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EvilDingo

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Grasping the concept of the block-button...

By EvilDingo 7 Comments


I've been playing a fair amount of Mortal Kombat lately, and as I was playing the game earlier today I suddenly realized something: 
 
"I don't have an issue with the dedicated block button in this game!" 
 
It's not that in all the years I've been playing fighting games, I've been unable to utilize a block button. 
It's just that I don't really have to think about utilizing it any more. 
 
Obvious question:
You're probably wondering how I possibly could call myself a long time fan of the Mortal Kombat series, if the block-button have been an issue? 
(and yes...I WILL call myself a long time fan of MK)
 
Answer: 
Back when I first was introduced to the Mortal Kombat series my gaming-platform at the time was an Amiga. Which means the games for it was designed around a single button joystick. This was of cause also the case for Mortal Kombat. 
 
If you've grown up with a system with multi-button controllers (which is probably the most of you) this may sound insane... or at the very least as an inferior version of the game. However the Amiga-version was in no way inferior or unplayable.  

The way the controls were handled for the games was that holding down the button would block, and then it used diagonal inputs for executing some moves. So all moves were actually in the game. Street Fighter II for the Amiga did something similar, by using diagonal inputs for some moves. 
 
Post single-button gaming:
I've generally felt that the Street Fighter/Tekken way of blocking by holding back, was way more intuitive and superior - but I realize now that with the amount of teleporting that is an core part of MK, it totally makes sense to use a block button instead. 
 
When I got back into fighting games with Playstation, it was really Tekken 3 that was my fighting game of choice, and I wasn't really forced to deal with a block button before playing DOA2 (maybe 3... can't remember). Since I've of cause been playing a bit of games in the Soul Calibur series and Virtua Fighter, but at no point I've actually *really* gotten used to games that use a block button. 
 
... That is of cause until this Mortal Kombat. 
 
Some of it may actually be that the block-button isn't a face-button. I donno. 
... But the main point is that I don't forget to use the block button anymore. Something that I'll admit even have been a bit of a problem even though I've played quite a lot of UMK3 on 360 and DS.
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EvilDingo

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Edited By EvilDingo

I've been playing a fair amount of Mortal Kombat lately, and as I was playing the game earlier today I suddenly realized something: 
 
"I don't have an issue with the dedicated block button in this game!" 
 
It's not that in all the years I've been playing fighting games, I've been unable to utilize a block button. 
It's just that I don't really have to think about utilizing it any more. 
 
Obvious question:
You're probably wondering how I possibly could call myself a long time fan of the Mortal Kombat series, if the block-button have been an issue? 
(and yes...I WILL call myself a long time fan of MK)
 
Answer: 
Back when I first was introduced to the Mortal Kombat series my gaming-platform at the time was an Amiga. Which means the games for it was designed around a single button joystick. This was of cause also the case for Mortal Kombat. 
 
If you've grown up with a system with multi-button controllers (which is probably the most of you) this may sound insane... or at the very least as an inferior version of the game. However the Amiga-version was in no way inferior or unplayable.  

The way the controls were handled for the games was that holding down the button would block, and then it used diagonal inputs for executing some moves. So all moves were actually in the game. Street Fighter II for the Amiga did something similar, by using diagonal inputs for some moves. 
 
Post single-button gaming:
I've generally felt that the Street Fighter/Tekken way of blocking by holding back, was way more intuitive and superior - but I realize now that with the amount of teleporting that is an core part of MK, it totally makes sense to use a block button instead. 
 
When I got back into fighting games with Playstation, it was really Tekken 3 that was my fighting game of choice, and I wasn't really forced to deal with a block button before playing DOA2 (maybe 3... can't remember). Since I've of cause been playing a bit of games in the Soul Calibur series and Virtua Fighter, but at no point I've actually *really* gotten used to games that use a block button. 
 
... That is of cause until this Mortal Kombat. 
 
Some of it may actually be that the block-button isn't a face-button. I donno. 
... But the main point is that I don't forget to use the block button anymore. Something that I'll admit even have been a bit of a problem even though I've played quite a lot of UMK3 on 360 and DS.
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MeierTheRed

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Edited By MeierTheRed

I just wanted to let you know its fucking awesome to see another dude who grew up playing MK on the Amiga. I had a A500 my self, and started my MK love on that platform with MK 1 & 2.

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EvilDingo

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Edited By EvilDingo
@pornstorestiffi:  
The Amiga 500 I had fortunately had 2 MB RAM I believe, so disk-swapping in MK2 was less because of this... I believe I noticed the difference when playing at another friends house. 
Another difference I noticed at a friend that had an Amiga 600, was that some friendship featuring balloons on his machine I believe. 

