Mortal Kombat 4 (Arcade)

Mortal Kombat 4
Developer: Midway Games Publisher: Midway Games Platform: Arcade (Midway Zeus) Released in US: October 15, 1997 Released in EU: 1997 This game has unused playable characters. This game has hidden developer credits. This game has unused graphics. This game has unused text. This game has revisional differences.

Mortal Kombat 4 makes the series jump to 3D...into a pit filled with spikes.

Unused Graphics

There are two unused character portraits in the game that would go unused from arcade revisions 1.0 to 3.0. These include one of Kitana and of Noob Saibot, both of which were completely removed in revision 2.1. Noob Saibot's portrait was used in home ports when he was a secret character. Kitana would ultimately use a different, unmasked portrait in Mortal Kombat Gold.

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(Discovery: Abystus)

Unused Character Biography Screens

Revision 1.0 of the game has its character biography screens disabled by default, but they can be reactivated with the use of cheats. The screens contain joke type commentary about each character, and were most likely disabled for this reason. Note that in this revision, Fujin's biography references him by the name "WindGod", and Noob Saibot's biography is unfinished, only featuring one cut-off line of text before recycling text from Raiden's biography.

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(Discovery: Abystus)

Unused Characters

Noob Saibot can be accessed in revision 1.0 of the game using cheats, but was later completely replaced by Reiko in revision 2.1. He has a very limited moveset which includes the ability to use his teleport slam, along with being able to wield a spiked mace. He would later return as a playable character in home console releases of the game.

(Discovery: Abystus)

Red Herrings

Two false audits, "Dogs" and "Loffs", can be found in the Audits screen.

Unused Kombat Kode

Present at 0x0A9390:

KODE 12: 4 PLAYER RANDPER ILLEGAL

The sequence to access this code doesn't appear to exist in this version or any of the console ports.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Hidden Credit

Present at the beginning of the sound ROMs is a hidden credit.

MK 4 (c) 1997 Midway - DWF

Revision Differences

Mortal Kombat 4 underwent a fairly public development process for the era, with a number of pre-release versions made available for public testing over time. Since a lot of the pre-release versions have not been dumped, information listed here will start with the official 1.0 release.

Version 1.0

The first official release of Mortal Kombat 4. Despite this, it's still in fairly rough shape.

• Raiden's intro sequence speech has been implemented.
• Only one character fatality is enabled in this build: Sub-Zero's Spine Rip. However, by playing as Shinnok, impersonating Sub-Zero and performing his fatality motion, you can do Quan Chi's Leg-Rip fatality.
• The "On" and "Off" strings for the Fatalities On/Off toggle in the Dip Switch settings is accidentally(?) reversed.
• Most of the characters now have inputs to do the Prison stage fatality.

Version 1.444

NOTE: This version is not dumped. Descriptions may be based on forum posts from the era, and may be riddled with inaccuracies and hearsay.

A test release only made available in Chicago, presumably so the development team could personally supervise gameplay and note down issues.

• Johnny Cage, Jax and Noob Saibot have been added, replacing the three "?" spaces on the character select.
• The throwable rocks and decapitated heads have been added to the Goro's Lair and Furnace stages, respectively.
• 3D side-step has been implemented.
• Improvements to Computer AI have been made.
• Sub-Zero has been given a freeze-wand weapon.
• The "danger" effect and call-out upon health running low has been added.
• Character biographies have been implemented into Attract Mode. Endings are still not present.
• Shinnok has been added to the top of every tower, formally denoting him as the final boss.
• The Versus screen (and its Kombat Kodes) have been added.
• Sub-Zero's Spine Rip appears to not work? Input may have been changed.

Version 1.72

NOTE: This version is not dumped. Descriptions may be based on forum posts from the era, and may be riddled with inaccuracies and hearsay.

A test release only made available in Chicago, presumably so the development team could personally supervise gameplay and note down issues.

• Reiko has been added, replacing Noob Saibot on the character select.
• Endings have been added for all characters, except Reiko.
• Raiden has more electricity effects flowing around him.
• Sub-Zero's Spine Rip has been re-enabled. His face texture has also been altered to add his scar from MK3.
• Scorpion's Fire Breath move has been added.
• Tanya's boomerang has been implemented.
• Jax and Johnny Cage now have their fireball moves.
• Jax's Quad Throw has been added.
• Shinnok can now impersonate Reiko.
• Quan Chi now has a new character select portrait.
• Jarek's fireball has been replaced with a new one.
• Various additions to the Attract Mode, like adverts for Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and the Zeus arcade hardware.
• A new font has been added for everything except the life bars.
• The MAXIMUM DAMAGE system has been added, preventing combos from going over 40% damage.
• The computer AI now knows how to use weapons.
• Alternate costumes and colour palettes have been added.

Version 2.0

The second official world-wide release of the game.

• Reiko's ending implemented.
• Every character now has a fatality to call their own.
• Various additional bug fixes.

Version 2.1

Released two days after Version 2.0.

• Fixed a bug which rendered the CPU much easier to beat, even allowing players to manipulate the CPU with the Player 2 controls.

Version 3.0

The final arcade release. While it was apparently tested for a month in Chicago before wider release, specific change lists for these pre-release versions are unavailable.

• Every character now has a second fatality!
• The Goro's Lair stage fatality has been added.
• Throwable spiked balls have been added to the Tomb stage.
• Many bug fixes (although camera flaws still exist, especially in the Tomb stage).
• More Kombat Kodes added.
• Johnny Cage was given a new weapon.
• Added the fatality tease demos to the Attract Mode.
• More breakers have been added and switched around.
• Closed Captions have been added to the endings, for those especially noisy arcades.
• The combo system has been modified to allow for air combos and linkers.
• Fixed a bug in Version 2.92 where selecting Sub-Zero or Scorpion in 2-on-2 combat would cause one of each player's characters to use the bloody-skeleton model.
• Implemented the "Meat" Easter egg to use the bloody skeleton model properly.

(Source: MAME History.dat)

(Source: source needed)