Kombatologist

Thanks for kontribution. :D

He's probably one of those people who frequents garage sales and antique shops only to resell it on eBay with a 500-1000% markup. Lol at his Shiny Metallic Arsenopyrite listings, which vary in size but all cost $39.99.

Ha. I wish that were the case. I'm tempted to troll him with a daily offer of 1 penny until he takes it down or lowers the price.

Haha. Don't encourage him.

He claims he saw one sell for that much online. The thing is, the seller he's talking about accepted an undisclosed OBO. I doubt he got anything remotely close to that.

Has anyone ever skipped a payment on their mortgage just to buy a not-so-special video game magazine in 'Like New' (aka Alternative New) condition? This seller seems to think so. I've been trying to find this issue in mint condition for several years now, but idiots like this make it difficult, seeing as they don't know what 'mint condition' or 'like new' actually means. I sent him a message a couple months ago to tell him it would never sell for that in any condition, but he still seems pretty adamant in his belief that a magazine's 50th issue is actually worth something and that it's something of a rarity just because there isn't many (or any) on eBay at any given time. There's another currently going for $10 OBO and no one is buying that one, either (albeit it's missing some pages). I hate people. www.ebay.com/itm/332170460982

Does anyone remember the Monster In My Pocket trading cards that 7-Eleven handed out with the purchase of a Slurpee back in 1991? You could buy them from the store, but 7-Eleven's had a unique packaging. There were 48 cards in the set. Normally, you were only given one pack per Slurpee, but my mom used to do one of the clerk's taxes at a nearby 7-Eleven, so he'd give my brother and I extra packs every time we got a Slurpee there. Eventually, I was able to collect 47 of the 48 cards (I was missing the Invisible Man). Being the stupid kid that I was, I decided to bury my cards in the backyard one day (I was really into pirates and buried treasure), and forgot to weatherproof the box. Needless to say, all of my cards got destroyed once it rained. :( Some time after that happened -- and after 7-Eleven stopped giving those out -- I found out that a friend had a spare Invisible Man. Go figure. This is one of the many things from my childhood that I'd like to replace one of these days. Set Regular pack 7-Eleven pack

MKM:SZ is definitely not for everyone, so I don't blame you for feeling the way you do about it. You're talking to someone who enjoys watching shitty movies. This also applies to some games, so my opinions may not always hit the mark for most. As for good MK spin-offs, Shaolin Monks was the only one that was well received. In fact, a lot of people in the MK community have been asking for another game like that. I've actually played it. It's really bad (and for someone who doesn't mind playing shitty games, that's saying a lot). It was originally going to feature both Jax and Sonya, complete with a select screen, but Sonya ended up being cut during its turbulent development. The game had potential. Unfortunately, things don't always go as planned. As for why John Tobias left during development, it had nothing to do with the game itself. Here's an excerpt from an interview he gave Gameological back in 2012 for MK's 20th anniversary. Gameological: After Mortal Kombat 4, you left the team. I was wondering if you want to comment on your reasons for that. I know you moved on and started Studio Gigante shortly after that, and you had the Tao Feng: Fist Of The Lotus game. Tobias: Right. When I left, the timing that was involved had to do with the fact that we knew that there were new platforms that were going to be introduced. We knew that Sony would be doing a follow-up [to the PlayStation], and we knew that getting in at the beginning would make it easier for us to find a development deal. For me, that’s what controlled the timeframe. At the time, I was working on the original version of a game called Special Forces, and there was a bit of a struggle on that game in terms of its development. There was a delay that pushed that project out long enough that, had I stayed, we’d miss sort of the sweet spot in terms of publishers looking for developers and their willingness to do next-gen development deals. The tough decision that we had to make at the time was either stay and complete this game that, I think, was troubled, or if we were gonna move on and not miss that window of opportunity. For me, it was kind of a no-brainer. It was kind of a different environment back then than it is today, and we knew it was important to be there at the ground floor. So that’s what sparked the decision to leave at that time. (Here's the full interview for anyone who's interested.) On a final note, I hella loved Streets of Rage. I also played the crap out of the Game Gear port (oh Game Gear, how I miss thee). That's one of many franchises that Sega definitely needs to bring back. Fighting Force was meh. I'd say it's only marginally better than Special Forces. I, too, was interested in it before release, but it was a huge disappointment for my brother and I -- to the point where it became the butt of a lot of jokes whenever we discussed shitty games. It doesn't hold a candle to Streets of Rage or The Warriors game. That being said, I kind of want to go back and play it again just to see if it's as bad as I remember it. There was a PC version of it.

