Ed Boon

Ed Boon
Boon in 2023
Born (1964-02-22) February 22, 1964 (age 60)
Occupation(s)Game programmer, director, philanthropist, voice actor and producer
Years active1987–present

Edward "Ed" Boon (born February 22, 1964)[1] is an American video game programmer, voice actor, and director. Boon was employed for over 15 years at Midway Games. Since 2011, he has worked for Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment for one of its Subsidiaries, NetherRealm Studios.

Boon is best known for the widely popular Mortal Kombat series, which he created with John Tobias, and the Injustice series. In 2009, he was chosen by IGN as one of the top 100 game creators of all time.[2]

Life and career

Boon graduated from high school at Loyola Academy in Wilmette. Boon is of Hispanic descent, from the Dominican Republic. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics and computer science from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.[3][4]

After graduation, he was employed by Williams Entertainment in their pinball department, working on approximately 20 pinball games over the next two years.[5] During this time, he was called the Mortal Master, an early indicator towards a future creation.

He is the co-creator of the Mortal Kombat fighting game series, along with John Tobias,[6] and served as the series' lead programmer, with Tobias the lead designer, until their partnership dissolved with Tobias' departure from Midway in 2000. Boon named series characters Sonya and Tanya after his sisters Sonia and Tania,[7] while another character, Noob Saibot, was named after Boon and Tobias' reversed surnames. This is also elaborated in their Twitter handles, @noobde and @therealsaibot.[8][9] Programmer Mike Boon is Ed's younger brother, and has been in his team since Mortal Kombat 4.[4] The Boons are Hispanic and Dominican by ethnicity.[10][11]

Boon was ranked #100 in IGN's 2009 list of "Top 100 Game Creators" for his involvement in the Mortal Kombat series.[12] He continues to be directly involved with the MK franchise and its multimedia side projects, and has also provided voice acting and motion capture work for the games, most notably providing the voice for the "Come here!" and "Get over here!" catchphrases uttered by Scorpion in every installment of the series as well as the first two feature films Mortal Kombat and Mortal Kombat Annihilation. The 2008 edition of Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition consequently awarded him a world record for the "longest-serving video game voice actor."[13]

In 2018 Mortal Kombat was exhibited in an arcade cabinet at the Chicago New Media 1973–1992 exhibition, curated by jonCates.[14]

Works

Video games

Year Title Role(s)
1990 High Impact Football —
1991 Super High Impact —
1992 Total Carnage Voice of General Akhboob
1992 Mortal Kombat Designer, programmer, voice of Scorpion, Reptile, Shang Tsung (announcer)
1993 Mortal Kombat II Designer, programmer, voice of Scorpion, Smoke, Noob Saibot, Liu Kang, and Jax
1995 Mortal Kombat 3 Designer, programmer, voice of Smoke, Liu Kang and Jax
1995 Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Executive producer, designer, programmer, voice of Scorpion
1996 Mortal Kombat Trilogy Designer, programmer
1997 Mortal Kombat 4 Designer, programmer, voice of Johnny Cage, Raiden, Kai, Scorpion and Jax
1999 Mortal Kombat Gold Project lead, voice of Cyrax
2001 The Grid —
2002 Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance Team lead, game design, programming, voice of Scorpion
2004 Mortal Kombat: Deception Project lead, game design, programming, voice of Scorpion, Reiko, Sub-Zero and Noob Saibot
2005 Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks Executive producer, voice of Scorpion
2006 Mortal Kombat: Armageddon Creative director
2008 Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe Creative director, team leader
2011 Mortal Kombat Team leader, creative director, additional voices
2011 Batman: Arkham City Lockdown Creative director
2013 Injustice: Gods Among Us Creative director, team leader
2013 Batman: Arkham Origins —
2015 Mortal Kombat X Creative director, team leader
2017 Injustice 2 Creative director, team leader
2019 Mortal Kombat 11 Creative director, team leader
2023 Mortal Kombat 1 Creative director, team leader

