News Archive - July 2004

Nine New MK: Deception GamePlay Videos
Posted On: Jul 29 2004, 08:24 AM

IGN has just updated with nine news Mortal Kombat: Deception gameplay videos. In one of them you will be able to see Raiden in his new look. The movies are free for download in their low quality Windows Media Player versions. If you want to get the high quality Quick Time versions, you will have to be a registered IGN Insider member.

Click here to download the movies.

Thanks to shao_kahn, Travis, joyoza and all other visitors for the heads-up on this story.

Posted By: Gambid

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GameSpot Articles
Posted On: Jul 29 2004, 08:07 AM

Yesterday GameSpot published two articles regarding Midway's future:

Midway's losses continue, but pres says better times are ahead
Midway loses $25.7 million during the first half of 2004; president David Zucker says, "The extraordinary annual losses are behind us."

Beleaguered game publisher Midway today released financial figures for the first half of 2004. The company lost $25.7 million over the six-month period ending June 30, losing $10.7 million in the April-June period. Expecting to release only three games in the next six months, Midway predicts overall losses for 2004 to be $20 million--$2 million more than it had previously stated.

The full article you can read here.

Midway getting Unreal
Surprise deal will see the traditionally console-centric company publish one of PC gaming's premier franchises, possibly for next-gen consoles.

In a move that shocked the industry, Midway Games announced it has struck a multigame deal with Unreal developer Epic Games. The multiyear agreement will see Midway publish the next two PC Unreal games, as well as the Xbox-exclusive Unreal Championship 2: The Liandri Conflict, due in February 2005. In an analyst conference call today, company president and CEO David Zucker said the deal could cover "expansion packs and potential next-generation console releases as well."

In a statement, Midway was eager to point out that the deal "marks Midway's entrance into the premium PC games sector with a property that has sold more than 7 million units worldwide." Indeed, the Unreal deal marks the first major foray into the PC game sector for the traditionally console-centric company. Only a handful of games from Midway's catalog are for the PC, the majority of which are poorly reviewed ports of its arcade titles. The company has looked to other companies to help publish the PC versions of its titles. Most recently, it copublished the PC version of The Suffering with Encore Software.

With the Unreal deal, Midway suddenly has a showcase PC franchise in its stable, and company president and CEO David Zucker couldn't be happier. "It immediately establishes Midway as a leader in the PC games sector," he said. "We are delighted that Epic chose Midway over other publishers, and we look forward to working closely with the Epic team to carefully manage this valuable franchise."

The "other publisher" Zucker speaks of is Atari, who had published the Unreal franchise for PCs and consoles for more than four years. "Atari and Epic have enjoyed a 10-year relationship, and we're proud to have contributed to the success of the Unreal franchise," said the publisher in a statement. "However, we have different views on what should come next for Unreal, and we've decided it's time to move on." Atari reps said the two companies plan to continue to collaborate to help sell the 10 Unreal titles in Atari's library, including Unreal Tournament 2004.

Click here for more information.

Posted By: Gambid

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The Future Of Mortal Kombat Secrets
Posted On: Jul 28 2004, 03:58 PM

We just made a very big update of this site. Our Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 section has been completely redone. A lot of stuff has been added, so now this section contains all the information about this game that you may want. Here is what has been updated or added:

Posted By: Gambid

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5 New MK: Deception Bios
Posted On: Jul 26 2004, 08:58 PM

The september issue of the Official XBox magazine has an exclusive first look of Mortal Kombat: Deception. The article contains the bios of 7 warriors, five new. One of fighters has never been mentioned before. The magazine also has some exclusive pictures that can be seen at Mortal Kombat Australia. Below are the five new bios:

Darrius
Origin: Realm of Order
Alignment: Neutral
Favorite fighting style: No preference
Friends: Havik
Foes: Hotaru
Leader of the Resistance in the Realm of Order, Darrius lives a life in the shadows. His ambition is to overthrow the oppressive regime that strangles freedom. To some he is a hero... but to others he is nothing more than a terrorist.

Shujinko
Origin: Earthrealm
Alignment: Good
Favorite fighting style: No preference
Friends: Damashi
Foes: Dragon King, Scorpion
Long before liu kang had won the mortal kombat tournament in earthrealm, shujinko had begun his quest to retrieve the kamidogu for the elder gods. his journey took him to many realms where he met many experience warriors.

