Mortal Kombat
DOS - 1993
Also released on: Amiga - Arcade - Game Gear - Genesis - SEGA Master System
Description of Mortal Kombat
That Mortal Kombat’s idea was not new was known by everyone. Yet another fighting game among many.
When it first came out in 1994, people called it a Street Fighter rip-off, a beautiful unoriginal clone and an all-round revisit of an old idea—however, no publicity is bad publicity and Acclaim used the fact that Mortal Kombat is not a game to be passed by unnoticed. What SF lacked in – MK perfected and made better—nothing more so, than the Finish Him/Her sequences, that, when learned properly (as sequenced keyboard strokes) by players, were an indication they’re a force to be reckoned with.
The seven original characters (kombatants) each had their own back-story and within them a reason to fight in the tournament for the pride, glory and the future of Earthrealm (or, you know, its total demise!), as well as a set of special moves they were allowed to use on their opponents (Fatalities, the finishing moves included).
And herein lay the novelty of the game! The bloodiness and the violence supreme of the game (alongside a few others, e.g. Doom) were the reason gaming became a medium rated by authorities. I had already put in countless hours of MK and performed a million Fatalities, finished the game with each and every character (Sub Zero being my personal favourite) and saw the final scenes (which back then were really just images, plus the presentation of the actors, who were used for the motion capture of the kombatants.
One of the drawbacks of the game (as per some reviewers and actual gamers, not necessarily Yours Truly), was that all of the characters shared the set of standard moves – and that feature, too, made it into the next games (however, in MK3 it got improved upon, by introducing Kombos and Kombo Kounters and in MK4 got abandoned altogether).
Even though, at first sight MK was just an SF clone, it became a franchise in itself, which received a cult following, and, to date, it has spawned 10 instalments of the game, plus plenty of spin-off games, movies, cartoons, a TV series and after the franchise got acquired by Warner Bros. the MK universe got adopted into the DC multiverse and spun-off a whole series of comic books.
Other games tried adopting the “finishing move” feature (Primal Rage, anyone?), but they never really got past one instalment and the franchise usually died.
You can love Tekken, Virtua Fighter and be a die-hard SF fan – but you have to respekt Mortal Kombat for it’s innovation and story.
Review By Greg
External links
Captures and Snapshots
Comments and reviews
mobilehead 2024-11-04 0 point
The first in the one of the most famous beat'em up series. After all this time the game plays quite nice however many limitations are visible. Amiga version was a Genesis port however was still good. DOS version was superior and was almost arcade perfect.
screw gog 2022-05-27 1 point
fuck you greedyog for planting a paywall to 3 abandonware games that can be installed for free, without letting us change controls and stuck with shit layout
larry 2020-02-09 2 points SEGA Master System version
SMS was so superior for 8-bit era that a decent version of MK could be made for it. There was also a NES version but it was just a parody.
Ethan 2019-05-17 0 point DOS version
IBM version was pretty impressive in 1993.
I remember the Amiga version which was laughably bad in comparison with rubbish sound compared to the PC version.
mU$!c 2019-04-16 0 point DOS version
Does anyone know what version of Mortal Kombat DOS this is? I already have version 2.0.0.2
Is this version 1.0?
nyerguds 2017-07-06 0 point DOS version
Aww, I wanted the PC floppy version with midi music. This one is the CD version. I already got that from GOG.
EldritchNexus 2017-02-24 -2 points DOS version
For some reason, I'm not getting any response out of the mouse or keyboard. The game just goes through the logos, title screen, and demo nonstop.
Kuba82pl 2016-01-30 -6 points DOS version
I buy today big box Mortal Kombat. This game is still great.
Chris H 2015-11-13 0 point DOS version
Somebody put "exit" commend in DOSbox configuration at mounting section so it won't actually do anything at startup.
Also not everyone unpacks the rar into the C:/ drive so if the game isn't working just remove the mounting section in dosbox.conf and then type it in stertuped DOSBOX intentionally.
Sincerly, Chris
C 2015-04-04 1 point DOS version
Mar, that is probably because you have a space in the folder name ("Mortal Kombat"), and did not place quotes around the file path (e.g., "D:\Games\Mortal Kombat 1\Mortal Kombat 1 CD.bat"). If there are no quotes around the above path, Windows and/or DosBox interprets the command as "D:\Games\Mortal" (which is not a valid command or file path) with 5 parameters: "Kombat", "1\Mortal", "Kombat", "1", and "CD.bat". :-B
Mar 2014-09-08 0 point DOS version
Every time i try to launch it DOSBOX says illegal command "MORTAL"
Jegas 2014-01-04 1 point DOS version
Yup - this game is a classic and is quite awesome and playable by I'd bet most people's standards!
Snowwhite 2013-07-06 1 point DOS version
First time I saw MK in arcade hall and had my mouth wide opened for its astounding photorealistic graphics, the smooth animations of the characters and the cool sounding voice output.
The PC-conversion is very close to the arcade game.
The game mechanics are the best of any martial arts games I know.
Very much fun to play!
Now, 20 years later it is still impressive to me!!!
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Buy Mortal Kombat
Mortal Kombat is available for a small price on the following website, and is no longer abandonware. GOG.com provides the best release and does not include DRM, please buy from them! You can read our online store guide.
Game Extras and Resources
Some of these file may not be included in the game stores. For Mortal Kombat, we have the following files:
3 MB (DOS)Other Releases
Mortal Kombat was also released on the following systems:
Amiga
- Year: 1993
- Publisher: Acclaim Entertainment, Inc., Virgin Games, Ltd., Virgin Interactive Entertainment (Europe) Ltd.
- Developer: Midway Manufacturing Company
Arcade
- Year: 1992
- Publisher: Midway Games, Inc.
- Developer: Midway Manufacturing Company
Game Gear
- Year: 1993
- Publisher: Acclaim Entertainment, Inc.
- Developer: Midway Manufacturing Company
Genesis
- Year: 1993
- Publisher: Acclaim Entertainment, Inc., Tec Toy Indústria de Brinquedos S.A.
- Developer: Midway Manufacturing Company
SEGA Master System
- Year: 1993
- Publisher: Acclaim Entertainment, Inc.
- Developer: Midway Games, Inc., Midway Manufacturing Company
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