INTRO: EGM managed to track down the elusive MK men and drill them for info. The cre- ators of MK (lead programmer Ed Boon and lead artist John Tobias) speak out on their MK experiences. The MK masters konwn for their secrecy tackle questions on the new Ultimate Mortal Kombat as well as a bit of insight into MK4 and other aspects of Mortal mania.
EGM: Do you guys have a hand in any
of the other MK projects, such as
the five tour, CD, etc.?
BOON/TOBIAS: All of the licensed stuff
usually comes across our desk as sort of
an approval process. For example,
in the beginning of the live tour, we com-
municated the story line and which characters
should be in it as well as talking to
the director and bouncing ideas off us.
EGM: Any new MK stuff coming out, like a toy
line, DC, shirts, etc.?
BOON/TOBIAS: Brady Publishing is
working on an MK Magic-type card
game that should be out by Christmas.
The gameplay is done and they're work-
ing on its artwork.
EGM: Is there anything you'd like to see done
with Mortal Kombat entertainment-wise,
like action figures?
BOON/TOBIAS: There is talk of an
animated series and a live-action
TV show.
EGM: Would the live-action show feature the
real actors from the game?
BOON/TOBIAS: Probably not--it's up
to Threshold Entertainment. It's more
on the back burner, because of other
projects, like the MK movie hitting the
foreign market. They're also dealing
with a sequel.
EGM: More on the gaming side...when UMK3
hits home, is it going to be targeted for a
particular system...say the U64?
BOON/TOBIAS: No, it's not an exclusive
thing for any particular system. It would
most likely be a simultaneous release.
EGM: After seeing the different options for the
home version of MK3 (such as the
Tournament Mode for the Super NES),
will you add any features to the home
release of UMK3?
BOON/TOBIAS: Oh yeah! We certainly
want to add stuff to it. John and I are
constanly working on the next MK and
we'll have more free time to add things.
EGM: Speaking of the current UMK3, there
seem to be some new features at the
end of the game, such as endurance
matches and finishing move tours. Are
these going to be incorporated in the
final version and to what extent?
BOON/TOBIAS: The way it's going to
work is that there are 12 symbols to
choose from. If you pick the Easy Mode,
you choose from the first four or five. If
you pick the second one, you can choose
the first six or eight. The hardest
will let you choose 10 of the 12, and if
you pick the eight-player tournament,
you can choose any of the 12. The idea
is that you can't see which one you pick
and have to discover each one down the
line as an incentive to finishing the game
more than once. There are also hidden
surprises at the end.
EGM: That's a really interesting idea--reward-
ing the players for completing the game
by giving them another challenge. Would
completing these challenges give you
any additional rewards, like a piece of a
code or are the matches reward
enough?
BOON/TOBIAS: On the harder ones,
you might get a code or something simi-
lar ot it, but that's still not determined.
EGM: There was mention of a new hidden
game a while back. Is there a totally new
game besides the Galaga game?
BOON/TOBIAS: Yeah, but we can't give
out any hints at this time.
EGM: Also on the subject of new stuff in
UMK3, is there any information you
can release on the new `ality?
BOON/TOBIAS: We make it a
practice not to discuss anything until
it is discovered.
EGM: I understand, but can I ask if this new
`ality is going to be for all characters
or will the new four have any exclusive
`alities?
BOON/TOBIAS: All of the characters
will have the new `ality, and the new
ones will pretty much have the same
stuff as the rest.
EGM: I've seen several of the hidden characters including
Mileena, Ermac, Noob,
and the old Sub-Zero. Are these going
to be the only hidden characters?
BOON/TOBIAS: There'll be more, but
only three'll be on the Selection screen.
There are others that are playable but
not from that particular screen.
EGM: I find it curious that you'd bring back the
old Sub-Zero with the new one still
intact...any reason behind this?
BOON/TOBIAS: It's the same reason-
ing behind bringing back Kitanna
or Scorpion--because everyone asks
for them.
EGM: I guess the real question is: Why bring
back Sub-Zero instead of old characters
like Baraka or Raiden who are com-
pletely different?
