Long Live Mortal Kombat: Round 1 - The Fatalities and Fandom of the Arcade Era

by David L. Craddock

To politicians and parents, Mortal Kombat was a menace to society. To gamers, it was a way of life. From dedicated hustlers who put thousands of miles on their odometers driving coast to coast to challenge the top players in arcades, to fans who devote their free time to collecting action figures, setting world records, and plumbing the depths of its lore, the Mortal Kombat franchise has topped sales charts for 30 years, and its popularity shows no signs of waning.

But before Mortal Kombat offended politicians, flooded arcades with quarters, and sold over 12 million units (and counting), executives at Midway saw it as filler—a stopgap between more promising games like NBA Jam.

Co-creators Ed Boon and John Tobias felt differently. They believed their creation had potential. But not even they could have imagined the phenomenon Mortal Kombat would become when it hit arcades in October 1992, or the controversy that would follow in its wake.

Based on extensive interviews, Long Live Mortal Kombat: Round 1 chronicles the arcade era of the video game industry's most infamous fighting series, the creative and technical hurdles its team had to clear, and the personal stories of the fans whose passion has made Mortal Kombat a pillar of popular culture.

Genres: Video Games, Games, History, Nonfiction, Audiobook, Gaming, Biography

607 pages, Hardcover

First published October 6, 2022

About the author

David L. Craddock lives with his wife in Ohio. He is the bestselling author of Stay Awhile and Listen : How Two Blizzards Unleashed Diablo and Forged a Video-Game Empire - Book I, and Heritage : Book One of the Gairden Chronicles, an epic fantasy series for young adults. Please follow along with him on his website/blog at DavidLCraddock.com .

Reviews

[David]

I wrote this book, so I won't leave a star rating for it. I'll update this review in the future with a postmortem detailing my writing and research process.

[Rob · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5. A bit longer than I'd prefer, spending too much time on minutiae about the game balance and competitive scene than the creation of the games themselves. While this book is supposed to be the first of a series, it covers all the history of Mortal Kombat that I care about. 1 book is enough for me.

[Jonathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredibly niche subject but wow. The amount of depth this book has shows the staggering effort the author put in to conducting interviews and compiling them all into an interesting narrative.

[Kevin Kritcher · Rating 2 out of 5]

This one overstays its welcome a bit. Lots of details but also focuses more heavily on the competitive MK scene and less on the making and development of the game.

[Drew Cannon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I grew up playing Mortal Kombat in the arcades; to say Mortal Kombat is important to me is an understatement. If you are a hardcore MK fan, you owe it to yourself to read this book. Not only does it go in-depth about the arcade era of games, it also explores other projects that were happening during that time (ie: the 1995 movie, the live tour, etc). As someone who actually got to see the live tour, it was a really nice surprise to see that project explored. Overall, I feel like this is the most extensive work in regards to Mortal Kombat on the market today. Had an absolute blast reading it, and can't wait for part (round) 2! 5/5

[Alexandru · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a lovely and nostalgic book. I remember playing the first Mortal Kombat game in an arcade in the 90s and have been a huge fan ever since.

David Craddock did an excellent job researching the history of Mortal Kombat. How an arcade game created as a filler by a couple of people became one of the greatest media franchises with a many sequels, toys, cards, comics, movies and TV series.

The book covers the first 4 Mortal Kombat games as well as the first two movies. There are so many cool titbits from the development. The stories of the various performers that played the characters throughout time are also great.

The biggest problem about the book is the overbloating with unnecessary details about the MK competitive scene. One chapter would be enough but there's chapters and chapters about various famous competitors, competitions, arcades and so on.

I really hope there will be a part 2 about the 3d era and part 3 about the modern era MK games.

[Evan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This Kickstarter-funded, self-published book does a great job of covering the main arcade era of Mortal Kombat. Probably a 4.5, which doesn't exist on this platform, due to some repetition and an overall length of over 600 pages that could be whittled down and organized more coherently.

A significant amount of time is spent on the events leading up to the original Mortal Kombat cabinet. However, the most famous cabinet, the highly popular MK2, is not covered in as much detail as I thought it deserved. MK3 is covered briefly, but UMK3 and MK4 receive more attention. The book also explores fun side aspects such as the ratings system the game spawned, the first Mortal Kombat movie, and MK's rivalry with Street Fighter.

For those truly dedicated to delving into the depths of the game's history, it also analyzes the leaked source codes of the four games and popular ROM hacks, Daniel Pesina's lawsuit and his history of stretching the truth, and console port details.

The book starts with a disclaimer that, as a Warner Brothers property, it was hard to secure interviews. However, there were numerous interviews with competitive players and a handful of comments or quotes from members of the MK team. It was enjoyable to be transported to an era I mostly missed, and the book is ideal for my Arcade1Up cabinet, which includes the first 4 of these described games.

(I listened to it as an audiobook.)

Bonus fact learned: Rain is named after Prince's "Purple Rain."

Bonus fact learned #2: There was a 200-city live tour!

