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Sid Meier's Civilization
Sid Meier's Civilization (1991)
subdirectory_arrow_right Sid Meier's Civilization II (Game), Sid Meier (Franchise)
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Attachment In 2012, TV Tropes user Tunafish edited the site's page for the Civilization series to claim that Gandhi can become the most aggressive character in the original game due to a rollover error. World leaders' aggression levels drop by two points upon adopting democracy; because Gandhi's aggression is set to 1, the lowest possible value, the pacification allegedly lowers it to -1, which defaults to 255, the highest possible value.

Despite the edit not providing any evidence, the claim nonetheless circulated online in subsequent years. Because leaders will vehemently pursue a nuclear weapons policy when their aggression is high enough, the claim spawned the "Nuclear Gandhi" meme among Civilization fans, poking fun at the apparent dissonance between the real Gandhi's pacifism and his fictional counterpart's apocalyptic jingoism. A KnowYourMeme page on the memes further distorted the rumors by claiming that the bug first appeared in Civilization II rather than the first game; as of March 2024, the page now acknowledges that the rumors are false.

The Nuclear Gandhi claim was eventually debunked by series creator Sid Meier in his 2020 autobiography, Sid Meier's Memoir!: A Life in Computer Games. In the book, Meier revealed that Civilization and Civilization II are respectively programmed in C and C++, which are immune to the kinds of rollover errors that the urban legend describes. Consequently, Gandhi's aggression level remains at 1 after the adoption of democracy. Nevertheless, Meier admitted that he found the memes surrounding the urban legend funny.
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Glitch, Hoax, Meme, Real Life, Rumor, Social Media
person FUS RO DAH calendar_month October 26, 2013
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Company: Gearbox Software
subdirectory_arrow_right Valve (Company)
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In 2009, Justin McElroy, reviews editor for the now-defunct gaming blog Joystiq, contacted Gearbox co-founder Randy Pitchford asking the story of how Gearbox got its name for a puff piece series about different companies' names. Pitchford proceeded to tell an extraordinary story about how he and Valve co-founder Gabe Newell mistakenly boarded a cruising river boat together in New Orleans instead of a crossing ferry, and ended up getting into a high stakes Texas Hold 'Em poker game.

The stakes in particular were over the name "Gearbox", which he claimed came about from him and Newell discussing potential names for their up-and-coming game studios, and "realizing that something cool for a video game studio would have something to do with engines and machinery." Pitchford thought that the name was "sticky and simple and gears are cool things that have both an art and a precision to them and it's generally a nice, short but really cool word." Whoever knocked the other player out of the game or ended up with the biggest stack would win the Gearbox name. The stakes were higher for Pitchford, because according to him the other co-founders would have ditched him and shuttered the game studio entirely if he lost.

After four or five hours of play, Pitchford, being an avid poker player while Newell was not, found the right opportunity to turn the odds in his favor, leading to him winning the match, and Gabe Newell had to settle with Valve. Pitchford assured McElroy there were no hard feelings between the two as Gearbox would later work with them on future expansions for Half-Life, and the article was published and further corroborated by fellow outlet Kotaku.

However, later that day, McElroy was contacted by a spokesperson from Valve, who informed him that Newell and Pitchford first met after Valve shipped Half-Life, making the story impossible. Upon this discovery, both outlets later contacted Gearbox, and a spokesperson confirmed to them that the story was fake. Pitchford then explained to a reporter at Kotaku that the intent of his "Tall Tale" was to entertain and not to mislead, and promoted the original articles on his Twitter account as such.

It's currently unknown how Gearbox actually got its name, or if the inspiration for the name featured in the story is true while the poker game surrounding it is fabricated.
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Development, General, Hoax, Inspiration, Mistake, Real Life
person MehDeletingLater calendar_month January 24, 2023
comment Comment (0) | Source
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Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl
Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl (2021)
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When Garfield was released as a playable fighter in Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl, Twitter user InsaneProtayto posted a viral tweet with a fake screenshot of an IGN news article claiming the cat couldn't be played as on Mondays, referencing one of his most well known catchphrases, "I hate mondays". This hoax ended up becoming so popular that publisher GameMill Entertainment responded on Twitter confirming that Garfield can in fact be played as on all days of the week.
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Hoax, Meme, Social Media
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month September 5, 2023
comment Comment (0) | Source
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Overwatch
Overwatch (2016)
subdirectory_arrow_right Yoshi's Crafted World (Game), Pokémon Brilliant Diamond (Game), Pikmin 4 (Game), Pokémon Shining Pearl (Game), Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 (Game), Mario Kart 8 Deluxe: Booster Course Pass (Game)
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Coincidence, Hoax, Meme, Rumor, Similarities, Theory, Title
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month October 5, 2023
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Sonic and the Black Knight
Sonic and the Black Knight (2009)
subdirectory_arrow_right Adrenix (Game), Black Dawn (Game), Sonic The Hedgehog (Franchise), Tommy Tallarico Studios (Company)
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Tommy Tallarico, credited composer for the "Molten Mine", "The Cauldron", and "Great Megalith" music tracks in Sonic and the Black Knight claimed in 2022 to have been the first American to work on the Sonic the Hedgehog video game series. Even if one refuses to count external work such as localization, marketing, and multimedia adaptations, this is not true, as Americans have worked on art, programming, and music for Sonic titles as far back as the 16-bit version of Sonic the Hedgehog 2, with Tallarico having previously shown awareness in 2014 of American pop star Michael Jackson's involvement in Sonic 3 & Knuckles. In 2023, his involvement in writing the three tracks came into question when it was discovered that they contained similarities to several demos originally credited to Todd Dennis, a composer at Tommy Tallerico Studios in the 1990's, and originally written for the games Black Dawn and Adrenix.
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Credits, Development, Hoax, Music, Plagiarism, Similarities
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month October 5, 2023
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Tallerico's original claim:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FP5uOMZoGRo

