Mortal Kombat 3 (Arcade)

Mortal Kombat 3 is, of course, the third game in the series. It's also the point where things start getting a bit goofy.

Bell
Using a MAME cheat to break the screen limitations (so you can walk off the edge) reveals an actual BELL in the Bell Tower background.

Sheeva's Skeleton


Evidently, Sheeva was supposed to have a unique skeleton sprite for Kano's skeleton rip fatality.

Ninjas?


Perhaps evidence that the ninjas were planned for inclusion at one point. This was later used for Ermac's animality in Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3.



More possible evidence. This was later used for Classic Sub-Zero's friendship in Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3.

Motaro


Perhaps evidence that Motaro was meant to be a playable character? This was eventually used for Motaro's win screen when beating the game in Mortal Kombat Trilogy.



Motaro raising up his front legs. Could have been meant for a victory pose. It also seems to have been meant to be used in combination with the teleportation move.



Motaro doing the teleport. Seems to go with the other front leg raising sprites.



Looks like Motaro was going to throw the opponent over his head. This was used in Mortal Kombat Trilogy as, appropriately, his throw move.



Motaro raising his arm. The mouth moving sprites also go with this, which seems to imply that Motaro was going to have a taunt where he spoke or simply speak at the end of the round.

Nightwolf


Nightwolf swinging an axe with no green glow applied to it.



Unknown Nightwolf sprite, but perhaps it was meant for his holy light fatality?

Shang Tsung


Sprites meant for a Shang Tsung combo.

Shao Kahn


Shao Kahn swinging his sledgehammer.



A drill meant to be used as either Shao Kahn's fatality, or merely a special move. A similar sprite was found in Mortal Kombat Trilogy, although that one is shown to be rising out of the ground.

Sindel


Sindel sprite meant for a combo.



Sindel sprites meant for a combo.

Red Herrings
All text is found in chip MK321u.bin, interleaved.

Audits and Transformations
Like Mortal Kombat II, there are a few fake audits. The two in this game are "JOHNNY CAGE TRANSFORMATIONS" (replacing Kano Transformations) and "SHAWN ATTACKS" (left as-is).

A related line can be found at, after all other match end text, with Johnny's name spelled incorrectly:

Win Text
As in Mortal Kombat II, there's win text in the ROM (starting at ) for characters that don't actually appear in the game. This can be further proof that the ninjas were planned for inclusion at one point.

Unused Kombat Kode
Text for an unused Kombat Kode is stored at : This Kombat Kode was later implemented in Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, and in ports of this game.

EJB Menu
Mortal Kombat 3 continues the trend of inaccessible developer menus. Text starts at :