a: They do suck... at first. I played it so much, I eventually reached a point where I could react without thinking about it. The platforming can be tricky as well, but that mostly has to do with timing. c: Baraka belongs to an Outworld race of nomadic mutants called the Tarkatan. That's who you're actually fighting at first -- not Baraka himself. The 'generic' enemies do change as you progress deeper into the game. That first encounter with Scorpion is also crucial to the plot because that's how Scorpion becomes a spectre. You end up fighting him again under certain circumstances in the Netherealm later on (he wears a UMK3-clad outfit during this encounter). During the course of the game, you also have to fight four elemental bosses (Wind//Earth/Water/Fire -- Wind being Fujin), an executioner boss, and a dinosaur boss (wtf?) before finally reaching the 8th and final level. Up to this point, there's usually one boss fight per level, and no more than two. However, on level 8, you'll have to endure four of them. The game is by no means perfect or easy, but it's worth at least one playthrough if you enjoy a good challenge.

I don't think I've played Summoner. I'll have to check it out on YouTube. Primal Rage definitely needs to make a comeback. It wasn't the greatest fighting game, but it was a good time nonetheless. I bought a factory sealed DOS version back in the early 2000s for like $10 before the retro gaming craze inflated prices. I've always wanted to get it for Saturn, too, but not for the ridiculous prices people are asking for it. Mythologies definitely wasn't perfect. I got frustrated with it on numerous occasions. I've always been the kind of gamer that enjoys a challenge, though. That, coupled with the fact that it was based in the MK universe, is what kept me engrossed. I saw that AVGN video. It was hilarious, and spot-on like you said. Those environmental death traps were no joke.

Funny you mention not seeing MK1 anywhere. It was nearly the same for me. I think I only ever saw it at two places -- the first being at my mom's work as mentioned above, and the other being at a camping resort years later. The one at my mom's work was a dedicated cabinet, but the other was not. I first saw MK3 at a mall while visiting some cousins in San Jose about an hour and a half away. I remember being a little disappointed by the new graphics, but I was excited to finally see it. While it didn't suck me in quite like MK1 and II did, I ended up playing a lot of it in the arcade and on consoles. UMK3 was a much needed upgrade. It pretty much made up for all of MK3's shortcomings in the gameplay department. I never did like the way the finishing moves looked, but it was the first time I appreciated a MK game for its actual gameplay. And it was the best in the series until until MK9/MKX. I'm one of the few people who actually liked Sub-Zero: Mythologies. The control took a bit of getting used to -- having to press a button to turn around and all -- and the acting was cringe-worthy, but I had a good time with it. It also introduced Quan Chi to the series. The outtakes video you get after defeating Shinnok's second form is pretty hilarious as well. te72 is absolutely right. You should definitely play MK9. As miketheratguy already stated, it was a love letter to fans of the classic MK games. I think you will be pleased with the story mode. It's about 7 hours of excellence. The gameplay is also 2.5D, so none of that sidestep crap. If you use Steam at all, I have a spare code for Mortal Kombat Komplete Edition if you want it. Message me if so. Haha, sorry E-Day. Too much MK for your tastes? Primal Rage was awesome. I would love to play that PR2 prototype, but the best chance of that ever happening is if it were playable in MAME. Unfortunately, it's not. :( And yep, Tekken 7. It was released in Japanese arcades last year. It's supposedly coming to PS4 at some point, but there's no set release date.

I just checked. My list includes some Friendships and Babalities, which means it's likely 2.1.

No problem. Fun fact: GGA has the only known *working* Primal Rage 2 prototype available to play. Trilogy was great. It was extremely broken, though. Between the PSX and N64 versions, the PSX version was my favorite. Though, the N64 version has some pretty cool combo possibilities in comparison to the PSX version. More backgrounds, too. I was just talking to my brother tonight about Tekken 7. We played a lot of Tekken 2 and 3 for PSX back in the day and had a blast with it. I've been itching to play another Tekken, as I haven't played one since then. As for what MK game featured Puzzle Kombat, it was Deception. I completely forgot about that. That's cool. Do they host any fighting game tournaments? I have a huge box of PSMs that my brother gave to me. He used to be really into them. I need to index what I got some time. From what I've thumbed through, it was pretty good. You know, it's quite possible that my paper is based on 1.4. I'll have to see if I can identify what revision the moves are based on, which should be fairly easy (in theory) being that Friendships and Babalities, Reptile's slide, and the Pit II/Kombat Tomb stage fatalities were added in 2.1. If my paper contains any of those, then I'll have my answer. I'm positive it pre-dates 3.1.