Tallerico acknowledging Jackson's work on Sonic 3 & Knuckles:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FF8XeZdh2Jc

Article questioning Tallerico's involvement in writing Sonic and the Black Knight tracks:
https://www.sonicstadium.org/news/games/sonic-and-the-black-knight-composers-contributions-questioned-r1810/
Resident Evil 4
Resident Evil 4 (2005)
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Attachment In Issue 206 of Nintendo Power, a joke claimed that the "true" identity of the Chainsaw Man from Resident Evil 4 was Toad from the Mario franchise.
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General, Hoax
person NintendOtaku calendar_month October 12, 2023
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Freddy in Space 3: Chica in Space
Freddy in Space 3: Chica in Space (2023)
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Freddy in Space 3: Chica in Space was shadowdropped on October 18, 2023, with Scott Cawthon announcing the game's existance on Reddit. However, he claimed that the game was actually a tie-in game to the upcoming Five Nights at Freddy's movie, even going as far as to claim that "it basically gives away the plot of the whole movie" and having the game titled "FNAF: The Movie: The Game".
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General, Hoax, Real Life
person chocolatejr9 calendar_month October 20, 2023
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Polybius
Polybius (1981)
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The earliest known mention of the mythical video game Polybius was an article on the otherwise legitimate arcade gaming fan site Coinop.org posted on August 3, 1998.

The article was edited on May 16, 2009, after the "game" had achieved viral popularity, to inform readers that the site hosts had received new information about the game and were flying to Kyiv, Ukraine to investigate the title, which they would update the page on when they found out. No news has been recorded on Polybius since, but the website would have new games added to its database up to 2021.

Kurt Koller, the webmaster for coinop.org, would later claim in 2021 that he planned to go to Kyiv in 2009 to see Chernobyl, but his friend from Ukraine refused because he was expecting a child, meaning that the "Polybius update" may have just been an in-joke related to this visit.
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Hoax, In-Joke, Rumor, Unreleased Content
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month October 24, 2023
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Polybius
Polybius (1981)
subdirectory_arrow_right Cube Quest (Game)
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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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Hoax, Inspiration, Similarities, Theory
person VinchVolt calendar_month October 25, 2023
comment Comment (0) | link Source
Garfield's Scary Scavenger Hunt
Garfield's Scary Scavenger Hunt (2002)
subdirectory_arrow_right Garfield's Scary Scavenger Hunt 2 (Game), Garfield (Franchise)
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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.
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Cameo, Creepypasta, Easter Egg, Hoax, Retcon, Theory
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month October 27, 2023
comment Comment (0) | Source
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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
Franchise: Five Nights at Freddy's
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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.
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Cameo, Hoax, In-Joke, Meme, Multimedia Adaptation, Reference, Theory
person NintendOtaku calendar_month October 29, 2023
comment Comment (3) | Source
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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/
Tank
Tank (1974)
subdirectory_arrow_right Kee Games (Company), Atari (Company)
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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.
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Acquisition, Corporate Affairs, Hoax
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month November 4, 2023
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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
Platform: Nintendo Switch
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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.
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Backwards Compatibility, Corporate Affairs, Development, Early Idea, Hoax, Leak, Patent, Prototype, Real Life, Removed Feature, Unreleased Hardware
person VinchVolt calendar_month November 9, 2023
comment Comment (0) | link Source
Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2
Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2 (2023)
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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.
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Artwork/Illustration, Coincidence, Development, Fan Works, Hoax, Real Life, Roster Speculation
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month November 11, 2023
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Drawn to Life
Drawn to Life (2007)
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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.
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Easter Egg, Hidden Credit, Hoax, In-Joke, Secret
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month November 13, 2023
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Mario Kart 64
Mario Kart 64 (1996)
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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.
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Cameo, Easter Egg, Hoax, Theory
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month November 14, 2023
comment Comment (0) | link Source
Duck Hunt
Duck Hunt (1984)
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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.
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Hoax, Rumor, Title, Unsolved Mystery
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month November 14, 2023
comment Comment (0) | link Source
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (2018)
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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.
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Bonus Content, Complaint, Hoax, Misconception, Mistake
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month November 14, 2023
comment Comment (0) | link Source
Super Mario 64 DS
Super Mario 64 DS (2004)
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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.
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Coincidence, Hoax, Misconception, Rumor, Theory, Unused Character, Unused Graphic
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month November 18, 2023
comment Comment (0) | Source
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Bio Force Ape
Bio Force Ape (TBA)
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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.
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Cancelled Release, Hoax, In-Joke, Magazine, Meme, Politics, Prototype, Unreleased Content
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month November 19, 2023
comment Comment (0) | Source
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