Live from the E3 Floor
11:26 AM CDT
- Jeff Greeson
We're here live at the Electronic Entertainment Expo getting ready for the doors to open. Yesterday, we managed to sneak in while everyone was setting up and went by the Midway booth to check out what was on display. They had a very early copy of Mortal Kombat Gold running, which we couldn't resist getting our hands on. From the little time we had to play before we were ushered out, the game looked very rough and many options were not available. Here's a short list of what we noticed:
The nostalgic five characters on the select screen were all playable.
Special move motions for the new characters did not appear to be carried over from previous Mortal Kombat games.
The new characters were not listed in the practice menus.
Character shadows during battle were missing.
The five new playables were not present in any of the difficulty towers.
Several problems with the audio soundtrack were prevalent. (development issue)
Kitana's moves seemed like development placeholders, as strange audio effects were occurring during the moves. We expect that most of these minor glitches were due to the early nature of the game.
We're almost a half an hour away from the opening of E3, so check back later today for more coverage of Mortal Kombat Gold and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces!
Midway's Booth at E3
5:06 PM CDT
- TetterkeT
We are having a blast at Midway's monstrous booth at the Electronic Entertainment Expo! We've met with many of the company's staff, including play testers. I managed to bump into Jason Shigenaka whom I met on the West Coast MK4 Road Tour. He informed me that Mortal Kombat Gold actually runs better and faster on the Dreamcast than in the arcade. We also expect them to implement some Dreamcast only features when it is released. So far, we're unclear whether we can show you our own personal images from the game(s). However, Midway provided us with a media CD that contains press releases and screenshots of both MK Gold and MK: Special Forces which we plan on making available a little later. Here are a few pictures of the beast that is the Midway booth:
E3 MK: Special Forces Screenshots
8:31 PM CDT
- Jeff Greeson
It has been an exhausting day for us. We've been on our feet for the past 8 hours traversing the floor of the Electronic Entertainment Expo. The Expo is closed now and we're catching our breath. Here are some screenshots from the PSX version of Mortal Kombat Special Forces. We'll be back tomorrow with an update on our impressions of both MK: Special Forces and MK Gold, along with TONS of screenshots from both games and Midway's Booth.
May 14th, 1999
There's Just No Stopping at E3
10:57 AM CDT
- TetterkeT
Busy, busy, busy is all I can say for our status here at the Electronic Entertainment Expo. We've been schmoozing with the Midway big wigs and gathering as much information as we possibly can about everything Mortal Kombat. Later this evening we should have some screenshots of MK: Special Forces for the Nintendo64. Also, we apologize about the mix-up with the screenshots for the PSX. The problem has been rectified and we urge you to check out the revised MK: Special Forces PSX screenshots page. At this point, all we can say about MK Gold is that it is in it's most early stages. A Midway rep informs us that MK Gold is in its infancy, with no underlying code for the new characters' AI or special moves. Check back later today for more updates.
E3 MK: Special Forces Screenshots II
1:15 PM CDT
- TetterkeT
As promised here are a handful of screenshots for the Nintendo64. Midway tried to keep the game as similar as possible between the N64 and PSX, thus you may not notice too great a difference in these shots. Also, because they attempted to make the game uniform on both platforms, the video sequences are done in real-time (as opposed to using FMV on the PSX). Hopefully, we can share some of the shots that we took of the game later this evening as well as some other information about what's going on at Midway's booth.
May 15th, 1999
Mortal Kombat Gold E3 Pics
11:27 AM CDT
- Jeff Greeson
It's the last day here at the Eletronics Entertainment Expo. We're getting ready to head out to the floor again to check out what the other companies have to offer. But for now, here are the screenshots from Mortal Kombat Gold Midway provided us. Mortal Kombat Gold was in a very rough form. We were told that the new characters and the new stages were just implemented. So, Eurocom didn't have time to merge the old MK2 and MK3 code for the new characters into the game. That is why you're seeing other people's moves on the new characters. They were just put on the new characters just to have them do something rather than nothing at all. We were also told by a Midway tester that the Dreamcast was actually running the game a little faster than the Zeus did with the Arcade version. This will allow Midway to put some new features into the game, rather than just port the entire game over from the Arcade. Check back later for some aerial shots of
Midway's booth.
Mortal Kombat E3 Impressions
11:37 AM CDT
- Jeff Greeson
I had the opportunity to help out the Gamespot crew cover the Mortal Kombat games for their coverage of E3 at E3News.com. Since I won't have time to finish my write up of my impressions of both games for TRMK let me provide the links to the impressions I wrote for Gamespot. Here are the articles:
Midway's 1999 E3 Booth Pictures
3:11 PM CDT
- Jeff Greeson
Midway's booth at this year's E3 was one of the busiest areas in the South Hall of the LA Convention Center. With games like Ready 2 Rumble, Hydro Thunder, Mortal Kombat Gold, NBA Showtime: NBA on NBC, Blitz 99, Blitz 2000 (DC), Gauntlet Legends, Paperboy, Mortal Kombat: Special Forces, World Driver: Championship, and Jackie Chan's Stuntmaster; there was plenty to see and do. We snapped a ton of pictures of the games and all the activites going on around the booth. Head on over there and check out the show Midway put on for the attendees. Don't forget to check back later as we've gotten the go ahead to post our exclusive pictures from Mortal Kombat: Special Forces.
