Dan Forden

"Toasty" redirects here. For other uses, see Toast (disambiguation).

Dan Forden
Born	Daniel Warner Forden (1963-09-28) September 28, 1963 Chicago, Illinois
Occupation	Sound programmer

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). He has also played bass in the band Cheer-Accident.

Biography and working style

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

Works

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

Year	Game	Role(s)			System(s)	Notes
		Audio director	Sound and/or Music	Other
1989	Arch Rivals	No	Yes	No	Arcade	Uncredited
1991	Super High Impact	No	Yes	No	Arcade
1992	Mortal Kombat	No	Yes	No	Arcade
1993	Mortal Kombat II	No	Yes	No	Arcade
1995	Mortal Kombat 3	No	Yes	No	Arcade
	Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3	No	Yes	Yes	Arcade	Grunts, Screams, Groans and Gibberish
1996	Mortal Kombat Trilogy	No	Yes	Yes	PlayStation	Graphics
1997	Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero	No	Yes	No	PlayStation
	Mortal Kombat 4	No	Yes	No	Arcade	Only credited in MK4 Design Team
2000	Mortal Kombat: Special Forces	No	Yes	No	PlayStation
	CART Fury	No	Yes	No	Arcade
2002	WWF Raw	No	Yes	No	Xbox	Sound effects recording
	NFL Blitz 20-02	No	Yes	No	GameCube PlayStation 2 Xbox	Sound effects only
	Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance	No	Yes	No	GameCube PlayStation 2 Xbox
	MLB SlugFest 20-03	No	Yes	No	GameCube PlayStation 2 Xbox	Sound effects only
2003	MLB SlugFest 20-04	No	Yes	No	GameCube PlayStation 2	Sound effects only
2004	Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy	No	Yes	No	PlayStation 2 Xbox	Additional audio
	NBA Ballers	No	No	Yes	PlayStation 2	Commentary design
	Mortal Kombat: Deception	Yes	No	No	PlayStation 2 Xbox
	MLG Slugfest Loaded	Yes	No	No	PlayStation 2 Xbox
2005	Unreal Championship 2: The Liandri Conflict	No	No	Yes	Xbox	Voice Production
	Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks	Yes	No	No	PlayStation 2 Xbox
	Blitz: The League	No	No	Yes	PlayStation 2 Xbox	Additional audio support
	NBA Ballers: Phenom	Yes	No	No	PlayStation 2 Xbox
2006	Mortal Kombat: Armageddon	Yes	No	No	PlayStation 2 Xbox
	MLB Slugfest 2006	No	No	Yes	PlayStation 2 Xbox
2011	Mortal Kombat	No	No	Yes	PlayStation 3 Xbox 360	Lead sound designer
	Batman: Arkham City Lockdown	No	No	Yes	iOS Android	Senior sound designer
2013	Injustice: Gods Among Us	Yes	Yes	No	PlayStation 3 Wii U Xbox 360	3 tracks in album
2015	WWE Immortals	No	Yes	No	iOS Android
	Mortal Kombat X	Yes	No	No	iOS Android PlayStation 4 Xbox One
2017	Injustice 2	Yes	Yes	No	iOS Android PlayStation 4 Xbox One	3 tracks in album

External links

• MobyGames' rap sheet on Forden
• Dan Forden at IMDb
• Dan Forden discography at MusicBrainz
• Artist profile at OverClocked ReMix