Antiguamente se asociaba (aunque erróneamente) el trabajar para una misma empresa 20 años, con el derecho a jubilarse de esta. En la ignorancia de la infancia, tenía la noción de que al culminar ese periodo, el empleado se retiraba y retornaba al hogar, con la sensación de una labor cumplida, con su placa honorífica y los recuerdos de todo lo vivido.
No pasó mucho tiempo para que la realidad me aterrizara y aunque esta entrada en el blog no tiene la más mínima intención de hablar del sistema de pensiones obligatorias de mi país ni de ningún otro, ver que mi canal de YouTube cumple 20 años de creación, ciertamente me trajo esos recuerdos infantiles de los conceptos que tenía sobre la jubilación y una consciencia de todo lo realizado hasta ahora.
Por supuesto, abre interrogantes y dudas, así como cuestionamientos.
¿por cuánto tiempo más voy a mantenerlo?
¿valió o sigue valiendo la pena?
¿qué más podría hacer?
Y el más grande y que me ha acompañado en los últimos años:
¿QUÉ MÁS ME FALTA?
En la primera entrada de este blog hablé sobre mis inicios como combomaker y sobre cómo ese rótulo o título auto otorgado, me forjó como jugador desde los años 90, jugando arcade en las calles bogotanas. Pero después de depender de páginas de descarga directa, ancho de banda y servidores privados para hacer llegar mi material a distintas partes del mundo, llegaron páginas como YouTube que nos permitieron administrar nuestro contenido, así como compartirlo y fue ahí, sintiendo control sobre los videos que yo quería que los demás vieran, que empecé a sentir ese llamado a la exploración y en cierta medida, responsabilidad por ofrecer algo diferente. No me podía conformar con ser combomaker, tenía que ir más allá.
Pero también estaba el desafío de la cantidad de tiempo, e incluso recursos disponibles para invertir. El primer año ni siquiera tenía computador en mi casa, mucho menos una conexión a internet privada, por lo que tuve que recurrir a algunos amigos con las herramientas necesarias para darle tracción al canal, así como a establecimientos públicos, conocidos en aquella época como café internet.
Fuente: Reddit
Con el pasar de los años, las herramientas estuvieron mucho más al alcance de todos y el contenido pululaba, saturando el pequeño nicho de los videos de combos y llegando incluso al plagio (subir videos como propios, borrando los créditos originales). Fui víctima de aquello en un par de ocasiones y aunque al principio era molesto, objetivamente era casi un halago y una oportunidad de que mis creaciones le llegaran a más personas.
Fue sencillo sentir el afán de crear algo distinto. En principio, volqué todos mis esfuerzos a la organización de torneos y eventos, pues no solo me daba la satisfacción de crear y mantener una comunidad, sino que me daba muchísimo material para compartir con audiencias internacionales que así como yo, buscaban ávidamente videos de torneos y retos de otros países.
Pero la cantidad empezó a sobrepasar a la calidad y cualquier sesión personal o grupal de partidas en UMK3 o Mortal Kombat Trilogy, así como cualquier torneo realizado, se compartía sin filtro. Grabaciones con celular, muchas veces sin el nivel exigido por una audiencia cada vez más informada y educada sobre cómo se jugaba a altos niveles competitivos, con imagen o sonido precarios, pero que al menos sirvió como documento de una escena local creciente, del 2006 al 2012.
Se hacía necesario ampliar el abanico de opciones para la audiencia y para el año 2015, empecé a sentir una necesidad más grande de documentar pero ya no me limitaba a las partidas y torneos, sino que quise mostrar a los protagonistas y dejarlos contar su historia también.
Adicionalmente a las entrevistas e historias, incursioné en análisis detallados de los videojuegos que más me apasionaban, cubriendo ya no solamente combos, tutoriales y glitches, sino aspectos comerciales y de desarrollo temprano, así como comparaciones directas con versiones prototipo. Curiosidades personales que en un principio no consideré compartir, pero que con los años se transformaron en proyectos con un nivel tan profesional como mis escasos conocimientos me lo permitieran y que en mi concepto, valían la pena ser vistos.
Así que después de cientos y cientos de videos, pasando por peleas casuales, torneos y ligas, torneos con motivos benéficos, así como grandes con invitados nacionales e internacionales, celebraciones y eventos a título personal y muchos otros con RTUC Amanecederos Fighting, tutoriales tanto en inglés como en español, playthroughs tanto en emulación como en hardware original, entrevistas y mini documentales sobre la escena local y mundial, reseñas y análisis de glitches y versiones beta, retrospectivas de publicaciones de videojuegos de los 90 en Latinoamérica, streamings y hasta reseñas de películas, vuelvo a la misma pregunta:
¿QUÉ MÁS ME FALTA POR HACER?
La verdad es que todavía no lo sé, pero por lo pronto, irónicamente por fin voy a finalizar y lanzar el video que anuncié hace 20 años, promocionándolo como "next video" y que (no podía ser de otra forma) es casualmente el primer video que subí al canal.
No, no será un video a manera de cerrar ciclos. Es solo una deuda que tengo conmigo mismo, con un amigo y pues sí, con ustedes. Porque la terquedad de buscar siempre qué hacer, me hace y me hará volver a abrir nuevos proyectos una y otra vez, pues hay NinjaGrinder para rato.
If the image above brought back some good memories, you've come to the right place.
Welcome to the second entry in this series of interviews
I’m conducting on OG Mortal Kombat combomakers. On this opportunity, I had the pleasure
of talking to none other than Sicdic, who, along with NKI, paved the way for
countless enthusiasts (myself included) to showcase and dig even deeper into
the franchise’s game engine and combo system.
Reminiscing the exact order of events that took place
in 2002 when I discovered GameCombos.com proved to be challenging at first, so
I had to retrace my humble beginnings and internet archives gave me the starting
point I needed.
