After killing the Swirl in mid-flight, a black vertical line appears across the spot where the Swirl was shot. This line is referred to under the Helpful Hints section in the game's manual as the "Ghost of Yars" and warns the player to stay off its "mean streak". If the Yar is in the lower third of the screen and the black spot on its back is aligned across the vertical line at the moment the explosion vanishes, the game ends and goes into the "Game Select" screen with "HSWWSH" in place of the player's score. These are the mirrored initials of the game's creator Howard Scott Warshaw.
In 2024, a hidden variation of the Konami Code was discovered in the game that allows you to unlock all characters and costumes from the start. To activate it, on the title screen, press C-Up four times/C-Down four times/C-Left/C-Left/C-Right/C-Right/C-Left/C-Left/C-Right/C-Right/L/R/Z.
One of Kage's item win poses features him throwing a pan into the air and it landing on his head. This is a reference to a secret win pose he had in Virtua Fighter 3tb.
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.
The Ziggy enemies appear to be modeled after Ziggy Stardust, a stage persona created and portrayed by English rock musician David Bowie from 1972 to 1973. In addition to the identical names, the Garden Ziggy variety features brightly colored lightning bolts painted across each eye and a large yellow mohawk, with the results resembling the cover photo for Bowie's 1973 album Aladdin Sane (which depicts Bowie with a red lightning bolt on one eye and a large red mullet).
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Explosive Fighter Patton from 1988 is believed to be the first video game to use the swear word "fuck", referring to the Famicom Disk System as the "fucking box". It is not known if this is an in-joke or a translation error.
This is followed by Skweek for Amstrad CPC in 1989, whose development builds leaked to the UK market, featuring a variety of vulgar in-joke placeholder phrases. The swearing version of the game has not known to be preserved, but it is alleged that one of these quotes was "fuck your mother!". This would make it the first use of "fuck" to be known for a fact to have been intentional, even if its distribution wasn't.
1990's Paranoia, the Japanese version of Psychosis features an 8-bit sound effect upon stage clear that appears to be made to evoke the phrase "fuck you!", which is played in accompaniment with an alien flipping the bird. This is technically the first vocalized use of "fuck", but is not a recording of a human voice, and is the first for-a-fact intentionally included use of "fuck".
1991's Llamatron contained a voice sample of the word "oh, fuck!" which was cut off. A glitch made it so that if you paused the game upon dying, it would play uncensored, making it the first clear vocalised use of "fuck", even if still not intentionally added.
1995's The Orion Conspiracy contains one of the earliest known uses of "fuck" that was clearly spoken, uncensored, and known for a fact to not be an oversight. Also of note is Discworld, released in the same year, having an Easter egg referencing John Cleese's 1989 eulogy to the late Monty Python member Graham Chapman. While both games released in the same year, it is unknown which game came out first as Discworld is the only one of the two to have a known release date, coming out on March 17, 1995.
Throughout development of Shipwrecked 64, Squeaks D'Corgeh would make references to a non-existent character in the game named "Duncan Dolphin". This even included a fake death animation for a character named "Drake Dulfin" (likely intended to be the Spoiler:Starling counterpart of Duncan) being shot in the face by Spoiler:Brandon Lester in his Bucky Beaver costume in what appeared to be a Wild West-esque setting. This continued after the game's release, where one of the patch notes for the Hotfix 2 update stated "Removed Duncan Dolphin", likely as a reference to the "Removed Herobrine" gag seen in updates to Minecraft.
However, on April 1st, 2024, an April Fools update was released that added Duncan to the game as a New Game+ bonus. If the game's True Ending has been reached, he will appear in The Theater at Midnight and ask Bucky for help activating his "New. Radical. Mechanism!!" due to losing the trinkets needed to make it work. This will take the player to a new area called "Garten of Duncan", a recreation of the Testing Sector from Garten of Banban made using assets from The Plaza. Clearing the map will take the player to a previously unused location called "Layer 4 Elevator", where an audio tape reveals that the player can input console commands to access other unused locations as part of the update. Entering the door will take the player to another new area, known simply as "Sample Area", but only a few seconds after entering the player will be kicked out to the encounter with the Spoiler:Studiogrounds Husk at the end of the game.
Notably, in the "Layer 4 Elevator" area, Chief Wulf can be seen on top of the tallest building in the area. If the player uses console commands to reach him, he can be spoken to, revealing that Spoiler:he has relived the same days over and over again, watched Stumbler O'Hare die over and over as part of that, and believes that he will be forgotten after his death.
