TITLE
The actor who claims he co-created Mortal Kombat
AUTHOR
David Craddock
PUBLICATION
Ars Technica
YEAR
2022
ARTICLE TYPE
Book Excerpt
FROM THE ARTICLE
Anthony Marquez was at a martial arts tournament in Florida when he heard the news.
It was 1994, and Mortal Kombat was blowing up. Midway’s game had become the highest-grossing coin-op of the summer of 1993 and then lit up sales charts on consoles, selling over 3 million cartridges worldwide during the first three weeks of Acclaim’s “Mortal Monday” event that September.Daniel Pesina held court before Marquez and their other friends, fellow martial artists who had portrayed characters in Mortal Kombat and Mortal Kombat II. Pesina said John Tobias had told him a Mortal Kombat movie was coming down the pipe, along with droves of merchandise. This was beside the inevitable home versions of Mortal Kombat II, which had been inhaling quarters since its release in the fall of ’93. The friends, who had signed work-for-hire contracts promising hourly rates in exchange for Midway’s use of their likenesses and performances, daydreamed of action figures and T-shirts sporting their digital personas.
“We’re gonna be rich,” Daniel Pesina told them.
COMPANIES MENTIONED
Midway
GAMES MENTIONED
Mortal Kombat (1992)
PEOPLE MENTIONED
Philip Ahn
Richard DiVizio
Anthony Marquez
Daniel Pesina
Gerald Sweeney
Katalin Zamiar
EXCERPTED FROM
Long Live Mortal Kombat Round 1: The Fatalities and Fandom of the Arcade Era