Shortly after the game's release, a screenshot started circulating online depicting the Seagallop ferryman in Vermilion City telling the player: "By the way: if you like this game, buy it or die." Those who posted the screenshot claimed that it was a hidden message which was only triggered if the game detected that it was running a pirated copy. This claim appeared to be further corroborated by people claiming that they had encountered the message themselves when playing the game with unofficial Game Boy Advance emulators or when hacking legitimate cartridges with cheat devices, and attracted further popularity after being disseminated by various gaming YouTubers.
However, while the screenshot was not photoshopped, the claim that it was an anti-piracy measure was not true. Rather, the text was added into the game's code by an anonymous individual who distributed a ROM of it online; the claim that it was an anti-piracy feature was most likely used by the individual to circumvent ROM distribution sites' restrictions on modified games. This explains why anecdotal reports of encountering the text were so much higher than what would be expected from a complete hoax, as well as why the text is absent when examining an unaltered ROM of the game in a hex editor.
Amiga games are infamous for containing rude and sometimes violent messages in their code aimed at pirates (or "crackers") - Mr. Blobby serves as an exception to this, instead containing a tongue in-cheek message seemingly encouraging the practice of putting "cracktro" opening titles before pirated games:
In the European version of The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland for Game Boy Color, there is a friendly message to hackers:
Hello There Pilgrim...
If you have hacked this ROM, you no doubt are reading this text. This game is basically a 2 Meg. Game. However, Nintendo, in their infinite wisdom, has decreed that the smallest ROM they will produce for the Gameboy Color is 8 Meg. -- Now, what to put in that empty 6 Meg.? So, the developers of the game decided to put .GIF pictures of themselves into the game. Why not? Might as well fill the void with something entertaining. See if you can retrieve them from this ROM. If you do, you win the prize. Please call (609) 466-2092 (in New Jersey, USA) if you have been able to view the two .GIF pictures, located in the rest of the upper 6 Megs of this ROM. We will have a nice reward for you...
Good Luck!
Roger W. Amidon September 28, 2000
The described graphics do indeed exist within the game code. It is unknown who the first person to discover the images were, or if and how they were rewarded. Sadly, Roger W. Amidon has since passed away.
Found on one of the movie theater marquees is the message "Maddie, Will You Marry Me?" This was an Easter egg included in the game at the request of fan Tyler Schultz who tweeted out to Insomniac asking them for help with his marriage proposal to his then girlfriend of 5 years Madison Gamble ("Maddie" for short) by including the message somewhere in-game. However, by the time the game had released, Gamble had broken up with him with Schultz explaining what had happened. Insomniac had offered to patch out the message but Schultz requested to keep it in as a reminder for "the almost mistake that I made." adding that his girlfriend told him "that the video game message wasn’t the way she wanted to be proposed to, either."
Gamble would later say in a statement that she never even liked video games and only tolerated them because of Schultz. She claimed that she broke up with Schultz due to his behavior and gave him a month to change but to no avail.
The origami cranes scattered across the games feature a jumbled QR Code pattern that when put together links to the Japanese microsites for Another Code and Another Code: R.
Method: - Look up the file "ditem_PaperCrane" inside Textures2D of the game's data. - Stitch the texture together into one complete QR Code if necessary. - Scan it with any QR Code decoder like the one used in smartphones. Resize if necessary. - QR Code should display the following: https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ds/anoj/index.htmlhttps://www.nintendo.co.jp/wii/rnoj/index.html
The code can be recreated by inputting these URLs exactly as they are shown above into the following Japanese QR Code generator: https://qr.quel.jp/
In the Commodore 64 version of the game, there are two known messages written with destroyable blocks that are hidden out-of-bounds in two levels of the game. In Level 1-1, the year "1989", referring to the year the game began development, can be found in the middle of the map. The other message is hidden in Level 1-3, where the letters "DTE" can be found in the middle of a land mass in the bottom-right corner of the map.
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Inside the files of The Addams Family for ZX Spectrum is a strange, vindictive, and violent rant about carjackers and burglars from an unknown developer, riddled with what some may interpret as subtle classist undertones:
"CAR THIEVES AND BURGLARS, WHO ARE THE SCUM OF THIS EARTH, SHOULD ALL BE HANGED.
WHAT I WANT TO KNOW IS... HOW DO THE SCUM MANAGE TO STEAL CARS AND ROB HOUSES WHEN THEY HAVEN'T GOT A BRAIN ???
THERE IS NO JUSTIFICATION FOR CRIME.
