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Just got in touch with someone who was involved with the production and testing of MK3/UMK3. I asked him about Wavenet and looks like we've been totally wrong about it for a long time. Here is the info on it directly from the horse's mouth....
"I can tell you about the Wavenet though. I am pretty sure it was based off of regular MK3 and not UMK3 (my memory is a bit fuzzy in my old age). There were no games in CA from what I remember unless they had a machine hooked up at Atari which is doubtful. We had a game in the lunchroom at Midway and then at Diversions, Dennis on Belmont St, Gala North, Gala West, and Friar Tucks. The games were hooked up via ISDN lines that Midway paid to have installed at these locations. I don't know why and how people keep thinking they were T1's but I've corrected people on this fact countless times.
Ed hacked together a playable Noob Saibot character for the Wavenet MK3 but that was his only involvement with it. The Wavenet group did all the work to make it run on their wavenet network. It was very laggy which resulted in things like Kabal being nearly invincible because you couldn't block his dash move up close because of the lag. A programmer at Midway named Kevin Day made some hack "fixes" to the game to add delays to certain moves to try and counter the lag so moves couldn't be abused but it wasn't enough to make up for the lag. The reality was that technology and internet speed wasn't there yet for a game such as MK. It also didn't help that the wavenet group was run by a complete moron. They pissed away a shit ton of money on all this stuff that ended up tanking and getting cancelled both under the name Wavenet and then MTN (Midway Tournament Network).
As for what happened to the hardware, that's a good question. I'm sure some ex-employee probably swiped a board set or two but that someone wasn't me (which is kind of shocking considering how much stuff I did get from that place over the years I worked there). Regardless though, whoever had it wouldn't be able to do a thing with it because the Wavenet network and infrastructure doesn't exist that ran the whole thing so it just be a fucked up MK3 that won't function correctly. It is likely that most of that stuff was destroyed and no one saved any of it. That place threw away just about everything and saved just about nothing for years, way before they went out of business."
So it appears that even if a Wavenet board showed up, it would be useless. Sad news, but now we can stop looking and move forward. Opinions?
"I can tell you about the Wavenet though. I am pretty sure it was based off of regular MK3 and not UMK3 (my memory is a bit fuzzy in my old age). There were no games in CA from what I remember unless they had a machine hooked up at Atari which is doubtful. We had a game in the lunchroom at Midway and then at Diversions, Dennis on Belmont St, Gala North, Gala West, and Friar Tucks. The games were hooked up via ISDN lines that Midway paid to have installed at these locations. I don't know why and how people keep thinking they were T1's but I've corrected people on this fact countless times.
Ed hacked together a playable Noob Saibot character for the Wavenet MK3 but that was his only involvement with it. The Wavenet group did all the work to make it run on their wavenet network. It was very laggy which resulted in things like Kabal being nearly invincible because you couldn't block his dash move up close because of the lag. A programmer at Midway named Kevin Day made some hack "fixes" to the game to add delays to certain moves to try and counter the lag so moves couldn't be abused but it wasn't enough to make up for the lag. The reality was that technology and internet speed wasn't there yet for a game such as MK. It also didn't help that the wavenet group was run by a complete moron. They pissed away a shit ton of money on all this stuff that ended up tanking and getting cancelled both under the name Wavenet and then MTN (Midway Tournament Network).
As for what happened to the hardware, that's a good question. I'm sure some ex-employee probably swiped a board set or two but that someone wasn't me (which is kind of shocking considering how much stuff I did get from that place over the years I worked there). Regardless though, whoever had it wouldn't be able to do a thing with it because the Wavenet network and infrastructure doesn't exist that ran the whole thing so it just be a fucked up MK3 that won't function correctly. It is likely that most of that stuff was destroyed and no one saved any of it. That place threw away just about everything and saved just about nothing for years, way before they went out of business."
So it appears that even if a Wavenet board showed up, it would be useless. Sad news, but now we can stop looking and move forward. Opinions?
