About Mortal Kombat
Mortal Kombat is the fighting game that started the series. Midway developed and published it for arcades in August 1992, with Ed Boon and John Tobias as designers and Dan Forden writing the music. The setup is a martial arts tournament in which ten characters fight with the fate of Earth at stake. Many of the parts the series is known for first appeared here, including its five-button control scheme and the gory finishing moves called Fatalities.
Acclaim Entertainment then released the game on nearly every home platform of the time. Sculptured Software made the Super NES version, while Probe Software made the versions for the Game Boy, Game Gear, Genesis, Master System, Amiga and MS-DOS. On Sega systems it appeared under Acclaim’s Arena Entertainment label. The MS-DOS edition was published by Acclaim in North America and by Virgin Interactive Entertainment in Europe, and that PC release is the one DOS.Zone hosts. The series belongs to Warner Bros. Games today.
How it runs in your browser
Hit Play and the game’s page on dos.zone opens in a new tab. The site uses js-dos, its own open-source take on DOSBox for the browser, to emulate an MS-DOS PC and run the original program on it. Everything loads from DOS.Zone, so there’s no installer, no copy of the game to supply and no registration step, and the site carries no ads. Its listing files the game under action and fighting and shows a five-star average from 73 player reviews.
The game itself has a multiplayer mode, but this listing offers no online matches. DOS.Zone doesn’t say whether two people can share one keyboard in the PC version, so look through the game’s options if you want to try a local fight.
It’s also worth knowing that DOS.Zone has pulled games when rights holders asked: GTA 1 and 2 came down after a request from Take-Two. A listing like this one could go the same way.
Controls and devices
You play on the keyboard. The five-button scheme carries over to the PC version, but DOS.Zone doesn’t publish which keys do what, so open the setup or options screen before your first round and find the attack keys there. Click inside the game window once it loads so your key presses reach the emulator.
On phones, DOS.Zone overlays virtual controls, and its description says the game is playable on mobile. It was made for a keyboard, so a desktop or laptop is the better fit. Chromebooks haven’t been checked.
Who it’s for
It’s for anyone who wants to see where Mortal Kombat began, or who played this PC version in the 1990s and wants a few rounds without setting up an emulator. To follow the series forward, Mortal Kombat II is the 1993 sequel, Mortal Kombat Trilogy brings back fighters and stages from the first two games, and Mortal Kombat 4 moved the series to 3D graphics. All three are on DOS.Zone too.
Is Mortal Kombat Free, Safe and Official?
Can I play the original Mortal Kombat online for free?
You can play it free in a browser tab on DOS.Zone, without an account or a download. There’s no online play against other people on this listing, though: it’s the MS-DOS version running on its own.
Is this the arcade version of Mortal Kombat?
No. It’s the MS-DOS port, developed by Probe Software and published by Acclaim Entertainment in North America and Virgin Interactive Entertainment in Europe, running in an emulated PC.
Can I play Mortal Kombat on my phone?
DOS.Zone shows virtual on-screen controls on phones and says the game can be played on mobile. It was designed around a keyboard, though, so a computer is the easier way to play.
