Secret menus discovered in Mortal Kombat arcade games

Back in the day if you wanted to play video games with your friends, you headed to the local game arcade. The arcades were packed with all sorts of cool games like Mortal Kombat and a slew of other fighting, driving, and classic arcade games. Recently secret menus were discovered in the Mortal Kombat 1, 2, and 3 arcade games that were so popular in the arcades more than 20 years ago.

These secret menus have been dubbed the EJB menus after the co-creator of the games Ed Boon. Like many secret game moves of the day in the arcades and on home game consoles, the unlocking of the menus requires the user to enter a complex series of control inputs. For Mortal Kombat games, the unlocking requires the user to enter P1 (x5), P2 (x10), P1 (x2), P2 (x1), P1 (x2), P2 (x3), P1 (x4).

Once the menu is unlocked it gives access to diagnostic tests, coin bookkeeping, and a game audit that looks for issues like chip failure, frame errors, and lockups. A Green Ninja Counter is also included. A hello screen with credits to folks is in the hidden menu along with the ability to enter your initials on the high score screen.

Fans of the game can also trigger a sub-menu that gives the ending for the selected character along with the game credits. In Mortal Kombat 3 the same special key sequence will unlock a Galaga mini game and a playable character called Smoke. Ultimate MK3 also has a menu for a Supreme Demonstration of fatalities, animalities, babalities, and friendshipalities. The lines to play these games would have been even longer back in the day if people had known about the hidden menus. Check out the video to see the hidden menus for yourself.

SOURCE: Eurogamer