And now for something completely different...

SOL-740

New member
Here's a blast from the past for all you old skool kombatants, and for the new kids something they most likely didn't even know existed.

Most of you know of the rumored "Nimbus Terrafaux" in the Genesis version of MK1 (a supposed ultra hidden African American kick boxer character, proven to be a hoax), not to mention the fabled Warrior Shrine Ermac battle in MK1 (proven to be an odd glitch). And if you don't... well now you do!

Well I found these screen grabs in some ancient EGM issues buried deep in a box in my basement, and since I don't think I've ever seen them posted anywhere online like ever, I thought I'd fix that:


ermac7ba.jpg


nimbusterrafaux3cl.jpg



Ok, now gather 'round kiddie winkies for Speculation Hour with SOL-740!

The Nimbus screen shots are taken from an EGM dated March of '94, and the Ermac one from October '93. The Ermac one was rather infamous back in its day, taken from a Polaroid by a Tony Casey (Remember him? He bacame something of an "underground MK celebrity" for all of three or four months, if that, because of this pic.), or so he claims. The Nimbus screen shots come by way of one Tom Grace.

Now here's the hiccup: since Nimbus has been conclusively proven to not exist, how in the utter hell were these screenshots mocked up? We're talkin’ late 1993/early 1994 here, looooong before our friend Photoshop would become a common household item. Any thoughts?

And also, while there IS a glitch character in MK1 known as Ermac (short for Error Macro), is this screen shot legit? I don't remember if the game actually called the glitch character Ermac or not, and it is very suspicious that everything, except the name is obscured. As a matter of fact the name seems to be particularly brightened in the photo for clear identification. Like the Nimbus screens, if this was a fake then how was this mock-up accomplished long prior to the advent of a copy of Photoshop in every other household?

Could it just be that the masterminds behind both photos were early computer wiz kids? Seems like an awful stretch, but that's all I'm coming up with. Also important to add that the Nimbus screen shots were sent to EGM via an IBM disk, making a strong case for early computer forgery. Anyone with a firmer grasp of MK/computer software history than I have anything to offer?

And then there's the REALLY scary question: since one can only conclude that the Nimbus pics were fabricated by Mr. Grace, then exactly who the hell IS that guy playing the part of Terrafaux? Is he a friend of Tom Grace? A relative? Ripped from another obscure as all hell video game? I hold out hope that someone out there in the great wide web can provide some answers, or at least plausible theories. All we do know for sure is that whoever he is, he's sporting one of the most ridiculous moustaches since this guy.

In the meantime all we can do is wonder: who was that black man?
 
wow, just wow, all of that has just came back to me. idk man, but i would really like to know. This may not work, but try going to fight night on mkonline and asking someone?!
 
B_SiK said:
wow, just wow, all of that has just came back to me. idk man, but i would really like to know. This may not work, but try going to fight night on mkonline and asking someone?!

There's nothing to ask. They are all completely fake.

The Ermac one is the worst because it isn't even a red ninja. They entire screen is darkened. If you look in the background of the pic, the yellow banners have turned reddish similar to Scorpion because they just darkened the picture. Probably used paint or something for the word ERMAC since it isn't placed in the right part of the screen for it to be actually generated by the game.
 
awesome post, i have some old clipping for various fake hidden characters (like Hornbuckle) that i need to scan.
 
DreemerNJ

No one's disputing that they're fake. That's not the point at all. We all know they're fake. The question I'm posing is, since they are fake, how is it that they were created? They were created in late '93 and early '94. While I'm well aware that the computer software technology to create such mock-ups existed at the time and even earlier, they were still VERY uncommon at the time. I know that some of the younger people that post here may not remember it, but there actually was a time when the internet, Paint, Photoshop, hell even computers themselves were extremely uncommon amongst Joe Average. You had to be somewhat rich or know the right people to have access to such contraptions, and even then you had to have the know-how and expertise to actually make the images look at least halfway convincing (more so then due to the technology being limited).

The point is that these were both sent in (and most likely created) by two normal teens/twenty somethings back in the early 90's, a time when about three people knew what a modem was and almost everyone knew who Kid and Play were.

So what we got here is two separate kids in the early 1990's had access to technology that was completely foreign to 90% of the general public, and the knowledge to use it, all the while being players of Mortal Kombat that read EGM. This is seriously one hell of a coincidence. Not to mention in the case of the Nimbus pics, getting someone to dress in kick boxing garb, photograph them, and insert their image into a couple of MK screenshots. Today such a feat is child’s play. Back then it was science fiction to anyone that wasn't a regular reader of Byte magazine.

So again, the entire point of this post is, if there's anyone here with knowledge of technology that's nearly 15 years old, would they know what kind of computer/software program would be used to create such forgeries as well as being reasonably accessible to your average 90's arcade rat? Or more of a stretch, but is there anyone here that has inside knowledge of the story behind these images and their creation?

In short, please read the first post before commenting.

Also P.S.

