Classic Console Versions and Emulation

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Juxtapose13
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Classic Console Versions and Emulation

Post by Juxtapose13 »

Hi all,

I've been enjoying the Emulation series of videos Mortal Kombat Secrets has recently been releasing on YouTube.

Out of curiosity, for the classic consoles, what is generally considered the best port of each of the five Arcade titles?

Mortal Kombat = Sega Genesis?
Mortal Kombat II = Super Nintendo Entertainment System?
Mortal Kombat III = Super Nintendo Entertainment System?
Ultimate Mortal Kombat III = ???
Mortal Kombat 4 - Nintendo 64?

Also, I never played Mortal Kombat Gold. I know it has several returning fan favourite characters, but how is it compared to Mortal Kombat 4?

From what I understand, the AI is generally easier for the console versions than the Arcade machines for all five titles. Is this correct?

Lastly, the Mortal Kombat Arcade Kollection; how well does this package emulate its three Arcade games, and are there any major differences between the Xbox 360 and PC versions of the game?


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dr_st
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Re: Classic Console Versions and Emulation

Post by dr_st »

You mentioned classic consoles, So I assume you omitted the PC intentionally, because it is generally accepted that the DOS versions of MK1, MK2, MK3 are the best home ports.

However, if you stick to consoles only, I'd agree that MK1 is better on Genesis (because of the blood option lacking on the SNES). Not sure about MK2, MK3 is probably better on the Playstation (the Windows version is almost an exact port of that, or so I understood), and UMK3 is best on the Saturn?

The Windows version of MK4 is probably again the best home port, dunno how closely the N64 version matches.

MK Gold is a Dreamcast-exclusive, and is generally quite buggy (although the latest release fixed most of the bugs). Other than that it plays mostly like MK4.

I played MK:AK a bit on the PC and I'd say the emulation is quite accurate; XBOX version is probably the same.
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Re: Classic Console Versions and Emulation

Post by Gambid »

If I have to decide between Genesis and SNES for Mortal Kombat II and Mortal Kombat 3, I would go with the Genesis/Mega Drive version. Something feels really weird for me in the SNES ports for those two games.
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ded
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Re: Classic Console Versions and Emulation

Post by ded »

It's great people are enjoying the emulation videos. Regarding your question - if we talk about ports (not emulation like MAT/MKAK) then:

MK1 - PC DOS CD;
MK2 - Though one. If MK2 PC was not locked with 30FPS, i'd choose it. However, I'd say Sega 32X is the better choice.
MK3 - PC DOS without a doubt.
UMK3 - Nintendo DS (I know some people think it is an emulation, but it is more like a separate port);
MK4 - N64

MK Gold is a very glitchy and unbalanced game. However, until MK4 for Arcade is properly emulated, you will have to stuck with MK Gold, as this is the closest thing to MK4 Arcade. Either use Red Disc or Europe versions tho.

As for MKAK - The initial release for PS3 and Xbox360 had a lot of issues, which were later fixed with a Patch. However, the PS3 has horrible inbuild delay and 360 had issues with achievements. I'd go with the PC version.
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Re: Classic Console Versions and Emulation

Post by Skankenham »

For PC I have the DOS CD of "Mortal Kombat & Mortal Kombat II"
That MK1 is the best probably. Aside from the Premium Edition of MK Deception for PS2 having the arcade MK1 emulated. The Sega CD would be most ultimate nostalgic but not as good quality.

That PC version of MK2 seems great except one thing. The music sucks. I hear some pretty great midi music in some games (such as DooM) with the sound card I was using. That MK2 had really crappy midi music.

On that combo CD, MK1 has all its sound effects, voices, and music as plain wav files for you to enjoy. Meanwhile MK2 has some crappy midi format, not regular .mid files. Its other sounds are these .au files you can import raw into Audacity and then have to figure out the right value to slow down whichever sound, seeming to range anywhere from -50 to -90.

So the Sega 32X is probably the best home MK2.

MK3 = PC Dos or Playstation, but you can play as bosses on SNES/Genesis.

UMK3 = Saturn or arcade emulated in Premium Edition of PS2 MK Armageddon.
But for most playable characters (excepting Sheeva being deleted), the 16-bit versions. People say the Genesis is better and more arcade-like but they seem to be mildly colorblind. To me, the Genesis version looks and sounds awful compared to the SNES. True, the regular SNES controller isn't good for fighters, but don't blame the game. I use a REAL arcade quality stick. Main complaints about SNES are names are below the life bars, and they may have replaced some voices with new recordings and have a less varied assortment of those voices. There's some sloppy oversights and glitches that piss me off about the SNES UMK3 though. If you do random select for 8 man group battle (I don't think 32-bit versions even have it due to loadtime), you may still get Sheeva and freeze the game. And a bunch of rewards for beating the game are the same thing. Three in a row are all Noob Saibot / Ermac Endurance. The Genesis version got those right except maybe the space shooter. I don't know if the group battle on Genesis has the Sheeva glitch or not. Due to its popularity, the Genesis UMK3 has been hacked into all kinds of crazy UMK Trilogy versions. I've seen reviews that the DS version was actually botched with bad control and cut animation.

Something odd up with the hidden space shooter game, Rellim Ohcanep. In most versions of MK3,UMK3,and MKT, it seems you only get to play for a few seconds even if you don't die. I chose it as a reward for beating Shao Kahn on N64, I got to play a few seconds, and then I said "WTF is this ripoff?!" Well it seems only the SNES versions let you play until you die off. If you play it from the hidden cheat menus you even get to see end stats of shots, hits, and hit%. UMK3's version is noticeably sped up compared to MK3's for better challenge.

