I'm sure you all notice the MovieCD banner at the top of the front page. To let you all know, The Realm of Mortal Kombat is a non-profit site and it will always be a non-profit site. Any compensation I recieve for advertisements goes right back into the site. Whether it be a product or money, everything is either given away in a contest or used to buy upgrade equipment to make this site more enjoyable and faster. Thanks for your support, and visit the companies so that you can make your contribution to The Realm of Mortal Kombat.

If you have a good knowledge of Mortal Kombat history, then you could win Mortal Kombat the movie on CD-ROM. To enter you must answer our three Mortal Kombat trivia questions, or look around the site for the "?" to find answers. The contest ends July 31st so start hunting for those "?'s." To get you started off, here's a hint: "jingle bells"

It's not a big deal, but there are now descriptions to the pictures linked in the Picture Gallery instead of just numbers.

A programmer from Point of View Inc. stopped by and chatted about some facts of Mortal Kombat Trilogy PC. Here are some facts about the game.

Mortal Kombat Trilogy is a straight port from the Playstation version. The Classic Characters from MK1 and MK2 are in there. All of the graphical and sound bugs have been eliminated and the loading time is GONE! The game runs on both DOS and Win95. The base system for Mortal Kombat Trilogy for the PC is a Pentium 100 with 8 megs of ram with 30 megs of hard drive space. The game will run on slower machines, but the p100 will give you the best effect. The sound effects are clean and crisp with no compression and the music is in Redbook format, which means you can play it in your car. (if you're really a MK phreak :) MKT can only be played on a IPX based network, which was the case with MK3 PC. However, in MKT you can play a network game in any of the game's modes including 2 on 2 Kombat. There are no plans for modem-to-modem or TCP/IP (internet) support to be added.

The big question everyone probably has is, "Why should I buy MKT for the PC since I already have it for my Nintendo⁶⁴ or Playstation?" Well the answer is... If you bought the N⁶⁴ version you were probably dissapointed with the muffled
sounds and lousy music. If you bought the PSX version, you probably become annoyed with the loading times and glitches. Mortal Kombat Trilogy PC lets you have the best of both worlds. You can have true arcade sound and music without loading times and glitches. I myself am excited about this title.

Little is known about the big mystery man of the summer. However, we're given a glimpse into Shinnok's existance in a couple of "tournament outcomes" in Mortal Kombat Trilogy. The endings that mention Shinnok are Noob Saibot's ending along with a new animated gif of Mileena's ending. There is one other ending, but I don't remember who's. This is probably as close as we're going to get on information about Shinnok

From the people that brought you the Gamers Perspective MKM E³ Review, Subliminal Vortex Studios has officially opened their MK4 website to the public. SVS has always produced graphically stunning websites, and they've done it again in their latest production.

There is a nice looking quicktime movie of the Playstation version of Mortal Kombat Mythologies Sub-Zero over at Gamespot News. The movie shows some awesome cinematic clips with Quan Chi, and Sub climbing a cliff! It also shows Sub-Zero getting sliced by one of the swinging blades. Also, you can get another 2 meg zipped movie from here courtesy of UltraGamePlayers.

There are some new pictures from E³ on the Official Kerri Hoskins
Hompage. The images area has two pics of the real life actors of the Unknown Male Warrior, Sub-Zero, and the Unknown Female Assassin played by Kerri Hoskins. Thanks to Mario Toth for the word.

Midway has opened their Official Mortal Kombat 4 Website at the URL http://www.mk4.com. The site features what looks to be the game's title graphic, along with the sideview of the cabinet featuring Quan Chi behind some nice looking flames. The site also contains the locations and dates of the MK4 Road Tour and the First Preview AVI

I've updated the MK4 Road Tour Schedule page with the revised locations from the Official Midway MK4 Site and re-organized the tables to give it a cleaner look. There were no new locations added, just the TBA's were filled in. There was one date change and that was the Phoenix location from 8/9 to 8/8.

