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?