MK Trilogy: No version has arcade perfect sprites. Saturn has better sound but dithering. Playstation has better transparency. N64 is most cut down being on a cartridge, but Shang Tsung has all his morphs with no loadtime and it has the ultimate version of classic Sub-Zero with the unmasked one's moves being added to him since he was cut. There's twice as many rewards to choose for beating the N64 game, but of course no Goro/Kintaro Shokan Champion Endurance as they're cut. The Music really sounds like ass on N64 though. I think every 16-bit home version of any MK has better music and even the PC MK2.


I think I've seen something about the Arcade Kollection for PC being rendered a coaster by Microsoft taking down Microsoft Live server stuff required for its install. Or it might have been on steam and removed due to problems. Not sure. Maybe there's a work-around somewhere, but this collection may be really buggy anyway. There's some reason it's not for sale anymore, except people certainly have some things to say in their reviews of it on Amazon.
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Re: Classic Console Versions and Emulation

Post by dr_st »

Skankenham wrote:For PC I have the DOS CD of "Mortal Kombat & Mortal Kombat II"
That MK1 is the best probably.
Yeah, it is, except I actually prefer the FM MIDI tunes of the floppy DOS MK1...
Skankenham wrote:That PC version of MK2 seems great except one thing. The music sucks. I hear some pretty great midi music in some games (such as DooM) with the sound card I was using. That MK2 had really crappy midi music.
Which sound card were you using? MK2 for PC DOS actually has 4 separate sound tracks - for FM (Sound Blaster), MT-32, General MIDI and Gravis Ultrasound. Most players are probably familiar with the standard FM music, which is OK (I wouldn't say it sucks), but rather dull. My biggest gripe with the MK2 PC music compared to the arcade is that the awesome unique Goro's Lair track was removed (Goro's Lair plays the same music as 'The Dead Pool' in the PC version).
Skankenham wrote:MK3 = PC Dos or Playstation, but you can play as bosses on SNES/Genesis.
The DOS version allows you to play as bosses in a 2-player game.
Skankenham wrote:I think I've seen something about the Arcade Kollection for PC being rendered a coaster by Microsoft taking down Microsoft Live server stuff required for its install. Or it might have been on steam and removed due to problems. Not sure. Maybe there's a work-around somewhere, but this collection may be really buggy anyway.
I think it's basically just the emulated latest Arcade versions of MK1, MK2, UMK3, with a crappy wrapper and some built-in move sheets. I actually have it installed somewhere; will check if it still works.
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Re: Classic Console Versions and Emulation

Post by Gambid »

For the Arcade Kollection there is still a way to install it. I have it running on my laptop.
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Re: Classic Console Versions and Emulation

Post by Skankenham »

dr_st wrote:Which sound card were you using? MK2 for PC DOS actually has 4 separate sound tracks - for FM (Sound Blaster), MT-32, General MIDI and Gravis Ultrasound. Most players are probably familiar with the standard FM music, which is OK (I wouldn't say it sucks), but rather dull. My biggest gripe with the MK2 PC music compared to the arcade is that the awesome unique Goro's Lair track was removed (Goro's Lair plays the same music as 'The Dead Pool' in the PC version).
Ah, I was using either a Sound Blaster AWE32 or SB Live Platinum. So I guess I just made a bad pick or let auto-detection pick something bad for music. Fortunately I still have them, but I wonder if the music options are more limited playing in dosbox on a much more recent laptop as I don't think companies give so much a crap about music formats other than CD audio tracks, especially on a laptop. That sucks about them cutting the Goro's lair music.
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Re: Classic Console Versions and Emulation

Post by ded »

Some clarification, guys:
1. MK1 Emulation from PS2/XBOX MKD Bonus Disc, MAT:EP/MAT:DE and MKAK is Revision 4.0, not Revisoin 5.0 T-Unit.

2. As dr_st mentioned, if you use Gravis Ultrasound for MK2 DOS, the music is much, much better. I used that for our Emulation Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sms98dXSEbw

3. Speaking of MK Trilogy - The Saturn port is probably the worst from the CD versions. Slowdowns, missing sounds, weird transparency and etc... Even Sega Saturn fan sites are bitching about it. MKT PC DOS has buttons lock, so better go with the Windows version, although it is faster than any other version. PSX Greatest Hits, seems to be the most complete otherwise.

I believe Juxtapose13 asked for ports, not arcade emulation. Otherwise, best option would be to choose MAME :)
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Re: Classic Console Versions and Emulation

Post by dr_st »

So I still have MK:AK installed on this one PC, but I realized that I've removed Games for Windows Live from it, so it wouldn't run. Five minutes of searching the web is all that it took to learn that:
  • GFWL (the service) still works and so do the games, although it may require a bit tinkering to get the right client version and get it to run on Windows 10.
  • There is a trivial crack (basically just hacked replacement DLLs) which makes MK:AK (and probably other games) work offline without any GFWL requirements (search for "Bulletstorm Xlive.DLL") if you are interested.
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Re: Classic Console Versions and Emulation

Post by Gambid »

This is interesting information, cause I don't think Microsoft will keep Games For Windows Live services running forever. May be they will migrate them to XBox Live or something like this.
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