I have a hunch if the developers eventually got this to run on original Midway hardware and installed it at Galloping Ghost Arcade outside Chicago that Ed would show up to check it out and say hi.

IIRC, this can run on real hardware. Maybe at least the UMK3+ hack (I think the security chip on that board has been hacked). I remember because I toyed with the idea of making a similar hack for WWF WrestleMania (which I have & runs on the same hardware). I really wanted to give each character a Fatality like the Undertaker, or do something fun with the Adam Bomb assets already in the game, but then I remembered I have no idea what I'm doing with regards to debugging or writing ASM code!

One of the devs streams his work on YT and it might be informative, but it's impossible to use as a reference...

I have a feeling some of those guys were pretty accessible in the early days of the internet. I remember emailing Dan Forden (toasty!) to talk about the MK music back in the day. Nowadays, unless they're active on social media, it's not so easy to contact the creators.

I am pretty sure they were - I was too young at the time to do it. Though not a bad idea to do it now and see where it leads to!

I bet their first "Hello" from an NRS representative will be a cease & desist letter due to all the copyright infringement... They could have opted for a brand new logo and a non-trademarked project name in order to make things at least a little easier for them...

That said, I hope the project does NOT die. Power to the FGC!

The romantic in me hopes not! These are now doing crazy things with MK10 (i am amazed how i find the story line just getting better and better). I hope they can appreciate the hacker in these folks from their own early days!

Aren't trademarks dependent on enforcement? i.e. if you allow your mark be diluted[1] by projects you like - you will have a harder time down the road defending against use by projects you don't like. So the best strategy is to go ape on everyone, including those you like. IANAL.

1. e.g. Kleenex

I have heard this. But if that’s the case, and you liked the projects / developers, couldn’t a highly restricted licence be granted to the project?

A $1, non-profit, licence that can be modified or removed at anytime. It could even have an NDA attached so it can’t be publicly discussed.

Maybe they wouldn’t accept that. But it seems like there should be a way to officially allow a project like this to exist without enabling other groups that are not guided by motivations the licence aligns with.

There are ways around this, including cutting them a license, or ignoring it.

They're distributing their changes as a patchset to the ROM, which is completely legal. As a result, they aren't distributing binary files; other hosts are.

They are using the Mortal Kombat name and trademark which they are most definitely not licensed to do.

That's not copyright infringement, that's trademark infringement. They're two entirely separate concepts.

The logos are copyrighted.

Doesn't copyright also come with fair use clauses?

Copyright is not the same as trademarks

During the early release of MK4 in arcades, John Tobias used to regularly come down to Playland Arcade in NY and wreck everybody at his game.

I met him twice from that. Never met Ed Boon though.

Met Boon a number of times at E3 conventions - nice guy!

Ok dont laugh at me. Having grown up outside the US - I never even got a chance to go to E3 :(. Have to atleast take my kids there!

Yep. I met him too. He was open and honest, basically convinced me NOT to work on videogames lol

Care to share the story or what he said to convince you not to work in videogames?

He may have been saying, "don't work on arcade games". Boon's last major arcade game was "The Grid", which was (in my opinion) a well-made game, but unfortunately it came out during the end of the arcade era. It was a very expensive cabinet at a time when arcades were dying down that pretty much marked the turning of Midway's fortunes (and the arcade industry in general).

I have met a few of my heroes and I have always been let down. I hear Ed is a nice guy, but I don't think I could take being disappointed again.

I kind of wonder if it's a matter of knowing what you want to say to your heroes when you meet them. Like some people get the same question all the time or are uncomfortable about having to beat fawning fans off with a stick all the time.

> As a kid who ruined their studies because of this game, wanting to meet Boon after learning about the Noob Saibot backstory was it!

I met Ed Boon at the premier of Mortal Kombat II.

Talking to him was one of the things that basically convinced me to stop trying to work in videogames. Up until I met him, my dream was to make videogames.

I wish I'd taken pictures, the entire cast of Mortal Kombat II was there. This was at the AMOA show in Anaheim California, where companies that run vending routes meet up with companies that sell things like arcade games and pinballs and jukeboxes and vending machines.

Do you mind sharing what Ed said or did that convinced you to stop trying?

As they say, never meet your heroes.

so this was really a positive moment, just not what you expected?

Ed Boon showing where "Get over here" sound effect comes from (21 seconds): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vmW8FMIxYo