GameCombos.com staff back in 2000
So, 24 years ago, after browsing the website and realizing I was basically way over my head, not just because English wasn't my first language, but because I didn't have much online experience, I got more invested as days went by and finally, I summoned the courage (so to speak) to register on the forums to talk about the combo videos I had downloaded and watched endlessly. I knew my fair share of advanced topics, although nothing like the stuff I was seeing from Sicdic. But when I started posting and asking around, there was no sign of him. I asked NKI, I exchanged a couple of ideas with MKK Hanzo and Shock, but the main and biggest questions remained unanswered.
How was he breaking the game beyond anything I had ever seen in almost a decade? And of course, how could I do something like that?! I felt I had a lot to share but then again, that’s a story for another time. For now, what you’re about to read, is the result of Mike Watson (yes, papa Watts!) being graceful enough to get me in contact with Sicdic and then, almost a year of back-and-forth messages through Discord.
But first, in case you haven't seen it yet, this is the first taste of crazyness and awesomeness I experienced back in 2002:
SICDIC'S 1st VIDEO: MK Trilogy Ermac exhibition (released on 10/24/2000)
GameCombos.com 1st featured video was of course Sicdic's. You can see a fitting comment from the master himself, NKI
NinjaGrinder:
Hello
Mark, hope you're doing well!
Just wanted to start
off with a question that I feel it's kind of mandatory: How was your first
brush with MK? Even though the videos are from Trilogy, I can't imagine that
was the first MK you played.
Sicdic:
First MK1 I
played was an early version. The gravity wasn't turned up high like we know it
today. For instance, we were able to do jump HK, jump HK, slide, jump HK with Sub-zero.
I fell in love with it immediately.
NinjaGrinder:
I hear
you! But wait, were you able to pull that off, as soon as you discovered the
game?
Sicdic:
Yes, we were
breaking down combos in that game right away. I remember seeing how floaty the game was and we were like “hmmm they are begging to be juggled”
Were you exposed to
MK1 right when it was released?
NinjaGrinder:
I have a
clear memory of the first time I played MK1, but it was kind of late. It was
1993. I knew nothing about FGs until that day. In fact, a couple of classmates
were talking about SF2 so I got curious, they took me to the arcade after class
and I saw the game. But next to it, I saw MK1 and fell for it instantly, even
just watching the attract mode.
So, my next question
would be: in those early years (1992-1996), what was your overall take on the
franchise? Gameplay wise, of course. Did you take MK seriously at all?
Most people didn't.
And this is just a guess: Specially in California, home of
competitive SF.
Sicdic:
I think the
people around me at the time agreed that SF was more polished, it felt crisper.
But MK was really popular as something different. And MK II was really popular.
NinjaGrinder:
So, I
guess you had plenty of MK combo experience in general when you got
to Trilogy. Am I right?
How did you come to
the idea of showing what you could do? Were you encouraged by someone or
something like that?
Sicdic:
Yes. I played a lot of MK2 and MK3 in the arcades.
Back when we made the MK video, we had a capture card we bought from Fry's. I
really don't remember the order of things, it’s so long ago.
Castel was making
combo vids for Zaibatsu, Ben was trying to get GameCombos going, I feel like we
did videos with Castel before we made the MK video. But I'm sure I probably
just wanted to get some videos up on Ben’s site that I made, and I'm more of a
Midway/Rare type so it was MK, KI, Primal Rage, games like that.
I'm sure it was more
about expressing myself, but also partially helping GameCombos grow.
I'm proud of my skills
developed and videos made, but it was made just from fun and the love of gaming
with clean/crisp technical play. Just some silly showing off.
NinjaGrinder:
Great
answer, thanks!
Yes, I remember your
other videos. The Sauron combos were sick to say the least. I discovered Tekken
Zaibatsu shortly after I found about GameCombos. Then, Video Opera, Shoryuken
and other smaller sites. It was all new to me back in 2001.
Do you remember the
first video (or videos) you ever watched? or finding about combo videos in
general? Your stuff and NKI's were the openers for me. I didn't
know that was actually a thing until a friend pointed me towards GameCombos
site.
Sicdic:
Hmm the first
combo videos I’ve seen… I don’t know, but I think the first ones that had any
impact on me were the ones from Japan, I believe they were called Skill Smith.
They were really technical Alpha 3 and Street Fighter 3 combos. I remember
spending the time to duplicate them.
I didn't enjoy the
Alpha games that much but I still wanted to do all those flashy combos. Guy's combos stuck out to me as really fun to
do, but a lot of those years are a blur as to in which order all of it happened.
NinjaGrinder:
I get
it, it's been so long! And as for spending time to duplicate combo videos, that
is exactly what I did when I saw your videos and NKI's. Some of them proved
being really hard to pull off, whereas others were tied to specific circumstances
(we'll get to that part eventually).
I know you said you
were more of a Midway games type of player. But did you compete against the
biggest players (people like Watson, Valle, Choi, Schaeffer, the Wolves) back
then in games like Hyper, SSFII or ST?
Sicdic:
No,
unfortunately I missed all of that. I moved to SoCal in 1996 and was still into
Midway games then. Soon after, SF3 was
released. I loved that series a lot and played it a ton. I played vs them in
casuals, like at Alex's house on his cabinet, but I wasn't super competitive
with them.
NinjaGrinder:
Oh, I
see, I don't know why, but I had pictured you living in there and hanging out
with them from the start. While we're on
topic: what made you gravitate more around games like MK, KI and PR?
Sicdic:
I hung out
with them after I discovered Southern Hills Golfland but by then, the next gen
games were out.
I'm not sure what made
the Midway type games more appealing to me to be honest. Perhaps it was in part
due to what was popular at my local arcades. Or maybe it was just something
nice and fresh. By that time, we'd been through a few different SF2s, anything
new was welcome. It wasn't anything negative towards capcom games, just MK/KI
had a unique style to them.
NinjaGrinder:
They
did. And it was something like that for me, I love SF2 series and I played some
3s, CvS2 and even SFIV afterwards, but my attention, efforts and energy have
always been towards MK.
