Arcade Shenanigans
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Mortal Kombat 11 (Now w/ PTSD!)

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Mortal Kombat 11 boasts a strong fighting engine with excellent potential for more technical fighting, diverse combos and amplified attacks. Unfortunately, I found the enhanced gore of the animations to be a heavy distraction from gameplay rather th…

Mortal Kombat 11 boasts a strong fighting engine with excellent potential for more technical fighting, diverse combos and amplified attacks. Unfortunately, I found the enhanced gore of the animations to be a heavy distraction from gameplay rather than a motivation to keep me engaged in learning finishing moves.

Tagline, 1993. I’m 14. Living in a new town, 600 miles from everything I’ve ever known. Our house is a strange mix of cable-spools and lawn chairs for living room furniture and the smell of new waterbeds wafting down the hall.. I do have a computer and I eventually have a dedicated modem line to run my OBV/2 BBS, The Graveyard. At night, Razor1911 couriers are dialing into the PC to drop 0-Day Warez and I hear mom and dad in the other room arguing -talking about “maybe going to jail” because of [wah-wah - insurance, something-something - wah-wah] that I didn’t fully understand at the time.

We lived in a hotel the previous summer - The Ramada Inn on the Causeway in Mobile, Alabama that has since been demolished - near R&R Seafood. I suppose we were technically homeless but getting a new start. Growing up on 10 acres on the edge of an Indiana Forestry I found myself for the first time with the suburban freedoms enjoyed by kids in my favorite Spielberg movies.

Me, my bicycle and a BP gas station a few blocks away with a Mortal Kombat acade machine & Taco Bell Express. My teenage mind was blown with the opportunity. I fed so many quarters into that machine and played against football-playing high schoolers that were twice my size and a tendency to menace me when they lost. Admittedly, sometimes I let the Wookie win.

Sometimes, I didn’t.

This person named Hillary Clinton was on the television talking about censoring my favorite albums (2 Live Crew, RATM, Tool, Gravity Kills, God Lives Underwater) and the dangers posed by this new menace to America’s youth: Video Game violence.

- ”Is all the world Jails and Churches?”
(well, that was VietNow (1997) but you get the point)


Agreed that is a long walk to get you into my headspace. Now that you are here, pull up a lawn chair and let’s set at the cable-spool turned-coffee table and have a chat about video game violence, 26 years later.

I remember being annoyed when Mortal Kombat (1 and 2) were finally ported to home consoles with minimal gore, no-blood and paired down graphics. It just wasn’t the same game, anymore. Mortal Kombat 1 was the first arcade game I ever bought. I own and often still play a MK4 w/ MK1, MK2, MK3, Mk4 PCBs in it. I let my 13 and 9 year old kids play it and think nothing about it.

Enter, Mortal Kombat 11. MK11 (I’m playing on the Nintendo Switch) continues a trend in the MK franchise through the introduction of mid-fight super-move sequences that can be triggered during a match when a player’s health bar reaches a critical part. MK9 called these X-Ray moves because they used an X-Ray camera view to show the devastation being wrought to the opponents skeletal structure.

If you think of MK3, where there are improbable grapples where an opponent might crack the fighter’s neck or damage their spine during the match. It’s like that. The moves do an incredible amount of damage at the expense of player control for both players but do not necessarily completely drain the opponent. As unlikely has it might seem, Liu Kang can hop back up and keep fighting after Katana snaps his neck..

Mortal Kombat 11 calls these Fatal Blows and they are a strategic crutch that either player can employ to provide momentum for a comeback or level the health meters. The thing is: Fatal Blows in 2019’s Mortal Kombat 11 are the equivalent of 1993’s MK1 or MK2 Fatalities.

Which means.. the fatalities… are more so.
How much, more?

Maybe, PTSD levels of more.

In my best Obama, “Let… me.. be.. clear:” I’m not saying that playing through MK11 gave me any form of PTSD. But I will say that MK11’s fatalities in particular probed the edges of what I’m comfortable watching and classifying as entertainment. Several points during my initial play through of the game, I had a sensation that I can only describe as my neural-net-firewall throwing a warning. “Hey, there are things going into your eyeballs that you should be aware that we aren’t sure is good for us.”

