with a superimposed center-screen phrase that read "Ermac Wins". Reader responses printed two issues later contained varying complex instructions for accessing the character. With the still-nonexistent Ermac now visualized as a red ninja, players claimed sightings of a random glitch that would cause the game's ninja characters' graphics to flash red, with "Error Macro" or "Ermac" replacing their name in their energy bar. However, such an occurrence was not possible as the macro counter could not increase in the event of a genuine glitch, while no red palette for the character existed. Though Midway included a scrambled message in the 1993 sequel Mortal Kombat II that read "Ermac does not exist", neither Boon nor Midway marketing director Roger Sharpe denied outright the character's presence in the game. In October 1995, two years after the EGM incident, Ermac was added to the selectable roster of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 (1995; an upgrade of Mortal Kombat 3), as the developers felt that he had transformed from myth to urban legend and therefore warranted his inclusion in the series. Boon clarified the rumors on Twitter in 2011, and said he had kept the meaning of the ERMACS listing secret in hopes of stirring up fan speculation about the character. NetherRealm Studios (formerly Midway Games) has inserted allusions to the rumors and EGM hoax in subsequent Mortal Kombat games and related media. Ermac appeared on one panel in a Mortal Kombat II comic book prequel that was written and illustrated by Mortal Kombat co-creator John Tobias and published by the company in 1994. Mortal Kombat: Deception's training mode contained a message that read, "It is a little-known fact that 'Ermac' is short for 'Error Macro'", an homage to his origins that was revived in Mortal Kombat X for a pre-match introduction sequence between Ermac and series newcomer Takeda. He was an Easter egg boss hidden at the Warrior Shrine level in Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks, a 2005 beat 'em up spinoff title that spans the events of Mortal Kombat II. Skarlet, a nonexistent female ninja character from MKII with a similar background, was included by NetherRealm Studios as a playable character in the 2011 reboot game in what the company considered a second instance of turning fan rumors into reality. Design and portrayal Ermac was played by actor John Turk in the digitized games Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 and the 1996 compilation title Mortal