MK4 Rev 1.0/Beta Version?

zenomorp

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Ctozzi sent me this pic asking if I had seen it before. I have indeed, but only this image and nothing else. It was referred to as the Beta Version. Any of the other MK guys out there have any input on this or background info? Pretty cool regardless. It amazes me that after all this time, new stuff still pops up from time to time....

photo.jpg
 
Midway pretty much developed MK4 on the road, as they would show off a new version every 2-3 months with their road shows.

Version 1 isn't really a beta since it was the first massively release version of the game. MAWS had a complete list of every version ever shown in public, including the beta roadshow versions.
 
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True story: When MK4 "shipped" they sent out empty cabinets sans-boards as the game wasn't finished and the CEO wanted to get the game out and start making some much-needed sales. The boards were shipped out to the people who bought those empty cabinets a week or two later. The first rev of the software that went out was far from complete.

I don't recall what was in the version that was shown during the "truck tour" as my memory isn't that good from something so long ago but suffice it to say it was pretty bare bones and only had a few characters playable and none of them were complete.

In what will go down as an act of cruelty to a ton of die-hard MK fans, long before the truck tour, we needed to film a promo video for the game. Someone in marketing had the idea to film the game on location being played in front of a ton of people. They picked Enchanted Castle as the location and the location advertised that MK4 would be there that night for a special sneak preview. A huge crowd of kids showed up thinking they were going to get to play the game. The empty cabinet sat at the arcade roped off all day. At night time we showed up, plugged in a dev board that had only raiden and liu kang playable (and barely playable at that) and Eddie Ferrier and myself proceeded to play the game in front of this huge crowd for about a half an hour. When the guys had enough footage between us playing and the people in the crowd we turned the machine off, packed it up and had it driven back to the office. I remember them interviewing me on camera as "a fan" of the game about how much I liked it which was perhaps one of my finest acting gigs in my career.

Ah the good old days... Working on that project wasn't a whole lot of fun most of the time which was in stark contrast to working on MK3/Ultimate which was probably the most fun project I worked on in my time at that company.
 
True story: When MK4 "shipped" they sent out empty cabinets sans-boards as the game wasn't finished and the CEO wanted to get the game out and start making some much-needed sales. The boards were shipped out to the people who bought those empty cabinets a week or two later. The first rev of the software that went out was far from complete.

I don't recall what was in the version that was shown during the "truck tour" as my memory isn't that good from something so long ago but suffice it to say it was pretty bare bones and only had a few characters playable and none of them were complete.

In what will go down as an act of cruelty to a ton of die-hard MK fans, long before the truck tour, we needed to film a promo video for the game. Someone in marketing had the idea to film the game on location being played in front of a ton of people. They picked Enchanted Castle as the location and the location advertised that MK4 would be there that night for a special sneak preview. A huge crowd of kids showed up thinking they were going to get to play the game. The empty cabinet sat at the arcade roped off all day. At night time we showed up, plugged in a dev board that had only raiden and liu kang playable (and barely playable at that) and Eddie Ferrier and myself proceeded to play the game in front of this huge crowd for about a half an hour. When the guys had enough footage between us playing and the people in the crowd we turned the machine off, packed it up and had it driven back to the office. I remember them interviewing me on camera as "a fan" of the game about how much I liked it which was perhaps one of my finest acting gigs in my career.

Ah the good old days... Working on that project wasn't a whole lot of fun most of the time which was in stark contrast to working on MK3/Ultimate which was probably the most fun project I worked on in my time at that company.

Great story. Thanks. Interesting to hear some "behind the scenes" info.
 
The dedicated MK4 I bought had Rev. 1 in it. It is great for nostalgia, but not to play. Missing characters, no fatalities, no stories, no weapons, tons of bugs. I sold that board to a collector in Japan and got a version 3 PCB.
 
Shit I had one of those in my old MK4 cab.I didn't play much back in the day and didn't really like it or play it enough to research it or notice. I just thought that is how it was. Oops.
 
Shit I had one of those in my old MK4 cab.I didn't play much back in the day and didn't really like it or play it enough to research it or notice. I just thought that is how it was. Oops.

Don't feel bad. It doesn't sell for a premium. Since MK4 PCBs go for so much already, you would have gotten the same, or probably a little less for the board. You didn't miss out on anything.
 
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