WEBVTT - The Mortal Kombat Konquest 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.800 Welcome to Tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 0:00:12.119 --> 0:00:14.800 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 0:00:15.000 --> 0:00:18.080 Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio 0:00:18.160 --> 0:00:22.680 and a lot of all things tech. And in Monday's episode, 0:00:23.040 --> 0:00:27.040 I covered how the arcade game Mortal Kombat emerged out 0:00:27.040 --> 0:00:29.680 of a company called Midway. That was a company that 0:00:29.760 --> 0:00:34.440 was really a mishmash of several other companies that all 0:00:34.560 --> 0:00:39.280 were in the coin operated amusement biz at elements of 0:00:39.440 --> 0:00:45.680 Midway Manufacturing, Williams Electronics, and Bally all wrapped up in there. 0:00:45.920 --> 0:00:49.080 It's pretty complicated stuff. The two leads in charge of 0:00:49.159 --> 0:00:54.920 developing Mortal Kombat were Williams employees, but then Williams acquired 0:00:55.240 --> 0:00:59.200 Midway and changed the name of that division of Williams 0:00:59.240 --> 0:01:03.600 to Midway Games. And though they didn't necessarily set out 0:01:03.680 --> 0:01:07.080 to make a video game with over the top violence 0:01:07.120 --> 0:01:11.440 and even more over the top fatalities, that game naturally 0:01:11.480 --> 0:01:14.800 evolved in that direction as they developed it and Mortal 0:01:14.880 --> 0:01:19.720 Kombat hit the arcades. In I didn't really talk about 0:01:19.800 --> 0:01:22.880 the structure of the game and how it worked from 0:01:22.880 --> 0:01:25.520 a gameplay aspect very much in that last episode, So 0:01:25.560 --> 0:01:28.520 I'm going to give a very brief overview here. Mortal 0:01:28.600 --> 0:01:33.000 Kombat is modeled after fight tournaments, and really it's a 0:01:33.000 --> 0:01:37.440 lot like fight tournament movies more than actual fight tournaments, 0:01:37.480 --> 0:01:41.760 specifically the sort of gen Claude van Damn variety of 0:01:42.480 --> 0:01:46.440 you know, martial arts tournament films. Players choose one of 0:01:46.520 --> 0:01:49.960 seven characters, and then they go through a series of matches, 0:01:50.040 --> 0:01:54.080 each match lasting up to three rounds. Winning two of 0:01:54.120 --> 0:01:56.880 those three rounds would allow the player to progress further 0:01:57.080 --> 0:01:59.920 up the tournament ladder, and winning two rounds in a 0:02:00.040 --> 0:02:01.760 road just means that you wouldn't even have to play 0:02:01.800 --> 0:02:05.200 through the third round. The controls for the game included 0:02:05.280 --> 0:02:09.560 an eight direction joystick and five buttons. There were two 0:02:09.600 --> 0:02:13.359 punch buttons high and low, to kick buttons also high 0:02:13.400 --> 0:02:16.680 and low, and in the middle a block button. Each 0:02:16.760 --> 0:02:20.640 character had numerous moves that would result from joystick and 0:02:20.639 --> 0:02:24.240 button combinations, and the fatalities at the end of a 0:02:24.360 --> 0:02:28.079 game where you had defeated your opponent, and one year, 0:02:28.120 --> 0:02:31.239 two out of three those relied on specific inputs of 0:02:31.320 --> 0:02:35.800 joystick and button combinations, So, for example, Scorpions fatality and 0:02:35.840 --> 0:02:40.000 Mortal Kombat one was you had to start about half 0:02:40.000 --> 0:02:43.639 a screen away from your opponent, hold the block button 0:02:44.000 --> 0:02:47.519 and then push up on the joystick twice. Then Scorpion 0:02:47.560 --> 0:02:51.120 would pull off his mask, revealing a skull and breathe 0:02:51.120 --> 0:02:55.919 fire out onto his opponent, reducing that person to a skeleton. Now, 0:02:55.960 --> 0:02:59.600 if you were playing the tournament against the actual arcade machine, 0:02:59.800 --> 0:03:02.200 so you know a computer is controlling the second character, 0:03:02.800 --> 0:03:06.600 then a second player could come up and actually interrupt things. 