Project Overview
Current Version: BETA 2
About Mortal Kombat II
Mortal Kombat II is a fighting game originally produced by Midway for the arcades in 1993.
It is the second entry in the Mortal Kombat series and is the sequel to Mortal Kombat, improving the gameplay and expanding the mythos of the original Mortal Kombat, notably introducing more varied finishing moves (including several Fatalities per character and new finishers, such as Babality and Friendship). The game's plot continues from the first game, featuring the next Mortal Kombat tournament set in the otherdimensional realm of Outworld.
How did this start?
Mortal Kombat II + was based on the final arcade machine ROM revision of 3.1 and picks up where the original developer's left off by adding much requested features and customisation (as well as bug fixes). It is still a work in progress project, but the latest release of BETA 2 is available for public download.
Mortal Kombat II + started work in 2019 after restoration of my first and favourite game Mortal Kombat II. I initially ran the original revision 3.1L, but grew tired of it after seeing hacks like 'Tournament Edition' (TE) and 'Challenger' so I switched to 'Mortal Kombat 2 TE'. However, I felt 'Mortal Kombat 2 TE' had it's own flaws (IE: Johnny Cage's Shadow Kick for one) and I decided to learn about making my own revision from 3.1L as a base to start from.
Abystus' work motivated me and he created a MAME cheat for playing as secret characters. His method changed Sub-Zero to Noob Saibot, Reptile to Smoke and Kitana to Jade when you enable the cheat during the game. So my first goal was to make the 3 original characters still available and make an alternate method for choosing the secret characters. I've also enabled their sprites to appear on-screen upon selection.
What Else?
Afterwards I decided to move onto one of the most challenging features which was to add a new menu into the CMOS 'Test Menu'. I call it "MK2+ Settings". A lot of time went into this feature but I felt it was necessary for us purists who wanted a stock 3.1L revision at times.
Added Audits
This may just be my perfectionism coming into play, but I figured for all you guys who use their physical arcade machines for revenue may actually find this useful. I've added the 3 secret characters to the audits.
Reset Unlocks
Like Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, you can choose to re-lock the secret characters if you've already unlocked them. This is useful to force stock characters in tournament play or if you wish to challenge yourself to unlock them again.
Random Ladders
Did you know there are only 6 predefined ladder arrangements in the factory 3.1L revision? My 'Random Ladder' option fixes that by 100% randomising every ladder slot with the exception of 'Endurance', 'Kintaro' and 'Shao Kahn'. If you want a challenge, throw in random endurance matches if your difficulty is set to 'Very Hard'.
Endurance Matches
This feature was on everyone's wish-list. It's relatively new in development but it's finally here and I can't wait to see how far I can progress with it. I think it's opened the door for a completely new single player game mode in the future!
Goro's Lair
Many decent hacks have 'Goro's Lair', but none have it corrected. I have taken the time to center the stage and correct the background layer placements so it looks fantastic. Shadows will be coming soon.
Cheat System Added
If you're here then you've probably played this game a million times, so why not add a twist to an old game. These cheats will add more replay value to it. How many cheats are there, where can I find the and how are they activated? I guess the mysteries still live on...
Kombo System
Kombo's now have a displayed hit count on-screen exactly like Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. This is a great addition and I feel I could even improve on it by adding more special effects.
Alternate Select Screen
For a challenge to myself, I implemented a new character select screen which makes room for secret characters and also multiple fighters on screen for the 2v2 game mode. Also available in this new select screen is the ability to alternate your palette.
2 Versus 2 Tag Mode
With this game mode you can battle it out 2 vs. 2 (like Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3) and at any moment you can press the start button to tag in your teammate! This allows for some awesome combos between the teams.