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Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors
1
Attachment The game's data contains labels for player 3 up to player 8. It is possible that a mode reminiscent of the Tournament Battle variant of Super Street Fighter II (a special version that networked 4 cabinets together to allow for 8 player elimination tournaments) was considered at one point in development before being scrapped.
L.A. Noire
1
Attachment During the cases "The Black Caesar" and "The Consul's Car", you can find two pieces of toast with images of a cowboy's face burnt into them. This toast is not interactable, and fans have assumed that these are the likenesses of John or Jack Marston from Red Dead Redemption.
Halo: Combat Evolved
1
Attachment In the campaign levels "Assault on the Control Room" and "343 Guilty Spark", a glitch can be performed where if you hold down the button to throw a grenade right as a cutscene showing you arriving on the Pelican starts, you will stay inside the Pelican despite map scripting normally forcing you to jump out. The ship will then fly off out-of-bounds. If this glitch is done in the former mission, you can exit at any time and explore, but if you do not jump out in time, the Pelican will fly through a kill barrier and kill you. If done in the latter mission, you can safely get out at any time and explore with no risk of death. If you travel northeast from where the Pelican landed, you may eventually encounter a lone Marine, Private Mendoza from later in the mission, standing around in the empty area doing nothing. In Anniversary Edition, this Marine is slightly hidden behind a tree (several were added to this area in this edition), but he can still be seen as the trees do not have collision-detection, allowing you to walk through them. While it may seem that him standing around doing nothing is just an Easter egg, his presence here is actually a pre-determined location for his model to spawn in at before he is needed later in the level so there are no memory allocation spikes that would occur if his model was just loaded in and destroyed from the level. This is part of a common game programming pattern called "object pooling" where multiple objects are pre-initialized to be in use, and once their usage is finished are set to no longer be in use. The position of Mendoza's model is changed to be used in a pair of cutscenes during the mission.

It's notable that Mendoza's model has very minimal AI unlike other NPCs in the stage. Normally, if you use mods to possess any other character in the level and play as them, the game will recognize that the functions assigned to that character are being overridden by the player character and the level will crash. If you use mods to possess Mendoza's model however, the game will not recognize his functions have changed and you can play through the entire mission as him. He has less functionality than Master Chief, he freezes when he is hit due to him playing an animation central to his original AI, and will die in a few hits, but with the God Mode invincibility cheat on he can complete the level. Although designer Jaime Griesemer mentioned that there was a playable Marine unit named "future soldier" in an earlier RTS prototype of Halo titled "Monkey Nuts"/"Blam!", it's unknown if Mendoza specifically was ever planned to be playable.
person MehDeletingLater calendar_month March 21, 2023
Video about the hidden Marine:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DA1S6d0d-bE

Glitch to stay in the ship during Assault on the Control Room:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAVgeC5cpdA

Vice article on Halo development:
https://www.vice.com/en/article/xwqjg3/the-complete-untold-history-of-halo-an-oral-history
Capcom vs. SNK 2: Mark of the Millennium 2001
1
Attachment The game's artist Kinu Nishimura, likely used a picture of Masutatsu Ōyama (more commonly known as Mas Oyama) doing his stance as a reference work for her illustrated work of Ryu.
Xevious
1
In the 2/86 interview with the game's designer Masanobu Endō published in the issue of Famimaga magazine, he commented that one of the team's employees named Akira was nicknamed "Bakira", because he had a tendency to break things. This in-joke is likely a play on the kanji "爆" (baku), to explode/burst/roar. Endō then admitted he used his nickname as an inspiration for the enemies as "Bacura" enemies in Xevious, commenting:

"...my generation, the "Gundam Generation", we love to make up stupid reasons for every choice we make. Even if it's a lie. (laughs)"
Mortal Kombat II
1
In Episode 7 of the TV series adaptation of The Last of Us, Ellie and Riley are seen playing the arcade version of Mortal Kombat II. At one point, Riley uses Mileena's fatality on Ellie's character Raiden, with Riley being heard pressing four buttons to initiate the killing blow. Following the episode's release, a number of fans online claimed this was inaccurate, as one can simply just press and hold the Heavy Kick command during the "Finish Him!" prompt to initiate her Fatality. However, other Mortal Kombat players argued that the show's display of gameplay could possibly be correct, pointing out that there is an alternate way to do the fatality. Specifically, Mileena can perform the Fatality by standing close to the opponent, holding the Block button and tapping the Heavy Kick command.
The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap
1
In Hyrule Town, three travelers in the lobby of the Happy Hearth Inn, named Din, Nayru, and Farore, are the same characters as the Oracles from The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages and The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons. They are each looking for new homes to move into, which is the basis of an optional side quest that can be started after completing the Fortress of Winds. Gorman will now be renting out a house to tenants, and Link can convince one of the travelers to move in and obtain a Charm from that traveler. Afterwards, if Link fuses Kinstones with Bremor, Mutoh will become motivated to build a second house for Gorman to rent out. Link can then convince one of the remaining two travelers to move in, and will obtain their respective Charm. Each of the two houses built have a red roof and a blue roof, reflecting the color schemes of Din and Nayru respectively. However no third house can be built in the game, leaving the third Oracle homeless and stuck in the inn's lobby. In the European version of the game, Gorman makes a comment about wanting to build a house just south of the Royal Hyrule Library, on a plot of land occupied by cats, but he never does. This comment was removed from the North American release of the game which came out two months later.

