Mortal Kombat....emulation nightmare

[KitanaMurderer]

I am really surprised that anyone still plays Mortal Kombat, not that I am bashing you people, was just surprised to find interest in the game these days. I used to play the first 3 games in the arcade when they were new, and I had the PC versions of the first 3 games long before MAME ever existed.

I became quite proficient at all 3 games when playing against the CPU opponents on the hardest difficulty level. I was never any good against very skilled human opponents, and never got much practice in against them either...so go figure. My top character in the 1st and 2nd games was Scorpion, and then Unmasked Sub Zero in MK3. UMK3, I played only a handful of times back in the day.

I accidentally found the ROMS for all the games a few days ago then this forum, so I tried them on MAME.

This is what I found. UMK3 plays absolutely in no way like MK3, it is like an entirely different game (against the CPU), probably why I didn't bother learning it 10 years ago. After a decade, I can still kick CPU ass with Sub Zero on MK3 (which was shocking to me). I used to cruise through MKII with Scorpion, but now....I am horrible with him, boy what a rude awakening that was!

Also, keyboards are not the same as they used to be!! I played the PC versions of these games with a 1993 vintage keyboard (back in the mid 90's), and was able to reliably perform moves at the most critical times. I have two newer modern keyboards and i tried them both, and they are useless to play this game with. The keys lock up, your fighter will start blocking on his own for ever or start walking for 3 minutes in one direction, and Kabal's spin only works 15% of the time when you attempt it, making his character totally useless and unplayable. Don't play these games with a newer keyboard....you'll put your fist through your monitor!!

I cursed, my hands hurt and I just got pissed off, especially with MKII lol!!
After stepping back and looking at myself, my 38 year old self...I realized I am not in my mid 20's anymore and this was just crazy, so I have deleted all the MK ROMS from my system, and for me the games will RIP.

After watching your "broken" videos...All I can say is you guys are totally nuts!! I don't know how you do that stuff without destroying your hands lol And seeing how easy the one guy on here defeated Shao Kahn on UMK3 or MK3 with all the different characters......i'd never seen that done in an arcade before back in the day, NEVER. The juggle low punch thing in the corner is sooo lame, but amazingly effective. The most impressive video of the Shao Kahn series was the Ermac one, in my opinion.

If I offended anyone with my post, oh well, an old man needs to vent now and then. Maybe you guys could do a video showing every character performing all their fatalities on Kitana, and her falling into the pits, spikes, getting decapitated etc. Or two player matches where Kitana gets "owned" as you guys call it and completely mutilated and destroyed Yeah, I have some Kitana issues.. :twisted: Think of Ash in Evil Dead II, when he is battling with his possessed hand....that is how under my skin she can be.

Ok, I am through rambling...

Steve

 

[Shock]

I understand the context of your post, don't worry. You seem to be impressed, but know when to hang it up. I'm going to move this into the Myths and Fanlore, because this is a very fan perspective oriented post.

 

[DAVE101]

Also, keyboards are not the same as they used to be!! I played the PC versions of these games with a 1993 vintage keyboard (back in the mid 90's), and was able to reliably perform moves at the most critical times. I have two newer modern keyboards and i tried them both, and they are useless to play this game with. The keys lock up, your fighter will start blocking on his own for ever or start walking for 3 minutes in one direction, and Kabal's spin only works 15% of the time when you attempt it, making his character totally useless and unplayable. Don't play these games with a newer keyboard....you'll put your fist through your monitor!!

For the PC games, the default keys are meant to prevent locking. For that kabal comment, I don't know why but that always happens to me on both keyboard and gamepad.

This is what I found. UMK3 plays absolutely in no way like MK3, it is like an entirely different game (against the CPU),

Yes, the CPU changes a lot from MK3 to UMK3. I think they're more predictable. You shouldn't be concerned about that though.

After a decade, I can still kick CPU ass with Sub Zero on MK3 (which was shocking to me).

MK3 sub-zero changes significantly in umk3 in terms of effectiveness.

 

[KitanaMurderer]

I know what I am talking about as far as the keyboard issues....one of the site administrators on this forum mentions the exact same keyboard problems on this thread: http://www.ultimatemk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=75

I know how to remap the keyboard. I tried two different keyboard mapping setups, one using the number pad (7,1,5,3,9,0) and directional arrows, then another using letter keys only (s,d,f,e and u,j,k,l,o, space). Both setups have problems on both of my Keyboards ( a Microsoft ergo-split from 1999) and generic one that has a better arrow key layout (left, down and right keys are all in a row, with the up key directly above the down key)from about 2000.

I think I may have given my old 1993 keyboard to my mother....so I might try to swap it out for my 2000 model when I visit her on Thanksgiving. It has the better arrow key layout also.

You know, if Kitana had not sent me into the pits and performed her fatalities on me repeatedly when she beat me the other night, I might have felt differently about her oll: So, maybe I will reclaim a ROM or two and my old keyboard to extract my revenge in the future. :twisted: Maybe even make my own "broken" video of it. "Kitana Broken"

 

[dreemernj]

That ergo MS keyboard you describe has been my main keyboard since about 1999, lol. The button locking on it is hideous but its still the keyboard I used for all the combo videos.

 

[KitanaMurderer]

Why are you using that MS keyboard for your videos? If you make sure to not hold down any specific keys too long, it can work, but it is hard enough to concentrate on just fighting, yet trying to think about how long your holding block etc. For some reason the Kabal spin is very erratic with that keyboard, no matter what I did, along with my other one too.

 

[DAVE101]

It's hard to play as liu kang and kano, where at times you are holding LK, BLOCK, down, and back.

 

[aC]

I've been using MS ergo's forever, I just can't go back to normal ones. But yeah the button locking on them is HORRIBLE! I never looked into it, but is it a driver problem? or just inherent to the keyboard? It's always driven me mad in platform shooters and stuff. where you're trying to hit 4 or 5 buttons at a time. Hell even in FPS' its bit me in the ass.

 

[dreemernj]

It's a characteristic of the keyboard, not a driver problem.

It can depend on few things. How they construct the matrix for the buttons. Whether or not they do things like wire diodes in series with the buttons. Fun stuff like that.

The MS Ergo really has cheap guts to it. But I got used to it and never switched away.

In the end, the amount of key locking that occurs has helped increase how precisely I press the buttons.