Pinball

Year Title Role(s)
1987 F-14 Tomcat effects
1987 Space Station: Pinball Rendezvous software and effects
1988 Banzai Run effects
1988 Taxi software and effects
1989 Black Knight 2000 software and effects
1990 FunHouse voice of Rudy[15]

Media

Year Title Role(s) Note(s)
1995 Mortal Kombat Scorpion (voice) [15]
1997 Mortal Kombat Annihilation
2006 Drawn Together Episode: "The One Wherein There Is a Big Twist: Part 2"
2011 Mortal Kombat: Legacy Ed Goodman cameo appearance in first-season episode "Johnny Cage"

References

  1. ^ Birthday references:
    • ed boon [@noobde] (February 22, 2016). "Thanks for all the Birthday wishes everyone! Very much appreciated! Smoke the dog bones! Who catches a bad cough on their birthday? This guy. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯" (Tweet). Retrieved November 16, 2016 – via Twitter.
    • mortalkombatonline.com (February 22, 1964). "Ed Boon's Birthday". Archived from the original on August 15, 2023. Retrieved August 15, 2023.
  2. ^ "IGN - 100. Ed Boon". IGN. Archived from the original on April 20, 2014. Retrieved November 13, 2023.
  3. ^ "Universities of Missouri, Illinois hailed as tech's powerful colleges". St. Louis Business Journal. May 3, 2010. Archived from the original on April 11, 2016. Retrieved June 3, 2010.
  4. ^ a b Borrelli, Christopher (May 1, 2013). "'Mortal Kombat' creator Ed Boon back with DC superhero game". Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on November 5, 2021. Retrieved December 5, 2015.
  5. ^ "Mortal's Master: Programmer Ed Boon". GamePro. No. 86. IDG. November 1995. pp. 38–40.
  6. ^ Barton, Steve (June 10, 2010). "E3 2010: Mortal Kombat Returns! See the New Trailer!". Dread Central. Archived from the original on August 6, 2022. Retrieved June 10, 2010.
  7. ^ "Mortal Kombat X gets the Xenomorph, Leatherface, and a few old favourites". GamesRadar+. December 4, 2015. Archived from the original on October 18, 2015. Retrieved December 5, 2015.
  8. ^ "Ed Boon's Twitter". Archived from the original on May 15, 2022. Retrieved November 2, 2017.
  9. ^ "John Tobias' Twitter". Archived from the original on October 25, 2013. Retrieved March 30, 2021.
  10. ^ Boon, Ed [@noobde] (June 24, 2013). "@MK_CDjr All in good fun my fellow Dominican! We know U R a great player & are listening to U. But we can't react immediately. U know that" (Tweet). Archived from the original on September 25, 2021. Retrieved October 2, 2021 – via Twitter.
  11. ^ Boon, Ed [@noobde] (September 23, 2021). "Even better…. Mortal Kombat co-creator @therealsaibot is also Hispanic so we should celebrate for 2 months 👍🏻😀 https://t.co/ViuD9RE7CW" (Tweet). Archived from the original on September 25, 2021. Retrieved October 2, 2021 – via Twitter.
  12. ^ IGN Games (February 23, 2009). "Top 100 Game Creators". IGN. Archived from the original on July 10, 2012. Retrieved June 3, 2010.
  13. ^ Glenday, Craig (2008). Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition. Guinness World Records. p. 79. ISBN 978-1904994206.
  14. ^ Cates, Jon (2018). Chicago New Media, 1973-1992. Illinois, US: University of Illinois. p. 9. ISBN 978-0-252-08407-2.
  15. ^ a b "Ed Boon | Behind The Voice Actors". Behind The Voice Actors. Archived from the original on July 27, 2019. Retrieved July 27, 2019. Check mark indicates role has been confirmed using screenshots of closing credits and other reliable sources.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)