0:03:06.960 --> 0:03:10.480 So player number two walks up, plunks in some quarters 0:03:10.560 --> 0:03:12.800 and then joining in, and that would mean the first 0:03:12.800 --> 0:03:16.520 player would enter into a new match against the second player, 0:03:16.960 --> 0:03:20.639 and whoever won that contest, you know, contest with a K, 0:03:21.320 --> 0:03:24.959 would then proceed through the tournament. So if the first 0:03:24.960 --> 0:03:27.880 player lost, then they would be out of luck and 0:03:27.919 --> 0:03:30.600 the second player could continue to play against the machine, 0:03:30.960 --> 0:03:34.120 or maybe someone else comes up and challenges them. Like 0:03:34.160 --> 0:03:36.760 I said in the last episode, you know, the loser pays, 0:03:37.000 --> 0:03:40.440 the winner stays. If a player gets through the other 0:03:40.720 --> 0:03:44.880 six characters in tournament mode, then they face a doppel 0:03:44.960 --> 0:03:48.280 ganger of their own character, and after that, the player 0:03:48.320 --> 0:03:51.839 has to win three endurance matches, which they face two 0:03:51.840 --> 0:03:54.720 opponents per match instead of just one, though they don't 0:03:54.800 --> 0:03:57.680 face both opponents at the same time. Essentially, you have 0:03:57.760 --> 0:04:01.000 to defeat your first opponent, which and triggers the entrance 0:04:01.120 --> 0:04:04.520 of the second opponent, and if you succeed in doing that, 0:04:05.080 --> 0:04:08.080 then you would go up against a sub boss in 0:04:08.120 --> 0:04:12.160 the game named Goro, who is a massive foe armed 0:04:12.320 --> 0:04:15.760 monster who deals enormous amounts of damage, and if you 0:04:15.840 --> 0:04:19.800 beat Goro, then you go up against the ultimate boss 0:04:19.880 --> 0:04:23.479 in the game, Sheng Sung, and defeating Shank Sung leads 0:04:23.520 --> 0:04:27.479 to an end screen that explains your character's fate after 0:04:27.839 --> 0:04:31.240 winning the Mortal Kombat tournament, and that's where some of 0:04:31.279 --> 0:04:34.520 the early lore came in. You had intro screens as 0:04:34.520 --> 0:04:38.479 well in attract mode. Attract mode is what the arcade 0:04:38.520 --> 0:04:42.080 Biz called the screens that games would show in order 0:04:42.120 --> 0:04:44.040 to kind of entice people to come in and play 0:04:44.080 --> 0:04:47.360 the game anyway. Those would explain who the characters were, 0:04:47.720 --> 0:04:49.720 and then you had your victory screens that gave a 0:04:49.760 --> 0:04:52.800 little more information about them, but at the time it 0:04:52.839 --> 0:04:56.640 was pretty threadbare. Future chapters in the Mortal Kombat saga 0:04:56.880 --> 0:04:59.080 would give a lot more background, as would a lot 0:04:59.120 --> 0:05:04.799 of additional material provided by stuff like comic books and movies, 0:05:05.440 --> 0:05:11.000 and sometimes this would end up having contradictory information, so 0:05:11.080 --> 0:05:15.440 the lore does not always stay in line throughout the 0:05:15.600 --> 0:05:18.559 entire series. For fighting games, I'm not sure you need 0:05:18.880 --> 0:05:22.520 that much background. But then Mortal Kombat has obviously extended 0:05:22.520 --> 0:05:25.240 well beyond just the games. We'll talk about that more 0:05:25.279 --> 0:05:29.680 in a little bit. Mortal Kombat spawned countless imitators, as 0:05:29.720 --> 0:05:33.039 well as inspired game developers from other companies to make 0:05:33.200 --> 0:05:36.920 similarly violent games. Not just fighting games, but other styles 0:05:36.920 --> 0:05:39.760 of games too. Started to get more violent and more 0:05:39.839 --> 0:05:43.400 graphic and gory. While in the golden age of arcades, 0:05:43.839 --> 0:05:48.200 games were kind of more abstract and fanciful. Uh not 0:05:48.240 --> 0:05:52.520 necessarily better, They just, you know, they couldn't be graphic 0:05:52.680 --> 0:05:55.040 because we just didn't have the technology to do it. 0:05:55.680 --> 0:05:58.440 But there was a shift towards more violent and gory 0:05:58.520 --> 0:06:01.640 games upon the success of More Combat. Not that we 0:06:01.680 --> 0:06:04.640 suddenly saw all other types of games just disappear, but 0:06:04.720 --> 0:06:07.960 the trend certainly favored violence and over the top gore. 0:06:08.640 --> 0:06:12.080 While some media coverage took midway to task for releasing 0:06:12.080 --> 0:06:16.040 such a violent game, criticism didn't really pick up until 0:06:16.040 --> 0:06:19.320 the title made its way to home systems, ported to 0:06:19.440 --> 0:06:23.800 the Nintendo and Sega game systems of the time. Nintendo's 0:06:23.880 --> 0:06:28.479 version infamously removed all the blood, replacing it with gray fluid. 