Mortal Kombat: Special Forces Exclusive Pictures
6:06 PM CDT
- Jeff Greeson
Here they are! Here are the 13 exclusive pictures from the PlayStation version of Mortal Kombat: Special Forces. Most of these shots are from the opening cinematics. In picture 7, we get a first glimpse of the leaders of the Black Dragon, (from left to right) Kano, Quin, and Kabal. Notice that Kano doesn't have his eye patch and Kabal is not sporting his MK3 gear. We were told by John Tobias that the storyline will reveal how Kano receives his eye implant. Mortal Kombat: Special Forces will be released sometime late this Fall.
Prior to this year's show, I had only heard great things about the Electronic Entertainment Expo. Soon after last year's show was over, I regretted that I didn't attend. Now that I have been to an E3, all I can say is that I'm going every year regardless. It was a gamer's heaven. E3 is all about playing games that nobody else gets to play until 4-6 months later.
Sega had a huge showing of their Dreamcast system software. It looks like they're going to hit the US stores with a full head of steam. With games like Marvel vs. Capcom, Soul Calibur, Virtua Fighter 3tb and Mortal Kombat Gold, the Dreamcast is going to be the fighting game player's dream system. You're definately going to want to pick up the extremely sturdy arcade stick controller when you pick up a Dreamcast. (the bottom trigger buttons on the standard controller drove me nuts) I have to admit, Soul Calibur looked very smooth on the Dreamcast hardware.
Sony's section was a little tame, with the exception of the huge PlayStation 2 pyramid. They had 3-4 flat panel TVs running those infamous technical demos, floating around the Internet in video form. They were nothing short of spectacular in person. Everything shown on the Next-Generation PlayStation was extremely detailed and running at such a high frame rate. The facial expressions demo made my jaw drop. Grand Tourismo 2 was also on display for PlayStation looking very sharp with a myriad of new cars and tracks.
Nintendo showed off Perfect Dark, Rare's unoffical "sequel" to Goldeneye. The controls still felt very Goldeneye-esque; however, the graphics were several notches above it's predecessor. Donkey Kong 64 was there. I have to admit that I left the DK series after DK Country, I was pretty impressed with DK64. Although it doesn't match Banjo-Kazooie in graphics, DK64 seems like a more enjoyable game with all of the really cool bonus mini-games.
Nintendo announced their plans for their next-generation hardware (code-named Dolphin) a day before the show. The numbers being thrown around, an IBM 400mhz copper CPU (Gekko) and a 200mhz ArtX graphics processor, are very impressive. Check out E3News.com's story on the new hardware. Oh, there was plenty of Pokemon for everyone to check out. Nintendo had both Pokemon Stadium and Pokemon Snap playable. After about 10 minutes of playing Pokemon Snap, I still don't get why anyone would want to buy that game. Also in Nintendo's corner was Star Wars: Episode I Racer. While the area was too crowded to get a chance to play it, I did get to see a really cool life-size Darth Maul mannequin.
There was so much to see and do at E3. Three days wasn't enough to see everything. I didn't even get a chance to make it over to Kentia Hall to check out what those companies had to offer. Although I didn't get to see everything, of what I did see was well organized and well run. If there was something I had to complain about it would be the food prices at the Convention Center. ($2.75 for a medium soda?) With that aside, I had a blast at E3 and can't wait for next year's show to come around.
If everything goes as planned, I should have my full impressions of both MK:SF and MK Gold sometime Friday.
Special E3 Exclusive Footage
2:21 PM CDT
- Jeff Greeson
We almost forgot to post this! While at E3 we managed to get some exclusive footage from series co-creator, Ed Boon. These are pictures that you'll only be able to get at TRMK so check 'em out.
May 19th, 1999
Midway E3 '99 Brochure Scans
1:02 PM CDT
- Jeff Greeson
Here are some scans of the Mortal Kombat Gold and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces pages from Midway's E3 brochure.
May 21st, 1999
First Look: Mortal Kombat Special Forces
9:09 PM CDT
- Jeff Greeson
Our first look of Mortal Kombat Special Forces is finally complete. Even though the game was in an early form, I was very impressed with what Midway had already done with it. Here's a snippet:
MK: Special Forces features seven full 3D worlds. The camera employs a 3rd person perspective behind your character. There is also a camera button that knocks the camera in place if you happen to be caught in an awkward angle. The overall speed of the game was pretty smooth, even though we were told that the engine hasn't been optimized yet. There would be some slow down when your character was approached by multiple enemies. The Nintendo 64 version seemed to offer better visuals with smoother textures and less blocky scenes. This seems true about every game being developed for both the N64 and PSX.
