Tech

Mortal Kombat’s secret menus discovered after 20 years

The arcade versions Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2 and Mortal Kombat 3 have secret menus hidden behind a string of commands that have only recently been discovered. By “recently,” I mean within days of drafting this post.

The original run of games released in the very early 90s, so we’re talking about menus that have been hidden for well over 20 years.

The menus are referred to as the Ed Boon menus. Boon, of course, was a lead designer and programmer on those Mortal Kombat titles back when he worked at Midway. Eurogamer breaks down the input needed to access the menu within the original Mortal Kombat. The P# references are for each player’s block.

P1 (x5), P2 (x10), P1 (x2), P2 (x1), P1 (x2), P2 (x3), P1 (x4)

The menus open up all sorts of useful and silly things. You can check out character endings, see frame error counters, perform diagnostic tests and even unlock Galaga mini-games.

These menus are pretty awesome, and I love that we’re only now uncovering them.

Finish Him!

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