0:06:28.560 --> 0:06:33.640 That was I guess sweat. Sega's system if you entered 0:06:33.680 --> 0:06:36.000 a code at the beginning of the game, kept all 0:06:36.000 --> 0:06:39.880 that blood in so you can actually enact the the 0:06:39.920 --> 0:06:43.200 blood mode in Mortal Kombat. And that was actually part 0:06:43.240 --> 0:06:46.680 of Sega's campaign, saying that Sega does what Nintendo don't 0:06:47.560 --> 0:06:51.320 cute right. Those home games got the attention of various 0:06:51.360 --> 0:06:55.479 parental groups and politicians, and there followed a great debate 0:06:55.680 --> 0:06:59.159 about video games and their role in corrupting the youth. 0:06:59.680 --> 0:07:05.360 Won't somebody please think of the children? This was extremely similar, 0:07:05.720 --> 0:07:09.760 one might even say identical to previous waves of parental 0:07:09.840 --> 0:07:14.400 concern about such societal threats as rock and or roll music, 0:07:14.800 --> 0:07:19.000 Dungeons and Dragons, and violent movies or TV shows. To 0:07:19.120 --> 0:07:24.040 this day, studies show no correlation between violent video games 0:07:24.080 --> 0:07:28.400 and violent behavior, and suggest that perhaps people who are 0:07:28.480 --> 0:07:32.960 prone to violent outbursts may also like violent video games, 0:07:33.000 --> 0:07:36.600 but that violent video games don't necessarily make people prone 0:07:36.600 --> 0:07:40.800 to violent outbursts. So, in other words, maybe there's some 0:07:40.840 --> 0:07:43.520 sort of relationship here, but there doesn't appear to be 0:07:43.560 --> 0:07:47.400 any causation, and the correlation kind of goes in the 0:07:47.440 --> 0:07:51.040 opposite direction that these groups seem to believe. In other words, 0:07:51.480 --> 0:07:54.800 it's not that violent games make violent people, but that 0:07:54.960 --> 0:07:59.160 violent people might like violent games. The home release of 0:07:59.200 --> 0:08:02.480 Mortal Kombat was one of the events that precipitated the 0:08:02.520 --> 0:08:06.920 creation of the Entertainment Software Rating Board or e s RB. 0:08:07.960 --> 0:08:11.160 The concern about video game violence and its influence on young, 0:08:11.240 --> 0:08:14.880 impressionable minds went all the way up to US Congress 0:08:14.920 --> 0:08:22.080 in and ninety four. In these hearings, which were pretty 0:08:22.080 --> 0:08:25.400 difficult to listen to, it became clear that Congress was 0:08:25.440 --> 0:08:28.240 getting ready to wade into the world of video games 0:08:28.600 --> 0:08:32.040 and potentially start censoring stuff unless the industry guides act 0:08:32.080 --> 0:08:35.000 together and took care of things itself. The response from 0:08:35.040 --> 0:08:38.400 the industry was the e s r B, which would 0:08:38.559 --> 0:08:42.679 have a uniform system to assign ratings to games, which 0:08:42.720 --> 0:08:45.520 would give parents an indication of what sort of content 0:08:45.640 --> 0:08:49.720 the games contained and an estimation of the appropriate age 0:08:49.760 --> 0:08:52.760 of player. So, in other words, you would come across 0:08:52.800 --> 0:08:54.920 a game in a store, there would be a label 0:08:54.960 --> 0:08:57.080 on it and it would tell you, oh, this game 0:08:57.160 --> 0:09:00.320 is not appropriate for young players. For people under the 0:09:00.320 --> 0:09:03.320 age of say, thirteen, so I shouldn't give this to 0:09:03.640 --> 0:09:06.240 you know, a little timmy. And just as a side 0:09:06.280 --> 0:09:09.760 note on this Congress up, it's full of old people, 0:09:10.600 --> 0:09:14.319 like really old people. There are a few younger people 0:09:14.320 --> 0:09:16.679 in Congress too, but not many. And I say this 0:09:17.120 --> 0:09:21.400 as someone who is admittedly a rapidly aging person, and 0:09:21.600 --> 0:09:25.319 old people have trouble keeping up with the way trends change. 