You mentioned you had
recently gotten a video capture card back then. So, what did you play on, when
you recorded the combos? PC (emulator) or the actual N64 hardware? Either way,
can you please elaborate a little bit? I mean the set up you used, for playing
and for recording/capturing.
Sicdic:
We used a
capture card we had bought from Fry's Electronics and if I recall correctly, it
was about $100. Plugged it into the pc and plugged the N64 into that and used
Gameshark to hide the UI.
NinjaGrinder:
Interesting, I always thought you had just done the kombat kode no power bars (987-123). At the end of the Ermac video, when you perform the Mercy move, the
power bars reappear, and that is what happens when you activate the code. But I
guess doing the code in every single match would be tiresome or annoying.
Gameshark, who knew! Great.
On a sidenote, when I
saw the videos back then, I always found the decision to remove the UI very
cool and tasteful 👌
Sicdic:
I don't think
I ever knew that you could hide the UI with in-game codes. I never really
messed with the codes much. Perhaps
that's what the GameShark did for us.
I like the clean look,
too. Was surprised that mercy shows the
UI.
NinjaGrinder:
Yeah,
even in arcade.
A great deal of people
back then thought you had used cheats like unlimited run, which is both
laughable and flattering when you think about it. Same thing happened to me
when I released my own stuff. Did you use something else from GameShark
(non-gameplay altering) like unlimited time and energy, in order to practice
the combos in an easier way?
Sicdic:
No, just
hiding the UI. Tool assisted isn’t my style. We were practicing combos at
arcades with quarters/tokens as well.
NinjaGrinder:
No, I
meant just unlimited energy and time, it's less time consuming, since you don't
have to go through character selection screen, win pose, etc.
I had to, since I did
it on N64, recording to a VHS tape. I knew about GameShark, but I didn't own
one.
Sicdic:
No unlimited
health, no unlimited run. True N64 combos while hiding UI is all it was. And I
made it a point to mix up my combo targets as to not only do them on the
characters that can be juggled the most.
NinjaGrinder:
Great
answer, I love you're remembering those kinds of details.
Did you record
everything and then decided to split it and release it in 3 separate videos, or
were you recording as needed, for each video?
Sicdic:
Just filmed
the Ermac combos and put it together. Same with the other ones. They were
self-contained. I didn’t have a folder full of clips to put together.
NinjaGrinder:
By the
way, this is one of my favorite combos ever, so cool looking, the idea never
crossed my mind. How did you come up with that? Were you sure it was going to
work or just freestyling/hoping?
THE ABOVE COMBO WAS THE SHIT BACK IN 2000. AND IT STILL IS, IN MY BOOK.
Sicdic:
Love that
combo. Nobody expected the run uppercut back in the day LOL
They were all just by
feel. Freestyle would be accurate. I
wasn't 'mathing' out what was possible when I played fighters, just by seeing
what was close to connecting and try to tighten up timings, start from
different ranges, etc.
NinjaGrinder:
Did you
know the combos already before making the decision to record them for the
video, or did you come up with new stuff, as you were recording them? In other
words, were you fully aware of what was possible on N64 Trilogy? it's almost a
whole different realm, when compared to PSX and of course arcade UMK3.
Sicdic:
I played Ermac
on any system he was available. So, by
the time I got to the video, I already had an understanding of what was
possible with him as I had put in a lot of time already. It was just a matter of finding any quirks
unique to the N64 version. Ermac is a
joy to play. Really fun juggles, with a
2 hit dial-a-combo that launches.
NinjaGrinder:
I have
to agree; there's so many possibilities.
You touched one of
those specific details I mentioned in the beginning: the 2-hit launcher. How
did you learn it was possible to do it after his telekinetic slam? Arcade or
console first? was it on your own or did somebody else showed it to you? It's
awesome because in N64 you have two versions of it, one allowing even more hits
per combo. In arcade you have to connect both hits of the launcher. I'm really
curious about how you discovered that one.
Sicdic:
I obviously
found out you can auto combo right when they hit the ground by accident and
started trying everything imaginable. I feel like I would’ve known about it in
the arcade first since I got into it there first. I played Ermac in arcade a lot once I learned
he was fun to juggle with. Scorpion was
my first MK 1 character I ever picked so I was in love with teleport. Ermac's slam was satisfying to find new ways
to juggle off of, whereas spear, although satisfying to land, had a
straight-forward uppercut follow-up.
It’s interesting you
brought up the 2 hit auto combo cannot be split in the arcade. I didn’t
remember that technicality until you said that. In arcade I played Ermac, but I
also loved playing reptile a lot. I was pretty good at tracking myself while
invisible decently and precisely and it was fun to troll people with that. I
feel like I might be remembering the 'oooh wow' moment when I discovered that
you could split the 2-hit on n64 and fell in love.
NinjaGrinder:
By the
time you recorded the videos, had you extensively tried out Trilogy? Since the
game came out in 96 but the videos like in '00, I'm curious whether you really
liked MKT at first.
Sicdic:
So, I had
moved to Southern California in 96 and quickly learned that the main
competition was on street fighter. So,
while I did play a bit of UMK3, it was only with a small set of people while
the Capcom machines were lined up with tokens.
So, extensive isn’t the right word, but yes, I did put in some lab work
in the arcades and I had an N64 and bought the game because I love fighting
games. I played it a lot at home, labbing combos just because it’s the type of
stuff I liked to do. If I’m into a fighting game, then I just get into seeing
how mechanics interact and how I can create my own style of play. I didn't buy the game just to record a video,
no.
NinjaGrinder:
What was
the reason you decided to record and release videos of Trilogy instead of
arcade UMK3? well, why not Saturn? I just want to know the reason behind the
choice of game.
Sicdic:
It was just
the version we had. It’s definitely the
version I played the most but it was what Wizard had at his house. There was no
big plan to make a video. That whole video was done in about 2 or 3 hours. I
was just messing around and making a video for Ben (Tragic)'s website.