I'll have to scan that paper and share it here when I got time. I'm pretty sure it's based on revision 2.1 (the revision that allowed baby bashing). If you still have yours somewhere, I'd love to see it. I was an avid EGM and GamePro reader during the MK1-MK3 heydays, but waiting an entire month for new information was excruciating. I often relied on social interaction for that sort of thing. EGM and GamePro merely filled in the gaps for me. It was always fun to read anything about MK, though. And you're right, EGM was a huge advocate for MK back in the day. Unfortunately, that changed somewhere around the time the series ventured into the 3D era and certain people replaced the staff members that left. I've always regretted it, but perhaps it was a blessing when I stopped buying video game mags altogether somewhere around 1997 when I started dating. The create-a-fatality system in Armageddon is precisely why Armageddon didn't appeal to me, and for the reason you stated. Deadly Alliance was pretty bare bones in terms of content: One fatality per fighter and no stage fatalities. However, it was something to go on, and much better than MK4 where gameplay was concerned. Then came Deception, which raised the bar exponentially. Believe it or not, Deception was to Deadly Alliance what MKII was to MK1 in terms of content. This time around, it featured two fatalities and a Hara-Kiri per fighter, interactive/multi-tiered stages (many with 'death traps'), and even a couple of extra game modes in the form of the Kombat Chess mini-game and the RPG-style Konquest mode. Roster size aside, Armageddon seemed like a huge step back, almost as if they ran out of ideas. Motor Kombat and the create-a-fighter seemed pretty cool, though.

What made arcades so great back in the day was how advanced the hardware was in comparison to consoles and desktop computers. You couldn't get the same experience on either of those, which was evident by all the poor console and PC ports. Sadly, now that consoles and computers (they're pretty much one in the same now) are so powerful, nobody here in the states wants to go to an arcade anymore. With the exception of a few successful arcades here and there, such as Galloping Ghost (http://www.gallopingghostarcade.com), I just don't see arcades making a comeback here in North America. :( From what I've heard, they're still pretty much alive in Japan, though. To what extent, I don't know.

That's pretty much how I felt about it. The DCS sound system was pretty rad. I remember some of the machines I played on having it cranked up. It was really distinctive among the other games at the time. Being that I didn't have the internet back in 1993, I probably would've been one of those kids who paid you for a copy of your list, lol. In fact, I paid this one kid to walk over to a grocery store just across the way and make me photocopy of his list off Usenet (which sounded foreign to me at the time). He was doing things I hadn't seen before, so I knew it was legit. At first I thought he was going to end up ripping me off, but it all worked out. Relying on monthly magazines wasn't practical for the latest info, so I felt like I hit the jackpot. I still have that paper in my MK box, too. I don't blame you. As fun as MKX is to play on a gameplay standpoint, it lacks certain things that MK is known for. Funny you mention Armageddon. I played Deadly Alliance and Deception, but I skipped Armageddon completely. Never even bought it when it was released, which was the first time I hadn't purchased a new MK game. I ended up getting that 3-pack with Deception, Armageddon and Shaolin Monks for PS2 just a few years ago, but I have yet to play Armageddon.

That is interesting. Prior to my chance encounter with MK1 in 1993, I was always playing SF2/CE/Turbo at 7-Eleven before school (when they allowed loitering), and remember the day my brother and I got SF2 for SNES at Kmart. Good times. As much as I loved SF2, though, I never felt a strong connection to it. I can't really explain what it is I love about MK so much, but I have a lot of fond memories associated with it. It also got me through some tough times during my adolescence. I felt like that 12-year-old kid again when the MK9 announcement trailer hit the internet. Have you played MKX? There's a lot of things I like about it (gameplay, hidden Brutalities, gore tech 2.0, etc.), but a lot of things I don't (the roster, lack of stage fatalities, some of the character designs, etc.). It's definitely fun to play, though. I'm curious to see where they go from there.

