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[shuri]

http://www.theverge.com/gaming/2012/7/12/3121233/johnny-cage-20-years-later

AWESOME NEVER SEEN BEFORE PIC

Really cool interview with Daniel Pesina, also known as the original Johnny Cage from the Verge. They go really in depth about many things (and certainly more in depth than in the official 20 years video made by gamespot a while ago); he talks about how he was paid 4000$ for MK1 and how he was getting paid 75$ a hour during the making of MK2.

He also goes more in depth about lawsuit that he and several actors brought against Midway, Nintendo and Sega, and how they were destroyed in courts because their lawyers were simply not ready for a fight against such giants (and a very interesting tactic by Midway about their likeness) and how the tension hurt the friendship between him and the mk crew (who were childhood friends at the time!)

He also mentions and corrects lots of rumors, John Tobias also bumps in for more infos; this is a REALLY REALLY interesting article about how things worked behind the scene back then and a lot of cool story about Pesina.

It's worth reading!

About the legendary Blood Storm ad:

"One day, [a guy from Incredible Technologies] asked my brother, 'Hey would your brother do a thing for one of our games,'" says Pesina. "Whoever arranged to give his number was like, 'Just charge him a lot. He'll pay it.' And I was like, 'Really?' And he was like, 'Yeah, don't worry — make some money' ... So, you know. I told him a price, which was ridiculously high, and he was like, 'OK.' And I was like, 'For two hours, you're going to give me that much money?' I think it was like, I worked like an hour and he gave me $1,500 or something like that. Not bad. And maybe even 40 minutes."

 

[OnPoint]

Did they get one of these?

 

[alr1ght]

Good read

 

[Fermbiz]

The On Blast Show interviewed him a couple weeks ago

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7h52CaPz5Y&feature=plcp

 

[Rain_ng]

Nice read, Thanks for posting!

 

[5amshift]

Nice read! Awesome OP photo and damn all that money from Midway.

 

[Cystm]

Twenty years!?

I am so old.


Anyway, back on topic. That was an interesting and nostalgic read. Time flies.

Thanks for posting that here. I tend to avoid verge if I can help and would never have caught that.

 

[Minion101]

Do you think he secretly wished Mortal Kombat was the only thing that made Midway money and that they would eventually go out of business?

 

[BastardSamurai]

<semanticsmode>Actually, it's a Polygon feature written by the reliable Matt Leone.</semanticsmode>.

 

[Thoraxes]

This is really great!

I had the chance to meet Daniel Pasina and get his autograph two months ago!

He was a really cool guy! Him, Kano, and Shang Tsung were there!

 

[Mindlog]

"Games Journalism" is oft used with derision around these parts. It seems only fair to make the call-back when something good happens.
Great and interesting read. Thanks for posting it.