. People actually know who Tom Cruise is and it's still not worth much.

I have a few books signed by their authors or illustrators too, they're not worth much either. You need an autograph of someone incredibly famous or important who's also dead, those are pretty much the only ones worth anything.

Yeah, so right about the autographs. They aint worth anything substantial most of the time. I had a Rolling Stones record that was autographed by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards and that sold for 100$.

One time at a Magic the Gathering tournament I made Rob Alexander autograph 160 dual lands... after he finished he put up a sign that said "limit 5"

[celerystalker]

I think that this sort of thing can be cool and have immense personal value, but lack monetary value. Autograph value is driven by a few factors. Rarity, which as Gameguy pointed out, improves after death, when new autographs are no longer possible, limiting their availability. Historical significance is a big deal. Presidents tend to be worth more than musicians, athletes, and actors. Also, authentication is super important in those valuable cases in order to secure a strong value instead of a lesser speculative value.

Sometimes I wonder if autograph values get confused by my generation, who really pushed baseball card collecting. The collector mentality caused limited print autograph cards to be highly desirable, and made people think that the autograph was the driver, whereas the card with only five copies was the bigger one.

Anyway, if it's something you're proud of, it's a super neat item worth showing off, and your personal experience obtaining it is priceless. If there's no real market, I hope you enjoy it for years to come, as no matter what it can make for a cool story and be a conversation starter.

As to games with in game actors, Double Switch had Corey Haim and Debbie Harry, Hell: A Cyberpunk Thriller had a digitized Stephanie Seymour, The X-Files cast appeared in the PS1 game, and Stallone and Snipes even shot special footage as well as being digitized for Demolition Man on 3DO off the top of my head.

Johnny Cage was pretty damned iconic for a time, though, in the arcade scene.