0:09:25.720 --> 0:09:29.480 To the old people, video games were just things for 0:09:29.559 --> 0:09:32.320 little kids. They were toys. It didn't occur to most 0:09:32.360 --> 0:09:35.320 of these old people that the young folks who grew 0:09:35.400 --> 0:09:37.840 up with video games in the early eighties were still 0:09:37.880 --> 0:09:41.680 playing video games on more recent systems by the mid nineties, 0:09:42.000 --> 0:09:45.079 and that this meant the young kids were now young adults. 0:09:45.480 --> 0:09:47.920 So to the old people, it was all like five 0:09:47.960 --> 0:09:50.480 and six year olds that were playing Mortal Kombat and 0:09:50.559 --> 0:09:52.280 learning that if you take off your mask you can 0:09:52.280 --> 0:09:55.280 incinerate someone and leave a scorched skeleton in their place. 0:09:55.559 --> 0:10:00.559 Because remember we're talking about realistic violence here. Okay, I 0:10:00.600 --> 0:10:03.200 might be getting a little snarky. I would say that 0:10:03.240 --> 0:10:06.320 there was probably a knowledge gap for parents, so a 0:10:06.400 --> 0:10:10.640 rating system wasn't a bad idea. Necessarily, many parents are 0:10:10.679 --> 0:10:15.439 also rapidly aging people and maybe are unaware that video 0:10:15.480 --> 0:10:17.880 games had sort of changed from the days when you 0:10:17.880 --> 0:10:21.640 were a yellow disc eating dots and avoiding ghosts. So 0:10:21.760 --> 0:10:24.600 a rating system that would let parents know, hey, this 0:10:24.679 --> 0:10:27.400 game might not be right for little Timmy who is five. 0:10:27.840 --> 0:10:30.480 That wasn't necessarily a bad idea, though I would argue 0:10:30.679 --> 0:10:34.480 that if you have a game titled Mortal Kombat and 0:10:34.760 --> 0:10:38.400 the game box shows people fighting each other, then that 0:10:38.480 --> 0:10:40.400 might already be a bit of an indicator. But what 0:10:40.440 --> 0:10:44.560 the heck do I know? Anyway, the moral panic fed 0:10:44.640 --> 0:10:47.800 into the creation of the e s RB, and the 0:10:47.880 --> 0:10:51.000 industry would assign ratings to keep the government out of 0:10:51.080 --> 0:10:53.800 regulating the video game industry. As long as they did it, 0:10:54.200 --> 0:10:57.840 the government would need to. For Midway, this was really 0:10:57.880 --> 0:11:01.439 all great publicity. The company wasn't actually in the business 0:11:01.480 --> 0:11:04.800 of making home video games right now. In fact, it 0:11:04.880 --> 0:11:08.280 wasn't responsible for those home ports. It was still firmly 0:11:08.320 --> 0:11:12.840 in the coin operated arcade game business, so it licensed 0:11:12.840 --> 0:11:16.400 out its titles to other developers, who then went on 0:11:16.440 --> 0:11:19.840 to make the home console versions of the Midway titles. 0:11:20.280 --> 0:11:22.600 But Midway itself was still firmly in the business of 0:11:22.640 --> 0:11:25.640 taking people's money one quarter at a time, or you know, 0:11:25.760 --> 0:11:29.120 sometimes two quarters. Mortal Kombat had sort of gained this 0:11:29.160 --> 0:11:33.679 reputation for being edgy, and that helped push sales. Arcade 0:11:33.720 --> 0:11:37.720 owners and you know, other proprietors who had purchased arcade cabinets. 0:11:38.200 --> 0:11:41.080 We're pretty happy because the games were popular and it 0:11:41.120 --> 0:11:44.520 was possible to recoup the investment of purchasing an arcade 0:11:44.520 --> 0:11:48.560 machine within a few weeks. Meanwhile, back at Midway, the 0:11:48.600 --> 0:11:51.960 plan was to build on success. The Mortal Kombat team 0:11:52.000 --> 0:11:54.880 began working on a sequel pretty much right away after 0:11:54.920 --> 0:11:59.280 the release of the first game. In Midway released other 0:11:59.320 --> 0:12:02.440 games too, not just Mortal Kombat. One of the big 0:12:02.440 --> 0:12:07.600 ones was NBA jam in nine. That game featured two 0:12:07.640 --> 0:12:11.680 on two basketball games with digitized images of players from 0:12:11.720 --> 0:12:16.000 the NBA officially licensed for the arcade game. The team 0:12:16.080 --> 0:12:19.319 used images of various players grabbing pictures of their