There was never any error macro that caused a red ninja to appear on screen. It's all been a hoax.

Actually there was an error macro in mk1 arcade. I was around the arcades a lot at the time and can assure you that it did exist. Also it is stated that it existed on most knowledgable sites out there -

"In the original arcade version of the first Mortal Kombat, the game would sometimes present problems due to a bug and mix two characters together. This would usually be two of the ninja characters, resulting in a ninja in a semi-red suit. The computer would display his name as "ERMAC", short for "error macro". As word spread, people thought they had found a secret character. That wasn't the case, yet in Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, it was decided to make an actual Ermac character."

The truth is out there

There is no Error Macro glitch.

If you run through MK1 with the hexadecimal editor you cannot find any
"buffering" for a script that should appear on screen. In fact, the possibility of a message, let it be a graphic element or a simple DOS liner that should strike through the screen for any reason, IS 0.

There is no Ermac glitch and the picture what was shown us with the Warrior Shrine background is a fake.

Deja vu Deja vu? again ?

Thats awesome that you went through that much trouble to find out for yourself. It gets annoying when 14 years later people are still spreading rumors about mk1. When u beat mk2, one of the messages in red at the bottom of the screen says "Ermac does not exist." Although it would totally resurrect the popularity of mk1, I don't see how there could be anymore secrets to be found. Please prove me wrong.

LOL !!!

Well perhaps a lot of people were just seeing red then
If that's the case it's scary how many people claimed to have seen it lol

wow, that was the ghettoest bootleg shit i have ever seen. it must be from some janky 8 bit nintendo cartridge you would find in a boutique in Tijuana. LMAO!!!

The truth was in the post before yours.

Some bullshit. I actually thought he was serious.

If you go through MK1 with a hex editor, it proves nothing. Here's why.

1.) Did you go through every MK1 version? The Ermac glitch was in some, but not all.

2.) Hexidecimal from a Hex editor is impossible to translate perfectly. Hex editors cannot read everything, and guesses where it fails. You can open it in a text editor and get different results and see things that the hex editor misses.

3.) How do you know you are looking for a buffer? There's no way to tell what you are looking for. Ermac is a mistake. You are looking for any one of millions of possible mistakes. I bet you won't find the Johnny Cage three-head decapitate fatality glitch in it either, but it does exist.

Until its confirmed false or true by the developers, this remains a possibility that its real. The only one that can say one way or another are those that made the game.

Ermac doesn't seem to be a mistake though. According to the original EGM article he was taunting and saying his name as if he was an intentional hidden character like Reptile. There's no way that was a glitch. Also according to Ed Boon and Roger Sharpe it's not a bug, but something they programmed to correct problems with the game(and they never said anything about a red ninja).


It's funny. What started as this really elaborate hidden character who jumps down and talks to you has become "well uh it's just a red scorpion" as time goes on to make the story easier to believe. I also love how the details change depending on who's telling the story. It's always entertaining to see the different variations, with each person swearing up and down that theirs is true.

My favorite part is the randomly occurring perfect red pallet that does not exist in the game for any other sprite to use :)

Why doesn't anyone believe when we, as a group, say it was a hoax and never happened? Why does there always have to be a dispute, why can't they just say "Oh my mistake.""

Here's the fakeness, it's from Bruzs, that's where daddy's from.







If you want to believe that, then you should also want to believe that you shouldn't post on this board.

My goodness, how petty and childish can these things get lol. Maybe the adult thing to do would be to agree to disagree?

EGM loves to make a lot of jokes about games in their April issues. I remember when they said that sonic and Tails would be in Super Smash Bros. Melee. It's EGM's tradition to make a false rumor about games and such sort.

I have to agree with this guy. It imo is not really that serious but I know to other people it is. The best thing to do is agree to disagree because since one side cannot convince the other side to believe.

All I know is that Ermac may or may not have been real in MK1, I don't know, but Ermac is definetly real in UMK3 and MKD.

I know you will keep trying to convince each other so Ill keep on reading and being entertained.

It may not be important to you, but agreeing or disagreeing means nothing. This is why evidence for and against is necessary. You can agree with someone that the sun is green, but your agreement is worthless without evidence and a sound argument. kung broken Matt presented evidence for his argument. This is the basis of logic and critical thinking. Oops! what i meant to say is how childish! blah blah blah. I created a new ninja in a brown suit. His special move is to slowly destroy the things you love. The move takes 6 years to complete, but its worth the wait.

There's nothing to argue about, there's way too many sheople who still believe and go along with things because others do.

No one has evidence that Ermac is MK1. - fact

That is the only thing you need to know, so if you believe Ermac is in MK1, you don't deserve internet access, you don't deserve to function as an independent member of society, you don't deserve freedom (if you live in a free country, but I'm sure people who don't wouldn have the common sense to not believe in Ermac anyway) you don't deserve anyone's respect, you need to go back the school and have your heuristic learning abilities reevaluated, because anyone who does, is not of sound mind.

This has been going on for years and it was really quiet for months, I thought it was over, but it's not. It's the single stupidest thing that has ever had anything to do with MK. People don't understand why some of us get so passionate about this topic, but it is because it comes up time and time again and it's the exact same thing with different people, and there's always someone who jumps in after it is all but put to rest, and you can picture the euphoric look on their face as they say "Oh yes...Ermac is in MK1, I didn't see him but he was an error in the earliest version of MK1...it says so in a magazine..."

Well maybe you should just let them believe what they want to believe even if they are wrong. Its like trying to train a cat to sit, you cant do it. If they want to be wrong, let em be wrong.

Btw, I think since this issue seems to die and resurge so much that you MK2KL should make a thread regarding this in order to try and get the truth out. (just a suggestion)

It's really frustrating but it's never going to die. That X-files pic I posted is funny, but it's also the actual truth. People WANT to believe and they will always continue to believe even in the absense of proof. The idea of this incredibly secret extra hidden character or super rare glitch is romantic, nostalgic and exciting. It pushes the legend of how cryptic and mysterious MK is and without it the series looses a lot of it's mystique. MK has like 2/3 moves per character, one fatality each and one hidden character. A barebones game. But with Ermac it rises to legendary status.

We tore MK1apart. You can too: retrace MK1 in assembly and then retrace it for another understandable program language and you can get an -umm-accessory or item sctripture. Have fun decoding it, most sane men don't try it. Thank goodness MK1's accessory scripture wasn't oo long for us to work through. No Ermac there, sorry.