Sure, previous Mortal Kombat games were equally horrible in the fatality death of a character through evisceration, explosion, decapitation and more. This installment in the franchise pauses at the worst bits of horror while the reward and menu system delay to return user control by to the player.

For instance: You get to see Kronica tear your character in half length-wise. Pause. Put you back together through a time-rewind and then tear your character in half at the waste. Repeat as many as 6 times until the menu renders allowing you to navigate the game.

Most fatalities now end in the complete drawn-and-quartered explosive destruction of the opponent and the game developer seems pretty proud of their bloody accomplishment as featured through the game credits.

Searching the web, I found that there is at least one case of an individual who worked on the game being treated for PTSD:

http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2019/05/one_mortal_kombat_11_developer_had_to_see_a_therapist_after_violent_dreams

Take that with a grain of salt, it was picked up as click-bait by half of the internet. No such thing as bad publicity, right?

I’ve met soldiers who operated turrets from inside armored vehicles in Afghanistan. Instead of gunning from an exposed position, “Playstation Johnny" sits in the relative armored comfort of his vehicle as he mows down the enemy from a computer monitor and gamepad. Despite this, Playstation Johnny has just as much potential for combat fatigue and mental trauma as the guy with boots on the ground carrying a rife.

In the mid-90’s I found myself frowning at the Pant-Suited Politician trying to censor my video games and music. 26 years later I find myself wondering if the ratings label on this game is an adequate communication device juxtaposed to the affect it might have on an emotionally developing mind.

I feel like I should love this game but I don’t. The hazards of adulting, I suppose? If my 14 year old self could see me now, he’d probably kick me in the nuts.

“Go get laid, kid.”

About Ice Cold Beer

Taito Ice Cold Beer

Ice Cold Beer was produced by Taito in 1983.

Games produced: 450 ~ 1600 machines
(Zeke’s Peak and Ice Cold Beer)

Ice Cold Beer is a mechanical arcade game released by Taito in 1983. The game is in a similar cabinet to an arcade video game, but where the screen would normally be there is a vertical wooden playfield dotted with holes. Two joysticks on the control panel control the height of the two ends of a metal bar that moves up and down the playfield, with a ball bearing rolling back and forth on the bar. The playfield is an amber color, and the holes in the playfield are suggestive of bubbles rising in a mug of beer.

The objective of the game is to use the two joysticks to tip the bar back and forth and maneuver the ball up to a specific lit hole on the playfield, while avoiding unlit holes. When the player deposits the ball in the lit hole, the ball and the bar return to the bottom of the playfield, and the next target hole is lit. The game begins with the bottom-most hole lit, and subsequent lit holes become more and more difficult to reach while avoiding unlit holes.There are also versions with a ticket dispenser.

Taito also released a "family friendly" version of the game in 1984 entitled Zeke's Peak, where the artwork of bubbles rising in a mug of beer was replaced by a mountain-climbing theme. The main character is Zeke, the protagonist from Taito's earlier arcade game Zoo Keeper.

In 2003, ICE (Innovative Concepts in Entertainment) released a remake of the game with new artwork and a ticket dispenser.

 
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My journey with this game is pretty well chronicled through these posts:

Ice Cold Beer! - (Initial acquisition and bugs)

ICB Eprom Shenanigans

ICB Restarts

ICB More Improvements

About: Tales of the Arabian Nights

GAME DETAILS

Manufactured by: Williams Electronic Games, Inc.
Date: May 1996
Type: Solid state
Generation: Williams WPC-95
Release: 3,128 produced\
Estimated value: $6840 - $7960
Cabinet: Normal
Display type: Dot Matrix
Players: 4
Flippers: 2
Ramps: 3
Multiball: 4
Latest software: V1.4 - October 15, 1996


DESIGN TEAM

Game Design: John Popadiuk
Mechanics: Ernie Pizarro Jack Skalon Joe Loveday
Software: Louis Koziarz
Artwork: Pat McMahon
Animation: Adam Rhine Brian Morris
Sound: Dave Zabriskie
Music: Dave Zabriskie

About: Medieval Madness

Game Details

GAME DETAILS

DESIGN TEAM

Manufactured by: Williams Electronic Games, Inc.
Date: October 1997
Type: Solid state
Generation: Williams WPC-95
Release: 4,016 produced
Estimated value: $8690 - $10110
Cabinet: Normal
Display type: Dot Matrix
Players: 4
Flippers: 2
Ramps: 2
Multiball: 4
Latest software:V1.0 - July 25, 1997

About: Attack from Mars

What does Jack Nicholson, Pierce Brosnan & Pinball have in common? Campy Little Green Men!