NinjaGrinder:
Did you
see or did you hear about any MK combovideos before yours and NKI's? I didn't,
no one did. But who knows? maybe you did.
Sicdic:
No, I don’t
believe I did. I'm sitting here thinking
and I remember watching a lot of MK videos.
Wiz and I really liked
to do KI1 arcade combos and really try to break that game down. Definitely
watched Japanese videos on SF3 and Alpha 3, even though I didn't play Alpha 3
very much and wouldn’t rate it high on my list of fighters personally. And of
course, Tekkenzaibatsu. Wiz introduced me to Castel and 3D games were really
fun to juggle in.
After my videos were
made, I watched MK videos over time just to see how crazy people got with the
game.
And then by that time
I had very little interest in MK4 and had fully moved on to street fighter.
NinjaGrinder:
Were you
aware that you and NKI were in part responsible for the trend and scene growing
up? after your videos came out, a guy from NJ started working on his own as
well and became hugely popular. Soon after my video was ready and he gracefully
helped to host it. Of course, this was 2003, way before YouTube days. So, it
was all direct download. When I released mine, he was promoting his latest
material, and his website couldn't handle the traffic LOL
Maj stepped in to
assist with hosting (sonichurricane.com)
Sicdic:
No, not at
all. I was shocked to hear they had an impact; They were just made out of fun.
I’m so happy to hear that it motivated some people to do their own stuff,
that’s so fucking cool I’m smiling huge right now LOL
Fighters are so fun to
play. I wish I would enjoy online fighters;
I really want to be in a room with people playing but online feels so out of
touch for me personally.
NinjaGrinder:
I told
him I'd gotten in touch with you and he was super excited as well. He literally
asked me "did you tell him what he started?"
He got so inspired he
wanted to do even better videos, since yours were short and to the point. But
he had better tools than I did, so he could release arcade UMK3 combo videos.
Since all I could do was N64, I shared most of my material with him, so at
least I could see our combos in a video. They broke the game so much, we all
learned from each other, I guess. But then, more people stepped in, a lot more.
From the US, from Bulgaria, from Venezuela. People started talking technical
stuff about the game, not just showing videos.
People started to show
match videos. Interest grew and grew. Now people wanted tournament videos, not
just casuals. So, he basically started the foundations of MK scene in the
States.
The guys from Chicago
started to show up to tournaments in NJ. Everyone who ever played was coming
back in a way. And for me, it was heaven. I decided to run tournaments as well,
first one was in 2004. I wanted to see here, what I was seeing over there. I
was basically jealous LOL
Sicdic:
Ed Boon is so
lucky to have people like you and your friend having any interest in his
product. That’s amazing dedication and
drive, and love. People like you guys straight up carry scenes, actual backbone
of it.
What’s the other guy’s
name?
NinjaGrinder:
His name
is Matt; he goes by Shock (in the beginning it was EWAShock)
He had his website to
host the videos and along with Lex kept people interested in the forums. SRK
was a great place to talk FGs. Then Matt launched his website, with forums and
everyone flew over there. Then they partnered up with bigger sites and did a
lot of events. For MK9 and onwards. Now their site is called Kombat Network.
People who know what’s
what, know they wouldn’t have a local tournament scene if it wasn’t for the
stuff Matt & co did, the love for the game was huge.
I’m sure you know
there is a lot of Trilogy stuff that can’t be done in arcade, like two
teleports in a row. Even crazier, after those 2 teleports, a jab and a third
teleport. All in less than 3 seconds. Even though it’s insane (when in
comparison to arcade rules), it’s not that hard actually.
But were you fully
aware back then, that some moves wouldn’t come out after a certain number of
hits in the same combo? A hit limit. i.e., slam can’t be done after 4 hits.
Except there’s a way to do it (and you did it of course). Same with the
teleport.
Sicdic:
There are a
few games that you are able to break that limitation, yes. MK3 was a great one
to do it in.
NinjaGrinder:
Do you
have a name for it? Like a term.
Sicdic:
No, not really, but kind of LOL
The only one I really named but it was just a reference I used with Wiz, was 6th teleport.
Meaning, you can’t
teleport as the 6th hit. Only up to the 5th hit can be a teleport, and that
carried over to other instances. So, it doesn’t make sense because it was an
inside term. I’m curious as to what the name became?
NinjaGrinder:
Since it
can be done with more moves and more characters, they called it glitch
cancel.
Do you know the reason
that limit break is possible? like the details.
Sicdic:
I approve of
that name, it’s not exotic or anything, it gets straight to the point. Slightly
embarrassed with my version now LMAO
You can do something
like that in Street Fighter 4 and I had a name for that.
So, imagine in SF4 you
finish a fight with something like crouching fierce and that kills the
opponent. Well, I played C. Viper in SF4 and I would glitch cancel a burning
kick follow up that went really slow motion, and I called that Extra Credit.
I don’t know the
actual technical reason why; I would love to understand. I just realized that in some games you can
overcome it with timing and speed.
NinjaGrinder:
So, when
you were trying those combos out, how hard was for you to pull them off? I can
tell you, if the conditions aren't met, there will be entire rounds in which
you won't get it to work.
Sicdic:
Wow! that is
actually really interesting to read because if you hadn't have said that I
would’ve sworn I can pull it off with high consistency. Now I'm wondering if it
was difficult to do. I can do the SF4 extra credit super high consistency.
Please break it down.
NinjaGrinder:
In UMK3
and of course MKT, every round a player gets a 1 frame advantage. The game will
choose P1 or P2 randomly every single round. So, for some matches, it could be
one round each or either side gets that 1 frame advantage. You can notice if
you get thrown when you're not supposed to or if both players are
next to each other and they press an attack at the same time. Every single
time, a player will hit first. There are no trades in MK like that. Always the
priority player will hit. So, what happens to the other player? he gets to do
glitch cancels. There's no way to do a GC in a round in which you have frame
advantage. Crazy.
Of course it's hard.