Now that I've become a more aware of the technical differences between the Amiga models, this must have been because of the 1 MB chip-ram in the 600. 
 
Actually... I have an Amiga 600HD connected - I just don't even believe I've installed MK2 on it. I should really look into that. 
I've just been using my Mega Drive for my MK2 needs.

A bit to the point I addressed in the starting post:
Another thing growing up using single-button joysticks have given me some problems with, was getting used to fighting sticks. The problem being that I have to use left hand for the joystick. 
Back in the C64/Amiga days I used right hand for the stick, and the left for the button (and reaching the spacebar on the keyboard). 
 
I've have gotten over this now though... Not that I use a stick for MK9. The six-axis is pretty good for this game.
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MeierTheRed

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Edited By MeierTheRed
@EvilDingo said:
@pornstorestiffi:  The Amiga 500 I had fortunately had 2 MB RAM I believe, so disk-swapping in MK2 was less because of this... I believe I noticed the difference when playing at another friends house. Another difference I noticed at a friend that had an Amiga 600, was that some friendship featuring balloons on his machine I believe. Now that I've become a more aware of the technical differences between the Amiga models, this must have been because of the 1 MB chip-ram in the 600.  Actually... I have an Amiga 600HD connected - I just don't even believe I've installed MK2 on it. I should really look into that. I've just been using my Mega Drive for my MK2 needs.A bit to the point I addressed in the starting post:Another thing growing up using single-button joysticks have given me some problems with, was getting used to fighting sticks. The problem being that I have to use left hand for the joystick. Back in the C64/Amiga days I used right hand for the stick, and the left for the button (and reaching the spacebar on the keyboard).  I've have gotten over this now though... Not that I use a stick for MK9. The six-axis is pretty good for this game.
Actually the Amiga 500 came with 512kb of chip ram, but could be upgraded to 1MB. There was also an expansion slot in the side of it which would allow you to put in 8MB, never knew anyone with that ting though. The worst part about MK 1 & 2, was the load times. MK wasn't that bad, but MK 2 had really horrible load times. 
 
it still amazed me that they actually made that game work with only one button. And it worked really well too.
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EvilDingo

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Edited By EvilDingo
@pornstorestiffi: 
 
Yeah. 
Amiga 500 had 512kb of chip-ram. Amiga 600 had 1 Mb chip-ram.
The RAM you expanded the machines with was called fast-ram... although it was actually slower than chip-ram :-) 

As mentioned my Amiga had 1,5 MB of expanded RAM along with the 512Kb chip-ram, so that did a lot for the load times. 
 
I'm not entirely sure, but I believe the chip-ram was memory the Amiga's graphic & sound processors could address directly.
So my friends Amiga 600 had potential for a bit more bells & whistles - even if my Amige 500 had more RAM overall.  

This was actually utilized by some later Amiga games. Apart from the balloons-thing I mentioned in MK2, I distinctly remember the game Walker having some speech at times on my friends A600, where there was nothing of the sort on my A500. Didn't know why there was a difference at the time. 
 
Edit: Aw man... it would have been awesome to have an Amiga with 8MB expanded RAM. Then you could probably load all disks in MK2 into the memory. That would make you able to make full use of Shang Tsung's transform ability.
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MeierTheRed

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Edited By MeierTheRed
@EvilDingo said:
@pornstorestiffi: 
 
I distinctly remember the game Walker having some speech at times on my friends A600, where there was nothing of the sort on my A500. Didn't know why there was a difference at the time.  Edit: Aw man... it would have been awesome to have an Amiga with 8MB expanded RAM. Then you could probably load all disks in MK2 into the memory. That would make you able to make full use of Shang Tsung's transform ability.
Yeah, i played Walker too, and i had no speech in that game as i recall it. And yeah it would have been insanely awesome to have that 8MB expansion, i would imagine it being very expensive 8MB is kind of a big deal back in those times. 
 
Man i had totally forgotten Shang Tsung and how stuttery his transformations where. 
 
Anyhow sorry for side tracking your topic.
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Edited By NostalgicShakedown

Coming from another person who played the demo of MK1 and the full version of MK2 on the Amiga, I know what you mean. At the time for some reason, it felt comfortable doing this move. It got confusing for me going from the Amiga to the SNES it got crazy with four attack buttons and a block button on top of that. (And for some reason, I think I still remember Liu Kang's Dragon Fatality: (Close) Down, Forward, Back, Back, Fire)