Player3Podcast

By: Bo Seagrist

 

 

In the last days of the year 1992 I was in my local mall. I was there to spend some of my money that I 

 

received for Christmas that year just days earlier. That Christmas turned out to be the greatest 

 

Christmas of my young life. I was 13 and that Christmas I received my SNES with a glorious copy of the 

 

arcade smash hit Street Fighter II.  At that time was the pinnacle of fighting games. I loved that game 

 

and could not be happier. Little did I know I was about to take a spear to the heart and be frozen in 

 

amazement…..

 

 

I walked through the mall on my way to KB-Toys. I had to pass by the mall arcade at that time was called 

 

Diamond Jims Arcade. I knew that I was going to be purchasing something today so I hit the arcade first. 

 

This way I would not have to bring my gift into the arcade and have a chance of leaving it or have it 

 

stolen. It’s called arcade savvy. You had to have it back then.  When I walked into the arcade I noticed 

 

that it was unusually quiet and not a lot of people playing games.  I stopped at the front and got $2 in 

 

tokens. When I walked around the corner I was blown away. There were about twenty people standing 

 

around one machine.  I had never seen anything like it. Back in the day arcades were real dark and all 

 

you could really see were the lights radiating off the machines.  So there it was glowing like beacon in 

 

the night MORTAL KOMBAT! All I could see was the top of the cabinet because of what seemed to be a 

 

sea of people. It looked like all those people had swallowed poison and the Mortal Kombat machine had 

 

the antidote. I made my way over to the crowd with feverish curiosity and enchantment by the soft glow 

 

of electric sex gleaming out of the cabinet. What happened next my young eyes and mind could not 

 

comprehend. 

 

 

I pressed my way through the crowed like I was a man with an issue of blood. I made it to the machine 

 

and was not allowed to play. There seemed to be $10 worth of tokens stacked on the machine. Back in 

 

the day meant…” I got next.”  Chances of me playing the game were slim. That was fine with me. I was 

 

pretty much paralyzed, and probably had my mouth open with drool dripping off my lip. When I walked 

 

up I caught the very end of a match and really couldn’t tell much about what had just happened. Then 

 

the next match started and the screen showed two fighters and one was dressed in white and had a 

 

wicker hat on like the guy from Big Trouble in Little China (Raiden God of thunder). The other fighter I 

 

recognized quickly as a Ninja and back in the 80’s and early 90’s every young kid thought about or 

 

fantasized about being a Ninja.  I was in love! I knew this would be my guy.  (Scorpion undead Ninja 

 

Specter) Then blistered across the screen in big letters and with a voice of a grand master from old 

 

karate flicks. The words FIGHT! 

 

 

The ninja Scorpion stuck out his hand and rope with a hook or something came out and went all the way 

 

across the screen and pierced through the body of Raiden.  When it hit him blood gushed out of his body 

 

and spilled onto the ground. WHAT?! Blood? Then he pulls him all the way across the screen and 

 

SHOUTS…..GET OVER HERE! Then throws a devastating uppercut to him so hard he flies nearly off the 

 

screen, and the sound that it made was so powerful. It was like you could not hit anyone that hard and 

 

they live. The fight continued and I can’t recall every little detail. Mainly cause I am thinking about how I 

 

am going to be able to walk back through the mall with this doo doo in my pants. I didn’t literally soil 

 

myself.  I would not have been surprised if I did.

 

 

There are few times in your life were you look back on your life and you can smell and taste events that 

 

happened to you. This was one of those days. The fight between the two combatants carried on until 

 

Raiden was out of life and then the old grand master yells out again FINISH HIM! The ninja walks over to 

 

the Thunder god and hits him with an uppercut like earlier in the fight. I thought… cool a parting shot. 

 

Raiden soared through the air and on his decent he began to yell and scream as if this was not supposed 

 

to happen. He continued to fall and fall until meeting his demise at the bottom of a pit full of spikes and 

 

body parts and blood.  It was awful! Something out of a horror movie like Hell raiser. Then the old grand 

 

master says FATALITY? What does that even mean? I don’t know… But I love it! I stayed there and 

 

watched the game for about 45 min. I saw many of the special moves and one or two fatalities.  It was a 

 

surreal experience that is tattooed in my brain.

 

 

I did not purchase anything that day from KB Toys and didn’t even go to the store.  I just went and got 

 

back in the car and did not speak to my mom of the carnage I just witnessed. I just sat there in silence 

 

and tried to process what just went down. It was not until months later in Game Pro magazine that the 

 

game was announced and it would be coming to home consoles. The months leading up to the arrival 

 

were the longest months of my life. It would not be until September 13th 1993 “Mortal Monday” it 

 

would later be called. I remember the Saturday that I went to go get it. A lot of local retailers would not 

 

carry the game because of the violence. I had to go all the way across town to Babbage’s to get it. I had 

 

never even heard of Babbage’s. When I got in the car and opened it up. I read every word on the back of 

 

the box. Then opened up the box and read the manual cover to cover. When I got home my mom 

 

ordered pizza and I went to my room and opened up my Gamepro with all the moves and fatalities in it. 

 

Turned it on and entered in my “Blood Code” A,B, A, C,A,B,B. The fight was on! I played until the wee 

 

hours of the morning and played through it with every player. What an epic night of gaming. A memory 

 

that I can’t help but smile about when I think on it. 

 

Mortal Kombat X comes out next week.  It’ll be23 years and, one day to when it first arrived to home 

 

consoles. I am now 36 and just like me Mortal Kombat has aged and grown.  It has had its highs and very 

 

lows. With the release of MK 9 (Reboot) back in 2011 it recaptured its glory of the early nineties. If 

 

history has taught us anything is that it is destined to repeat itself. Mortal Kombat was excellent but 

 

when Mortal Kombat II hit in 1994 it shattered everything that the previous installment did. I believe 

 

that Mortal Kombat X will do the same.  With next gen hardware Mortal Kombat X may end up with a 

 

“FLAWLESS VICTORY”