Dan Forden

Daniel "Dan" Warner "Toasty" Forden (born September 28, 1963) is an American sound programmer and music composer, and was the lead programmer on several high-profile arcade and pinball games. He is best known for working on the Mortal Kombat fighting game series (in particular his catchphrase "Toasty!" which would sound at impressive maneuvers). He has also played bass in the band Cheer-Accident.

Forden was born in Chicago, Illinois. He is the youngest of 5 children.

He is credited in the Mortal Kombat series as Dan "Toasty" Forden, and is known for an Easter egg that first appeared in Mortal Kombat II, where Forden's head would appear after a chain of combos in the bottom-right corner of the screen and shout "Toasty!" in a falsetto when an uppercut was performed. In MKII you will hear him say Toasty! after Scorpion's fatality was done. In MK9 he will also appear saying Toasty after a long combo and an uppercut.

In Mortal Kombat 3, freezing an opponent in "danger mode" with Sub-Zero would make him appear and shout "Frosty!". He still appeared sometimes saying "Toasty!" though, in the very same conditions.

Also, in Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, Dan Forden would appear after a Stage Fatality in Scorpion's Lair saying "Crispy!" if both players' "High Punch" button was held down after executing the Fatality Input. If, instead, the both "Run" button were held down, then Shao Kahn would say "Crispy!".

Along with that, in Mortal Kombat 4, if the player executed Scorpion's fatality, Forden would say "Toasty 3D!". This was to emphasize the fact that this was the first Mortal Kombat game that used three-dimensional graphics.

Forden also included the "toasty" quote in the pinball machine Medieval Madness. When the player hits the right ramp, one of the quotes that is played is "toasty!".

This Easter egg is tributed in the dance simulator StepMania: whenever a player gets 250 consecutive Perfects or better (Excellents or better in the 4.0 CVS version), a "toasty" appears. The PopCap game Peggle also features a tribute, as does the Aerosmith-themed rail shooter Revolution X, where singer Steven Tyler shouts "Toasty!" in reaction to explosions.

Dan is a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in the TIMARA program (or Technology in Music and Related Arts). He graduated in 1985 from the Conservatory and has since produced sounds for many Williams Electronics games. Forden's musical style, particularly for the Mortal Kombat series, is often a mixture of synthetic and organic sounds. A typical composition usually incorporates ethnic drumming with synthetic basses, synthetic leads and/or pads, and sometimes exotic instruments. His rhythms are usually very driving and his melodies can become quite complex.

Several songs that he composed for the Mortal Kombat 3 soundtrack were used in the precursor to South Park, Jesus vs. Santa.

• Mortal Kombat II: Music from the Arcade Game Soundtrack (1993)
• Mortal Kombat Musik: MK3 & MK4 Arcade Video Game Soundtrack (1997)

Pinball

Williams

• Black Knight 2000 (with Brian L. Schmidt and Steve Ritchie)
• Bad Cats
• RollerGames
• Riverboat Gambler (with Paul Heitsch)
• The Machine: Bride of Pin*Bot (with Jon Hey and Rich Karstens)
• The Getaway: High Speed II
• Star Trek: The Next Generation
• No Fear: Dangerous Sports
• Medieval Madness

Midway (Bally)

• Atlantis (with Robin Seaver)
• Mousin' Around!
• Harley Davidson
• The Party Zone
• The Pinball Circus
• The Shadow
• Attack From Mars
• Safecracker
• Revenge From Mars

Stern

• The Simpsons Pinball Party (with Chris Granner)

Video games

Midway

• Arch Rivals
• Pigskin 621 A.D.
• Super High Impact
• Mortal Kombat series
• NFL Blitz series
• HyperDrive
• The Grid
• CART Fury

NetherRealm Studios

• Mortal Kombat
• Mortal Kombat X

Williams

• High Impact Football