First reported on MK4 Dominion, Next-Generation reports that Z Products has developed a plastic disc that attaches over the PSX controler's directional pad with rubber straps. The disc eliminates the PSX's clumsy directional pad and allows you to hit diagonals flawlessly. The PSX controls was a major concern in the Gamer's Perspective of MKM. Perhaps this little attachment is worth the $7.00 to avoid numerous migrains while playing the PSX version of MK Mythologies. The add-on should be in stores everywhere before the MK Mythologies release date of October

If Mythologies hasn't hit every type of viewable medium, it has now. PSXPower has posted some great looking pics of how "inventory" is handled, pics of cinematic sequences, two 2 meg quicktime movies, and 2 streaming RealVideo clips. They also say that "Mythologies: Sub-Zero is scheduled to be released sometime in September." Which contradicts all the other reports I've seen stating an October release. Anyways, the pics will soon be devoured by our Picture Gallery. :-

Better late than never... There is a review of Mythologies on Game Informer. Within this preview Game Informer states that, "We believe that Sub-Zero's ultimate goal is to obtain the Lost Amulet from the new Mortal Kombat bad-boy, Shinnok, who is also the last boss in MK4." Whoa, now doesn't that sound familiar? They also mention, "Look for this title on the PlayStation this September, with the N⁶⁴ version following in October." So it seems like that answers the mystery release dates

Majority of the addresses and phone numbers have been added to each location on the MK4 Road Tour Schedule. There are some location changes and the Phoenix date change was a typo and will be held on 8/9.

GT Interactive has stated in a press release that Mortal Kombat Trilogy PC will be available in mid-October.

I'll be out of town the next 5 days; however, TetterkeT will be here to keep you up to date with everything. He came to me with some cool topics, so you will probably forget that I'm not here. :-) So don't expect any replies to your e-mail's until Friday, but if you have something to contribute, my mailbox will still be monitored. Hasta luego

The freshly updated Midway MK4 Site now has a new page describing what will take place when the MK4 Road Tour comes to a town near you. They clarify that the machines
WILL be set on FREE PLAY and that all media organizations are welcome to attend. We had planned on going anyway and we'll have reports and pictures from some of the stops on the tour, so keep your eyes glued here

Remember back in June when we showed you a picture of the blue Cinder-like character? Well, it has resurfaced, but this time it's accompanied by several other images: all supposedly characters appearing in
MKM:Sub-Zero. While they all sport John Tobias' signature, it is still unknown if the sketches are in fact authentic. You can judge for yourself by viewing the pictures at either PSX Power or MK4 Dominion.

Now Midway's Official MK4 Site has its own Picture Gallery containing "The Living Forest" image featured in Time Digital. A new image will be added to the gallery every few days. However, don't even think of using
this or any of the site's other images on your web pages (don't even link them!). A source at Midway has informed us that the company plans to crack down on web thieves..

Midway recently announced plans to develop Mortal Kombat 4 for the Nintendo⁶⁴. Apparently they have slated a release date
of October 1998, although it could arrive anytime during the last half of that year. No details yet on how MK4 (utilizing the new Zeus hardware) will port to the 64-bit home system, but we can expect it in good, solid form. Thanks to Jared Putnam for bringing us this info from N64.com

I figured while Grees was away I'd give out another clue for our July contest. Try looking around for a question
mark on the PSX MKT FAQ page. Remember, all the answers to our contest questions can be found by searching the site for question mark symbols. Of course, if you want a quick way of accessing all the sites' pages, use the sitemap. Good luck!

Greetings, time to get things back on track. Thanks to TetterkeT for taking the wheel for a few days

Gamespot News has a MK4 screenshots page that contains a nice quality pic of the Time Digital floor shot of Raiden, along with a new MK4 logo that looks like a clock

Game Informer has a little blurb about the MK4 Road Tour on their site. At the end it says that we should expect MK4 in arcades around Labor Day, which is September 1st. However, I've seen reports that a date of August 10th is likely for release

The Official MK4 website has updated with the details on how you can win a Mortal Kombat 4 Machine. You can enter by filling out an entry form at each of the tour stops, at Gamepro's website, or by e-mail. Also, the Picture Gallery on MK4.com has added a wireframed Scorpion pic, which is the same as the one from Time Digital.

The following information is from an interview with Ed Boon
about MK4 taken from the August '97 GamePro Issue #107. Thanks to mkmyth@hotmail.com for the GamePro Interview Transcript...

"Going to be a storyline relation between MK4 and MK Mythologies, even though MK Mythologies takes place before MK1 and MK4 of course takes place after MK3." "They are aiming for 12 to 15 characters in MK4. Scorpion, Rayden, Sonya, Sub-Zero, and Liu Kang are returning in addition to some other favorites, and some guys from Mythologies." "No plans for any hidden characters have been made yet, but he said 'you could pretty much assume that MK 4 will also have hidden characters'" "The MK 4 hardware system Zeus was designed by Midway's Mark Loffredo. He has basically designed every Midway games' hardware since NARC." "MK4 backgrounds will be interactive to a point; they don't want it to interfere with the fighting. But they will make objects as real as possible." "The comical aspects (Babalities and Friendships) of MKII and MK3 will be gone and in it's place a more dark and evil game. Fatalities will be back, but not a set number per character, but a varying amount depending on character." "Characters are composed of over 3000 polygons each, so you can't see a single polygon, this gives MK4 a more realistic look than other polygon based games. As Ed says: 'Imagine a digitize look but in 3D if that's any way to describe it. Then you'll get an idea of what MK4 looks like.'" "Ed says they are aiming for a September nationwide release."

