Maybe this will help you.

From MK Secrets btw.

Beat the game on any level (master, novice or champion etc.). Then choose to fight Ermac or Noob Saibot. Win the first round and on the second make it so you are with more energy than your enemy. Then use the mirror system (when cpu imitates your motions) to beat your opponent from time. After that you'll be transported to "Choose your Destiny" screen. Select any tower and play on a MK3 arenas. Other way to play on the old arenas is to not uppercut when you are in Scorpion's Lair.

Just keep on playing in versus. MK3 backgrounds will show up around Match 8, starting in the Subway.

Unless you're talking about the SNES version, which only has UMK3 stages.

I remember the Genesis version being close to the arcade version.

This is my post from midway boards, someone just asked the same thing.

"You have to play through the new levels twice. It is most likely some kind of loading bug. Play a 1 P game on Double Master, get to the second Endurance, lose, then continue, you will play on the Subway, and from there all the MK3 stages will appear, except the Bank. Instead Jade's Desert will be the stage with the Bank's music. A loading limitation I believe."

I thought it was a way to appropriately display new stages and not let them blend with already known ones from MK3. So I wouldn't say it's a bug, 'cause the older ones appear in VS after a while. However, the pattern should be the same in 1P mode or even playing through the new locations once instead of twice should be enough.

Maybe they will fix the bug.

I think the bug he is referring to is the fact that Jade's desert shows up in place of the Bank with the Bank's music once you play enough to hit the MK3 backgrounds.

OK then. Let's hope that all bugs will be fixed in the upcoming ports. Plus, that all backgrounds will be mixed and will load equally frequent.

how was it on an actual arcade board?

did you eventually start on MK3 levels?

I am talking about the arcade version when I say you must play through approx 10 stages before the MK3 ones start showing up.

when you say they start showing up does that mean only after that point during your specific game.. or after that they're like "unlocked" and show up randomly even when someone starts a new game?

in MK3, you started off on a random board each time, but there was a set order to the stages. There was a bug for the stages that had double levels, if you knocked someone through the Soul Chamber into the Balcony, the next match would be on the Bridge, because in the actual line up, the Bridge comes after the Balcony, and the Soul Chamber comes after the Bridge, but the Balcony doesn't come after the Bridge if you don't uppercut through. In all other double level stages, the upper stage comes after the lower stage in the order.

In UMK3, if you uppercut through, you just start the next stage in the normal order as if you never got knocked through. The first two runs through the UMK3 stages are static. They always show up in the same order whether you uppercut through or not, there is not repeat loop glitch in UMK3. A lot of people think there is since they never see the MK3 stages except against Motaro and Shao Kahn. Another reason is they don't play against people. After 10 matches, the MK3 order starts.

i heard you can put in special kodes at the battle screen 2 change the level from wat it was going to be. no sure though . . . .

You certainly can. I don't know if every stage has a code however.