heads 0:12:19.320 --> 0:12:22.960 looking in directions like up, down, left, right, and diagonal up, 0:12:23.000 --> 0:12:26.240 diagonal down, that kind of stuff. The digitized heads were 0:12:26.280 --> 0:12:29.640 plopped onto, you know, kind of cartoonish bodies, and the 0:12:29.720 --> 0:12:33.480 game featured over the top action, enthusiastic commentary from a 0:12:33.559 --> 0:12:36.800 voice actor and a lot of fast paced action on 0:12:36.840 --> 0:12:41.120 the screen. It also incorporated rubber banding, meaning that if 0:12:41.120 --> 0:12:43.280 you were playing against the computer and you were starting 0:12:43.280 --> 0:12:46.520 to get ahead, then that computer would start to make 0:12:46.559 --> 0:12:49.559 your shots miss and your opponents would start to hit 0:12:49.640 --> 0:12:53.320 their shots. Likewise, if you were falling way behind, well 0:12:53.360 --> 0:12:56.560 and suddenly the computer controlled team wouldn't make as many 0:12:56.640 --> 0:12:59.080 shots and you would be able to catch up. So 0:12:59.160 --> 0:13:01.640 the goal from the games perspective was to keep those 0:13:01.679 --> 0:13:05.360 games close and exciting, and also to keep convincing players 0:13:05.360 --> 0:13:08.320 to plunk in quarters to continue the game to completion. 0:13:08.880 --> 0:13:11.959 But it did feel a little bit like cheating. There 0:13:12.040 --> 0:13:14.720 was also some legit chicanery going on with the game. 0:13:14.920 --> 0:13:18.360 The dominant team at the time were the Chicago Bulls, 0:13:18.559 --> 0:13:22.400 represented in NBA Jam by Scottie Pippen and Horace Grant. 0:13:23.040 --> 0:13:26.000 But a big rival to the Chicago Bulls were the 0:13:26.040 --> 0:13:29.920 Detroit Pistons, and it turned out that Mark Termel you 0:13:30.040 --> 0:13:33.200 remember from the previous episode that he came into William's 0:13:33.280 --> 0:13:37.120 Slash midway and began work on Smash TV. Well, anyway, 0:13:37.240 --> 0:13:40.320 while he was working on NBA Jam, he decided, as 0:13:40.360 --> 0:13:43.319 a big Detroit Pistons fan, that he was going to 0:13:43.480 --> 0:13:45.920 change the odds a little bit. So if you happen 0:13:46.000 --> 0:13:50.040 to be playing the Pistons against the Bulls, you would 0:13:50.080 --> 0:13:54.120 see that the Bulls players tend to miss shots at 0:13:54.120 --> 0:13:56.280 a critical point in the game, like if it's a 0:13:56.320 --> 0:14:01.000 buzzer beating type of shot, they miss, Whereas if you're 0:14:01.280 --> 0:14:03.880 playing the Pistons and you make a buzzer beating shot 0:14:04.040 --> 0:14:07.040 that would win you the game, you hit it and 0:14:07.200 --> 0:14:11.840 take that Chicago Bowls. Originally, Midway wanted to put a 0:14:11.880 --> 0:14:16.120 bunch of special characters in NBA Jam, including Mortal Kombat characters, 0:14:16.120 --> 0:14:19.040 a sort of Easter eggs, but the NBA objected to 0:14:19.080 --> 0:14:22.600 that idea, so only a few special characters actually made 0:14:22.600 --> 0:14:25.320 it into that first game, and they were all Midway 0:14:25.400 --> 0:14:29.800 employees like John Carlton and Tony Gotsky, and you know, 0:14:30.000 --> 0:14:32.840 Mortal Kombat was a big hit for Midway, but NBA 0:14:32.960 --> 0:14:36.200 Jam blew the doors off it. Midway got a call 0:14:36.240 --> 0:14:39.200 early on when they were testing NBA Jam in a 0:14:39.240 --> 0:14:42.720 few locations around Chicago, and the call said that the 0:14:42.760 --> 0:14:46.120 game was broken, which was a huge issue. I mean, obviously, 0:14:46.160 --> 0:14:48.800 if something is wrong with the game, the team would 0:14:48.800 --> 0:14:50.920 have to come up with a fix before the game 0:14:50.960 --> 0:14:53.480 goes into full production or else they're going to be 0:14:53.600 --> 0:14:57.720 sending out, you know, replacement chips to potentially thousands of 0:14:57.720 --> 0:15:01.080 different proprietors. So the t went out to check on 0:15:01.120 --> 0:15:03.240 the machine to find out what was wrong. They found 0:15:03.240 --> 0:15:06.160 out that the problem was so many people had been 0:15:06.200 --> 0:15:09.520 playing the game that the coin receptacle in the machine 0:15:10.040 --> 0:15:13.640 was over full and it could not accept any more quarters, 0:15:14.200 --> 0:15:17.200 which is actually a pretty darn good problem to have, 0:15:17.760 --> 0:15:20.400 and it indicated that NBA Jam was going to be 0:15:20.440 --> 0:15:24.520 a monster hit. Not all of Midways titles were as 0:15:24.680 --> 0:15:27.880 big of a success, however. There was also Revolution X. 0:15:28.320 --> 0:15:31.640 That game was a shooter game, so the arcade version 0:15:31.960 --> 0:15:34.920 had gun controllers attached to it, so you held a 0:15:34.920 --> 0:15:38.560 little plastic gun and fired at the screen, and the 0:15:38.600 --> 0:15:40.840 targets on the screen were all sorts of different stuff. 0:15:40.840 --> 0:15:42.560 I guess you guys are probably familiar with this type 0:15:42.560 --> 0:15:47.440 of arcade game. Anyway, Revolution X had a really bizarre plot, 0:15:47.600 --> 0:15:51.680 and even more bizarre was the involvement of the band Aerosmith. 0:15:52.520 --> 0:15:56.840 The band actually appeared on screen as characters in the game. 0:15:56.920 --> 0:16:00.880 They would encourage you in between sequel this is uh 0:16:00.960 --> 0:16:07.480 they're acting? Was um not great, but the game was 0:16:07.520 --> 0:16:10.440 really weird. It hadn't share of fans, but overall it 0:16:10.520 --> 0:16:13.800 just didn't, you know, do so well for Midway. But 0:16:13.960 --> 0:16:16.400 let's get back to the Mortal Kombat team. They were 0:16:16.440 --> 0:16:19.960 busy making the sequel to Mortal Kombat, and the bosses 0:16:20.000 --> 0:16:22.720 in charge were making sure that they were covering their 0:16:22.760 --> 0:16:26.520 bases with a real carrot and stick approach in order 0:16:26.560 --> 0:16:30.240 to motivate employees. I'll explain more when we come back 0:16:30.320 --> 0:16:42.400 after these messages. According to Mortal Kombat co creator Ed Boone, 0:16:42.600 --> 0:16:45.360 originally his team was thinking of moving forward on pursuing 0:16:45.400 --> 0:16:49.120 a licensed Star Wars arcade game. Depending on which version 0:16:49.160 --> 0:16:52.640 of the history of Midway you're looking at, this could 0:16:52.640 --> 0:16:56.960 fall either after Mortal Kombat, before Mortal Kombat two, or 0:16:57.040 --> 0:16:59.400 between two and three, or even between three and four. 0:17:00.080 --> 0:17:02.040 It kind of I think a lot of people just 0:17:02.120 --> 0:17:07.119 have mixed up memories and it's hard to place them 0:17:07.160 --> 0:17:10.479 in the correct chronology. But anyway, they were thinking about 0:17:10.840 --> 0:17:13.520 moving on to something else. However, they were told by 0:17:13.560 --> 0:17:17.240 management that that was crazy, that they should make another 0:17:17.240 --> 0:17:21.520 Mortal Kombat game, because that game was exploding in popularity 0:17:21.560 --> 0:17:25.359 and people wanted more, and they thought Oh, that's We 0:17:25.400 --> 0:17:27.199 hadn't even really thought about that because we were so 0:17:27.280 --> 0:17:30.520 used to making a game and then you switch and 0:17:30.600 --> 0:17:34.000 change to develop a totally different game. So their goal 0:17:34.160 --> 0:17:37.440 was to improve upon the original Mortal Kombat. They wanted 0:17:37.440 --> 0:17:41.400 to introduce some new fighters, some new moves, some new stages, 0:17:41.800 --> 0:17:45.520 and new storylines. To that end, the fighting roster went 0:17:45.600 --> 0:17:48.960 from seven playable characters from the first Mortal Kombat game 0:17:49.240 --> 0:17:53.560 to twelve in the sequel. Sonja Blade and Kano, two 0:17:53.560 --> 0:17:57.879 of the original fighters, would actually be unavailable Immortal Kombat too. 0:17:58.240 --> 0:18:00.680 They appeared in the background in the relient in the game. 0:18:00.720 --> 0:18:02.960 They had both been captured by the big bad guy, 0:18:03.119 --> 0:18:06.919 Shao Khan, who was the boss of Shang Sung. That 0:18:07.000 --> 0:18:09.720 was the the big bad guy from the first game, 0:18:10.160 --> 0:18:13.960 so now Seng Sung would serve as a sub boss fight. 