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Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
1
After Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door's announcement in 2003, some Mario fans incorrectly believed that the character of Madame Flurrie was going to be the ghost of Bowser's wife, based off of her character design and Japanese name. This is due to Flurrie's Japanese name, "Cloudia", sounding a lot like "Clawdia", a popular urban legend name for the Koopalings' mother supposedly created by the Mario fan website "Lemmy's Land", as well as Flurrie sharing a hair style with Ludwig and lip-shape with Wendy, who were at the time considered Bowser's children by Nintendo.
Pokémon FireRed Version
subdirectory_arrow_right Pokémon LeafGreen Version (Game)
3
Attachment 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.
person VinchVolt calendar_month March 21, 2024
DidYouKnowGaming video which mentions the rumor (before it was debunked):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HsxuGMWnXM

YouTube video by Tech Rules debunking the rumor:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XjHZ-V4ooA&t=604s
Pokémon Black Version
subdirectory_arrow_right Pokémon White Version 2 (Game), Pokémon Black Version 2 (Game), Pokémon White Version (Game)
1
Attachment When Pokémon Black 2 and Pokémon White 2 first released in Japan, fake leaks were posted on various websites claiming to be ROMs of the game, but in reality contained an FMV of a parody of the theme song to the Disney Channel series Cory in the House. The parody featured several of the games' characters and other memes at the time superimposed over the actors' heads, including talk show host Stephen Colbert, a caricature of the Pokémon fan website Serebii.net with a Trollface superimposed over it, and legacy Pokémon character Gary Oak. Before the title card of the show appears at the end, a barely visible screenshot of a post from the imageboard 4chan can be seen featuring the box art of the Nintendo DS game adaptation of the show, implying that the parody and fake ROMs originated from there. The video also features several scrolling text statements including:

• "Amber killed Gary" - supposedly referring to an incident on 4chan's dedicated Pokémon board /vp/ starting on August 26, 2010 where several posters using Gary Oak and Mewtwo as avatars tried to "revive" or "kill" the anime-only character Amber from The Uncut Story of Mewtwo's Origin by trying to predict their post numbers in advance.
• "SHE IS BLACK ?!?" - referring to Pokémon Black & White Gym Leader Lenora.
• "GIANT HAIR EVERYWHERE" - on the following shot with four Bouffalants superimposed over Mount Rushmore.
• "FINAL GYM LEADER (IT HAS BEEN SEREBII CONFIRMED)" - referring to Iris, the last Gym Leader in Pokémon White and seems to be referring to leaks from the first Pokémon Black and Pokémon White games.
• "THIS FLOATING TEXT IS UP IN YO' SCREEN DAWG"
• "AMERICA" - on a shot of Stephen Colbert.

An upload of the fake ROM's FMV on YouTube dates back to September 16, 2010, two days before Pokemon Black & White's release date in Japan, and features several comments mentioning 4chan and /vp/ on top of the references in the video, suggesting that the hoax actually dates back to the release of the first Pokémon Black and Pokémon White, although discussion of this FMV from that time does not appear to have been preserved. While this ROM is also not known to be preserved (though its contents are), as recently as 2018 there have been reports of ROM dumps of Pokémon White 2 being silently modified to include Cory in the House references, including NPCs with dialogue featuring the lyrics to the show's theme song.
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month March 14, 2024
GBATemp forum thread from Pokémon Black & White 2's release discussing the Cory "leaks":
https://gbatemp.net/threads/pokemon-black-white-2-j-ot.325098/page-59

The Cory in the House FMV:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTcf2n7WODU

A documented Cory-related mod in Pokémon White 2:
https://www.realmeye.com/forum/t/pokemon-white-2-has-a-cory-in-the-house-reference/29349/6

