Very early versions of MK4?

[Pizza]

I was watching old videos of the MK4 tour, so when I saw the selection screen I realized I had never seen it before. Then when looking for more footage I found out that effectively... there's almost no recordings of it. There are two selection screens that match with each other:

Then in a video by Evil Pixel about MK4 betas, I saw this selection screen:

It has Kai and Reptile, and the portraits of Fujin and Shinnok are different.

I don't know the specifics of the MK4 development, but I know I've heard many times that the team decided to take out classic characters to add some new ones. In these very old screens there's no Kano/Jarek, but we know that Jarek made it to the game. There's Noob Saibot, who was later replaced by Reiko. And allegedly Kitana was replaced by Tanya.

But Kai and Fujin are there. I always thought they were supposed to replace Raiden and Liu Kang, but it seems like there never was any conflict between these characters (even if Kai and Liu Kang are kinda redundant) since they're all here in these pre-Revision 1 versions.


Are these versions of the game available somewhere? They seem like an interesting rarity, I wish I could play them.

 

[Deleted member 5032]

I don't know about any of that, but that Reptile headshot is literally the reason I never played MK4 lol

 

[Kiss the Missile]

Yeah Reptile's mask was always a weird choice. It looks like a muzzle and gives him this weird BDSM gimp vibe

@RoboCop MK4 is a fun game to mess around with. If it helps at all, Reptile has a better looking alt

 

[Deleted member 5032]

I was an MK2 fanboy, so I hated anything they changed in subsequent games, like taking away Sub Zero's mask and giving him that stupid scar (even if it was a different SZ, he looked so dumb). So I never got into another MK until 9 came out.

 

[Deleted member 5032]

@Kiss the Missile if anyone on TYM would be interested in this, it's you:
https://www.reddit.com/r/MortalKombat/comments/nunfr3

 

[Kiss the Missile]

Yeah I've had it pre-ordered for a month now, but Amazon is taking their sweet ass time shipping it

 

[Biggs]

MKSecrets has information on each of the arcade revisions, including the betas https://www.mksecrets.net/index.php?section=mk4&lang=eng&contentID=5896&title=Mortal-Kombat-4-Arcade

 

[Juggs]

MKSecrets has information on each of the arcade revisions, including the betas https://www.mksecrets.net/index.php?section=mk4&lang=eng&contentID=5896&title=Mortal-Kombat-4-Arcade

Such a fantastic site. I still use it to this day for random UMK3 characters strings I don’t know or for their fatalities/babalities. Also used it for MK2 for the same reasons. Great resource to have.

 

[Pizza]

MKSecrets has information on each of the arcade revisions, including the betas https://www.mksecrets.net/index.php?section=mk4&lang=eng&contentID=5896&title=Mortal-Kombat-4-Arcade

Thanks! Excellent info.

So these are Betas 1 and 2. By reading the info in MKSecrets, I wish there was footage of Betas 3 and 4. Time to start digging.

Noob Saibot was in since the beginning, but he didn't have unique moves or weapons until August 22nd, 1997; then in September 2nd, 1997 he is replaced by JAREK; but in September 26th, 1997 he is brought back to the select screen; only to be replaced by Reiko on October 13th, 1997. Seems like they didn't know what to do with Noob Saibot.

 

[Shania Twain]

I can say at least from my experience that MK4 was I think mostly in major big city arcades as it was not in my local town arcade. I'm guessing the early betas were in that traveling bus thing to promote the game. MK2-MK3 were everywhere. I remember MK2 even being at grocery stores in the opening vestibule areas. I think one they had the blood and fatalities turned off though. Anyhow, I remember only playing MK4 a handful of times and this was kinda when arcades were loosing steam and IIRC it came out on home consoles pretty fast, then Mythologies shortly after, then Annihilation, then Conquest aired and likely already completed filming before all of the games' releases so it felt like a massive overload. and they were clearly trying to shove Quan Chi down our throats. I personally thought the Dreamcast MK Gold was the better version cuz of load times/extra characters etc but that came out when it launched in 1999 as I'm sure you know.

I also can recall that kids were not allowed in many arcades mon-friday if you were under 18 without a parent before 3pm. So if you were in HS or homeschooled or went half day and got out early they were losing money.

 

[Biggs]

Thanks! Excellent info.

So these are Betas 1 and 2. By reading the info in MKSecrets, I wish there was footage of Betas 3 and 4. Time to start digging.

Noob Saibot was in since the beginning, but he didn't have unique moves or weapons until August 22nd, 1997; then in September 2nd, 1997 he is replaced by JAREK; but in September 26th, 1997 he is brought back to the select screen; only to be replaced by Reiko on October 13th, 1997. Seems like they didn't know what to do with Noob Saibot.

I think this has what you want

Mortal Kombat 4 - In Development - Mortal Kombat Secrets

Mortal Kombat Secrets is the most informative Mortal Kombat fan sites all over the world, featuring information not only about the games, but the films, the series and the books too. The site has a rich download section and forums too.

www.mksecrets.net

 

[Pizza]

I think this has what you want

Mortal Kombat 4 - In Development - Mortal Kombat Secrets

Mortal Kombat Secrets is the most informative Mortal Kombat fan sites all over the world, featuring information not only about the games, but the films, the series and the books too. The site has a rich download section and forums too.

www.mksecrets.net

Thanks! An actual screenshot of the third Beta select screen! This is very interesting. The writing under the select screens seems hopeful for more footage to surface, I wish the same.
These were physical upgrades to the arcade cabinets, right? They must be somewhere.

 

[John Grizzly]

Pretty sure this was the play test version Midway took on the road. They did a tour with the game and would bring cabinets to different locations via trucks. All footage of this version is really low quality.

 

[zerosebaz]

I remember reading they decided to remove Noob Saibot because he was hard to see in some stages. I wonder if that's true. I know they added him as a secret character, but it's a shame he didn't get a bio or an ending.