0:18:14.040 --> 0:18:16.199 He had been rejuvenated, so in the first game he 0:18:16.200 --> 0:18:19.000 appeared as an old Nan and in the second game 0:18:19.040 --> 0:18:22.280 he appeared as a much younger man. Following Sean Sung 0:18:22.600 --> 0:18:24.920 if you were to defeat him, would be Shao Khan's 0:18:24.960 --> 0:18:28.280 bodyguard Kintaro, who was kind of like a tiger striped 0:18:28.400 --> 0:18:31.520 version of Goro from the first game, and then The 0:18:31.560 --> 0:18:34.600 final boss of the game was Shao Khan himself. New 0:18:34.720 --> 0:18:39.560 characters included women ninja like Molina and Katana. There was 0:18:39.600 --> 0:18:43.840 also a hidden female ninja named Jade. There was a 0:18:43.920 --> 0:18:48.200 monstrous new character named Baraka who could extend blades from 0:18:48.200 --> 0:18:51.919 his arms. There were new male ninja that included Smoke, 0:18:52.119 --> 0:18:56.680 and new Saibot, whom perceptive listeners will recognize is having 0:18:56.720 --> 0:19:01.600 a name that is Boon and Tobias old backward, so 0:19:01.720 --> 0:19:04.680 John Tobias and Ed Boone were the co creators of 0:19:04.680 --> 0:19:09.160 Mortal Kombat, Boon being the lead programmer and Tobias being 0:19:09.280 --> 0:19:13.760 the lead artist. You also had new characters like Jack's 0:19:13.800 --> 0:19:17.480 and Kung Lao, and among the new moves were some 0:19:17.720 --> 0:19:21.080 that were kind of jokes. You still had fatalities, in fact, 0:19:21.320 --> 0:19:25.640 now each character had two different fatalities to choose from, 0:19:25.680 --> 0:19:29.040 but perhaps to poke fun at the reaction to the 0:19:29.080 --> 0:19:32.480 over the top gore from the previous game. UH. You 0:19:32.600 --> 0:19:36.080 also had babilities that would turn the loser into a 0:19:36.200 --> 0:19:40.680 crying baby. And then you also had friendships which uh. 0:19:40.720 --> 0:19:44.399 Instead of the winner slaughtering the loser, the winner would 0:19:44.400 --> 0:19:47.000 do something nice like give a present or a smooch, 0:19:47.400 --> 0:19:50.840 you know, very sweet. On top of that, the developers 0:19:50.920 --> 0:19:54.280 chose to speed up the gameplay from the first game, 0:19:54.359 --> 0:19:58.560 so there was less recovery time between strikes, which amped 0:19:58.640 --> 0:20:01.480 up the energy of the man, which is considerably The 0:20:01.560 --> 0:20:05.280 game was the first Midway Cabinet to use the DCS 0:20:05.440 --> 0:20:10.560 sound system, that was the digital compression system. Williams Electronics 0:20:10.560 --> 0:20:16.040 had developed the DCS for the pinball game line of Williams. 0:20:16.320 --> 0:20:19.040 Uh Those were actually still marketed either as Williams Machines 0:20:19.160 --> 0:20:22.520 or Bally Machines. So funny that in the old days, 0:20:22.560 --> 0:20:25.639 Bally and Williams were competitors. Now they both belonged to 0:20:25.680 --> 0:20:29.399 the same company, but you still had pinball machines that 0:20:29.480 --> 0:20:32.400 were branded either Bally or Williams as if they were 0:20:32.400 --> 0:20:36.720 still competing. The Mortal Kombat team received more resources while 0:20:36.720 --> 0:20:39.200 they were developing the sequel, and while they were busy 0:20:39.200 --> 0:20:41.840 putting it together, they saw that the home version of 0:20:41.880 --> 0:20:45.720 Mortal Kombat was selling extremely well. It's probably a pretty 0:20:45.720 --> 0:20:48.639 good time to be working within that team over at Midway, 0:20:48.760 --> 0:20:52.080 probably feeling pretty good about your work. Making things sweeter 0:20:52.240 --> 0:20:54.040 was that the company was putting in place a kind 0:20:54.040 --> 0:20:57.720 of bonus policy if a game sold really well, then 0:20:57.760 --> 0:21:00.200 the team making that game would get a bonus from 0:21:00.240 --> 0:21:02.919 the revenue generated through the sales. Essentially you're getting like 0:21:03.000 --> 0:21:08.000 a cut. According to the documentary insert Coin, these bonuses 0:21:08.040 --> 0:21:12.760 had a cap of two million dollars, which that is 0:21:12.800 --> 0:21:15.320 a lot of money. But you might ask, well, why 0:21:15.400 --> 0:21:18.280 is it capped? Why was there a limit? Well, according 0:21:18.320 --> 0:21:21.760 to that that documentary where