Bulbapedia user article on /vp/ that seems to be the only archived text online explaining what "Amber killed Gary" even means:
https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/User:The_Great_Butler//vp/#Notable_Creations
This Is Football 2004
subdirectory_arrow_right WALL-E (Game)
1
This is Football 2004 was the first Western video game to be officially localised into Arabic. In 2008, THQ would attempt to pass off the HD version of Wall-E as the first, using the rather dubious wording of "first current-gen game".
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month December 26, 2023
Secret Writers Society
3
If you write a string of text longer than 2 sentences in Secret Writer's Society then press the text-to-speech button two times, the robot voice will begin to list off a string of swear words. This was supposedly added by a disgruntled programmer who was paid by RTMark (an anti-consumerist advocacy group that had previously - albeit falsely - claimed responsibility for the shirtless men Easter egg in SimCopter and an infamous incident where unsold Barbie dolls and G.I. Joe action figures had their voice boxes swapped) to insert the Easter egg as a way to warn parents and teachers of the dangers of over-relying on educational software instead of committing to communication with their child. This would eventually be proven to be false like the other RTMark claims, as the profanity was simply a bizarre bug based on the game's censorship filter.
Poptropica
3
In December 2023, a Discord user posing as a representative of the developers of Poptropica stated on the server for the fan website Poptropica Help Blog that the game would be shutting down after December 29th. The account first appeared on the server in 2022, and while the blog did not do a complete screening to ensure the account was officially associated with the developers, it was eventually given the role of "Poptropica Creator" after they determined it was official based on its posting history. Many players initially believed the announcement was legitimate after Poptropica suddenly closed membership registrations earlier in the month. Shortly after the shut down announcement, the official Poptropica Twitter and Instagram accounts decried the Discord account as being unofficial, and assured players that the game would still be playable after December 29th, with all memberships up to the end of the year being available for free. The blog posted an apology for perpetuating the rumors the following day, but within the next year, the validity of the rumors being false would come into question.

On January 18, 2024, possibly in response to the rumors the prior month, Coolmath Games revealed that they had been in talks with the team behind Poptropica to host the game on their site exclusively, with the game remaining playable on Steam and mobile devices. This would later be confirmed by Poptropica themselves through a pop-up message on their website shortly afterwards. Notably, in a blog post expanding upon the news, Coolmath Games revealed that "the original Poptropica decided to wind down", something that had never been officially stated by Poptropica themselves. This would suggest that there was some degree of truth to the initial hoax as well as various rumors.
person chocolatejr9 calendar_month December 19, 2023
Poptropica Help Blog post about the shutdown claims:
https://poptropi.ca/2023/12/16/is-poptropica-shutting-down/

Official Poptropica statement regarding December shutdown rumors:
https://twitter.com/Poptropica/status/1735509964381372710

Coolmath Games announcement:
https://twitter.com/TheRealCoolmath/status/1748068741743555024

Poptropica Help Blog about the news:
https://poptropi.ca/2024/01/19/moving-coolmath/

Coolmath Games blog announcement:
https://www.coolmathgames.com/blog/poptropica-migration
Mario Kart 64
subdirectory_arrow_right Mario Kart Wii (Game)
3
Attachment In Mario Kart 64's Bowser's Castle, one can see what appears to be a green Thwomp locked up in a jail cell - this Thwomp is not actually green, but simply lit in a way that makes him appear as such.

This Thwomp would inspire urban legends claiming that players could bail him out through varying elaborate tricks, after which he would be playable under the name "Marty" (likely chosen for the ease of editing hoaxed images with the names Mario, Toad, and Yoshi)

When N64 Bowser's Castle returned in Mario Kart Wii, "Marty" would be made the color of the rest of the Thwomps, suggesting that his green complexion was simply an error and not an intentional design choice.
Bubsy in Claws Encounters of the Furred Kind
subdirectory_arrow_right Bubsy (Collection)
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person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month November 30, 2023
Beelzebubsy's posts:
https://aminoapps.com/c/bubsythebobcat/page/user/beelzebubsy/33xp_lViMf7dR2vJa7zoYX7DlWq0er2xRRCV

Example of SqrlyJack's infamy within the Bubsy fandom, not the subject of the fact, but moreso just backing up that she is a controversial figure to Bubsy fans:
https://tsknew999.tumblr.com/post/179917221391/who-wrote-this-stuff

