See how the 1996 video game "WWF In Your House" was created.
In 1996, Acclaim released WWF In Your House. The console-exclusive successor to Midway's WWF WrestleMania: The Arcade Game, In Your House features the stars of WWE's "New Generation" era fighting in the style of digitized graphics made popular by the Mortal Kombat franchise in the 1990s.
The WWE Vault YouTube channel recently released footage showing several of the game's playable characters performing motion capture. The footage would later be digitized and playable on the Sony PlayStation, Sega Saturn, and PC.
The video features Shawn Michaels, Ahmed Johnson, "The British Bulldog" Davey Boy Smith, and a young Hunter Hearst Helmsley making his WWE video game debut. Of course, Helmsley is better known today as Triple H, and he has been in every WWE video game since In Your House was released nearly 30 years ago.
The video does not feature most of the video game's roster. Bret Hart, Owen Hart, Vader, Undertaker, and Goldust are all playable in the game but are not featured in the WWE-released video. Bret Hart and Undertaker were also featured doing motion capture for WrestleMania: The Arcade Game.
Jeff Jarrett was also present for the motion capture and was slated to be a playable character in the game but would leave WWE in early 1996 was a member of the WCW roster by the time the video game was released.
Ultimate Warrior is seen in the video with green face paint and wrestling gear that, although he never wore in the ring, mainly because this was special gear for the motion capture, was immortalized by Jakks Pacific in an action figure that would hit shelves in November '96, long after Warrior had left the company for a third time.
The PC version of WWF In Your House is currently playable in-browser on MyAbandonware.
At this link, fans can learn more about how much Ahmed Johnson was paid for his time participation in WWE video games.
Check out the full video of the motion capture embedded at the top of this page.
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