15 Video Game Secrets Developers Don't Want You To Find
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Isn’t there something so satisfying about discovering secrets in our favorite video games? It’s like the games' creators left us a gift. Secret areas, hidden modes, Easter eggs, cheat codes, and surprise characters are meant to challenge and impress us. It’s the mark developers leave on a game, and usually they hope some hardcore gamer will find the secret and sensationalize it. Secrets can help a game go viral, which is basically free marketing.
Game secrets are as old as video games are. Just check out Adventure listed below. There is a surprising Easter egg in the Atari 2600 classic. A disgruntled game developer found a way to leave his mark on the game, making it the first known egg in video game history. He wasn’t supposed to do what he did, but he did it anyway. And, that’s what this list includes – the inappropriate secrets, the ones developers hoped we wouldn’t find.
For the most part, video game secrets are intentional (even the inappropriate ones). The developers felt the game lacked something they couldn’t push past their publishers, so they hid it; however, there are plenty that developers never intended us to find. These shocking little surprises are sometimes disturbing and often sexually explicit. Either the game’s code glitched and caused the secret or someone along the lines of development felt the game lacked a certain spice (in this case spice = boobs). No matter how it was caused, we’re grateful for most of the secrets on this list; however, there are a few that will leave you scratching your head and wondering why anyone would put that in a game.
15. Players Figure Out How To Remove The Blur In “The Sims”
“The Sims” developers never intended for gamers to mod items and characters. Leave it to computer nerds to figure out they could add their own content to the game’s files and folders, and decorate their Sim’s world with unique one-of-a-kind items and skins. If you’re unfamiliar, a “skin” is the name of a sim’s body.
Naked skins are a very popular download. Unfortunately, that troublesome blur bar makes it impossible to view these creations, but someone figured out how to get rid of that too. For non-modders, it’s as easy as downloading and installing an app, which removes the blur from the game. So, you can watch your sim making woohoo and taking a shower without that pesky blur bar.
Fortunately for developers, these secrets made The Sims more playable and helped make it one of the most popular games of all time. Players loved the ability to incorporate user-created items into their games, so EA has promoted this by including options for it in subsequent games. There’s even a community section on the official website that includes user-created content (although it’s PG, so don’t expect any naked skins here).
14. “GTA: San Andreas” Glitch Causes A Blood Spewing Headless CJ
“GTA: San Andreas” has multiplayer maps, and they’re a bit glitchy. For the time, it was pretty cool to have multiplayer in a game like GTA, which is to say you could have a crime and murder spree with your best friend. You could also do those things headless if you figured out the headless CJ glitch.
The second player must chop off CJ’s head with a katana. Some sources say you need to use the Ninja Theme cheat code, which is the simple d-pad code: A, A, Down, Black, White, B, RT, B, X. This ensures pedestrians will be wielding katanas, so the second player can take one off an NPC. CJ will die and respawn by the nearest multiplayer symbol, but he’ll come back headless and spewing a geyser of blood.
Back in the day, consoles weren’t connected to the Internet, so this is a glitch that has stood the test of time. If you haven’t tried it, fire up the old PlayStation 2, and try it out. Just don’t save. If you do save, you’ll have a stump for a head on that save file forever.
13. Someone Slowed Down A Creepy Dialog In “No More Heroes”
“No More Heroes” is a 2007 action-adventure title for Nintendo Wii. The highly-rated game is a popular one for the console. At the time, the Wii had very few mature games, and “No More Heroes” was exactly what mature gamers needed. Finally, Wii gamers had a title they could sink their teeth into. Its slash-and-dash gameplay and stylized story has made it a classic that gamers will want to revisit.
What you don’t want is to slow down the cutscene where Jeane tells her backstory. Jeane, the game’s primary antagonist, warns players that her story is so explicit, it would “jack up the age rating of this game even further.” Developers put the video on fast-forward, but someone thought to slow that down using software.
When slowed down to normal, Jeane explains that her mother killed herself, but that’s not the worst of it. She’s the half-sister of the game’s protagonist, and she was left to be raised by their mutual father who molested her constantly. She ended up a prostitute, but trained to assassinate those she blamed for her difficult upbringing.
12. There’s A Spontaneous B$$b Increase In Ratchet & Clank 2
It’s disturbing how many NSFW moments there are in family-friendly video games. Developers always think they can sneak in a bit of adult humor and no one will be the wiser, but gamers are clever. They always figure it out, and that’s not really good news for the developer who thought sexualizing a child’s video game was a good idea.
I’m not sure if the green-skinned alien from Ratchet & Clank 2 is supposed to have spontaneous breast enlargement or if it’s a developmental error, but the content is certainly not kid-friendly. The game, which is a rated E for everyone platformer, is otherwise family friendly. The secret to getting her boobs to inflate is to jump in manic circles all around her. This is what makes them grow, the manic dance of a cat with humanlike qualities.
