I would bet it started when people tried to prove something was in the game, like "omg look I sliced him in half and i was johnny!" so they made a fake. *shrugs*

I believe it started with the "Nimbus" fakes sent into a game magazine around the time MK1 was at the top. Then it went on with the Error Macro thing (which I have seen in a very,very, early revision of MK1). After that a select few people got into it (mainly because the only real picture editor around was Photoshop and it was quite expensive). Then about 6 years ago a lot of people found alternatives (or pirated versions) to photo-editing. There were a lot of great editors(Minus_Zero, FatSatan, Venomark, etc.), but most of them are gone now. Now only a handful of people make fakes..and most of those fakes are very poor (compared to the fakes that used to be made). Hopefully, the cycle will renew and more editors will emerge. Maybe I should make fakes again =/ heh.

IMO fakes were at their height of popularity/quality about 9-10 years ago or so. Actually, now that I think of it, there are probably more people doing fakes now than back then... but on the other hand, the MK fanbase is a lot bigger, and a lot more people actually have access to computers and decent graphics programs...

As mentioned fakes were originally alot more about "proving" secret stuff was in the games, but when I started getting into it ('95 or so) most stuff I saw was clearly marked as being fake, so they were obviously not made to fool anyone. What I liked the best about those "old school" fakes, that's been largely lost these days, is that a lot of effort was made to make it look like the new characters/fatalities/whatever could actually have been in the games, even if it was obvious they weren't. Original life bars, transparency effects and edited backgrounds were all pretty much out of the question, and that made the fakes feel a lot more 'believable', and I liked that. Sure, I guess it's sort of pointless to limit yourself with such a set of arbitrary 'rules', and admittedly a lot of stuff that's done these days that have no ambition to look 'real' is really cool... but the vast majority isn't, IMO. I don't mean to offend anyone here or anywhere else, but these days I find that the great stuff is so rare that it's simply not worth it wading through all the crap... ;P

I see what your saying...but in regards to current fakes:
-I think you would see better fakes if 2d MK games were still being made
-I feel like there is a group of MK fans that remembers the fakes of old, and typically those fakes looked more like the actual game. They had a certain style. As unique as many of them are, they all fall under a similar look. The problem is we think to those as what a fake should be, but the fact is people are starting to dable in more creative fakes. One member here makes fakes in an Anime style that most seem to like. Others post in sprites from other games. I've developed a bad reputation as someone who makes poor fakes. One thing I'm constantly critiqued for is using photos in my backgrounds. But that's the style I like. IMO fakes don't need to look like the actual game. I think we can open our minds a little and except certain new breeds of fakes.