Incredibly, a Mortal Kombat ZX Spectrum port exists, and it works perfectly.
It’s time like these when you realise everything you thought you knew was wrong. I know I cannot be alone in long considering the ZX Spectrum to be little more than a fun-but-limited over-the-top calculator with rubber keys.
But when you find that the machine was capable of running Mortal Kombat (no, really), you really need to take stock. What else could the ZX Spectrum have done with the right backing?
Like the recent news of a ZX Spectrum DOOM port, this version of Mortal Kombat requires a 128K model to run. With emulation, this shouldn’t be too difficult to prepare (apparently Zesarux is the best option), but it should also play on original 128K hardware.
Below is a YouTube video of the game in action, and these are the supporting notes:
MORTAL KOMBAT has been recovered as a TZX tape version, courtesy of Mario Viegas. Enjoy!
NOTE: I ended up using Zesarux for this game. Worked on there, but not on other emulators I tried. Also, it took me a while to figure out that only Rayden and Sub Zero are playable, since I was trying to select the others and didn’t know why it wasn’t working 😀
The game is hosted by Portuguese site Planeta Sinclair, who have made the TZX version available to download.
And to finish off the demos and other material coming from the East that we took from Mário Viegas’ cassettes, we have a .tzx version of Mortal Kombat. We remind you that this game was never finished, as the programmers ran out of memory.
If you’re planning to play this Mortal Kombat ZX Spectrum port, position your expectations in the medium position. Yes, it looks amazing, but the entire game isn’t available. But in addition to the striking fight sequences that lack only colour, the game has a great menu screen.
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Christian Cawley is a writer and editor who covers consumer electronics, IT, and entertainment media. He has written for publications such as Computer Weekly, Linux Format, MakeUseOf.com, and Tech Radar.
He also produces podcasts, has a cigar box guitar, and of course, loves retro gaming.
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