If you stop jumping, the breasts will immediately retract. That’s evidence that the spontaneous boob enlargement is a glitch, right? Except the developers left the glitch in subsequent remakes; perhaps, they don’t pay attention to the many YouTubers who discovered this secret or they figured some spontaneous boob growth could lead to some additional sales.
11. There’s A Hidden South Park Sequence In Tiger Woods 99 PGA Tour
1998’s “Tiger Woods PGA Tour” was the new title in a dying franchise. It was meant to revive the PGA line of golf games, and for the most part it did its job. It was a fun game, and at its helm was an industry great, Tiger Woods. Unfortunately for the publisher, the game had to be massively recalled in early 1999 due to one developer’s childish attempt to add a little South Park humor to the game.
The South Park pilot episode, “Jesus vs. Santa” is hidden on the game disc. The developer who placed it there probably thought it wouldn’t be found because it couldn’t be accessed on the PlayStation. As I previously stated, gamers are smart…They go looking, and one gamer found the imbedded episode after inserting the game disc into a PC and opening a file with a strange name. The file, Zzdummy.dat, included a fight sequence between (you guessed it) Jesus and Santa Claus.
10. The First Few Shipments Of “GTA: San Andreas” Include The Hot Coffee Mod
Developers knew the “hot coffee” mini-game was too sexually explicit, even for the GTA franchise. It was pulled before the game hit shelves, but Patrick Wildenborg found traces of it in the game’s source code. Wildenborg frequently looked for ways to mod new titles, but it’s unlikely he expected to stumble upon the infamous code.
He admits that the mini-game was easy to spot because its code was explicitly titled, such as “SEX,” and “SNM.” Way to be obvious, developers… It took Wildenborg a while to figure out how to bypass the game’s overrule flags, which prevent modders from executing eliminated code. Eventually, he succeeded (but you already knew that). He released a patch to the public that allowed everyone to experience the mod for themselves. Wildenborg said, “I tossed the name ‘hot coffee’ on the file, based on the fact that the girlfriends would ask CJ in for some ‘coffee’ as a euphemism for sex.”
9. There’s A Naked Lady In “Kirby’s Dream Land 2”
The hidden naked lady in “Kirby’s Dream Land 2” is a secret wrapped in another secret. It’s located in the game’s 5-5, and it’s a blink and you’ll miss it addition. The game is from Japan where they’re a bit more liberal with innuendo. If American publishers had noticed it, it’s likely it would have been removed from the game, but they didn’t…Gamers sure did though.
As you play down the level, the blocks appear in a familiar sequence. Huh, some intrepid gamer thought, that looks like boobies. And, that ‘Y’ at the end looks an awfully lot like… To be certain they weren’t seeing things, a gamer actually took screenshots of the various level parts and then stacked them one on top of the other, and sure enough it was a crude naked lady made up of Star Blocks.
Of all the strange things hidden in rated E games, this one isn’t too bad. The developer’s hijinks are all in good fun, and the woman is made of blocks, so she’s not rated-R or anything. The strange inclusion does do a bit to mar the cutesy reputation of Kirby though.
8. Players Take Advantage Of The “Out Of Map” Glitch In “Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3”
COD: Modern Warfare 3 developers didn’t mean to include a glitch that allows players to fly into the sky; thus, giving them an aerial advantage. Unfortunately for them, players found the glitch and then exploited it. Previous and subsequent games do have their own out of map glitches, each providing lazy gamers with a leg up on the competition. If you’re not a cheater, you find these players very annoying…
Developers are also annoyed by out of map glitches, but they’re to blame so they can’t really complain too much. If you want to take advantage of this glitch, it’s actually pretty simple. You’ll need to equip Osprey Gunner, Dead Silence, and Tactical Insertion. Fire up a capture the flag game, then head to the edge of the circle surrounding the flag. Call the Osprey Gunner from outside the map and you should then be able to move there.
7. Players Find A Secret Pokemon Called Missingno
If you’re a seasoned Pokemon collector, you have maybe stumbled upon Missingno, a Pokemon who has many unique looks. It could appear as a corrupted piece of code or a sick looking piece of fuzz. It’s not meant to be there, but it is. If you truly “got to catch them all,” you got to catch Missingno, the Pokemon that shouldn’t be. Unfortunately, Missingno doesn’t evolve and it’s mostly a glitch in first generation Game Boy Pokemon games. And, you have to jump through some strange hoops to find out.
Make your character’s name ASH, and talk to the old man in Viridian City. He’ll ask if you’re in a hurry. Tell him, “No.” Watch the video on how to catch Pokemon, then fly to Cinnabar Island. You’re close now. Stay on the very eastern shore of the coastline, like sorta on shore and in the water. You’ll run right into the “Wild MISSINGNO,” which is short for missing number.