Scorpion
Origin: Earthrealm
Alignment: Neutral
Favorite Fighting style: Hapkido
Friends: none
Foes: Quan Chi, Drahmin, Moloch, Sub-zero
In his haste to confront his nemesis, Quan Chi, he was ambushed by two Oni and cast into a powerful soulnado. He would have been torn apart by the souls trapped there had he not escaped into the Void. In this place, he first set eyes on the fabled Elder Gods.

Sub-Zero
Origin: Earthrealm
Alignment: Good
Favorite Fighting style: Shotokan
Friends: Smoke, Frost, Raiden
Foes: Quan Chi, Hotaru, Scorpion
While still in Outworld, the lin Kuei grand master, sub zero, discovers the secret of his true heritage - the source of his mastery over cold temperatures. This discovery will aid him in the fight to destroy the dragon King's vile and bloodthirsty tarkatan hordes.

Baraka
Origin: Outworld
Alignment: Evil
Favorite Fighting style: Baraka Blades
Friends: Shao Kahn, Deadly Alliance, Dragon King
Foes: Bo Rai Cho
Baraka's tarkatan race is a mutated hybrid of netherrealm and outworld species. A loyal warrior, baraka faithfully serves his new master, the dragon king, by preoccupying outworld opposition with his tarkatan hordes, the backbone of the dragon king's terrifying army.

Thanks to our forum member -NIGHTWOLF- who was the first to inform us about this information.

Posted By: Gambid

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Ed Boon's Video Tour
Posted On: Jul 23 2004, 08:46 AM

GameSpot released one new 10 minutes long Mortal Kombat: Deception video clip, with Cocreator Ed Boon walking you through every major feature of the game. You will have to be a GameSpot Complete member to download the movie, but you can still stream it for free.

Click here to watch the movie.

Thanks to our forum members Edenian Night and joyoza for the heads-up on this update.

Posted By: Gambid

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One New Mortal Kombat: Deception Screenshot
Posted On: Jul 22 2004, 12:20 PM

GameSpot has just updated with a few Mortal Kombat: Decpetion screenshots. One of them has never been seen before:

Once again our thanks to our site visitor Travis.

Posted By: Gambid

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5 MK: Deception Wallpapers
Posted On: Jul 22 2004, 12:16 PM

Yesterday MK Online received five new MK: Deception wallpapers. The wallpapers are only for 800X600 screen resolution.

Wallpapers of: Baraka, Mileena, Raiden, Scorpion, Sub-Zero.

Thanks to our forum member reiko for this news.

Very soon Mortal Kombat Secrets will release a lot of new wallpapers so keep an eye on our site.

Posted By: Gambid

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First Mortal Kombat: Deception Bios
Posted On: Jul 20 2004, 09:28 AM

IGN has updated with a new Mortal Kombat: Deception article, entitled The Kombatants of MK Deception, that includes bios of three of the returning characters in the game:

And so, your friends here at IGN have teamed up with Midway to bring you an ongoing profile series dedicated to the cast of what can only be described as the biggest Mortal Kombat title yet. Officially designated The Kombatants of MK: Deception, our irregular collection of profiles will not only tell you what fighters you can expect to see in the next iteration of Midway's competitive slugger, but also, the history of that character and how they came to be in the first place.
...
In this week's installment, we take a closer look at combatants Mileena, Raiden, and Sindel. Simply click on the picture of each character to the right of their profile to download their video, or access them from the media page below.

Mileena
Origin: Outworld
First Appearance: Mortal Kombat II (1993)
Alignment: Evil
Allies: Baraka, Shang Tsung
Foes: Kitana

History:
Created by the sorcerer Shang Tsung, Mileena has at last fulfilled her destiny as Kitana's successor by posing as the former princess. She misleads Kitana's military forces in an attempt to give the Dragon King the time he needs to complete his plans. Only Baraka knows the truth behind her deception.

Raiden
Origin: The Heavens
First Appearance: Mortal Kombat (1992)
Alignment: Good
Allies: Liu Kang, Kung Lao
Foes: Quan Chi, Shang Tsung, Dragon King, Shinnok

History:
As a last resort against the Dragon King's advance, Raiden sacrificed himself by releasing his godlike essence; thereby creating an intense ethereal blast. The Dragon King was unaffected and continues to threaten the realms.

Sindel
Origin: Edenia
First Appearance: Mortal Kombat 3 (1995)
Alignment: Good
Allies: Kitana, Jade
Foes: Shao Kahn, Tanya

History:
A new threat has put Queen Sindel's realm of Edenia in peril. With the aid of her faithful ally Jade, she will travel to Outworld to defeat the Dragon King and free her daughter Kitana from his control.