Xindictive's claim in the comment section of a Slope's Game Room video on Bubsy that presents the fake concept art as real:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jea5BBMIA0A&lc=UgwIn_sCDJ1pf0goZ214AaABAg

Tweet from Xindictive about the forgery, a reply shows a magazine scan that one of the forged images was traced from:
https://twitter.com/TSKNew999/status/1140301796201529344

Advertisement for the now-closed Discord server claming that Berlyn was on it:
https://www.reddit.com/r/the_Bubsy/comments/mq1xda/long_overdue_update_post/

Examples of Ken Macklin's real signature:
https://postimg.cc/gallery/YWFZ1P8/2fd8ba45
Bio Force Ape
2
Attachment Bio Force Ape is a game that was never released - it did, before it's cancellation, get a spotlight in Nintendo Power, creating a level of curiosity surrounding it within NES fan communities. Capitalizing off of this curiosity, a post would be made on the Digital Press forum in 2005 claiming to show screenshots of a leaked prototype. While the first post appeared legitimate, the hoax would eventually be unraveled starting with a screenshot of a glitched super move that was "so powerful [that] it messes up the game's graphics", which humorously made it appear that Bio Force Ape was unleashing a powerful fart attack, as a set of glitched graphics appeared next to a crouching animation. The poster, going under the username PaulB812, would refuse to dump the game and refer to anybody who asked for it to be released as either "communists" or "butter-slathered... hoarding fatties", before finally unveiling the prank with a game screenshot of a cutscene where a fat butter monster points out that the ape is "worth 2K monies[sic]", before the ape punches him while saying "EAT COMMUNISM!" A real prototype would be leaked in 2010.
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month November 19, 2023
Super Mario 64 DS
1
Attachment During the height of Super Mario 64 DS' popularity, a popular rumor was that Waluigi was hidden as an unlockable character - this rumor was inspired both by the presence of Wario and Luigi without their combined counterpart, and a set of coincidences within the game and its supplementary material:

• The character switching room having 4 doors, one for Mario; one for Luigi; and one for Wario, along with a final, empty room (this room actually contained a Power Star).
• 4 bunnies existing in the game: a yellow bunny who appears when playing as Yoshi, a pink bunny who appears when playing as Mario, a green bunny who appears when playing as Luigi, and an orange bunny who appears when playing as Wario. The manual's page on the mini-games that bunnies are used to unlock shows a purple bunny that doesn't appear in the game.
• The title screen and floor of the Rec Room having a colour scheme based on yellow (Wario's color), green (Luigi and Yoshi's color), red (Mario's color), and purple (Waluigi's color).
• The image of Peach's Castle on the file select screen having what appears to be an open window that does not exist in the game, which many assume is where Waluigi would be hiding.

The popularity of these theories would birth an infamous hoax known as "Purple Prizes", a graphic created by Andrew Brown of Nintendo World Report in an attempt to rebirth the mystery he felt as a child from trying to find Luigi in the original Super Mario 64 for the younger Nintendo DS generation, and posted it to DeviantArt and a set of gaming forums under the false pretense of being a scan from an unnamed magazine. Although he clarified that the picture was fake a mere 2 days later, the image still spread online like wildfire, and was misreported as originating from Nintendo Power or IGN. Brown noted that some attempts to debunk flaws in the image were not based on the actual and plentiful flaws he acknowledged the image as having, but rather misconceptions such as Waluigi's yellow gamma being a C or accusing certain images of being based on the original Nintendo 64 game instead of the DS remake.
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month November 18, 2023
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
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Three of the character origin tips for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate ignore lesser known Nintendo-branded games released by third parties in the 1990s. Two of these tips outright lie - one related to Mario's first utterance of the phrase "Mamma Mia!" (which it falsely attributes to Super Mario 64 and not Mario's Game Gallery) and another claiming that there are only 5 Zelda series games with Link's name in the title (ignoring Link: The Faces of Evil). The third one on the other hand is worded in an awkward manner - a tip relating to Luigi's first starring role referring to Luigi's Mansion as "Luigi's first big break as a main protagonist" - as to ignore the true holder of the title, Mario is Missing! without technically lying.

