Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection Revives Lost WaveNet Edition

The recently released Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection has made a significant impact by reviving the long-lost WaveNet Edition of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, a version that was never officially available to the public. This edition, which adds online competitive multiplayer features and additional playable characters, had been considered “lost media” since its testing phase in the mid-1990s.

Originally developed by Midway Games, the Mortal Kombat franchise has seen various iterations since its debut in the early ’90s. The first Mortal Kombat game alone had at least six published versions, with updates released on physical ROM chips. The WaveNet Edition was one of the proposed upgrades designed to enhance the arcade experience but failed to gain traction due to high operational costs. Arcade operators were deterred by the expenses related to running dedicated T1 lines required for online play.

During a recent interview, Stephen Frost, head of production at Digital Eclipse, discussed the process of resurrecting this version of the game. “We didn’t think that WaveNet was going to be even remotely possible,” he stated. “The expectation from us was that no one had kept anything, especially given how poorly the industry has historically preserved such material.”

Despite initial skepticism, a key question from Stephanie Brownback, a quality assurance lead at NetherRealm Studios, prompted the Digital Eclipse team to explore the possibility of reviving the WaveNet Edition. They were able to locate a ROM dump from one of the few existing arcade boards, thanks to Mike Boon, the brother of Mortal Kombat co-creator Ed Boon.

Emulation programmer Daniel Filner then took on the task of evaluating the ROM files to make them compatible with modern hardware. “What I got was a dump of about 25 or 26 ROM files,” Filner explained. His work involved identifying and matching these files with known configurations in the arcade game’s history, ultimately leading to the successful emulation of the main program, which includes various balance adjustments and bug fixes.

One of the challenges was understanding the functionality of the WaveNet network. Fortunately, Filner noted that if there is no internet connection, the game defaults to a standard boot process, similar to the original version of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. “It just kind of happy boots up normally,” he remarked, indicating that the game does not crash without server connectivity.

The Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection is the first collection to feature the WaveNet Edition in a playable format, allowing fans to experience this previously inaccessible version. The game even includes a unique boot sequence that attempts to connect to the WaveNet service, a feature not present in the original release.

While the WaveNet Edition is now playable, it is important to note that it was never formally finished, leading to potential bugs and unexplored game mechanics. Frost acknowledged, “There’s still a lot we don’t know about this because all the balance changes and things like that, we haven’t had time to sift through.”

This revival not only highlights the challenges of preserving video game history but also opens the door for community engagement as players begin to document their experiences and discover the hidden nuances of this rare edition. Fans are encouraged to share their findings, contributing to a collective effort to unlock the mysteries behind this relic of gaming history.

As the gaming community delves into the WaveNet Edition, it is clear that the Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection has provided an exciting opportunity to explore and celebrate a significant piece of the franchise’s past.