6. “Rings Of Power”
No one can blame you if you’re unfamiliar with the 1991 RPG, “Rings of Power.” It’s likely you’ve heard of the studio, Naughty Dog, which is still in business and responsible for the ever-popular “Uncharted” franchise. Back in the day, Naughty Dog’s logo was embarrassingly uninspired neon, but it wasn’t the most embarrassing thing about the company. That award goes to Rings, which wasn’t on the level of Uncharted.
It was a poorly received game, criticized for its difficulty and accused of being a rip-off of “Lord of the Rings.” But, it has boobs, so it does have a following. On the game’s cover, there is a blonde pixelated woman wearing a white shirt. Some developers felt the shirt was overkill, so they included a code that killed the shirt leaving said woman topless. Execute the code by plugging a controller into the second player port. Hold down right on the d-pad, and with it still held down push A, B, C, and then start. Ta-da, or should I say, Ta-tas!
5. Oops Someone Left A Nazi Message In “Front Mission”
Before Square Enix was Square Enix, it was known as Square Co. It brought gamers “Front Mission: Gun Hazard,” a side-scrolling shooter. Even though Square hadn’t settled on their name yet, it was still a major game publisher. At the level they were at, it was shocking that someone forgot to remove the phone message at the game’s conclusion. I bet they wish they had, or that they hadn’t chosen to include the phone message of an actual Combat 18 member.
If you don’t know, Combat 18 is a British neo-Nazi group. No one would have been the wiser except that gamers caught a recognizable word on the tail end of the message. You know, the N-word. Yeah that one… It took some time, but someone was eventually able to decipher the whole thing and it’s pretty gross. “We’re gonna burn your building down, you f—kheads. C18’s watching you, you communist, n-word loving…” Yeah… Gross.
4. A Message Just For Lauren In Halo 3
Bungie programmer Adrian Perez never figured gamers would find the birthday message he left in Halo 3 for his wife. It was a YouTuber who documented the message, which only appears if you set the system’s date to December 25th. You can’t be connected to Xbox Live when you set the date. Load up the game and start a Campaign. Then, hold down both thumb sticks and you’ll see the message, “Happy Birthday, Lauren” appear.
Of all the Easter eggs on this list, Lauren’s is the least offensive. It’s a bit boring, but it wasn’t meant for gamers. It’s a nerdy token of affection that was meant to be internal knowledge only. Seriously how sweet is Perez though? Lauren’s a lucky girl. However, as far as Halo secrets go, my favorite is still locating all those pesky skulls. That one is common knowledge, but their locations are often hard to get to.
3. Playground Royally Messes Up And Releases An Unpacked Version Of “Forza Horizon 3”
Playground Games had a lot of issues with “Forza Horizon 3.” The game had sequences that were unplayable, the DLC was unsupported, and there were way too many glitches. The solution was to patch the game, which is a common practice… Sometimes developers make simple choices way too difficult, and the end result is very bad for their brand. Playground accidentally released an update that included a complete developer build, totally unpacked, of the game.
Although Playground was quick to roll it back, the damage was done. Modders were able to explore every single file structure in the game. This includes cars that had not yet been released complete with images of said cars. It’s unlikely many gamers will pay for DLC when they can pirate modded replicas. It’s also quite unlikely Playground Games can look forward to many more huge game releases. Forza is a beautiful title, but the damage to their reputation will be difficult to overcome.
2. The “Nintendo Power” Contest Winner Finally Gets His Day
Chris Houlihan entered the “Nintendo Power” contest back in the early 1990s. In case you’re young or just forgot, “Nintendo Power” is the official Nintendo Magazine. Back in the day, it was recommended reading for gamers. The winner of the contest was promised his name would be in a secret room in the upcoming release, “Zelda: A Link To The Past.” Unfortunately, for Houlihan barely anyone would find the secret room until the Internet revealed its location.
There’s a buttload of things you have to do to find the room. Too much information to go over here, but it should be noted you need to move fast. If you slow down, you won’t find it. Poor Chris Houlihan thought he’d be famous in the 1990s, but that wasn’t the case. Gamers still struggle to find the room, even with the instructions all laid out. Still, he’s got his name in every set of instructions across the web… So, better late than never?
1. Atari’s “Adventure” Is The First Known Easter Egg
“Adventure” was one of many games released for the Atari 2600 video game console. It was well-made, innovative, and the first of its kind. It had a measurable story, which was groundbreaking. This is likely why Atari, Inc. was worried that other publishers would poach their developers. In order to keep their developer’s names secret, Atari refused to release game credits. The developers were not credited for their work, including one of the game’s chief developers, Warren Robinett.
Robinett butted heads with management. He felt let down by the publisher. Disgruntled, Robinett took it upon himself to build a secret into the game’s code. He created a secret room that went unnoticed by the publisher, but was found by a young gamer. In the room, he credits himself for creating the game. And, good for him. Not only did Robinett get the credit and fame he justly deserved, he also started a trend. All future Atari 2600 tiles included a secret room, and nearly every game since has some sort of secret added to it.
Source: wikihow
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