Mortal Kombat: NET

[Jeff-20]

I was a really big fan of the Mortal Kombat series. Williams (the company) is in Chicago and I actually met one of the producers while waiting on the train platform....

Anyway, I guess they tested the beta coin-ops in the local arcades. I was once in the arcade on Belmont Ave (next to the train station) and there was a strange version of Mortal Kombat in there.

I am paraphrasing the name, but it was a NET multi player version of the game. It was obviously a test machine, but it had very low tech signs around it saying basically: "play against contestants all over the country."

This was way before the dreamcast or NET competition. Here's my question... Did anyone else ever see this? I swear I am not making it up! I just wonder if anyone else knows anything about it or has pictures of it. I think it was MK2.

What ever happened to this idea? Are coin-op companies still considering internet play? I thought it would be interesting. I noticed multi player machines in Japan use a local network so that the players are in opposite aisles on 2 linked machines (they wont see who they are playing against; hence, no shame or confrontation).

Are american coin-ops exploring either of these choices yet?

[buttasuperb]

I've never seen one of those, but I know exactly where the arcade is you're talking about. I totally forgot the name of it though.

The idea of online arcades it kinda weird to me. I mean the reason to go to the arcade is for "face to face" competition. Now I know sometimes you go to an arcade and there's no one there to play against, but even so, I think an online arcade fighting game would be kinda pointless.

[Captain Wrong]

I read an interview with Mark Trammell (creator of NBA Jam, etc.) and he was talking about Midway doing test markets of net play Jam and whatnot around the same time, so I believe what you're saying.

I think what happened was the bottom was still falling out of the arcade market and the cost to set the system up vs. the number of people actually going to the arcades to play the games just made it prohibitive on a larger scale. That eventually led to Midway getting out of the arcade biz altogether. Sad days indeed.

In the interview, he notes that he and the Mortal Kombat guys all worked together on Smash TV. After that, they went their way and did MK, he went his and did NBA Jam, easily Midway's two biggest money makers. The interview was in Game Informer earlier in the year. Though it's about the Jam type games, it's an interesting read to get a feel of the whole atmosphere areound Midway in the late 80's early 90's.