Of course it's frame perfect. It requires timing and speed. For some attacks
it's easier than others. But you can only pull it off if you don't have that 1
frame advantage.
Sicdic:
Wow that is
actually mind blowing yet totally understandable.
Well, the priority player, the disadvantaged
player having glitch cancels is just a crazy coincidence?
SICDIC'S 2nd VIDEO: MK Trilogy Ninjas exhibition (released on 11/20/2000)
Tragic promoting Sicdic's 2nd video on his website
NinjaGrinder:
Do you
remember the first glitch cancel you discovered? you did those with Ermac, the
one with Subzero, plus that insane jump kick, LP xxground freeze.
Not to mention that
sick cross up kick with Kitana into fan suction. Damn that was nasty!
Sicdic:
Man, I wish I
knew, damn. I honestly have no idea but it’s something I know I’ve tried
probably my whole life in every game I’ve played. It was just something I would
always try for fun in any game and sometimes it worked.
NinjaGrinder:
This is
from Shock, posted more than 10 years ago, describing the events that took
place 20 years ago! (click on the external link to read)
I saw Shock's
post and viewed a few of those videos on that page. They listen to really heavy
metal, captures the vibe of that gory game nicely. That was cool he gave a
shout out. I'm flattered.
NinjaGrinder:
I
remember when we were talking about 6th teleport, you mentioned
that it carried over to more moves/characters. Were you fully aware then, about
all the moves that had a hit limit? like Sub´s freeze, Reptile's forceball,
Kitana's fan lift, Ermac's slam.
Sicdic:
Yes, I was
aware all characters had moves disabled after a certain amount of juggles.
NinjaGrinder:
So, you
decided to break them all, nice! Trust me, nobody had any idea about it back
then. When it was actually explained, it had to be done based on the game code
itself. Crazy
Did you share those
findings with anyone at the time?
Sicdic:
No, I never really was a forum poster or big
on IRC etc. I just like to break games for myself to be honest. Literally I
just like doing cool stuff in gaming, to this day.
NinjaGrinder:
That's
awesome, man. Were all the combos coming from your own
experience/experimentation on arcade/console or did you get pointers, tips or
even combo suggestion from other people?
Sicdic:
Back then it was mostly just trying to see
what I could fit in combos. Like imagine doing jump kick, teleport, spear,
uppercut with scorpion. I would try to fit a run + jab and build from there, and
substitute for more damaging moves or even flashier moves at the expense of
damage sometimes, never been a frame data type of guy, I just go by feel.
NinjaGrinder:
And
speaking of the combos... Any particular one you remember being harder to pull
off?
Sicdic:
Not really that I can remember that made me
struggle. it’s weird I´m sure some were tougher than others but I never felt
frustrated enough to remember them because I really was into it and embraced
the challenge. Never desk slammed etc., just continued to press myself onward. I
do remember setting up some Cyrax’s combos were kind of tricky with the bombs
but I never got that great at it to be honest.
NinjaGrinder:
Impressive,
man. Touching a little bit more on that, how did you make sure they were
absolutely unblockable? most of them are pretty obvious, while some others are
not. Did you have any concerns like "I have to make sure these are real
combos"?
Sicdic:
Yes, I didn´t want fake combos that was for
sure. Had Joey blocking or I would have the other controller on ground and used
foot to hold block button etc.
NinjaGrinder:
jajaja
that's what I had to do, man!
I used to put the 2nd
controller between my legs and hold it tight with the inner part of my knees so
I could press block, or if I needed the opponent to jump, I'd use my big toe.
Sicdic:
We are brothers from another mother.
NinjaGrinder:
Do you
recall if you had any leftovers? combos that you felt didn´t belong or maybe you
had intention to save for later (a fourth video?).
Sicdic:
Maybe there are some random combos but not
many. I did a few Tekken combos for Zaibatsu or however you spell it but just a
few. Did some KI1 videos too but I don’t think they all got posted online. Was
more a fun hobby to me instead of fame seeking.
NinjaGrinder:
Yeah, I
never got to see a KI video from you, man. Speaking of fun, do you remember
which video of all 3 was the most fun you had with creating?
Sicdic:
Jago for KI1 was probably most fun for me, but
I liked the MK juggle system better. Definitely had fun with Ermac, he was
really fun to mess around.
NinjaGrinder:
I want
to touch on Reptile´s dash juggle and Kung Lao's dive kick cancel. Did you
envision infinite/100% damage potential and just had to leave the combos like
that, or did you think back then you had reached the limit?
Sicdic:
I knew Kung Lao was infinite, saw someone do
it in the arcade before. I didn’t know about Repitle though, pretty sure.
NinjaGrinder:
That hop
kick into forceball after roundhouse into slow ball was the shit. You had those
ultra-deep kicks nailed on your videos, man.
Sicdic:
Yes, deep roundhouses felt so fucking good
LOL. I had to master them with Ermac and if I recall correctly, Scorpion could
utilize them too but those kicks were chef's kiss.
NinjaGrinder:
Yes! speaking
of RH that midscreen RH into air throw with Cyrax still looks SICK. Such great
ideas, man. Close to the corner, piece of cake. But midscreen? Crazy.
Sicdic:
I tried to make it a point to avoid corners
when possible and avoid huge characters like Jax or whoever was easier to
juggle. My combos had a viewer with a trained eye in mind, not noob.
NinjaGrinder:
Small
jumps into autocombos are really hard to do in arcade. like insta jumping
attacks Did you see those in arcade as well before trying them for the
video?
Sicdic:
Jump up + insta kick?
Yeah, that was something I’d done in arcades for
a while. I think that was something I was just trying and saw it work. it might have been accidental.
SICDIC'S MK Trilogy ACT 3 (released on 12/24/2001)
Sicdic was already a respected and well-known member of the MK and combomaking community back in 2001
NinjaGrinder:
Did you enjoy the feedback received? Were
people for the most part, getting what you were doing? or maybe you just helped
Tragic with the videos and didn't pay attention at to what people were saying
back then? I'm curious.