GAME DETAILS

Manufactured by: Bally Manufacturing Co.
Date: December 1995
Type Solid state
Generation: Williams WPC-95
Release: 3,450 produced
Estimated value: $6940 - $8060
Cabinet: Normal
Display type: Dot Matrix
Players: 4
Flippers: 2
Ramps: 2
Multiball: 4
Latest software: V1.1 - June 10, 1996

 

10 Minute Pinball-Shenanigans with Attack from Mars

About: Indiana Jones

GAME DETAILS

Manufactured by: Williams Electronic Games, Inc.
Date: August 1993
Type: Solid state
Generation: Williams WPC (DCS)
Release: 12,716 produced
Estimated value: $6660 - $7740
Cabinet: Wide body
Display type: Dot Matrix
Players: 4
Flippers: 2
Ramps: 2
Multiball: 6
Latest software: L-7, November 22, 1993


DESIGN TEAM

Game Design: Mark Ritchie
Software: Brian Eddy
Artwork: Doug Watson
Animation: Scott Slomiany
Sound: Chris Granner Rich Karstens
Music: Chris Granner

About: Star Trek: The Next Generation

“Holy Pixelation, Batman!”

GAME DETAILS

Manufactured by: Williams Electronic Games, Inc.
Date: November 1993
Type: Solid state
Generation: Williams WPC (DCS)
Release: 11,728 produced
Estimated value: $4160 - $4840
Cabinet: Wide body
Display type: Dot Matrix
Players: 4
Flippers: 3
Ramps: 3
Multiball: 6
Latest software: Unknown

 

My Ownership Experience w/ STTNG

This is my second time around of owning an STTNG. I think the first time, I ended up selling it to make room in the gameroom and bank account for a Monster Bash. The last one was signed by the cast & was pretty darned sweet. This one, is no slouch, either. It is claimed to have been a HUO at a collector in Pennsylvania before coming to me but they had no documentation of that, so I take that claim with a grain of salt.

I didn’t… actually.. intentionally… seek it out for a second ownership cycle - not exactly anyway. It was a trade situation involving Ghostbusters Premium where I ended up with another STTNG. You are thinking, “Wait, STTNG and Ghostbusters Premium values aren’t really lined up.” Yep! :(

At any rate, I really have history with the STTNG franchise and I think this pin is a pretty cool pin. When Stern released their Star Trek title based on the JJ Abrams movies, the general values of STTNG started to drop from an average of $6500 to the current sub-$5k area. The Stern game is a really good pin, afterall. Unfortunately, the best art packages for the Stern pin are only available from third parties that Stern has lawyered up against and the Pro and Premium are a little too “actors-focused” for my taste. (I also owned a Star Trek Premium for a couple of years.)

In the positive column: STTNG is built like a tank, the art scheme is pretty sweet, it is packed with toys, has a 6-ball multiball and generally is just a fun-to-shoot and impressive pinball machine. In the negative column: It has alot of mechanical complexity that give it a particularly scarring reputation on-route for opto-related maintenance, usually. The outlane geometry is tricky.

Status: For Sale

This is the only pinball that I have right now that I consider “For Sale”. If someone is interested, the price is $5,000, firm. I have my eye on a couple different titles to bring to the game room so I’m more than likely not interested in a trade but - hey it never hurts to ask. You will be at SFGE, I can buy a spot for it on the truck going up from Mobile but aside from that, a potential buyer would be responsible for pick up or shipping. I’d recommend someone like Bob Cunningham or Brett Butler for the move. Our local STI depot isn’t highly regarded.

Ten Minutes with Star Trek: The Next Generation

Glass On

Glass On

Glass Off

Glass Off

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