Midway Entertainment recently had the press out to its Milpitas, Calif., offices to view a number of upcoming games.

　　On the arcade side, the company showed:

　　Mortal Kombat 4Two cabinets of the final 2.1 version of Mortal Kombat 4 were on hand for play. As readers may recall, this revision has recently shipped to arcades across the country, complete with all the characters, fatalities, moves, and endings that will be in the game.

　　NFL BlitzThis polygonal football title contains teams of seven in an exaggerated arcade-style take on the game. For example, characters will not only be tackled but body slammed and pummeled, while the announcer makes such comments as, "That was really uncalled for, but fun to watch." The title contains a record-keeping system much like NBA Jam, hidden characters, and secret moves. The game is currently shipping to arcades.

　　Off Road ChallengeOut in arcades for two months now, Off Road Challenge is a four-wheelin' racer that takes its trucks through four to five environments over six different courses. Structures, animals, and smaller cars can all be run over and destroyed.

　　California SpeedThis fast-moving Cruisin'-style racer was 75 percent complete. Courses take place in a variety of Californian locations, such as Santa Cruz (where players race upon a roller-coaster track), the Mojave Desert (which includes a stretch within a UFO), and Silicon Valley (that carries drivers inside a large computer, just like in an old elementary school movie). The game is expected to ship within the first quarter of next year.

　　San Francisco Rush: The Rock Alcatraz Edition This new upgrade to San Francisco Rush includes four new cars to choose from, four new tracks, new music, mirrored-track options, more shortcuts, and everything from the original version of the title. The new courses include The Rock (a figure eight around the notorious prison island), Downtown (a run down the Embarcadero and then by the Center for the Performing Arts), the Heights (a tour through snooty Pacific Heights), and Sunset (a drive down the famous Highway 1). All four new tracks will be found in the upcoming Nintendo 64 version of San Francisco Rush, due right around Thanksgiving.

　　Juko Thread (working title)Atari Games intends this game to be the fastest 3D fighter ever made, while retaining the basics of Street Fighter/Tekken-style gameplay. The characters have been designed with a decidedly Japanese anime look in mind, and execute specials and supers made up of fire, electricity, and energy blasts. The version we saw was still quite early and did not yet contain backgrounds. James Goddard, formerly of Capcom's Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting and Namco's Weapon Lord, is heading up the team behind the game.

　　Meanwhile, on the home front, they had:

　　Twisted Edge Snowboarding (Nintendo 64)Though only 15 percent complete, this Boss Game Studios-developed game seems to have a lot of promise. If it can carry backgrounds half as good as its last title, Top Gear Rally, we should have something nice in store for us next March.

　　Olympic Hockey (Nintendo 64)Carrying the same play engine as Gretzky '98, this title will be out two months later in a much similar form. The differences include Olympic-size rinks, Olympic players, the ability to change character ratings, and the fact that trades will be considered "defections" to other countries. Look for it in January.

　　Quake 64 (Nintendo 64) Though still some three months away from completion, the Nintendo 64 version of Quake was looking fairly good. All 25 PC levels will be in the game, as well as six deathmatch arenas where two players can battle it out over a split screen. The graphics contain an RGB lighting effect that makes the coloration seem very red and brown, purportedly because the developers are trying to emulate the GL version of Quake. A major disappointment was that the game's default controller setting was the same as the horrible configuration of Doom 64, though hopefully this will change to the much more natural GoldenEye 007 setup by its March release.

　　What wasn't shown - though what we expected to see and play - was Micro Machines (PlayStation), Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero (Nintendo 64), San Francisco Rush (PlayStation), Gex: Enter the Gecko (Nintendo 64), and Mace: The Dark Age (Sony PlayStation).

　　In related news, company officials mentioned that Off Road Challenge would be coming out next year for the PC (with up to eight players), Nintendo 64 (for up to four players), and PlayStation (ostensibly for up to two). Home versions of NFL Blitz are also told to be in the works.