Sicdic:
Yeah, I wasn’t basking in glory I just did it
for fun. Sometimes people said something to me online or at EVO and that felt
great but wasn’t my real pursuit.
NinjaGrinder:
I know
you never did it for fame or glory or whatever, but I'm
serious, you were truly an inspiration for a lot of people who keep doing it in
some form or another, to this day.
Sicdic:
That’s a nice thought.
NinjaGrinder:
I still
thank my friend, who told me about the website and the videos. The game would
be dead and forgotten, long time ago here, if it weren´t for Gamecombos and
your videos. And of course NKI's
Sicdic:
That’s actually really cool you guys still
jam to old MK.
NinjaGrinder:
Man,
you've been so generous with your time, can't believe it's been over a year
since we started talking about this.
Sicdic
Happy
to chat with you it´s great knowing you. You are a driver of community. You are to be respected.
i was still playing arcade umk3, almost on a daily basis, but the landscape was stagnant, uninteresting, we just played vs cpu opponents and sometimes, someone from a different arcade showed up, so there was nothing resembling a community or a scene.
we were breaking new ground in combo ideas and concepts. but that was it, nobody to witness or comment on it, outside of our little group, consisting of 5-6 players.
Then I knew gamecombos.com
A whole new world opened up before my eyes. An entire website, with staff running it, where I could find discussion forums dedicated to combo theory, match up and strategy talk and much more. Really technical stuff. No more casual articles and news, move lists and silly rumors. This was the real deal!
I was instantly hooked. Started sharing combos and ideas, talking to strangers thousands of miles away from Colombia, reading about stuff I was not aware it was possible to do, but at the same time, thinking to myself:
"we might be onto something here, our combos are REALLY groundbreaking!"
But then something else happened. Something I was not expecting to see in a hundred years. The website had some other sections and as I started browsing, I stumbled upon some links that allowed me to download an actual video file with combos on it, as well as music on top of them to make it even more attractive and, to put it bluntly, fucking awesome.
A video with combos? and music? a combo video?
NKI Volume I, Act VII - Mortal Kombat Trilogy
The above video, is one of the first CMVs ever released, related to Mortal Kombat. Keep in mind there was no YouTube back then, this is way before almost anything most FGC people have seen. Even before EVO Moment #37!
Lucky for me, the creator of such awesomeness was a Midway forum moderator at Gamecombos.com, so I started to interact with the guy, asking some questions and posting my own ideas, as I continued to get used to this whole new universe of knowledge and tech stuff. The rest is a story for another time. Today I want to share an exclusive interview with the one and only, NKI. I picked his brain in 2023; we had a long conversation through Messenger that lasted months (I know!) and this is what he had to share:
NKI: Feel free to ask anything. Some of those videos are over 20 years
old, but I'll try my best to remember the details.
NinjaGrinder: Well, one of my first questions is precisely when they were done. I
know they were recovered or re-released like in
2001-2002. They were posted on Gamecombos and that's where I knew them from.
Some people used to say "I thought these had been lost in time" and
stuff like that.
So, when did you
record them originally? Especially the ones dedicated to MK (volume 1)
NKI: Volume I was originally released in January of 2000, only on VHS
tape, because I didn't know how to create digital videos at that time. The
footage was mostly recorded in 1999, and perhaps a little bit in 1998 also.
Between 2000 and 2001, I released Volumes II through VI on Gamecombos.com, then
ran out of material for a while. So, in 2002 I digitized the VHS footage from
Volume I and also uploaded that to Gamecombos.
NinjaGrinder: Cool, thanks. I really wanted to know that.
Now, speaking of the
VHS tapes. When you say they were released only in that format, you
mean you made several copies and distributed them to people who asked for
them, and then you promoted some sort of "tape-trading" or how did it
actually work?
NKI: Yeah, that's accurate. I mailed free copies of the VHS tape to a
few different people around the United States, mostly just to my online friends
who were into combo videos. I was also part of a small group of people on
alt.games.sf2 who traded or sold VHS tapes of tournament footage and combo
videos, so I added Volume I to the list of tapes I had for sale/trade. As you
might expect, there wasn't much demand for this kind of stuff. In total, I
think I only sent out maybe 10 copies of the VHS tape for Volume I, which is
actually a good thing. Volume I had some decent stuff (the parts that I later
digitized and released on Gamecombos.com), but overall, it was bad, especially
the fighting game stuff, and especially compared to other combo video tapes
circulating at that time, notably TZW and Skill Smith.
NinjaGrinder: Getting to mail 10 copies of your work is huge in my book. I can only
wish I'd been a part of something like that. Just the trading side sounds
awesome to me.
NKI: The VHS tape trading scene was fun, though some of the sellers were
unreliable. I remember sometimes it took over a month to receive a tape.
Sometimes the footage would be incomplete. Sometimes the video quality was so
bad that you just had to guess the combo based on the sound effects. So, I am
super grateful that we don't have to deal with that anymore.
NinjaGrinder: Oh, I hear you. It had to come with its challenges. How old were you
in 2000? if you don’t mind me asking.
I was 19 and by 2001 I
begun recording some stuff for SNES MKII, just for fun and to show to some
friends who used to come to my house to play. I'd been playing MK since 93 and
reading Gamepro was what made me think I had to pull off the hardest or coolest
combos, so I was always trying out stuff whether at home or in the streets
(arcades).
I know you are
primarily a SF player, so what was your first brush with MK? How was it?
NKI: Nice. That sounds similar to my situation, too. I was 17 at the
time. I don't specifically recall when I first played MK, but I think it
would've been MK1 on the SNES. I remember being disappointed that it didn't
have the blood and gore of the arcade and Genesis versions, but even so, I
still loved the game. What really got me hooked was finding combos and
glitches. It was like a never-ending treasure hunt, and it kept me coming back
for more. It's kind of funny that MK is a competitive fighting game, yet I
never played it competitively. Even from the start, I always preferred to play
solo, just finding combos and glitches. MK1 was cool and all, but MK2 blew me
away. The graphics, the sound effects, the voice acting, the announcer, the
secrets, and just the overall aesthetics of the game were so good. That was
also the first MK that I played in the arcades, and obviously the arcade
version is much better than the SNES quality that I was used to.
