Ed Boon

Ed Boon
Ed Boon (right) at E3 2013
Born	Edward J. Boon (1964-02-22) February 22, 1964 Chicago, Illinois, United States
Occupation	Game programmer, director and producer

Edward J. "Ed" Boon (born February 22, 1964) is an American video game programmer and director who had been employed for over 15 years at Midway Games and since 2011 works for Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment in its subsidiary company NetherRealm Studios. Boon is best known for the widely popular Mortal Kombat series, which he created with John Tobias.

Biography

Boon was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, and graduated high school at Loyola Academy in Wilmette. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics and computer science from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.^[1]

He is the co-creator of the Mortal Kombat fighting game series, along with John Tobias,^[2] and served as the series' lead programmer and Tobias the lead designer, until their partnership dissolved with Tobias' departure from Midway in 2000. Boon named series characters Sonya Blade and Tanya after his sisters Sonya and Tania, while another character, Noob Saibot, was named after Boon and Tobias' reversed surnames.

Boon was ranked #100 in IGN's 2009 list of "Top 100 Game Creators" for his involvement in the Mortal Kombat series.^[3] 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 of Scorpion in every installment of the series up until Mortal Kombat X, as well as both feature films. The 2008 edition of Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition consequently awarded him a world record for the "longest-serving video game voice actor."

Works

Video games

High Impact (1990)
Super High Impact (1991)
Total Carnage (1991)
Mortal Kombat (1992) - designer, programmer
Mortal Kombat II (1993) - designer, programmer
Mortal Kombat 3 (1995) - designer, programmer
Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 (1995) - executive producer, designer, programmer
Mortal Kombat Trilogy (1996)
Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero (1997)
Mortal Kombat 4 (1997)
Mortal Kombat Gold (1999) - project lead
The Grid (2000)
Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance (2002) - team lead, game design, programming
Mortal Kombat: Deception (2004) - project lead, game design, programming
Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks (2005) - executive producer
Mortal Kombat: Armageddon (2006) - creative director
Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe (2008)
Mortal Kombat (2011) - team leader, creative director
Mortal Kombat Arcade Kollection (2011)
Batman: Arkham City Lockdown (2011) - creative director
Injustice: Gods Among Us (2013) - team leader, creative director, "Get over here!" Scorpion voice
Injustice: Gods Among us Ultimate Edition (2013) - team leader, creative director, "Get over here!" Scorpion voice
Batman: Arkham Origins (2013)
Mortal Kombat X (2015) - director

Pinball

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

Film

Mortal Kombat (1995) - voice of Scorpion
Mortal Kombat Annihilation (1997) - voice of Scorpion
Mortal Kombat: Legacy (2011) - cameo appearance in first-season episode "Johnny Cage"

References

↑ "Universities of Missouri, Illinois hailed as tech's powerful colleges". St. Louis Business Journal. 2010-05-03. Retrieved 2010-06-03.
↑ "E3 2010: Mortal Kombat Returns! See the New Trailer!". DreadCentral.
↑ IGN Games (2009-02-23). "Top 100 Game Creators". IGN. Retrieved 2010-06-03.