IF SOMEONE BREAKS INTO YOUR HOUSE OR TRIES TO STEAL YOUR CAR, YOU SHOULD HAVE THE RIGHT TO SHOOT THEM DEAD, AS THEY ARE NO MORE USE TO SOCIETY THAN A RABID DOG.
I PAY TAXES TO STOP SCUM DYING IN THE STREETS AND THEN THEY COME ROUND AND STEAL MY POSSESSIONS. NOW THERE'S GRATITUDE FOR YOU.
THE SCUM ARE TRYING TO BRING THIS COUNTRY DOWN TO THEIR LEVEL OF DEPRAVITY. PLEASE DON'T LET THEM SUCCEED."
In the Japanese version of Alex Kidd in Miracle World, there is a heartfelt secret message accessible by holding Button 1 on controller 2, and then Button 2 or 1 on controller 1 on the ending screen:
"We dedicate this story to Kōichi and Emi. May children yet to be born be strong, and have love and bravery like Alex. And we, together with Alex, hope that all who love him may be forever happy. By: Kōtarō Yōko Matilda Rie Wakashimazu Papa Kōichi Toku Kaori the Bully Toshi the Bullied"
Within the game is a series of hidden developer messages. The first one, which reads "PRESS CTRL-Z DURING THE CARTOONS," is accessible by enabling joystick mode and pressing button 1 after navigating the joystick cursor to the bottom-left of the title screen. If the player complies with the message and presses Ctrl-Z during the game's cutscenes, they'll be given different fragments of a cipher message; piecing them together and decoding them reveals the sentence "ENTER THREE LETTER CODE WHEN YOU RETIRE." Likewise, pressing Ctrl-Z while the game displays the cipher fragments brings up the phrase "DOUBLE HELIX," alluding to the shape of a DNA molecule. Accordingly, if the player types "DNA" on the retirement screen that appears after beating the game, they will receive a congratulatory message from programmer Robert Cook.
The complicated nature of this Easter egg resulted in it going undiscovered until 2016, when game preservationist 4a.m. tried cracking the ROM's atypically complex antipiracy protections while attempting to preserve as many Apple II games online as possible. Cook sent 4a.m. a congratulatory message on Twitter after discovering the secret, jokingly stating that "I assumed it would take a thousand, but you solved it in a mere 33 years."
In Greenflower Zone Act 1, there is a house in the upper section of the level next to a lake. If the player has all 200 Emblems, this house will have a note on it thanking the player for keeping the game alive.
This house belongs to the in-universe persona of RedXVI, an old member of the Sonic fangame community who had significant influence over Sonic Robo Blast 2's development.
The location of this note is a reference to Version 1.09 of the game, where an Easter egg was hidden on the very same house. In this version, jumping on the house would cause RedXVI to come out and send the player to an early work-in-progress version of Red Volcano Zone Act 1 if the player jumped on the house repeatedly after beating the game three times.
The board for Pac-Man contains a DIP switch titled "Alternate Ghost Names", which in the Japanese release contained early English names for the ghosts:
When the Street Fighter skin set was released for Fortnite, a back bling of an arcade machine was released that would show attract mode footage from Street Fighter II. Coinciding with this, a texture was found in the data, under the name "FrenchFry" showing animation from Family Guy in a similar format. While many believed this confirmed that Peter Griffin was planned to be featured in the game alongside a back bling that would show Family Guy clips, it was later stated by a reputable Fortnite leaker named FNBRUnreleased that the Family Guy content could've only been added for one of two reasons: to annoy dataminers, or to internally test the Street Fighter graphics in a humorous way.
Griffin would eventually be added to Fortnite in Chapter 5. To coincide with his addition, a video titled "Peter Griffin Seeks Fitness Advice From Meowscles" was released: animated in the same style as "Family Guy", it features Griffin getting a fitness exam from Fortnite character Meowscles, ending with him drinking an expired bottle of Slurp Juice in order to become "swole", explaining his design in the game. The expiration date on the Slurp Juice is a reference to the date when the leak originally happened, and the trailer also used the leaked back bling. Despite appearing to be animated by Family Guy's animation department, the video noticeably does not feature any spoken dialogue, or voice acting by Family Guy creator and Griffin's voice actor Seth MacFarlane.
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The source code for Gremlins Unleashed contains several hidden messages, including pictures of Gremlins characters, a shoutout to Subito Pizza and Pizza Hut from the graphists, and several profane rants.
One of the messages, resembling the Windows Blue Screen of Death, can also be found in Kirikou, another title developed by Planet Interactive.
