The original arcade release of Mortal Kombat is fondly remembered by many fans, but a noteable section of its global success can also be attributed to home ports. Digital Foundry has gone in-depth with sixteen versions of the 1992 klassic to examine their quirks and differences. Watch:

It really is a shame that Mortal Kombat Arcade Kollection has been more or less abandoned on Steam/PC.

This past weekend, I went to the Houston Arcade Expo for my annual classic arcade gaming fix. While there, I noticed that for the first time they not only had Mortal Kombat II, but the original Mortal Kombat and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 as well. Of course, I had played for several minutes on UMK3 before realizing, "Hey, I could be playing this at home..."

I have Mortal Kombat Arcade Kollection for both Xbox 360 and Steam, but my Xbox 360 is currently packed away. So, that night, while waiting for friends to be ready to play Team Fortress 2, I plugged in my USB gamepad and launched MKAK for some classic MK action!

That was the plan, any way. What ended up happening was that the game hung at the title screen. It said "Press Enter" -- but completely ignored when I pressed Enter.

After doing some research, I found that the problem was that Arcade Kollection requires Games for Windows Live, which Microsoft had ended up abandoning [in 2014]. While many games were patched by their developers to use Steamworks instead, MKAK was already essentially abandoned by WB Games, and was never patched. In fact, MKAK is only available for me because I purchased the game; it's no longer available on Steam for purchase.

Fortunately, there is a fix! I mostly got the fix from this guide, though I ended up modifying it via trial and error, and looking at one or two other sites as the steps as given don't work on Windows 10.

The procedure is:

Fans of the original Mortal Kombat trilogy may be disappointed to learn Mortal Kombat: Arcade Kollection has been removed from the Steam digital store.

Mortal Kombat Online has learned the three-in-one game was removed Friday, September 5th. At the time of this reporting, no additional information was available.

Update Sep. 25: Arcade Kollection (mislabelled as "Mortal Kombat Kollection") is now back online! Check it out now for $9.99.

Anecdotal evidence points toward problems relating to the closure of Games for Windows Live [full story] and resulting corruption errors from profile retrievals. Some players have reportedly experienced virtual disk space crashes.

Arcade Kollection is still presently available for home console downloads via Xbox Live and PlayStation Store. The PC version was originally staggered from console releases, available from February, 2012 - some nine months after console release.

Mortal Kombat Online will continue to follow the story as more details become available. Special thanks to MKOmmunity User ShoeUnited for providing information. Register to share your MKAK experience with us on the forums.

Computer gaming nostalgists will be able to go home again with mouse and keyboard in hand thanks to the official release of Mortal Kombat Arcade Kollection for PC!

GamersGate currently have the game listed for $9.95, for a 428.81MB download file. Arcade Kollection contains versions of the original games that made the series, a perfect package for curious millineals and 2011 converts who missed the early nineties originals -- Mortal Kombat (1992), Mortal Kombat II (1993) and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 (1995).

System requirements:
Operating system Windows Vista (32/64 bit) / Windows 7 (32/64 bit)
Processor: 2.0+ GHZ Single Core Processor (Minimum Requirements) / 3.0 GHZ Dual Core Processor (Recommended)
Memory: 1GB RAM
Hard Disk Space: 3 GB
Video Card: NVIDIA 6200+ or ATI Radeon 9600+ Video Card, Shader Model 3.0 compatible, Supporting 16:9 Aspect Ratio (Minimum Requirements) / NVIDIA 7900 GS or Equivalent (Recommended)
DirectX: DirectX 9.0c

Celebrating today's release of the Mortal Kombat: Arcade Kollection, gaming website IGN has updated with a Vignette Video featuring the three classic games of the popular fighting franchise:

The rumored HD collection of the original three 2D Mortal Kombat games has once again made an appearance, this time being listed at GAME, an online merchant site for gaming in the United Kingdom. This reflects Gamestop's current listed release date for the game, currently slated for 11/16/2010.