Did MK bring anything else significant into your life?

Cyndrix

New member
It did for me.

I remember when the original MK came out. I had worked at a mini golf course and arcade throughout high school, but I decided that my first summer home from college I was going to try something else, so I worked at a movie theater. The manager from the arcade called me and told me I had to come see something.

It was Mortal Kombat. He already knew all the moves and fatalities, and he taught me how to play. I loved it. I went back to college and played it all the time at the student arcade on campus. It never really occurred to me how the moves spread around, I figured people just taught each other.

Then MK II came out. It was November and I was in school, not at home, so I didn't have a network of arcade type friends to tap into for tips. I remember when I was home over Thanksgiving break I went to the mall arcade in my hometown and they always had a deal where you get 100 tokens for $10. They were running a new special....if you buy the $10 bag, you not only get 100 tokens, but you get a free printed MKII moves list. It was a home made list made by a guy who worked at the arcade. I remember asking how he got all the moves and someone telling me he pulled them from Prodigy.

A bell went off in my head. My school didn't have Prodigy, of course, but it had something better....tons of computer labs, all hooked up to the internet. Nobody was using the internet back then, the web barely existed at all. But that was okay, all the action was on Usenet. Everyday, I would check rec.games.video.arcade and alt.games.mk to see what had been discovered. By doing this, I was the first person in my college town to do everything. New fatalities, friendships, babalities, everything. And I wasn't a jerk about it. If someone asked how I did it, I shared the information. But I always made sure to memorize everything so I wasn't playing holding onto some dorky list. I probably could have made lists and sold them, but I thought that was in bad taste.

So basically I've been online ever since. MKII is pretty much responsible for making me an extremely early adopter of the internet. I had used IRC a litle bit in 1991 because people were using it to hook-up (at that time, IRC was so tiny that the only places using it were Univ. of Florida, Univ. of Michigan, UCLA, Stanford, and a handful of other places I remember). It was so small you could go to chat room and you didn't have to look that hard before you found someone who was in the same computer lab you were. Pretty amazing. Of course, I didn't even realize what the internet was or how amazing it was at the time, I just knew IRC was a chat program that college kids used. Usenet and MKII were really what blew it all open for me. It's how I transitioned to the web (which back then was only accessible with Lynx, or the brand new graphic interface, Mosaic!) and became internet savvy.

Unfortunately, I never turned that knowledge into billions of dollars during the tech boom. But I did kick everybody's behind in MKII, so that's almost as good!

Does anybody else have any stories about why MK is so significant?
 
that is one hell of an inspirational story,

now that I think about MK brought something super important into my life
in grade school I was a loner and had no friends because I was so damn quiet(I have conduct disorder so I have to take happy relaxed guy pills for the safety of others) and this one guy bullied me alot he was the class clown and I was often his victim
one day the teacher was talking about a field trip and what we could bring along us

and I noticed it said electronis video game handhelds, so that same guy was sitting next to me and I asked him if I was reading it right he said yeah, then out of nowhere he said I'm going to bring my mortal kombat unchained
I then was shocked so naturally I said no way I have that too just got it,

then we talked and talked about mortal kombat and he invited himself to my house one day

and we have been playing games over at each others houses since then and causing trouble and shit like that

now that I think about it I made most of my friends through him

so mortal kombat brought me my friends
 
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That's a great story!

I remember one of my arcade co-workers telling me that he wasn't athletic at all, but fighting games were the one thing he could actually compete in.

It's true. Video games can be great equalizers. It doesn't matter if you are handicapped or just genetically not athletic, anybody can compete so long as your hands work. I think this is the reason I can't stand when people don't have good sportsmanship. Sportsmanship is just as important in video games as it is in traditional sports because for some people, it's the only thing they compete in and it's how they engage in the world and learn to be social. For that reason, I kind of miss arcades. Online is good, but arcades actually brought people together who might never come together otherwise, and it helps some people connect who might never do it in other ways.
 
That's a great story!

I remember one of my arcade co-workers telling me that he wasn't athletic at all, but fighting games were the one thing he could actually compete in.

It's true. Video games can be great equalizers. It doesn't matter if you are handicapped or just genetically not athletic, anybody can compete so long as your hands work. I think this is the reason I can't stand when people don't have good sportsmanship. Sportsmanship is just as important in video games as it is in traditional sports because for some people, it's the only thing they compete in and it's how they engage in the world and learn to be social. For that reason, I kind of miss arcades. Online is good, but arcades actually brought people together who might never come together otherwise, and it helps some people connect who might never do it in other ways.

thanks and even I can play and I have arthritis

and yeah I miss arcades you and your bud could play a co-op and have a group of people standing in the back observing you two
before you even realize
 
MK gave me most of the friends I have now. The people I've met on TRMK are the best friends I've ever had. Even though none of them live anywhere near me, we correspond often through here, Facebook, texting, etc. I owe a lot to MK because it seems like some of the nicest people out there play it. <3
 
MK gave me most of the friends I have now. The people I've met on TRMK are the best friends I've ever had. Even though none of them live anywhere near me, we correspond often through here, Facebook, texting, etc. I owe a lot to MK because it seems like some of the nicest people out there play it. <3

This pretty much sums it up. I also first started going online to look up MK1 moves, and here I am nearly 20 years later. While most of the original group I hung out with has gone their separate ways, they've led me to meet other folks like the people here on TRMK.
 
I like how mk had such a big impact on people that it caused your ex manager to ring you and tell you about mk.

Truely an awesome story.
 
Man those are some nice stories. Unfortunately I have none, all my friends already played it and got me Into it. So it didn't do anything that deep for me other than a fun game to play for a year or 2.
 
Fanfiction. It brought me to this forum, which resulted in my writing a story, which brought about my fanfiction writing addiction.
 
Mortal Kombat gave me my best friend. I met him in 2nd grade and sat next to him on the bus. My first words to him were, "Do you play MK?"
Not "what's your name?"

We've been best budz since. And I've finally been able to beat him in MK9. He always won in the olden days. ;)

It also taught me that Forums exist. And that I love em'. Especially TRMK!!! And one last thing, I love fan fiction too now.
 
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