they were interviewing various people 0:21:21.920 --> 0:21:25.520 from Midway, the managers wanted to make sure that the 0:21:25.560 --> 0:21:29.360 developers wouldn't get rich and then just retire because they 0:21:29.359 --> 0:21:32.240 needed those folks to to keep making games so the 0:21:32.280 --> 0:21:34.720 company would keep making money. So they said, well, we 0:21:34.800 --> 0:21:37.520 can't give them more than that or they'll just quit. 0:21:37.600 --> 0:21:40.600 Why would they keep working? So that was the the 0:21:40.680 --> 0:21:44.679 reasoning from the management level of capping the bonuses. So 0:21:44.720 --> 0:21:47.920 the revenue sharing was a carrot. But I also mentioned 0:21:47.960 --> 0:21:50.399 before the break that there was a stick. So in 0:21:50.440 --> 0:21:53.680 this case, the real stick was a non compete clause. 0:21:54.119 --> 0:21:57.000 The employees at Midway were under a non compete agreement 0:21:57.119 --> 0:21:59.320 that said they weren't allowed to just leave Midway and 0:21:59.320 --> 0:22:01.960 work for a compat editor. And while the legality of 0:22:02.040 --> 0:22:05.320 non compete clauses is something that tends to be a 0:22:05.320 --> 0:22:09.560 bit questionable legally speaking, it did give Midway the gateway 0:22:09.600 --> 0:22:12.439 to sue former employees should they try to leave the 0:22:12.480 --> 0:22:15.720 company and work for someone else, And the goal wasn't 0:22:15.840 --> 0:22:19.720 to win the lawsuit. The goal was to discourage former 0:22:19.760 --> 0:22:24.720 employees all by forcing an expensive, lengthy and stressful process 0:22:24.920 --> 0:22:29.080 into the mix, and it helped intimidate existing employees at Midway. 0:22:29.200 --> 0:22:32.200 They would discourage them from following in the footsteps of 0:22:32.240 --> 0:22:34.760 the person who left. So, if you think that sounds 0:22:34.800 --> 0:22:38.240 kind of gross, um in agreement with you. The company 0:22:38.280 --> 0:22:40.960 wanted to keep making hits and for that and he 0:22:41.000 --> 0:22:43.600 had to hold on to talent, and this was kind 0:22:43.600 --> 0:22:46.040 of how Midway went about doing that by giving them 0:22:46.040 --> 0:22:48.520 bonuses and telling them, if you leave and try to 0:22:48.560 --> 0:22:52.199 work for someone else, we will sue you to the 0:22:52.320 --> 0:22:56.520 ends of the earth. Fun times. Meanwhile, there was a 0:22:56.600 --> 0:22:58.919 little bit of a kerfuffle behind the scenes due to 0:22:58.960 --> 0:23:02.439 Mortal Kombat two. Three of the actors who were involved 0:23:02.440 --> 0:23:07.480 in the development Elizabeth Malecki, who had been used as 0:23:07.520 --> 0:23:10.440 the the stand in for Sonja Blade and the first game, 0:23:11.119 --> 0:23:15.359 Catalan Zamyar who played Katana, Molina and Jade, and Dr 0:23:15.400 --> 0:23:19.120 Philip On, who played the Young Shank Sung Immortal Combat Too. 0:23:19.600 --> 0:23:23.439 They all filed a lawsuit against Midway seeking compensation and 0:23:23.480 --> 0:23:26.840 form of royalties. They argue that they should be due 0:23:27.040 --> 0:23:30.719 some of those royalties because of the revenue generated by 0:23:30.760 --> 0:23:33.520 sales of the game. So these were the actors who 0:23:33.520 --> 0:23:37.040 were shot on video and that video was then digitized 0:23:37.440 --> 0:23:40.600 in order to become part of the animation of the games. 0:23:40.600 --> 0:23:43.159 In fact, they were more digitized. They use more of 0:23:43.160 --> 0:23:46.680 the digitized footage in World Combat Too than the stuff 0:23:46.720 --> 0:23:49.840 that they had shot for Mortal Kombat one. This isn't 0:23:50.080 --> 0:23:54.040 that strange in the world of acting to demand royalties. 0:23:54.080 --> 0:23:57.280 I mean, it's pretty much standard procedure. If your work 0:23:57.400 --> 0:24:00.840 is going to continue generating revenue then and it stands 0:24:01.119 --> 0:24:05.200 to reason that you deserve some of that revenue. Um. 0:24:05.240 --> 0:24:08.600 It's the reason why organizations like the Screen Actors Guild 0:24:08.640 --> 0:24:11.320 exists in order to help guarantee fairness when it comes 0:24:11.359 --> 0:24:14.760