The background music for the "Merch Cemetery" stage has the filename "97 115 99 105 105 10", which when converted into ASCII spells "asciiLF". It is not known what this title means.
In Virtua Fighter 3tb, Jacky and Kage both have a secret win pose when holding Down, Guard, Punch, and Evade. They will perform "V for Victory" poses. If Kage is in his 2P costume and gets an "Excellent" victory on Akira's stage, he will perform a secret win pose where a metal pan will fall on his head.
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.
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/
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Within the game files, some of the game makers vented their annoyance over the game development process:
"I hate this game's coding. I can't see jack or shit of what's in it! Stream %d has read %d more bytes than the file size. Please tell Keith. If possible, save your debug output and mail it to him......Please also note the level on which it happened, how long you were playing for and what if any dialogue was playing Serious Shit. SOUNDSYS thread does not work.....SOUNDSYS secondary thread has started...Serious Shit. Second thread does not work request to free %d bytes of spu ram failed !!!!...things are shit. memory allocated above 2mb."
After loading up the Commodore 64 version of the game and waiting until the title screen appears, going to address 8F40 with a memory viewer will reveal a hidden developer message. The message to discourage hackers from cracking the game is presumably from the game's creator Manfred Trenz, and reveals the date that the game began development:
"HI FOLKS, THE MANIAC IS BACK !!! ONE QUESTION: WHY DO YOU WANT TO CRACK THIS PROGGY ??? CAN YOU IMAGINE HOW MUCH WORK I DID TO MAKE A GAME LIKE THIS ???
HERE SOME INFORMATIONS ABOUT: STARTING TIME: 01.02.1989 (OH YES) ALL THE IDEAS,GAMEDESIGN,ALIENROUTINIES,GRAPHICS,PLAYBILITY,TECHNICAL PROBLEMS AND MUCH MORE TOOK A LOT OF TIME AND WAS VERY OFTEN NERVE-RACKING!
ECHT AETZEND YOU WOULD SAY ... SOMETIMES I WORKED MORE THEN 14 HOURS A DAY, ONLY INTERRUPTED BY ESSENTIAL THINGS LIKE FOOD,COKE AND MTV.
I MADE THIS GAME NOT ONLY FOR TO EARN MONEY BUT NEVERTHELESS I'M SURE YOU AGREE WITH ME, THAT I WANT TO EARN FOR MY WORK.
SO DO ME A FAVOUR AND DON'T CRACK AND SPREAD THIS GAME !! IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS CALL: 0211/5280-0 BYE NOW AND THINK ABOUT !
PS.: DO YOU KNOW WHAT A GROELATZ IS ?? YOU BETTER DO NOT !"
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.
Within the code of the Atari 7800 version is a hidden developer message stating, "Mommy and me are one". In 1985, experiments to gauge the practice of subliminal messaging had used this exact phrase, which is alleged to have raised self-motivation in test subjects.
In each Dive to the Heart segment in almost every game in the series, there is a disembodied voice that can only speak through text that guides the characters (and thus the player as well) through the tutorial of each game. The identity of these voices has been unidentified in every game but Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep (where it is obviously child Sora) and the first Kingdom Hearts. For the latter, in the Kingdom Hearts Ultimania, Nomura was asked who the voice is for the opening of the first game and he finally gave it's identity as being none other than King Mickey. However, this interview was done in the early 2000's before most of the sequels were produced, so it's unknown if this explanation was retconned or not.
After defeating Solidus Snake at the end of the game, he falls to his death off of the Federal Hall building. Just before he falls however, if you look closely, you can see his lips move slightly in the brief moments that they are not covered by the collar of his exoskeleton. By replacing Solidus' model with Solid Snake's (who shares most of Solidus' facial features) through mods, it reveals that Solidus was actually saying one last message to Raiden. However, the dialogue during this moment is still muted, so Solidus' last words remain unknown.
