Dan Forden

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Dan Forden

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Daniel Warner 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).
Forden was born in Chicago, Illinois.

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 Mortal Kombat 3, freezing an opponent in "danger mode" with Sub-Zero would make him appear and shout "Frosty!".

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.

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1

The Subway - 2021 Remaster

Dan Forden

2

The Bridge

Dan Forden

3

The Roof - 2021 Remaster

Dan Forden

4

The Dead Pool

Dan Forden

5

The Subway

Dan Forden

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Dan Forden's most-played tracks include The Subway - 2021 Remaster, The Bridge, The Roof - 2021 Remaster, The Dead Pool, The Subway. Listen to these songs and explore more from their catalog on this page.

Daniel Warner 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 (i... Read the full biography on this page.

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