Another pic has been added to the MK4.com Photo Gallery. This time it's the floor shot of Raiden. It seems like people don't understand Midway's disclaimer about their images, because they now have to watermark their images with a Midway logo and a hidden mk4.com etched into the pics. So, if you want these pics into our website, go out and get a copy of Time Digital July/August 1997 and scan the pics, don't get Midway's lawyers angry at the Internet for copyright infringement, which will probably result into them shutting down sites like MK4.com and Mythologies.Dragondata.com.

Game Informer has recieved a playable copy of Mythologies and has a small review and a couple of pics. One shows Sub being impaled onto a spike, this is some gory stuff. Along with that pic, there are 3 others, including one of the "Status Screen.

Boston, MA (East): A few select individuals got a chance to speak with eX-KoPZ on an undisclosed IRC channel. He started out by letting us know that his first impression of the game was,"it's kewl." So far, there were only 9 characters playable: Sub-Zero, Scorpion, Sonya, Liu Kang, Shinnok, Fujin, Rayden, Noob Saibot, & Quan Chi. There were two machines at this particular stop, both with monitors up above and a wide screen projection on the wall. Each player recieved two plays before they were sent to the end of the line where they would wait approximately 20-30 minutes to play again. A moves sheet that players could browse before playing was taped down to a table (no copies were there to be given out) with some of the basic moves. The new feature is apparently the use of weapons that the characters "brandish" which range from close range weaponry to projectiles. It was noted that the characters do not appear to pull the weapons out of thin air. As for background stages, there were about 3 or 4 that players could battle on, however, we have not recieved details on their appearance.

Gotta thank McCarron and IceMaster for logging all channel activity and compiling info for this site. Should this site go down, we will post updates at www.icemaster.org

Check out our Exclusive MK4 Road Tour FAQ Page over at www.icemaster.org. Thanks to McCarron and IceMaster for the compilation

The official MK4 website has updated with a new logo and a page where you can get buttons to link to MK4.com

Ratman returns to the MK scene in huge dramatic fashion by becoming the first to have published pics from the MK4 Road Tour. These awesome quality pics can only be expected from the man, the myth, the legend of MK on the Web. The man behind rat.org

It must be the end of the world...Ratman and now Ed Boon have returned with updates. Ed explains on his webpage what's officially going on with the road tour. He also says that if you aren't able to make it to one of the road tour sites, there will be a new avi coming detailing the gameplay features present at the road tour. Thanks to Derek for the word

Fighter Edge has scored some pics and a mov/avi. The pics are kinda small, but you can still see many details about the gameplay, including Scorpion holding a sword. Thanks to Dave Toole for the word

San Antonio, TX (Midwest): The Realm of Mortal Kombat is proud to present, a special contribution to the TRMK, MK4 Report. Bone up on what to expect at the MK4 Road Tour, so that you're not wasting time in awe, but kicking ass when it comes to your turn to play. Thanks to Nick Bennett and Matt Vargyas for their contributions

Boston, MA (East): Ratman has updated his site with his MK4 Road Tour info page. He also has about 30 miscellaneous pictures of the game and of the tour's atmosphere

TRMK presents: The Realm of Mortal Kombat Printable Mini FAQ. This 1 page FAQ is perfect for printing right before you run off to the tour stop near you. The one page format is perfect for reading while waiting in line for your turn

Seattle, WA (West): The first West coast stop, Seattle, was somewhat of a disappointment. The turnout wasn't spectacular, probably due to the fact that the location was at a far away small town called Everett. In order to win a MK4 T-shirt, participants had to fill out an entry form to win the MK4 machine. From these entires, they drew 10 forms before they put those entries into the big drawing for the machine. There was only one machine playable, and that one kept crashing a lot, possibly due to the fact that the game doesn't like people playing as the same character. Thanks to Cammy for the special report

Houston, TX (Midwest): WorknMan, who took the helm of rat.org when rat stepped aside, has written a review of his impression of the San Antonio stop. In his review, it seems like things weren't handled as smoothly as they were in Boston (East)

Remember, there are only 4 days left in our July Contest to enter to win one of two MovieCD's of Mortal Kombat the movie. It's simple to win. Just answer the three MK related trivia questions on the contest page and you will be entered to a list where 2 people will be chosen at random. If you need help on some of the questions, we've hidden the answers all over the site. You're looking for the red question mark picture. Look for the third, and final, question mark on the Mythologies Info page.