NKI Volume I, Act IV - Mortal Kombat
NinjaGrinder: Oh yes, we were all blown away by MKII. It was insane. That's when I
found out about Gamepro (they released an official, translated version for
Latin America in ‘94).
I know some of us see
MK as a competitive game, but it wasn't as deep as SF, most people I knew saw MK
as a gimmicky game with no substance.
So, going back to the
videos, now that I know how you got into MK... What I'd like to know is, when
you started recording your combos and glitches, did you own the consoles/games?
Or did you borrow them from someone? I ask because we're talking about SNES
MK1, MKII, UMK3 (SNES and Saturn) and MKT (btw, are your videos based on N64 or
PSX version?)
NKI: I saved up one dollar at a time and eventually bought copies of MK1
and MK2 on SNES. My mom hated those games so much that she offered to pay me to
get rid of them. Of course, I declined that offer. UMK3 on Saturn was a pirated
copy that a friend gave to me. Shame on me for not purchasing a copy. MKT was
the N64 version, which I had borrowed from a friend. If I remember correctly,
he wasn't really into the game, and he said I could borrow it for as long as I
wanted. A week turned into a month, which turned into a year, which turned into
several years, and then after we moved to separate cities, I realized that I
never gave it back to him. Whoops!
NinjaGrinder: That's really interesting. It shows you really liked MK.
Combos were there
since forever I think, but when it came to bugs and glitches, I remember trying
out stuff because of a magazine that used to run in Latin America, called Club
Nintendo.
Did you discover glitches
and weird stuff by accident at first, or did you learn about them in mags too?
NKI: The gaming magazines here in the US didn't contain much info on
bugs (not that I recall, anyway), so in the beginning I mostly learned through
friends. I vividly remember the first time someone showed me a bug in a video
game. It was the minus world bug in Super Mario Bros for the NES. It was such a
startling revelation, being able to "break the rules" of a video
game, and I was so thrilled by it that I actively started looking for bugs in
every game I played. So of course, the MK series was loads of fun, because
there were so many bugs to be discovered.
NinjaGrinder: What a great answer, it sounds like you were really into it. Now that
I remember, maybe the first time I saw something weird in a game, was the
double decapitation with Cage in MKI.
So, now that you had
the games at your house, you knew the arcade and also knew about the existence
of bugs, let's go to the videos once again.
Did you discover the
SNES bugs early on and decided to tape them with the intention of showing them
up to friends, or did you start playing and as you record some sessions the bugs started to come up?
NKI: A lot of the SNES bugs were discovered early on, but for a long
time I simply kept a mental catalog of all the bugs, with no intention of
recording anything. It wasn't until years later, probably around 1997 or 1998,
when I saw my first combo & glitch video (TZW's Video Volume 7), and that
inspired me to create one of my own. Shortly after that, I started recording
stuff with the intention of making a full-length video like TZW. Crazy to think
about it now, but back then, combo and glitch videos were often more than an
hour long. That was largely due to bad editing, with lots of dead time between
combos, where characters are just standing still, doing nothing. I was
certainly guilty of that too.
NinjaGrinder: So, in a way, you started out the same way I did. I hadn't thought
about recording anything, until I saw your videos and of course Sicdic’s. The
impact those videos made on me was different, since until that point, I had
always neglected Trilogy, even calling it "not a real Mortal Kombat game"
😆
What did you know
about MK's competitive scene back in 98-99? Did you hear about tournaments, or
players? I remember you were the first person I saw talking about Chicago
players. Of course, I was new to forums, the thought of overseas players and other FG scenes hadn't crossed my mind until then (2001)
NKI: Hah! I totally understand why you would consider Mortal Kombat
Trilogy "not a real Mortal Kombat game". It feels like a half-baked
mess that was slopped together and rushed to the shelves just to make money.
But that's actually part of the reason why I loved the game. There are so many
bugs, and they're so easy to find. I never really got into the competitive
scene for MK, but did play UMK3 against some of the Chicago players at Midwest
Championships 2000, and probably again the next few years after that too. They
were rumored to be the best players at the time, and several of them were the
actual game testers. I didn't have much to compare them to, but they were
certainly a lot better than me. I don't think I won a single game. As you
probably know, Midway Games was based in Chicago, and I remember hearing that
Chicago arcades got all the new MK games way before anywhere else, since
apparently the new MK games were publicly play tested there. That also probably
helped strengthen the Chicago scene.
NKI competing in UMK3 at ECCXI in 2006!
NinjaGrinder: You're right, it was just a cash grab project, they tried to implement
stuff they couldn't in UMK3. But in the end, it's a glitch paradise. Not to
mention those insane combos only possible in that version.
I knew Midway's HQs
were in Chicago and I read they used to test their games in local arcades
first. But I didn't put 2 and 2 together until I actually began reading about
it in the forums. It makes sense that it had an impact on their scene and level.
Do you remember any
names from the Chicago players you faced at MWC the first time? Did it make you
want to go deeper into the game, or did you just stick with Capcom games?
NKI: I'm not sure if I ever knew the names of those Chicago players,
other than one guy named Lex. I'm not even sure if that was his real name or
his screen name. After playing against the Chicago guys and playing against
some local people in my hometown, I realized that playing MK competitively
didn't really interest me, so I stuck to Capcom games for competition. From my
perspective, the MK series essentially became a 1-player puzzle game where the
goal is just to find bugs and combos.
NinjaGrinder: That's a really interesting perspective. As for Lex, we still talk and
play from time to time on Fightcade.
What was your approach
or thought process when trying out or discovering combos? Did you learn them
from other people or was it you, just freestyling?