I used to frequent the market my mom worked at back in 1993. They had two arcade machines side by side, one of which was SF2. My brother and I were really into SF2 at the time, so we were always playing that. The machine next to it happened to be MK1. I had never heard of it before, but I remember being impressed by the graphics. Nothing more, though. One day, I happened to glance over at MK1 during its attract mode as Scorpion and Liu Kang were battling it out, when all of the sudden Scorpion throws his spear at Liu Kang, followed by a ton of blood, "Get over here!", and an uppercut that sends Liu Kang flying 20 feet in the air. My jaw hit the floor. That was the moment I knew I had to play this game. I went home and thumbed through all of my video game mags to find anything I could about the game. Fortunately, I ended up finding a moves list in the December 1992 issue of EGM (some of the moves ended up being wrong, but it was better than nothing). I ripped the pages out so I could take them with me to the store (something I would later regret; I ended up obtaining another mint copy just a couple years ago). The rest is pretty much history. I've been obsessed ever since. The series has had its fair share of ups and downs, but I've stuck with it.

Not to condone piracy, but it looks like the first two Pizza Hut demo discs have been dumped. http://redump.org/disc/12699 http://redump.org/disc/3042 (These links are merely a record of the dumps and don't contain any copyright files.) There's plenty being sold on eBay as well. http://www.ebay.com/bhp/pizza-hut-demo Anyone remember the Xbox advergames Burger King sold back in 2006? There were 3, but my favorite was PocketBike Racer. My buddy and I played it for hours. The disc was pretty neat, in that it could play on both the original Xbox and Xbox 360. I was already a huge MK fan after the first game, which I used to play at my mom's work (a small market up valley) in 1993. I was aware that MKII was coming out soon thanks to EGM and GamePro, so it was just a matter of when and where. Then I happened upon it during a chance visit at Pizza Hut with the fam. I was ecstatic. I remember this one dude doing Johnny Cage's torso rip and Jax's head clap fatalities, but wouldn't tell anyone how to do them (a common theme back in those days). I sneaked a peak at his controls and learned how to do one of them. From there, I had the local vending machine company put a machine at the bowling alley (they were cool like that). I spent $20 on it every Friday, which lasted me a good 6-7 hours if other people were playing. Made some friends along the way. Online gaming just isn't the same. :\ Remember these?

I don't remember the PS1 demo discs, but I saw/played Mortal Kombat II for the first time at a Pizza Hut.

Very true. Though, my eldest niece (who was born in 1998) gives me hope. She's educated, well mannered, and has a great work ethic.

That made me laugh. Those sticks were bad enough when they were just months old. All I know is I'm glad I wasn't born around the year 2000.

Over the past couple of years or so, I've been going through older game libraries looking for gems (whether popular or obscure) I never got to play. Onimusha being one of them. I remember my brother playing it back in the day, but he was more into PS2 than I was at the time. I decided to play/finish it last year, and I absolutely loved it. The trilogy definitely intrigues me. If the other two games are as good as the first, then I'm right there with you on the HD treatment. And if you enjoy games about war and also happen to like tactical RPGs, I highly recommend Valkyria Chronicles for PS3, PC, and soon to be PS4. It has a certain charm to it. Since my last post, I decided to play DmC: Devil May Cry Definitive Edition on PS4. I finished it this morning in just under 13 hours. Despite all the hate it received over Dante's new look, I actually liked it a lot. The new Dante grew on me. The story was good, the combat was fun and super deep, and the levels were pretty fun and varied (there's 20 in all, not including the story DLC included with the Definitive Edition). There's also plenty of unlocks for replay value and throwbacks to the original games to keep die hard fans happy.

Haha, true. It's been a while since I've taken inventory. Memories like that are the best. Life's all about the little things, I say. I remember going to the store to buy baseball cards and Garbage Pail Kids. I still remember how hard and stale the gum was in the GBK packs. Also, Big Wheels were the shit! My neighborhood friends and I started a Big Wheel club when I was a kid. Amen to that. I remember getting the internet for the first time in the mid-90's. It was like exploring a whole new world. I was amazed by the fact that I could talk to strangers from all around the world (this was during a time when people still had pen pals, mind you). I look at the youth of today and they just take it all for granted. They'll never know what it was like to rent VHS tapes and game cartridges, play newly released arcade games, or watch porn on dial-up. A friend of mine pointed out that our generation is unique in that we're not so far removed from the computer/internet/social media age. And it's true. We understand all this stuff, yet we didn't grow up with it like kids do now.