In the Sega Master System version of Rampart, there is unused text that reads "Jeff Spangenberg is a weenie", referring to Punk Development's founder. Coder Kevin Seghetti would explain this quip in an interview:
"I was in the middle of doing Rampart for RazorSoft at Punk Development when Jeff [Spangenberg] and I had a disagreement. I was helping Scott Statton debug the latest Genesis development system boards which had just come back from fab, and Jeff told me to get back to work on Rampart. I reminded him that I was doing Rampart under contract, I wasn't his employee, and he [didn't] get to tell me what to do. After a few more rounds of comments, which included him standing directly in front of me (he is quite tall) in an attempt at physical intimidation (which ended with me saying, "Go ahead and hit me, I could use the money"), he took the only action he could, which was to tell me I was no longer welcome in the Punk Development offices. So I packed up my stuff and moved it home and finished development of Rampart from there. So that comment is just a good-natured jab at him."
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In the code of the Game Boy Advance version of Defender, there is a sultry message:
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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."
Death Stalker contains a long hidden message in its code, which includes calls for hires, promotions for other games by the same developer and publisher, and perhaps most interestingly, a message from the writer about how he had been locked out of his car:
Hello, good evening & wellcome to Qualtan, or Death Stalker in official form! Brought to you & (c) of course, by TAG computer games. We at TAG have always wondered why you hackers don't do something contructive like writing games! If you wan't to talk to us about this subject then ring HULL (0482) 215320 & have a chat. ( do this anyway if you like! we're also after graphic artists , games testers & designers. ) Watch out for 'Ninja Massacre' its beaut!! Hope you liked '19 boot camp' we did! Coming soon, Touchlight from Palace. Hello to Rogue who are writing the CBM version , featuring the first ever 16 colour HW scroll! More games from Codemasters later in the year! I am currently stranded in the TAG office because my car is locked in the multi story car park ! , just thought you might be interested. Thanks to PDS for the wonderfull Pd system, its wonderfull! TAG - the worlds first vegetarian computer company. We love Codemasters! Especially Mark, Tim, Richard & David! but is it TRUE or FALSE we ask? Fact is often stranger than fiction! more so where computers are concerned! Who was Paragon? Who are Tiertex? What is Artic ? South Hunsley , Britains crappist school! I know! theres loads more buffer left, but I've 20 miles to walk home!
[The original message contains no line breaks; they were added by The Cutting Room Floor for readability.]
The Atari Jaguar version of Rayman contains many messages for developers' family and friends that can be seen by using specific passwords, some written in French while others are written in English. Some notable ones include:
[translated from French]: The Jaguar is my friend, and so is Rayman, so let them live!!
[translated from French]: The world is kind Bettina is kind Fred and Fred are very kind Mom is kind Sophie is very kind Eric is very kind Rayman too is very kind Everyone on Rayman [the development team] is very kind. Oliver, Jean Christophe and Michel are very kind Signed: Bettina!!
[translated from French]: You see I can break your spine in two with this fist of mine!!! Signed: Serge H
[written in English]: I wanted to thanks[sic]: Konami and Nintendo for the great games they made!!!
[translated from French]: For Sale: Ascona (19XX) in wreck state Signed: Jean Marc G
[translated from French]: A beer... Gimme a beer, d'ooh... Everyone, let's go to Euro Disney!!!!!!! Signed: Bruno B
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:
If a player beats a Garfield Kart: Furious Racing time trial in less than 40 seconds - something believed to be impossible without cheating - this message will appear:
You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
You didn''t grow.
You didn''t improve.
You took a shortcut and gained nothing.
You experienced a hollow victory. Nothing was risked and nothing was gained. It''s sad that you don''t know the difference.
The text is lifted from a Tweet by user @Fetusberry about a PC Gamer article on beating Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice with cheats.
According to Raww Le Klueze, global admin of the Suikosource forums, there is a hidden marriage proposal spoken by The Castle Keeper zombie in Neclord's castle that can be found in the game's files in ve3.bin and ve6.bin. There is no known way to access it in-game. Translated to English, it reads:
"Kazuko I really love Kazuko Even after 10 years Even after 20 years Even after 50 years I will always, always love her. ......... Teeheehee! Thank you for always being there. And for always supporting me! PS Let's get married! Mwah!"
It's unknown who Kazuko is or who wrote this proposal. This text is only believed to be present in the Japanese version of the game, with the North American version replacing it with a repeat of some past dialogue with the zombie before ending with the "Mwah!" replaced with a single "Yuk.".
The background music for the "Merch Cemetery" stage has the filename "97 115 99 105 105 10", which when converted into ASCII spells "asciiLF". It is not known what this title means.
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.
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.
