First online fighting-game prototype

In Nov 1995, Midway released Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, a standalone update of the third game in the Mortal Kombat series that had launched just six months earlier. In Apr 1996 ten arcade units of the Ultimate version were linked by a modem via a system called Wavenet (not to be confused with the UK-based telecoms company established in 2000), which allowed real-time remote and interactive gameplay. It wasn’t made available to the wider public, but it was the first time a fighting game could be played in an online multiplayer format.