While it's 100% certain that the Nimbus pics are phony, the Ermac one is sorta in question. Most likely yes it is fake. As I mentioned in the first post, the fact that the name appears to have been brightened is pretty incriminating. But there IS an Ermac glitch in the arcade version of MK1 (not sure of the specific version number). It's rare as hell, and I'm sure the total number of people who've encountered it clock in somewhere around 10. But it does exist. That's straight from Ed Boon's mouth. With all the old gaming magazine's I dug out today, I'm sure I can find the interview where he talks about it (it's in Gamepro I believe).

Yes the man has been less than honest about deliberately hidden tricks back in the old days when most of the money Midway made off of MK was largely from arcade quarters. But this is not a hidden feature, it's a glitch and was spoken of in a fairly all-business manner.

Also as for the name, I'll double check where the winner's name is supposed to be placed in the arcade version, but even if it's fake (and yes it probably is), this is NOT a job that someone could just slap together in Paint, especially considering the time it was made. Tony Casey or whoever had managed to perfectly emulate the font used in MK1. Picture perfect font forgery. Today such a task is simple as there are numerous MK sites with font downloads readily available (see the pic in my sig). But once again, we're talking almost 15 years ago when such resources were extremely hard to come by.

So the sub-question there is, should a player encounter the Ermac glitch, is the name Ermac displayed on screen either in his health bar, or as it is shown in the picture? I'm fairly certain it doesn't and that the pic is fake, but I wanted to be sure.
 
REPTILES MAN said:
also the ermac in the picture with him flippin is more detailed than kano and kano looks like a cartoon

That's because the first pic is the from the arcade version of MK1 and the second is from the Genesis version.
 
Wow... '93 - '94 wasn't really that long ago. Closer to 10 years than 15 (it's only 2005).

Computers were pretty widespread at that point. Most schools had them in the library's as well as computer labs and upper end schools in the US (high school) had them set up for doing the papers etc. which included easy interface art programs with just as much power as the programs today. On a side note, don't knock MSPaint. anything you can create in PS7, a still capture from MAYA, any of that crap can be done in MSPaint. After all, it is just one color per pixel, as it has been.

You thinking 94 was a really stone age era makes me wonder exactly how old you are.

Lets not forget a few graphically impressive movies (maybe not impressive movies :p ) came out in '93.
  • Ghost in the Machine
  • Demolition Man
  • Wayne's World 2
  • El Mariachi
  • Dragon - The Bruce Lee Story
  • So I Married an Axe Murderer

Okay, so the last 4 weren't very impressive visually, but they were good movies :D

1994 didn't hold much in the movie industry, Speed, The Ref and Police Academy 7

but 95 brought a few more movies that were high in the graffics.
  • Batman Forever
  • Braveheart
  • Waterworld
  • Die Hard With a Vengeance
  • The Indian in the Cupboard
  • Village of the Damned

I refer to these movies because this is there release date, which means they were filmed about 6 months prior to their release. Not all of these may have used Computer Generated graffics, but enough did, plus trickery of the camera to generate other effects.

So your arguement about the technology nor the knowledge not being readily available to the average person back in 1993-94 doesn't hold much water.

And if these kids were in their 20's and going to a University, they had more than ample amounts of access to both computers and information.

Don't forget that people have been making fake photographs since the inception of the camera. Different techniques used when taking the picture as well as during developing produce a very wide array end results.

Splicing is another trick to use to add something where it doesn't belong

Think outside the box (in this case, quite literally) a bit please. This stuff was simple to do, even back in the day.
 
K1LLKANO has a point, even before computers people were faking stuff. Reconise these confessed fakes.

nessie.jpg


hoax-fairy-pic.jpg


Its actually really easy to fake something. In those days there was enough tech around to clone these. I remember even having software on my Atari STE that I manage to create a fake sprite for something.

http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?st=1&c=24

So yeah, it would have been easy to fake the images that SOL-740 supplied us. And since programs like PS weren't around the fakes would of ended up matching the style of the time.
 
Let's back up a sec here. I never said anywhere in either of my posts that '93-'94 was a "stone age era" of computers. In fact I mentioned quite the contrary:

While I'm well aware that the computer software technology to create such mock-ups existed at the time and even earlier, they were still VERY uncommon at the time.

It's not the existence of the technology that makes me scratch my head, it's the accessibility. Big difference.

You're point about the possibility of them being university students is not only valid, but would explain a lot. I'm surprised I didn't think of it myself. Two points for you there.

However:

So your arguement about the technology nor the knowledge not being readily available to the average person back in 1993-94 doesn't hold much water.

Now my apologies for doing so, but I'm afraid I'm gonna have to split hairs here over timeframe. The total mainstreaming of computers (as in reasonably up to date computers becoming a common household item) didn't really start to set in until sometime around late '94 to early '95, if not slightly later. These images were mocked up nearly a year before the dawn of the information age as we know it now.