It's not known if those first two instances were an honest error, or an intentional attempt to hide the games given that they are generally seen as low quality and are considered to have negatively affected Nintendo's reputation at their time of release.
Duck Hunt
2
There exists a myth that claims that the giggling scent hound from Duck Hunt's real name is "Mr. Peepers", also the name of a 1950s sitcom. This name is not mentioned in any official Nintendo material, but has been brought up as the dog's name on the internet as far back as at least 2006, and would be cited by many legitimate sources as the dog's name up until the release of Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS, which named the character simply "Duck Hunt" or "Dog". To this day, it remains unknown where the idea of the dog being named "Mr. Peepers" originated and how it spread to be such a popular title for the character.
Mario Kart 64
1
Attachment On Toad's Turnpike, the bus is driven by what many have assumed to be the silhouette of Diddy Kong. On the Mario Kart 64 Japanese website, it is instead stated to be a Ukiki wearing a hat.
Drawn to Life
1
In the Easter egg "Developer's Grove" area that is unlocked upon donating 10,000 Rapo-Coins to the Wishing Well, one of the developers will inform the player that there is a "secret flower" hidden in the game that can bring the Mayor, who dies in the final world, back from the dead - while another developer tells the player that the other developer is lying. There is no secret flower.
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month November 13, 2023
Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2
1
Attachment Prior to Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2's announcement, a convincing image "leaked" showing El Tigre in the game, which would be shared by a variety of sources including Jorge R. Gutierrez, the creator of El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera. It would later be confirmed by a moderator on the official NASB Discord (who has no involvement in the game's development) that the image was actually an art test from another Discord server and not intended to be spread as a leak. Despite this, El Tigre would still appear as playable character in Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2, a rather lucky coincidence given the cartoon's obscurity.
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month November 11, 2023
Platform: Nintendo Switch
2
Attachment Among the material uncovered in the 2020 Gigaleak, a large-scale data leak from Nintendo's internal servers, was a series of documents surrounding Project INDY, an early iteration of the Nintendo Switch co-developed with ST Microelectronics. Project INDY was envisioned as a successor to the Nintendo 3DS and was halfway between it and the Wii U in terms of processing power.

The system would've carried over many of the 3DS' features, including dual-screen functionality, touch controls, stereoscopic 3D, motion sensors, augmented reality functionality, and StreetPass support. The system also would've featured backwards compatibility with 3DS game cards, Bluetooth connectivity (including support for wireless speakers and headsets), GPS functionality, a videotelephony app, the ability to wirelessly project games to a TV screen via Miracast, and support to quickly convert a commercially released unit into a developer system, easing development costs for independent studios. Many of these features would be carried over to the Switch in modified forms.

Technical documents for Project INDY show that while prototype software was developed for the system, Nintendo were unsure about its specifications and came up with various alternative options, such as support for 120 fps video, an 800p display, and a design with a single, oblong touchscreen that spans the full face of the device save for two joysticks near each end. The latter design was the final iteration that Nintendo came up with before ceasing work with ST Microelectronics in late 2014. By this point, Nintendo had devised the Switch's final name, listing it on the design's blueprints.

An earlier iteration of this oblong design would also become the basis for a hoax image created in the interim between Nintendo president Satoru Iwata's announcement of the Switch's development in March 2015 and the company's first public reveal of the device in October 2016. The image is a 3D-printed mockup of the Switch based on a patent filed earlier in 2014, which itself reveals that Nintendo was still considering stereoscopic 3D, backwards compatibility with 3DS games, and videotelephony support.
Tank
subdirectory_arrow_right Kee Games (Company), Atari (Company)
1
Attachment Most geographic areas had two arcade video game distributors in the 1970s. Atari founder Nolan Bushnell tried to sign exclusive deals with as many of these distributors as possible, and then got his neighbor, Joe Keenan, to run a second studio known as Kee Games (named after Keenan, who led the company), which would sign an exclusive deal with the other distributor in the area, selling clones of Atari games with minor alterations. Bushnell would then move Atari workers into Kee Games - to avoid signaling that Kee has ties to Atari, Nolan Bushnell would release a fake press release condemning Kee for supposedly stealing staff. Eventually, Kee would release its first unique game, Tank!, which proved to be more popular than any of Atari's original games at the time, leading Kee to be officially merged into Atari in 1974 as Atari no longer needed exclusivity deals. Kee Games would be closed by Warner Telecommunications in 1978.
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month November 4, 2023
GameDeveloper article on the history of Atari:
https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/the-history-of-atari-1971-1977