In the healing rooms of Mole Mania, you can pester the old mole after having your life bar healed, who will grow increasingly annoyed. If you try to speak to him 6 times in a row, the relaxing healing area music will be replaced with the tense music that plays when entering the final castle level, and the old mole will exclaim:
"Woo! You ungrateful mole! Just wait 'til I get my claws on you!"
There's a pretty mean-spirited item in the game simply called "ALF book", which is sold for $100 in one of the game's shops. The book displays a block of text explaining the game's plot, as well as some strange fourth-wall-breaking story about the making of the game. Although this item might seem harmless, it also boots the player back to the title screen without warning and effectively restarts the game.
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On Tuesdays, Jelfonzo will wear a shirt that has a lip design with a message in the Inklings' language on it. It would take 5 years after the game's release for this message to be translated into English from the Round script variant of the Inklings' language, revealing that it reads "FUCK YOU". The game's art book "The Art of Splatoon 2" features early concept art for the shirt where it was originally titled the "Rounded You Suck Shirt", which translated to English through the Bubble script variant reveals that it does indeed say "YOU SUCK".
A secret Game Over screen exists that would rarely appear for a losing player. The screen features the "Goro's Lair" stage backdrop with a large red Roman numeral '3', seeming to foreshadow the then-in-production Mortal Kombat 3.
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Using the Free Look tool included with the GameCube emulator Dolphin, a rather grim Easter Egg can be found on the packaging box of the character Mr. Snuggles.
Very early on in the game, if the player makes certain unorthodox decisions in the Kara storylineSpoiler: it is possible to have both Kara and Alice die extremely early. If the player goes to the Main Menu right after doing so, Chloe will slightly break the fourth wall and scold the player for "letting them die". She will then tell the player that the "lives of these androids are in your hands".
Shortly after the game's release, a screenshot started circulating online depicting the Seagallop ferryman in Vermilion City telling the player: "By the way: if you like this game, buy it or die." Those who posted the screenshot claimed that it was a hidden message which was only triggered if the game detected that it was running a pirated copy. This claim appeared to be further corroborated by people claiming that they had encountered the message themselves when playing the game with unofficial Game Boy Advance emulators or when hacking legitimate cartridges with cheat devices, and attracted further popularity after being disseminated by various gaming YouTubers.
In the European version of The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland for Game Boy Color, there is a friendly message to hackers:
Found on one of the movie theater marquees is the message "Maddie, Will You Marry Me?" This was an Easter egg included in the game at the request of fan Tyler Schultz who tweeted out to Insomniac asking them for help with his marriage proposal to his then girlfriend of 5 years Madison Gamble ("Maddie" for short) by including the message somewhere in-game. However, by the time the game had released, Gamble had broken up with him with Schultz explaining what had happened. Insomniac had offered to patch out the message but Schultz requested to keep it in as a reminder for "the almost mistake that I made." adding that his girlfriend told him "that the video game message wasn’t the way she wanted to be proposed to, either."
The origami cranes scattered across the games feature a jumbled QR Code pattern that when put together links to the Japanese microsites for Another Code and Another Code: R.
In Greenflower Zone Act 1, there is a house in the upper section of the level next to a lake. If the player has all 200 Emblems, this house will have a note on it thanking the player for keeping the game alive.
The board for Pac-Man contains a DIP switch titled "Alternate Ghost Names", which in the Japanese release contained early English names for the ghosts:
When the Street Fighter skin set was released for Fortnite, a back bling of an arcade machine was released that would show attract mode footage from Street Fighter II. Coinciding with this, a texture was found in the data, under the name "FrenchFry" showing animation from Family Guy in a similar format. While many believed this confirmed that Peter Griffin was planned to be featured in the game alongside a back bling that would show Family Guy clips, it was later stated by a reputable Fortnite leaker named FNBRUnreleased that the Family Guy content could've only been added for one of two reasons: to annoy dataminers, or to internally test the Street Fighter graphics in a humorous way.
There's a pretty mean-spirited item in the game simply called "ALF book", which is sold for $100 in one of the game's shops. The book displays a block of text explaining the game's plot, as well as some strange fourth-wall-breaking story about the making of the game. Although this item might seem harmless, it also boots the player back to the title screen without warning and effectively restarts the game.
A secret Game Over screen exists that would rarely appear for a losing player. The screen features the "Goro's Lair" stage backdrop with a large red Roman numeral '3', seeming to foreshadow the then-in-production Mortal Kombat 3.
