The hidden DOOM-style game is Hall of Tortured Souls, an Easter egg in Excel 95—not a feature in current Microsoft Excel. In the original version, the reported route is to go to row 95, press Tab to select the second cell, then choose Help > Tech Support. These are historical instructions, not steps verified on modern Excel.
What is the hidden Excel game?
Hall of Tortured Souls is a first-person maze with Doom-like visuals and scrolling developer credits. It is associated with Excel 95. Excel 97 had a different Easter egg, a flight simulator, which is one reason the two versions are sometimes confused. PC Gamer’s December 20, 2025 account describes the game and the access sequence below.
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That article reports that discussion of the Easter egg began in a Usenet thread started by Kristian Poe on September 22, 1995; the original thread itself was not available for verification here.
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How to open Hall of Tortured Souls in Excel 95
- Open Excel 95 and go to row 95.
- Press Tab to select the second cell in that row.
- Open Help, then select Tech Support.
Published accounts report that this opens a window called Hall of Tortured Souls. The sequence applies to Excel 95; it should not be treated as a current Excel or Microsoft 365 shortcut. The directions are historical and have not been independently tested here.
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How to reach the second area
The commonly circulated instruction is to face the rear wall and type excelkfa. A community reverse-engineering repository says its code review found the shorter input XLKFA is sufficient in the game code it inspected. These are distinct claims: one is the popular reported input, while the other is a code-level finding. Neither was hands-on tested here.
Can you play it in current Excel?
No. A Microsoft Community answer dated January 15, 2025, by volunteer moderator Andreas Killer says the Easter egg “was removed decades ago.” The answer does not identify the last Excel version that included it, so an exact removal version cannot be stated. Read the Microsoft Community answer.
If the sequence does nothing, first check which Excel version you have. The reported trigger is for Excel 95; it is not expected to launch the game in modern Excel.
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Two ways to explore the game today
| Route | What it offers | What you need to know |
|---|---|---|
| Original Excel 95 Easter egg | The game as an Easter egg inside the legacy Excel version. | Requires Excel 95. The availability and condition of vintage software, and whether it will run on a particular current computer, are not established here. |
| Community reconstruction | A standalone version based on decompiled source, rather than the original Excel integration. | The project describes a build for modern Windows. Its README says it adds a delay because the unmodified game loop would run too fast on modern CPUs. It is a community project, not an official Microsoft release. |
The project repository provides the reconstruction’s source and build information. Building it is a different route from opening the original Easter egg, and the repository’s description should not be read as a guarantee that it will work on every Windows configuration.
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