The player has a chance to randomly encounter an unnamed clown during their playthrough, who only appears once in the entire game to hand them a slip of paper. The note in question reads as follows:
"Ever Dream This Clown?
Every night, all over the world, hundreds of people see this clown in their dreams. If this clown appears in your dreams don't play any game with him. If you want more information go to:
nachogames.itch.io/unlikely"
The link in question leads to the Itch.io page for the game Unlikely, another game made by Nacho Sama. Additionally, the note itself appears to be a reference to "This Man", an urban legend created by Italian sociologist Andrea Natella about a mysterious individual who has appeared in the dreams of people all over the world since 2006.
During the training mission at the start of the game, once you walk outside the Ramsey Recruitment Center on Earth, there is a grey ramp to the right of where you exit that can be climbed on. Sitting at the top of the ramp is a basketball that you can pick up and keep in your inventory. This basketball is unique among other items in the game in that it bounces and rolls realistically when dropped, except on moving platforms where it instantly sticks to the ground. However, there is a specific use for it later in the game when you are on-board the Recreation Deck, the fifth deck of the Von Braun starship. When you enter the Athletic Sector of the ship, you can find a basketball court with a broken hoop and one intact hanging hoop, as well as the first Rumbler in the game. Dropping the basketball through the working hoop from the second floor of the court will cause an email transmission to be sent to Soldier, accompanied by a series of monkey sound effects and mechanical noises. This email was written by A. Bananas, a squirrel monkey wearing a deerstalker cap and a monocle, and comes with a picture of a banana as an attachment. The content of the email is an offer to form an alliance with the other squirrel monkeys on the ship:
A. BANANAS 12.JUL.14 re: Join us? "Things are going according to plan. We've managed to turn the Many against SHODAN, and you've been stupid enough to stick your neck out for that overbearing uber-computer. Why not join us? While you've been stockpiling ammo, med hypos and hi tech gadgets, we've collected every last piece of nuts, bananas and coconuts onboard. Just say the word, and you'll get plenty to eat, an attractive hirsute companion, and a tire swing of your own. In the end, isn't that what really matters?"
Opening the email to hear the voice recording of it will reveal A. Banana's speech is normal monkey chatter, but the software of Soldier's cyber rig can apparently translate it into the English language through unknown means.
In Chapter XI: Starscream's Betrayal, once you exit outside for the first time, if you travel around the left side of the tower from where you exited, you will come across a small room with an open roof to fall into. The room contains several breakable crates and machinery, alongside a story-related Audio Log from Megatron, but the most unusual thing in the room is a small hologram console that allows you to play a game called "Super Grimlock Quest 64". Pressing the button to start the game will play a short animation and music track featuring still images of Grimlock killing an Insecticon and then getting killed by a giant spider Insecticon, all while Grimlock's health bar depletes in the top-left corner of the hologram screen, suggesting Starscream played the game very poorly.
During the introduction cutscene, the winning number for the contest held at Papa's Paleteria's grand opening is 17. This is a reference to the fact that Papa's Paleteria To Go! is the 17th installment in the Papa Louie series of games.
After getting the Blue Streamer, a Toad will appear at the entrance to the Shogun Studios, trying to look through a window and complaining about the price of admission, exclaiming "Let me in—LET ME IN!" This is likely a reference to the segment "Eric Near the DNC" from the Adult Swim series "The Eric Andre Show", which features a similar moment that became a popular internet meme.
If you insert the PlayStation or PC versions of the game into a CD player, or play the Sega Saturn version's disc in the console's music player, you can access a hidden song on track 6 titled "Motty's Rap". The song consists of humorous phrases recorded by longtime FIFA commentator John Motson that mostly comment on the song's techno/rock instrumental with some mild innuendos, including: "That is the fattest bottom end I've ever heard" and "This reminds me of touring with the Sex Pistols". The song was the work of EA composer/audio designer Robert Bailey, who got Motson to record lines for the song during his time in the recording booth. In a 2024 interview, Bailey stated that the song was one of many obscure Easter eggs involving Motson's dialogue that the developers put together, with "Motty's Rap" being pulled from "just all of the stupidest phrases John said" and were put into the context of the music. The song was approved to be put into the game by its executive producer Bruce McMillan.
If the players moves their mouse over to the game's current version number in the top right corner of the main menu and click on it, the numbers begin to shift around until they read "2.0.77", as a nod to the game's title.
