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YouTuber YourMKArcadeSource discovered a series of secret menus in the first three "Mortal Kombat" games and published his findings online. (Screengrab via YouTube)

Here's a neat trick to try next time you hit up Ground Kontrol.

No, it's not a code to get you unlimited lives in any of the irritatingly difficult "Metal Slug" games. It's a series of button presses discovered by YouTuber YourMKArcadeSource that will unlock a long-hidden menu within any of the first three "Mortal Kombat" titles. (Ground Kontrol currently only has "Mortal Kombat II.")

The menu in question is called an "EJB Menu," named after legendary programmer Ed J. Boone, the man who brought the series to life.

One of the menu's features is that it will let you access short clips that show off every character's Fatalities, grotesque finishing moves that players could activate after emerging victorious in battle. You can even watch each Fatality in succession, an exercise that once would have been a thrill in 1996, but is less so now that we have, you know, YouTube.

Still, activating the EJB Menu gives players access to a menu where they can manually alter the in-game leaderboards and even a free-play mode (although it's worth noting that either of these activities would likely garner some serious consequences at an actual arcade.)

Another EJB Menu feature that's exclusive to "Mortal Kombat 3" is a mini-game akin to "Galagy," albeit even more frustratingly difficult. Most mercifully, the menu in this game also lets you unlock all of the hidden characters without manually punching in a bunch of other codes.

Check out the full video below and thank your lucky stars that modern games don't make us jump through these hoops:

H/T Gizmodo

--Eder Campuzano

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@edercampuzano

ecampuzano@oregonian.com