Mesquite, TX (Midwest): First off I would like to thank the staff of Q City for their awesome hospitality. Thanks for all your help. The conditions couldn't have been more ideal at the 60,000 square foot Q City. Two machines were setup side by side underneath a huge wall of 15 television sets. Their main intention was to hook up the machines to the video wall; however, the signal was too weak to distribute to all those tv sets. The game was mind blowing, even though it was only 60% complete. It was very apparent that the game wasn't near finished; slowdowns when a character goes off screen, halts when Scorpion tries to teleport at the end of a level, and sometimes Liu Kang can punch you from long distances. These things are expected to happen due to it's premature state. The Midwest Tour Staff was excellent. They really had their act together and was very organized, contrary to reports from Houston. You would wait in line to play, when you beat someone you got to play an extra game; unfortunatly, if you lost you had to go back to the end of the line. They were very cool about letting me get film footage and pictures and answering questions. (Pictures will be delayed until tomarrow night due to the fact that I wore both of my batteries down :) They even went beyond the call of duty and returned for an extra hour from 8:30 to 9:30. One of the representatives said there should be ROM upgrades distributed via overnight mail to the tour teams, but there is no set date for the upgrades so they could come any day. Also, I was told that there are no fatalities in the game, period. There were also a couple of distributers at Q City to check out if the game was worth carying, the ones that I talked with were extremely impressed. Moves-wise, pretty much everything has been found in this version of MK4, since there wasn't much there in the first place. However, I did manage to get some things narrowed down. There seems to be an "auto-combo" for everyone. All you have to do is hold Forward+HP for any character and they perform a standard 4 hit combo. Also, when your character has any weapon there are 4 simple attacks. HP, Back+HP, LP, and Back+LP. Each move is a different movement except the crossbow which shoots a straight shot with LP and a bouncing shot with HP. To see more detailed descriptions of the moves, check out the Printable MK4 Moves List

Milpitas, CA (West): Yesterday's stop was TRMK's TetterkeT's stop at Milpitas Golfland. The events were held outdoors, so screen shots were unattainable; however, since TetterkeT wasn't busy taking pictures he was confirming moves for the Printable MK4 Moves Sheet, which is ideal to have in line while waiting to play. In this revision, the Auto-combo (F+HP close) has been confirmed to work for every character, Fujin's grab and spin simplified, spinning move for the axe confirmed, plus other moves have been simplified

I'd like to take this time to thank Chris Johnston for the mention in Gamespot News. IMO, Gamespot is definitely the best videogame webzine on the net. Here's the article. Along with TRMK, MK4 Dominion and ratman's site were also mentioned. Congrats

Here's the moment you've all been waiting for. I have finally put the finishing touches to the MK4 Road Tour Pictures. As of this update, there are currently 14 pictures of various characters and gameplay aspects. I plan to have about 20+ pictures, and hopefully a couple of AVI's for your viewing pleasure. Check back later for detailed descriptions of each picture, explaining their contents. Enjoy

Unfortunately, I was busy working late to miss a web based Q&A session with Ed Boon held at the Sonny Schwartz Website yesterday at 9:00pm CDT. Sorry about that guys, from the reports I've heard, it was very difficult to get on to the page and you couldn't scroll upwards, so don't feel like you missed out. Ed was on the phone with the webmaster of the site hosting the Q&A, relaying the questions and replies. As always, here are the major highlights from the interview.

- Reptile and Kitana are in, Mileena is NOT - The boss is Kai, a fast and agile African American character (sarcasm?) - The final version will feature 3D movement - "Most likely not Cage" he said, then pointed out that there will be a cast of 30 characters, but later corrected himself by saying it's only 15 - Will be packed with hidden features as always - Influenced by Japanese Mythology (Fujin is the god of wind) - More combination moves and "made up sequences" this time around - The weapons the characters were assigned in the tour version seen so far aren't the final ones assigned - There will be at least 2 fatalities per character - "electricity will flow for Raiden." - MK4 will feature all previous features plus weapons and 3D movement character balance, thanks to the fact that there are more than 1 programmer this time around - Fatalities are the only finishers, no others.

Thanks to IceMaster for the highlights.

Gamespot News now has a whole section for their MK4 Update which contains some images and an AVI. The glare in the video is due to the fact that the video was taken from the Milpitas tour stop, which was held outside