NKI: Ah, good to hear Lex is still around. It always makes me happy to
hear about old-school players who never lost their passion for the game, even
if that means just playing casually online once in a while. My approach for
discovering combos in MK started with first just learning the basics from
gaming magazines or from friends at the arcade. Once I could do the basic
combos consistently, I spent many hours in training mode testing out everything
I could think of, in a somewhat systematic way, going through each move one by
one, and testing out the different properties or potential follow-ups. I tried
to find big damage combos of course, but also short and interesting combos, or
ones that just looked cool or had some element of surprise.
NinjaGrinder: And when you were recording combos or glitches, did you get any help
from a friend or someone, using the second controller for the opponent's
movement? For example, if they had to jump in order for the combo to start
(like in Cyrax air throw)
NKI: My brother helped with a few things here and there, but he didn't
play fighting games, so I ended up recording most of that stuff by myself,
controlling both characters at the same time. It took some practice, but it's
doable. Funny timing on your question too, because just a few minutes ago I
finished doing something similar, recording myself controlling both players in
MvC2 for an upcoming video.
NinjaGrinder: Did volume I get released (digitally) before Sicdic's first MKT video?
NKI: My MKT stuff was digitally released around April of 2002. I can't
recall exactly when Sicdic's MKT videos came out, but I think his were some of
the first videos released on Gamecombos.com, so they were probably before mine.
NinjaGrinder: It's awesome to know you have an upcoming video, man. It's truly
remarkable to see new stuff is found. Just last week ded from Bulgaria released
some interesting UMK3 combos that were new to me at least.
And I hear you about
having to control both players at the same time, it was the only way to pull it
off back then. Kudos!
As for Sicdic videos,
they were released in 2001, so you definitely answered my question, thanks.
Do you remember seeing
them and noticing a difference in combo concepts back then?
Don't get me wrong,
your stuff was awesome and inspiring to me. It kind of led the way, so to
speak. But his combo ideas were just too ahead of its time. I remember asking
about a specific Sub-Zero combo and you were honest and told me you had no idea
how he'd done it.
NKI: Yeah, ded's latest UMK3 video surprised me, too. Excellent stuff,
as always. Sicdic was ahead of his time for sure. When his videos were
released, they opened my eyes to new possibilities, and also left me wondering
how the hell he did some of that stuff. At that time, I was pretty much just
focusing on Capcom games, but his videos renewed my appreciation for MK combos.
NKI Volume I, Act VI - Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3
NinjaGrinder: That's nice. Did you ever talk or IM to him? What did you know about
him? I know he was primarily a Capcom player as well and used to hang out with
OGs like Watson, Valle. And I remember Mr. Wizard was involved to some extent
with the production of his videos.
I've always wondered
where he got his combo concepts from. He was linking moves nobody had thought of
before and even showings stuff what was properly explained only a few years
later.
NKI: Yeah, he was an OG that hung with the LA guys. I don't know much
about him. Just that he was good at obscure games like MK and KI. I did meet
him one time at Evo. The only thing that I clearly remember is that he was
insanely good at air hockey. Like he played it professionally or something. He
asked if I wanted to play an air hockey money match, and I said no thanks
because I don't really know how to play. He then said something like "OK,
let's play for my car. If you lose, you don't have to give me anything. If I
lose, I'll give you my car." I thought he was joking, but he was totally
serious. So, we played, and he smoked me in the most embarrassing ways
possible. I didn't even come close to scoring a point. So, he kept his car.
NinjaGrinder: Damn that's a funny and cool story, thanks!
So, back to your
stuff. Maybe it's a stupid question but I got to ask: are there any MK
leftovers sitting around in a tape or digital file?
NKI: I don't have anything laying around. All the stuff that I recorded
was all published back in the day.
NinjaGrinder: I had a feeling there wasn't anything left but like I said, I had to
ask. So, what happened after all the material you had recorded was released?
Did you still feel like going back and trying to find something new?
NKI: After I released all my MK material, I pretty much just focused on
Capcom games. It feels strange to say, but I never had much desire to go back
and try anything new in the MK games. Perhaps I had simply run out of ideas,
whereas the Capcom games still offered lots of unexplored potential. That being
said, I still enjoy watching the new stuff that's been released by various
people over the years. Just goes to show that there was indeed a lot more to
explore.
NinjaGrinder: Makes sense. And did you realize back then that your material had
inspired people like me or Shock to release our own stuff?
NKI: I don't think I realized it until much later. You might have been
the first to mention anything like that to me, and it was such an honor because
up until then I had never thought of my material as inspirational. I thought of
it purely as entertainment, and I assumed that at best, people probably just
watched it once and then went on with their lives.
NinjaGrinder: Well, there's always someone who does it first. You and Sicdic made a
lot of people aware of what was possible in UMK3/MKT. Most players had no idea
the game had so much to offer and for them, it was entertaining indeed. But for
a lot more people (like me) it sparked the desire to show what we could come up
with. Some ideas were already established; some combos had been discovered and
tested out in arcades and console. But you guys inspired me to keep digging. I
just wanted to put Colombia (and South America to an extent) on the map. Then,
the idea started to evolve into "let's make people play, instead of just
watching combos" and I decided to run my first tournament. That was in
2004. And the last one I've done was in 2024! Editor's note: Last tournament in Colombia took place in November 2025
Maybe you weren't that
much into MK at the time, or you might have not realized it. But make no
mistake, you guys are indirectly responsible for the birth and evolution of the
MK Scene in not just the US, but in many more places. I want to thank you for
your time, your candid responses and for putting up with me on this one.
NKI: Wow, I'm truly honored. Thanks for all the kind words. You
definitely put Colombia and South America on the map, and that's awesome to
hear that you ran tournaments for so many years.
So, there you have it. I know CMVs are a lost artform and a lot of people don't know or care about its humble beginnings, but I'd been meaning to do this for a while. At first, it was just something to satisfy my own curiosity but then it quickly turned into something I deemed really interesting and worth posting it for everyone to see.
And yes, this is just the beginning. Next interview will feature none other than Sicdic himself!