BOON/TOBIAS: Well, there are memo-
ry limitations. We can bring back Sub-
Zero and it doesn't cost us as much as
a full new character.
EGM: I have to ask a question I hear often:
Why are there so many color palette
swaps instead of original characters? Is
it a memory limitation or time factor?
BOON/TOBIAS: It's really a couple of
things. The first reason we did it in Part
One (for Scorpion, Sub-Zero, and
Reptile) was for memory and timing the
story line really worked. When Part Two
came out, we wanted Reptile as a
playable character, and we had already
defined the look of the character, so we
didn't want to change that and lose the
recognizability. When Part Three came
out, we didn't want to abuse it by going
too far, so we changed Sub-Zero, got
rid of the other ones (initially) and intro-
duced the cyberninja. This gave us the
ability to add new characters and do the
"trick." With every game there is a time
limitation. When we brought back
Scorpion in Part Three, again we had
introduced him before in the old form.
We didn't want to say, "Now he looks
like this." So pretty much it's a combina-
tion of time constraints and the fact that
we had established a character with a
certain look.
EGM: As far as the new chips go, could you
just keep increasing the number of
characters or features?
BOON/TOBIAS: You could add more
chips, but there is a lot more in the
decision making than just us wanting
more chips. There's cost and the lead
time in ROMS. The more you order--
the longer it takes. There are a million
variables in making these games.
EGM: If these chips compose about a quarter
of the image memory, does that neces-
sarily mean the game is 20 percent
changed? It appears to be a lot higher
because of the playability changes.
BOON/TOBIAS: You can't simply take
the ratio of image memory as how
much the games have changed. We
changed a bunch of things. We addded
combos you can do with a punch and
a ton of program changes as well. A
program change isn't necessarily how
many bytes are added to the program.
EGM: You had mentioned previously that
there wasn't going to be another
upgrade and that the next MK will be a
totally new. Is that still true?
BOON/TOBIAS: UMK was not intended
to be a new game. It's just something to
keep the arcade fresh. We did what we
could and it was just supposed to be a
ROM update, not a whole separate
game. When the next MK comes out-- a
Part Four or whatever it'll be called --it
will be a completely new game.
EGM: How far along is MK4 and can you
mention anything about it?
BOON/TOBIAS: It will be a fighting
game...(ha ha)
EGM: I have heard that, in wanting to make
it different, you were going to use
brand-new hardware. Are you planning
on using anything from... say the Killer
Instinct game or some other types
of hardware that your company may
be using?
BOON/TOBIAS: As far as using hard-
ware from other games, the next KI
is going to be using the same hardware.
The hardware we want isn't even
defined yet. We know we won't use
the old hardware.
EGM: Is the hardware you used secret or is it
standard stuff that anyone can use?
BOON/TOBIAS: You could look on the
board and find that we use a Texas
Instruments 34010 processor. It's a
GSP with our custom DMA that blows
out the pixels. It's nothing proprietary
other than our DMA.
EGM: Are you guys getting tired of MK?
BOON/TOBIAS: Well, it's sort of a cure
and a blessing. Everyone wants to keep
it up to date. If we didn't make MK3,
then MK wouldn't be in the public as
much, and the movie wouldn't be that
big, because we wouldn't have kept the
players on for so long.
EGM: Do all the rumors, FAQs and the
fact that someone even hacked into
the code to find the Smoke code
upset you?
BOON/TOBIAS: Actually it's a nice
problem to have. If there's that much
interest in yoru game, it's better than
having it sit in an arcade with no one
playing it. All the rumors that saw we
don't like any of that stuff are just more
rumors. But this time the code is
encrypted, so finding any codes will
not be that easy.
EGM: What you like to see in MK4 or what
would you like to have put in UMK?
BOON/TOBIAS: It would be cool to
bring back some of the old characters.
If we do another one, we will certainly
bring back some other characters. It
was kind of a drag that Raiden wasn't in
there as well as Baraka. Everyon on
the planet is asking for Goro.