Everything2 entry on Kee Games:
https://everything2.com/title/Kee+Games
1
Matthew Patrick (or "MatPat"), a YouTuber known for making a multitude of Five Nights at Freddy's analysis videos throughout the series' history for his series "Game Theory", makes a cameo as a waiter in the 2023 "Five Nights at Freddy's" film. The coffee shop that he works at is named Sparky's (a nod to Sparky the Dog, one of the series' earliest fan-made hoaxes). MatPat's character's name as seen on his name tag is Ness, which, according to series creator Scott Cawthon, is a reference to a 2016 Game Theory video where MatPat theorized that Sans from Undertale was Ness from EarthBound. MatPat's final line in his scene is "but that's just a theory", a portion of his catchphrase used in the majority of his videos.

A pinned comment left by Cawthon on a "Film Theory" video where MatPat goes into further detail on his cameo in the film claimed that the packed theater Cawthon watched the film in "ERUPTED in cheers" when MatPat appeared.
person NintendOtaku calendar_month October 29, 2023
Five Nights at Freddy's MatPat cameo scene:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ni0fTBaREGc

MatPat Film Theory video going into detail about his cameo in the film:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzwEzpec7CA

Game Theory "Sans Is Ness" video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYdDUXyFocY

Article about Sparky the Dog:
https://fnafinsider.com/characters/sparky-the-dog-fnaf/
Garfield's Scary Scavenger Hunt
subdirectory_arrow_right Garfield's Scary Scavenger Hunt 2 (Game), Garfield (Franchise)
2
Attachment Garfield's Scary Scavenger Hunt features a cameo from Lyman, Odie's original owner who disappeared from the Garfield comics in 1983, where he is chained up in the basement of the haunted house. This somewhat lines up with a joke in the 1998 book 20 Years & Still Kicking! Garfield’s Twentieth Anniversary Collection, where a comedic list of reasons for Lyman's disappearance was provided, with "Don't look in Jon's basement!" listed as #1. The difference from the book being that the Scary Scavenger Hunt game does not take place in Jon's house, nor is the haunted house ever said to belong to the Arbuckle family.

Lyman also makes a second cameo in the game's sequel Garfield's Scary Scavenger Hunt II: Donuts of Doom, where his severed head can be found inside of an oven.

Lyman would eventually reappear in The Garfield Show where he was said to have left for Australia to find cryptids and protect animals from poachers.
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month October 27, 2023
Garfield's Scary Scavenger Hunt - Lyman cameo:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcFbmTEoPzI#t=482

Garfield's Scary Scavenger Hunt 2 - Lyman cameo:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OXExjYIiRQ#t=1054

Article on Lyman's appearances in the Garfield franchise (Please note that the source gets the release date of the Scary Scavenger Hunt games incorrect):
https://melmagazine.com/en-us/story/lyman-garfield
Polybius
subdirectory_arrow_right Cube Quest (Game)
2
Video game researcher Patrick Kellogg posited that Cube Quest was likely the inspiration for Polybius, an urban legend in which US government operatives create a Tempest-esque shoot-em-up of the same name that has lasting psychoactive effects on those who play it. In Kellogg's analysis, he notes that Cube Quest features similar Tempest-style gameplay and sports vibrant, surreal backgrounds like the kind described in the urban legend. The backgrounds in Cube Quest were reproduced by running a LaserDisc player installed in the game's cabinet; because LaserDisc technology is much less reliable than solid state media, the cabinet required constant maintenance from technicians, which Kellogg cited as the likely inspiration for the government agents who periodically harvest data from Polybius in the urban legend.
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