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's quite an interesting book and I do recommend it for retro gaming fans in general, but it could do without a third or quarter of its content and end up stronger for it. Craddock goes out of his way to chronicle all material relevant to the first Mortal Kombat titles, which often generates positive results, but it turns into something negative when he makes choices such as going deep into analyses of the character balance of some specific entries and the implications that this carried for the meta and so on. Several pages are spent describing some inconsequential questions that could be summarized as "x was considered overpowered due to y, so solution z was found". Some of the side stories also feel like they go nowhere, and are in the book simply because someone was interviewed and the author felt like they owned it to the person to include them in the narrative. In other words, tighter editing would have been quite beneficial.

[Hailey Snider · Rating 3 out of 5]

I grew up playing MK3 pretty casually as a kid and a lot more when Deadly Alliance came out as a teen. This book goes deep into the meta behind MK1-4 and a few other fighting games. Honestly sometimes this book drags on or repeats the same things that frankly aren't that interesting. Other parts are pretty redeeming though and are filled with behind the scenes developments on each game, the drama with some of the actors, how the ESRB ratings system was put in place, and the culture around arcades in the 90's.

I would say pickup this book if you are really into competitive arcade fighting games or just Classic Mortal Kombat.

I'm kind burnt-out on Mortal Kombat now but if the next book is about the Deadly Alliance Trilogy I am pretty interest

[Christopher Fergo · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a die-hard MK fan, this book was an emotional rollercoaster. From the first few pages, I felt immediately transported back to the 1990s: the music, the culture, and the arcades. David Craddock recalls the golden age of MK with fondness and ease.

All the excitement I remember witnessing, as kids—most much older than me—lined up to get a glimpse of this game and its infamous Fatalities. But that wouldn't be enough! The biggest allure of the game would be it's mystery and intrigue behind hidden characters and secrets, traded on school buses and playgrounds.

This book did an excellent job of capturing a moment in my childhood that has left an everlasting imprint. Long live MORTAL KOMBAT!

[Deshawn Vasquez · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent retrospective of the original few Mortal Kombat games. The craft, the controversy, and the arcade culture of the era and the impact all of it has left. Despite the length, this felt like such a breezy read. Tales of arcade brawls in and out of the cabinets and growth of not only the industry, but its artisans felt like a fictionalized drama. Which is funny, because I've always wanted to write an Aaron Sorkin-style historical about the controversy surrounding Night Trap and MK1 and this kind of fueled that fire. I look forward to Round 2.

[Ryan Frost · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of really great and cool information about my favorite video game franchise. It is well written and a fast read despite its length. I can’t wait for round two. I wish the book spent more time with the makers of the game and less with stories from the fans. The stories were fun, but I would rather hear about the nuts and bolts that went into the game with more detail. I know that sounds crazy for a really well researched and big book but I wanted more of the inside baseball of making the game.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

The arcade craze was just before my time. I was 5 when MK1 came out and sounds like it was a blast. The book does a great job on the history of the franchise mainly focused on MK1-MK5. It was really interesting to hear all about the actors who portrayed the characters. Never knew most were legit martial artists and one was a playboy model. Only wish the book had another chapter covering the more modern version mk9-mk11. Perhaps in a Round 2 followup..

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the history of the video games industry. MK was immensely important in my upbringing. This chonky tome covers only the earliest half of the history of the game. A bit repetitive in places, it felt, but overall a must read for those who want all the juicy details about the early days of MK. Can't wait for Round 2, and definitely adding this to my "must read" list of video game history books.

[Woj Tek · Rating 4 out of 5]

Choć jak tytuł wskazuje skupiona na pokazaniu historii 4 pierwszych odsłon Mortal Kombat zawiera też historię graczy i tony sentymentu za minionymi latami. Pozwala poczuć magię wczesnego gamedevu oraz fenomenu salonów gier z automatami. Piękna sprawa :) czekała cały miesiąc albo i dłużej na swoją kolej. Otworzyłem w końcu tylko rzucić okiem i pochłonąłem ciągiem.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

A deep look inside development of the franchise and its fandom, it hits the right level of verbosity to keep interest for casual gamers. Each chapter covers a separate topic, which makes it easy to jump around or skip a topic if desired.

[Luis Lozano · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thoroughly thorough history of this 90s arcade classic!

[Bud Winn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perfect - I love the history.

[Charles Clem · Rating 5 out of 5]

Book takes me back to the good ol days, the days of the arcade and the very first time I played Mortal Kombat at pizza hut in '92.

[Payne Indahass · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first half of the book is amazing. The second half drags a bit as it focuses more on the players.

[Doc · Rating 4 out of 5]

This would have been five stars if all the unnecessary technical fighting mechanics like hit boxes etc were edited out.
Suppose those interested in the "pro" scene might care for it.

[Adam Frank · Rating 5 out of 5]

god damn this was INSANELY in-depth

[Jacek Biernat · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books about video games. Rich, detailed, great

[Aleksandar Salma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Have i just read a 700 page book on the history of MK? Yes I have! Long live Mortal Kombat *gong*

[Howie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Neat. The book is well researched and author's enthusiasm for the subject is evident. While a little long, the book was interesting and entertaining. Definitely recommend.

[C · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very fun, thorough look at the history and making of the early MK games. Insight from developers, actors, and players and how it affected their lives. Definitely looking forward to Round 2.

[Jason · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, such an amazingly detailed journey through the creation of the original MK series. The author does a fantastic job of bringing the excitement to the creation of the game, tournament history, and console play. While the book is long you won’t find a more detailed look at MK. A must read for all MK fans.