Just another Mortal Monday....
Mortal Kombat is one of the most successful fighting games of all time (but you probably knew as much!).
Did you know, though, that it was developed in ten months by a team of four people? And that for the first six months, the game didn’t even have a name?
A year after its debut in the arcades, Mortal Kombat was released on Mortal Monday, September 13, 1993, to the Nintendo’s Super NES and Game Boy, and Sega Enterprises’ Sega Genesis and Game Gear. The Nintendo versions completely omitted the blood the game was known for.
Arcade processing power
The classic coin-op Space Invaders was originally developed so that all the enemies moved at the same speed. However, as players destroyed the alien invaders the computer had fewer objects to draw, so it could render the objects faster. The result? As you destroy critters, the remaining ones “march” toward Earth faster.
The original tech startup
Remember the PlayStation 2 startup screen? Well, the seemingly random blocks and towers represent game progress—the more you play and save your games, the more blocks and towers appear. The towers represent the game, and the longer you play the taller they get. The blocks represent saved data.
The PlayStation 2 remains the best selling video game console of all time, having sold 155 million units to date.
You should also know that the design of the PS2 was modeled after the Atari Falcon Microbox. Sony bought the rights when Atari went bankrupt.
Run, Mario, run!
You might have already known Super Mario Bros. was the first video game to be made into a movie. But did you know that an up-and-coming actor named Tom Hanks campaigned for the role of Mario? At the time, Nintendo execs worried he wouldn’t have enough box office clout to carry the film.