Bullshit Game Myths

[Rev]

Perhaps one for people of a certain age, this, given that we live in an time in which glossy game guides are sold along with the thing itself on day one.  There was a time in which nobody could ever be sure that they'd drained every drop from a title, because there was always the possibility of there being something else there.  We're talking easter eggs that never existed here, but which someone swore blind they'd triggered.

I'll open with an appropriately old-skool one from the Spectrum classic Skool Daze.  Entirely set in a school, depicted in three screens worth of scrolling action, at the top-right of the map there was a small space that represented the great outdoors.  You shuffled there at the end of the school day, but if you did so at a certain time, with certain conditions met, it'd totally lead you to a whole new screen where you got to explore the town centre.

Yeah, like fuck.  'mon then, you've all heard things like this.

[I accept the terms of the]

Being able to play as the bosses in SNES SF2. I remember a tall tale that a reader had sent into a magazine at the time, saying that he "mashed some buttons and a caption came on the screen and he was able to play as the bosses". I'm glad he got his rubbish lie printed.

Tomb Raider's naked Lara Croft cheat.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

Even relatively recently there was the one about Bigfoot being present somewhere in GTA San Andreas. It seemed plausible enough as it was such a gigantic game.

[Big Jack McBastard]

There was also talk of the guy from Manhunt being an occupant of one of the many deserted huts in the more rural areas of San Andreas and the ridiculously over the top and convoluted sequence of events some trolls would have people believe gave access to Epsilon Program/Cult.

[madhair60]

The bizarre and perpetual myth that motion controls such as Wii and Kinect are anything other than a barely-functional load of shite.

Just kidding.  Or maybe I'm not.  Anyway, on topic.

Mortal Kombat was a huge proponent of these, and was fed by the creators themselves with little hints and messages.  They also had a tendency to take lore, such as the "ERMAC" error message, and turn them into reality.  Also, the later, excellent Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks took many of the urban legends (the trees in the Living Forest eating the opponent if you perform a certain stage fatality, for example) and made them possible.

Also, Mew in the original Pokémon Red/Blue/Yellow.  The roundabout methods my friends tried were deeply amusing to the non-GB-owning me.

Lastly, the classic - reviving Aerith in Final Fantasy VII.  IT'S THE GUY IN THE SLUMS, I SWEAR.

[jutl]

There were many false rumours about things you could find in witch-space in Elite when I was a lad. There were also many lies told about secret screens in JSW.

[gmoney]

There's that island you can see on the Dam level on Goldeneye. I think it's just bit in the game that was planned but never finished, and not properly removed, but me and my mate were convinced it was something you could get to and play, another secret level. We spent hours working out ways we might get across to to it, to no avail.

[Still Not George]

Lastly, the classic - reviving Aerith in Final Fantasy VII.  IT'S THE GUY IN THE SLUMS, I SWEAR.

Hah. Nothing short of purest legend, that.

I've successfully forgotten almost all the old myths, but the most recent one I can remember is the faked "secret ending of Portal where you get the cake". While that one was quite fun, it's too easy to make fake videos these days, so it takes something as memorable and special as Portal to produce a myth worth bothering with.

[Subtle Mocking]

Polybius.

[Obel]

Sonic the Hedgehog 2: Special Edition

Pure bullshit. Funny as fuck too.

http://lparchive.org/Sonic-2-Special-Edition/

Edit: Ah, to be fair that's more of a hoax than a myth, but here's a good a place as any to put it.

[Viero_Berlotti]

I remember this old Speccy one, and I thought it was true for years. If you completed Manic Miner there was a phone number shown on the screen. The first person to complete Manic Miner and ring this phone number won £2000.

[mjwilson]

There were also many lies told about secret screens in JSW.

You were supposed to be able to walk to the boat, wait till midnight (I think) then walk left over the sea and onto an island. This was then implemented in JSW2.

In Lunar Jetman, there was rumoured to be a trailer if you got far enough.

[I accept the terms of the]

I remember this old Speccy one, and I thought it was true for years. If you completed Manic Miner there was a phone number shown on the screen. The first person to complete Manic Miner and ring this phone number won £2000.

You can see how that one would come about. Lots of games at the time did this, and demos had competition numbers for you to ring at the end of them.

Not a myth, but fun to talk about: Pimania had a puzzle to solve, and an actual location to visit on a certain date to be greeted by a real person to win the prize. http://www.worldofspectrum.org/hardware/piwin.html

I love that a game from the very early days of home computing causing two adult women to travel hundreds of miles to meet a man (dressed as a game character) on a hill to get a golden sundial and a pub dinner.

[Famous Mortimer]

There's that island you can see on the Dam level on Goldeneye. I think it's just bit in the game that was planned but never finished, and not properly removed, but me and my mate were convinced it was something you could get to and play, another secret level. We spent hours working out ways we might get across to to it, to no avail.

If you use the NoClip hack you can actually get to that island. It was a bit of the game they decided to remove in the last stages of programming, but rather than remove the island altogether, they just took away the boat that takes you tere. There's a pretty decent article on cracked.com about it and other super-obscure game easter eggs.

[Schlippy]

Even relatively recently there was the one about Bigfoot being present somewhere in GTA San Andreas. It seemed plausible enough as it was such a gigantic game.

There are sasquatches you have to kill in one of the missions in the Undead Nightmare expansion to Red Dead Redemption, and a cheevo pops up after you cap the first one, titled "Six Years In The Making". I think in the French version of the game, the cheevo is called something like "You Can Stop Looking Now, CJ".

[The Tourist]

Also, Mew in the original Pokémon Red/Blue/Yellow.  The roundabout methods my friends tried were deeply amusing to the non-GB-owning me.

Don't know if you know, but you actually can get it, it's just that nobody figured out how until years afterwards. When replaying them a while ago, I was astonished and thrilled to find out that someone had cracked it since my childhood. The idea that something can remain hidden in a game for so long, despite millions of people searching for it, is fascinating to me.

http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Mew_glitch

[I accept the terms of the]

What has gone wrong with the world when people can bandy around terrible racist slurs like "cheevo" willy nilly?

[Steve Lampkins]

Which of these is it? http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=cheevo

I'd never even heard of it.

[I accept the terms of the]

Just a crap joke. It really sounds like a racial epithet.

[Steve Lampkins]

OK, I did start to wonder. :)