Cult fan favourite character Ermac received a new origin in the latest story mode of Mortal Kombat 1, but in anticipation of their upcoming playable return via downloadable content, series co-creator Ed Boon has revisited the original circumstances of Ermac's accidental creation. All this plus a fresh teaser for this week's official reveal trailer. Take a look:
Ermac's origins are famously tied to the internal systems of the original Mortal Kombat arcade cabinet, which logged "errors" using a "macro" scripted by Boon. He explains in a lengthy post to X (formerly Twitter): "The game's [software] had sections of code that it (theoretically) should never reach/execute. If it did, it incremented a counter that would log the ERROR. We also made a "Game Audits" screen where we could check this counter in arcades."
To keep each log short, I wrote an assembler MACRO that would call all the necessary functions in one line of code. The macro was called ERMAC... short for Error Macro."
As Boon notes, fans who discovered the game's audit screen would find the ERMAC counter directly below instances of secret opponent Reptile, leading to widespread rumors and speculation of another playable character. When working on Mortal Kombat 3, the team began incorporating rumored concepts into the game, eventually leading to a red coloured palette swap ninja in Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3.
The NetherRealm Studios Chief Creative Officer concludes: "We never (as in ever) would have guessed this red ninja with a ridiculous name would end up such a big part of Mortal Kombat's history and still be kicking over 30 years later! But here we are, as he is about to join the roster of [Mortal Kombat 1.]"
He added an intro sequence from the game to the X post, featuring upcoming Kombat Pack Kameo fighter Mavado entering the battle with Kung Lao & Sektor. Kung Lao is surprised to find the gestalt entity contains the soul of a former suitor of tea house owner Madame Bo.
Boon noted Ermac's flourishing into a character with "a full story/history" that is "part of the MK lore", which has undergone a series of changes in the latest game's timeline reset. Ermac now identifies visually as a remnant of Edenia's King Jerrod - a dominant soul in the collective being that was, this time, created by Quan Chi.
Are you excited for the next playable character? We'll see more from Ermac & Mavado this week when the official gameplay trailer is revealed. What do you hope to see? Share your thoughts below and go deeper into discussion in the Mortal Kombat 1 category.