Located on the rooftop of Tom's Diner (over at Bradbury & Buran) is a pair of binoculars. If the players uses the binoculars to look up to the left, they'll find graffiti of the Northern cardinal bird that's used in CD Projekt RED's logo. After waiting a few moments, the vision in the binoculars will glitch and shift to show a picture of the game's dev team superimposed over the screen. According to global community director Marcin Momot and senior PR manager Marta Piwońska, this picture was taken at an annual company picnic on CD Projekt RED's 20th anniversary in 2022.
In Capsule Corp, a yellow hovercar can be found to the left directly after entering the building. A scientist working on the hovercar reveals that it's a prototype model that he predicts will be a "huge hit" when it's finished and released. According to the game's official strategy guide, this hovercar is the same one used by Goku and his driving instructor in the "Dragon Ball Z" filler episode "Goku's Ordeal", where Goku and Piccolo are forced by Chi-Chi to take driving lessons.
The Ziggy enemies appear to be modeled after Ziggy Stardust, a stage persona created and portrayed by English rock musician David Bowie from 1972 to 1973. In addition to the identical names, the Garden Ziggy variety features brightly colored lightning bolts painted across each eye and a large yellow mohawk, with the results resembling the cover photo for Bowie's 1973 album Aladdin Sane (which depicts Bowie with a red lightning bolt on one eye and a large red mullet).
The player has a chance to randomly encounter an unnamed clown during their playthrough, who only appears once in the entire game to hand them a slip of paper. The note in question reads as follows:
During the training mission at the start of the game, once you walk outside the Ramsey Recruitment Center on Earth, there is a grey ramp to the right of where you exit that can be climbed on. Sitting at the top of the ramp is a basketball that you can pick up and keep in your inventory. This basketball is unique among other items in the game in that it bounces and rolls realistically when dropped, except on moving platforms where it instantly sticks to the ground. However, there is a specific use for it later in the game when you are on-board the Recreation Deck, the fifth deck of the Von Braun starship. When you enter the Athletic Sector of the ship, you can find a basketball court with a broken hoop and one intact hanging hoop, as well as the first Rumbler in the game. Dropping the basketball through the working hoop from the second floor of the court will cause an email transmission to be sent to Soldier, accompanied by a series of monkey sound effects and mechanical noises. This email was written by A. Bananas, a squirrel monkey wearing a deerstalker cap and a monocle, and comes with a picture of a banana as an attachment. The content of the email is an offer to form an alliance with the other squirrel monkeys on the ship:
After getting the Blue Streamer, a Toad will appear at the entrance to the Shogun Studios, trying to look through a window and complaining about the price of admission, exclaiming "Let me in—LET ME IN!" This is likely a reference to the segment "Eric Near the DNC" from the Adult Swim series "The Eric Andre Show", which features a similar moment that became a popular internet meme.
If you insert the PlayStation or PC versions of the game into a CD player, or play the Sega Saturn version's disc in the console's music player, you can access a hidden song on track 6 titled "Motty's Rap". The song consists of humorous phrases recorded by longtime FIFA commentator John Motson that mostly comment on the song's techno/rock instrumental with some mild innuendos, including: "That is the fattest bottom end I've ever heard" and "This reminds me of touring with the Sex Pistols". The song was the work of EA composer/audio designer Robert Bailey, who got Motson to record lines for the song during his time in the recording booth. In a 2024 interview, Bailey stated that the song was one of many obscure Easter eggs involving Motson's dialogue that the developers put together, with "Motty's Rap" being pulled from "just all of the stupidest phrases John said" and were put into the context of the music. The song was approved to be put into the game by its executive producer Bruce McMillan.
Located on the rooftop of Tom's Diner (over at Bradbury & Buran) is a pair of binoculars. If the players uses the binoculars to look up to the left, they'll find graffiti of the Northern cardinal bird that's used in CD Projekt RED's logo. After waiting a few moments, the vision in the binoculars will glitch and shift to show a picture of the game's dev team superimposed over the screen. According to global community director Marcin Momot and senior PR manager Marta Piwońska, this picture was taken at an annual company picnic on CD Projekt RED's 20th anniversary in 2022.
In Capsule Corp, a yellow hovercar can be found to the left directly after entering the building. A scientist working on the hovercar reveals that it's a prototype model that he predicts will be a "huge hit" when it's finished and released. According to the game's official strategy guide, this hovercar is the same one used by Goku and his driving instructor in the "Dragon Ball Z" filler episode "Goku's Ordeal", where Goku and Piccolo are forced by Chi-Chi to take driving lessons.