Click here to read the full article and to download all the new movies, that come with it.

As soon as we get more information we will post it here, so stay close to Mortal Kombat Secrets and you will not miss a thing.

Thanks to our forum member MiNeOuT and our site visitor Travis for the heads-up on this story.

Posted By: Gambid

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Redstone increases stake in Midway
Posted On: Jul 17 2004, 09:34 AM

Today GameSpot published the following news article:

The Viacom CEO's constant acquisition of shares has now pushed his ownership to just over 80 percent of the publisher.

The past week saw Sumner Redstone move closer to taking over Midway Games. The Viacom chairman and CEO made at least a dozen trades over the past six weeks, which increased his stake in the company to slightly over 80 percent. His most recent transaction was a purchase of 44,000 shares yesterday, which gave Redstone 55.2 million shares--80.9 percent of Midway's stock.

The significance of Redstone acquiring more than 80 percent of the company’s stock is put in perspective by Wedbush Morgan senior analyst Michael Pachter. “A shareholder with 80 percent or more ownership can essentially ‘freeze out’ minority shareholders," he said. “‘Freezing out’ means essentially that the 80 percent owner doesn't need to submit most actions to a shareholder vote. He can't sell the company without ensuring that the minority receives the same thing he gets, but other than that, he can do what he pleases.”

Redstone's recent moves come just over one month after he hired financial counsel to assess the possibilities of taking Midway Games private. The Viacom CEO and chairman is also stacking Midway's board in his favor, appointing his own daughter, Shari, as vice chairman of the board and former VU Games chairman Kenneth Cron as CEO. Both were elected to the board on June 10, 2004.

With Redstone's takeover of Midway now all but imminent, the question is, "What will he do with it?" The most prevalent theory sees Redstone acquiring sufficient Midway stock to take the company private and then selling the company to Viacom. Such a scenario would give the media a respected game-industry organization and would let it leverage its many brands--including MTV and Nickelodeon--without going through a third-party publisher.

Posted By: Gambid

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Movie/TV Show Mistakes Added
Posted On: Jul 15 2004, 10:10 PM

Today we did a very huge update - Movie and TV Show Mistakes have been added. Mortal Kombat Secrets is proud to be the first Mortal Kombat website to offer such kind of content to its visitors. Movie/TV Show Mistakes are available in our Mortal Kombat: The Movie, Mortal Kombat Annihilation and Mortal Kombat Conquest sections. You are also able to send new mistakes to our e-mail.

For this section I want to say Thanks to:
Our forum member and close friend ded_ for providing the information for some mistakes
]{ombat of Kombat Pavilion for providing the screencaptures of the Mortal Kombat Conquest Episode "Noob Saibot".

Posted By: Gambid

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3 New MK: Deception Concept Sketches
Posted On: Jul 9 2004, 03:25 PM

Mortal Kombat Schweiz uploaded 3 new MK: Deception concept sketches:

Posted By: Gambid

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5 New MK: Deception Screenshots
Posted On: Jul 8 2004, 10:44 PM

IGN have just updated with 5 new MK: Deception screenshots. All of the pictures show character, that have never been seen on screenshots. They are: Kira, Kabal, Smoke and a dressed in green girl who appears to be Jade, but can also be Tanya alternative outfit.

Thanks to our forum members members sKORP and cek12 for this news!

Posted By: Gambid

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Mortal Kombat Gold Emulated
Posted On: Jul 7 2004, 11:26 PM

Today is a great day for all of us and Mortal Kombat Secrets is really very proud to be the first website in the whole Community to inform you about this. Today the authors of ChanKast, the first Sega DreamCast emulator, that runs commercial games released a new version, 0.25. I was really very surprised when I loaded Mortal Kombat Gold and the emulator didn't crash. The game started. With this release of the emulator the game runs good with fps between 30 and 60 in gameplay. It slows down sometimes and there is no sound when you play (the movies has an excellent sound) and there are some graphic glitches, but nothing serious. The game is completely playable. I actually finish it with Kung Lao. Below are 8 screenshots taken from Chankast:

To download version 0.25 of ChanKast visit its official webpage.

Posted By:  Gambid

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Mortal Kombat Trilogy On Windows 2000/XP Patch
Posted On: Jul 7 2004, 02:47 PM

Our forum member Cubanraul has made a patch for Mortal Kombat Trilogy, that will allow the game to run on Windows 2000 and Windows XP without any problems. This is not the first patch for Windows XP, but it is the first with Windows 2000 compatibility. Below is the list with all of the changes:

Click here to download the patch. The size of the file is only 946KB.
Please use "Save Target As" or "GetRight" to download the file or you will receive an error.