Yeah I concede that the time difference is miniscule, but it is there. Before the general public began to embrace Windows and the Internet (which I'm well aware has existed since at least the late 60's, and made use of by civilians as far back as the early 80's if not earlier) computer trickery wasn't available to every Tom, Dick, and Jane. Students at a high end university however... that I can buy.

Now as for Paint, if I'm not mistaken (and feel free to correct me here if I am) the only way to mock up that kind of text would be to create it pixel by pixel. Such a feat, while possible, requires near super-human patience to pull off while making it look as accurate as it does here (by accurate I mean looking like the font used in MK1). Now I'll concede that there may very well be some shortcut, or trick in Paint that allows one to effectively create a forgery of a font style that even today can only be used by downloading it online that I'm not aware of (I can't even remember the last time I actually used Paint). So feel free to inform me if there is, otherwise we'd have to conclude that Tony Casey, or whoever mocked up the photo, possessed Sniper Wolf-like patience.

As for my age; I'm not old old, but I'm old enough.

And bringing Hollywood movies into this discussion shows that my point was completely missed. I'll reiterate that I'm not concerned about the existence of the technology (it's been there for decades) but its availability to Joe Public, which Hollywood should most certainly not be counted amongst.

And finally, while we're on the subject of movies:

Lets not forget a few graphically impressive movies (maybe not impressive movies ) came out in '93.



Ghost in the Machine

Demolition Man

Wayne's World 2

El Mariachi

Dragon - The Bruce Lee Story

So I Married an Axe Murderer


El Mariachi contains not a single use of computerized special effects, or ANY special effects for that matter, aside from a few squibs, fake blood, and Robert Rodriguez' pure talent as a filmmaker. In fact El Mariachi's major claim to fame (aside from being a magnificent piece of indie filmmaking) is the fact that its budget was roughly equivalent to change for coffee. Completely off topic I know, but I just wanted to bring that to your attention. :wink:
 
No, photoshop wasn't out yet, but software based photo editing has been since visual graphics have in movies, and software pirates have been around just as long. The Ermac (could have not absolutely was) been easily created by simply adjusting color tints, the nimbus...wow, it's an ugly fake but you're correct it took a lot to accomplish for back those days. But, it was still do-able.
 
SOL-740 said:
And finally, while we're on the subject of movies:

Quote:
Lets not forget a few graphically impressive movies (maybe not impressive movies ) came out in '93.



Ghost in the Machine

Demolition Man

Wayne's World 2

El Mariachi

Dragon - The Bruce Lee Story

So I Married an Axe Murderer



El Mariachi contains not a single use of computerized special effects, or ANY special effects for that matter, aside from a few squibs, fake blood, and Robert Rodriguez' pure talent as a filmmaker. In fact El Mariachi's major claim to fame (aside from being a magnificent piece of indie filmmaking) is the fact that its budget was roughly equivalent to change for coffee. Completely off topic I know, but I just wanted to bring that to your attention.

Next time when you do quote, try not to paraphrase as you did here. If you finished quoting the rest of what I wrote, you would see very plainly that I acknowledged that none of the other movies were anything spectacular visually. They were just good movies. I'll highlight it for you to make it easier :p

K1LLKANO said:
Lets not forget a few graphically impressive movies (maybe not impressive movies ) came out in '93.



Ghost in the Machine

Demolition Man

Wayne's World 2

El Mariachi

Dragon - The Bruce Lee Story

So I Married an Axe Murderer



Okay, so the last 4 weren't very impressive visually, but they were good movies
 
Next time when you do quote, try not to paraphrase as you did here. If you finished quoting the rest of what I wrote, you would see very plainly that I acknowledged that none of the other movies were anything spectacular visually. They were just good movies.

Whoops. Sorry, that one slipped my notice. Uhh... my bad? :oops:

It's ok though. It was off topic, and I mainly brought it up as an excuse to use that "change for coffee" joke. :wink: So nuthin' personal. :D
 
Thanks for those SOL-740! Thats actually really interesting, I wonder where they came from. Possibly professionally created to cause contraversy?

I have an old Sega Power magazine from 1994 with some fake pictures in them but unfortunatly at this time I dont have access to a scanner but I should have access to one in the next few weeks. I remember seeing them there were some werid looking characters that were obviously fake but the most interesting ones were ones where there were two characters in MK1 fighting, one of them was definitly Sonya and I think that the other one was Scorpian. I remember that Sonyas name had been changed to Sexy Beast and she was firing some sort of projectile that I had never seen before and Scorpain had been renames Reverend or Vicor I cant remember exactly.

As you said SOL-740, fakes of such high quality would have been extremely hard to create back in 1994 unless you were working for the developer of MK1 and you had created these pics to cause contraversy. Fakes like these would be extremely hard for a normal computer user e.g. someone using their family PC at home, to kreate.

My guess is that the developers of MK have created these pics and released them to whatever magazine you got it from (and possibly others) to get people wondering if these characters were actually available to unlock in the game.
 
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