Posted By: Gambid

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MK: D Featured In Two Video Game Violence Articles Posted On: Jul 7 2004, 01:45 PM

The first has been published a few days ago at CNN.com. Below is a part of it:

The next 12 months could see a flurry of new scrutiny of violent games because three controversial franchises are due to release sequels. They include "Doom," notorious as a favorite of the Columbine killers; "Mortal Kombat," with its calls for a player to "finish" opponents in myriad gruesome ways; and "Grand Theft Auto," which exhorted players in its latest iteration to start a Cuban-Haitian race war.

Meanwhile, we're in the midst of a gaming explosion. Deloitte & Touche predicts the worldwide number of "game compliant devices" other than PCs -- mobile phones, consoles, and handheld computers, for example -- will see a six-fold rise by 2010, from 415 million now to 2.6 billion.

Click here if you want to read the complete text.

The second one has been published at MSNBC. Below is a part of this article:

"Pediatricians and psychologists have been warning us that violent video games are harmful to children," said Mary Lou Dickerson, a Democratic legislator in Washington state who wrote a law now being challenged in federal court - banning the sale of some violent games to kids. "I'm optimistic that the courts will heed their warnings."
...
The next 12 months could see a flurry of new scrutiny of violent games because three controversial franchises are due to release sequels. They include "Doom," notorious as a favorite of the Columbine killers; "Mortal Kombat," with its calls for a player to "finish" opponents in myriad gruesome ways; and "Grand Theft Auto," which exhorted players in its latest iteration to start a Cuban-Haitian race war.

Click here if you want to read the complete text.

Posted By: Gambid

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Mortal Kombat (Cell) Preview
Posted On: Jul 3 2004, 11:39 AM

GameSpy published a preview of the upcoming cell version of the original Mortal Kombat. The small article also gives new information about the number of the playable characters in the game:

Mortal Kombat (Cell)

By Levi Buchanan | June 28, 2004
THQ Wireless orders you to "Finish him!"

Midway wowed E3 audiences with its incredibly playable on-line edition of Mortal Kombat: Deception for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox. But what about the rest of us, those that need their bloodlust sated on the bus, or in the back of a lecture hall?

THQ Wireless has us covered. Mortal Kombat is on the way to your handset. Only a few months separate you and ripping the spine out of Scorpion. We didn't actually have a chance to play this mobile edition at E3, but THQ Wireless assured us that franchise fans will be happy with this scaled-back (only four available fighters), but loving port from Backbone Entertainment of the arcade classic that turned this industry on its ear.

Click here to see Mortal Kombat (cell) section on their site.

Posted By: Gambid

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Mortal Kombat: Deception Collector's Edition
Posted On: Jul 3 2004, 11:27 AM

It is now possible to preorder Mortal Kombat: Deception Collector's Edition for XBox at EBGames. Below are the details about it:

Mortal Kombat: Deception Collector's Edition

Price: $59.99
Pre-Order: Ships on 10/04/2004

Includes the standard Mortal Kombat: Deception, plus these bonus features:

Click here to preorder the game.

Posted By: Gambid

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MKD Release Dates
Posted On: Jul 3 2004, 08:59 AM

According to the latest information that appeared on GameSpot and IGN the release dates for Mortal Kombat: Deception are:

U.S. (NTSC) Version - 10.04.2004
European (PAL) Version - 11.05.2004

Thanks to our visitor John for the heads up!

Posted By: Gambid

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Mortal Kombat to plug into TV Games
Posted On: Jul 3 2004, 07:54 AM

In a news article GameSpot gives us more details on the controller of the upcoming Mortal Kombat game for Jakks Pacific plug and play TV Games device:

Jakks Pacific announced that it is planning to release the arcade version of Mortal Kombat as a plug-and-play TV Games device. Of special interest to fans of the classic fighter, the controller for Mortal Kombat will be an exact replica of the original Mortal Kombat arcade panel. The device will be available in October for about $20.

Click here if you want to read the full article.

Posted By: Gambid

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Mortal Kombat: Mystification
Posted On: Jul 1 2004, 09:55 PM

Earlier today Mortal Kombat Online reported the following news:

Earlier we reported that there was a rumour going around that Midway would be renaming Mortal Kombat: Deception in Europe. Our sources within Midway have partially confirmed this rumour today: MK: Deception will be renamed Mortal Kombat: Mystification in France only. All other markets will carry the game with its original title.

Posted By: Gambid

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