Although the choice of who will remain homeless is entirely up to the player, the most probable canonical traveler to remain homeless is Farore. This is based on the lack of a green-roofed house to reflect her color scheme, her figurine description noting that she is bothered by people who "take advantage of her kind nature" (unlike Din and Nayru's descriptions which only point out where they are from and are looking for a new home), and by the development history of Oracle of Ages and Seasons, which was originally planned to be three games with each focusing on a different piece of the Triforce represented by a different Oracle, although only two games centering on Din and Nayru would ultimately be developed.

It's unknown if this incomplete side quest was an oversight, or if it was an intentional in-joke by Capcom, who developed both The Minish Cap and Oracle of Ages and Seasons.
person MehDeletingLater calendar_month February 23, 2023
Video on the incomplete side quest:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kM-60ytqd_Q

Farore's figurine description:
https://youtu.be/U8wa7506yRk?t=495

The Legend of Zelda Encyclopedia (Page 255):
https://archive.org/details/TheLegendOfZeldaEncyclopedia/page/n244/mode/1up?q=oracle
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
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On September 8, 2022, the United Kingdom's Queen Elizabeth II died, starting a national mourning period of ten days. In that time, rumors began to circulate that Nintendo had postponed a planned Nintendo Direct in response to the news. On September 12, the Direct was formally revealed to air worldwide the next day, although it was not livestreamed in the UK. Instead, it was published as an on-demand video on Nintendo UK's YouTube channel at a later time. This Direct featured the full title reveal for the then-untitled Sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, revealing the game's subtitle to be "Tears of the Kingdom". This lead to even more speculation that the poor timing of this subtitle being the name of one of Nintendo's most anticipated games at the time coinciding with the Queen's death was what resulted in the Direct being delayed, rather than doing so purely out of respect. It wouldn't be until October 3 for Nintendo UK to begin their own promotion of the game, long after the mourning period ended.
person MehDeletingLater calendar_month February 8, 2023
Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land
1
Attachment Nightmare in Dream Land was the last game to credit Shinichi Shimomura, who co-directed the game with series creator Masahiro Sakurai, as a staff member. Shimomura previously served as a regular map designer for the Kirby series and directed Kirby's Dream Land 2, Kirby's Dream Land 3, and Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards. Exactly what became of Shimomura after Nightmare in Dream Land is unknown, with many fans speculating that he retired from the video game industry and/or passed away.
Battle City
1
Attachment A secret message can be found on the title screen of the NES version of the game with the use of two controllers. At the title screen, select "CONSTRUCTION" on the menu. Press Start on Controller 1 to enter the mode, then press it again to return back to the title screen. Repeat this seven times. After the seventh enter-and-exit, hold Down on Controller 1 and press A eight times on Controller 2. Then, hold Right on Controller 1 and press B twelve times on Controller 2. Finally, press Start on Controller 1 to activate the message featuring an animation of a green droplet falling.

"THIS PROGRAM WAS
WRITTEN BY
OPEN-REACH
WHO LOVES NORIKO
....."

The most likely person as to the identity of "Open-Reach" is Tomcat System's founder and programmer Ryoichi Ookubo because of the similarities between "Reach" and "Ryoichi". It should be also noted that his name is hidden twice in the game's ROM, and from one fact pointed out by a Russian LiveJournal user, that the name Open-Reach appears as "OPR" on the title screen of another game Tomcat System developed, the 1991 Famicom game Castle Quest published by Hudson Soft.

As for Noriko, her identity remains unknown. In the comments section of the sourced video, one commenter claimed that Noriko was Ookubo's daughter who was three years old at the time of the game's development, while the aforementioned LiveJournal user claimed that Noriko was a romantic partner, claiming her to be a former Namco graphic designer named Noriko Ikegawa (whose name would later appear in the credits for the Nintendo game Animal Crossing as a model designer), but there is no known substantial evidence to support either of these claims.
person MehDeletingLater calendar_month January 24, 2023
Paper Mario
1
Attachment At the Toad Town train station, there is a blue Toad who tells Mario that after he defeats Bowser and restores peace to the Mushroom Kingdom, he has something else he wants to tell him. However, no such event can be triggered as it's impossible to access the train station after defeating Bowser, making the line pointless as you cannot talk to him again. It's possible that this was meant to be part of content found in the post-game, but was cut during development.
Pokémon Scarlet
subdirectory_arrow_right Pokémon Violet (Game)
1
The Pokémon Toedscool and Toedscruel (divergent evolutions of Tentacool and Tentacruel) are called "OKAKINGU" and "OKAGYARADOSU" in the game's data respectively. This is interesting as these names seem to instead reference the names of Magikarp, called "Koiking" in Japan, and its evolution Gyarados respectively, meaning that the games were originally going to feature a pair of divergent evolutions for the Gyarados family instead of the Tentacruel family. However, there is no other data in the games but names for these scrapped Pokémon.
Pokémon Gold Version
subdirectory_arrow_right Pokémon Silver Version (Game)
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Attachment Within the games' data is a scrapped map for a dense, maze-like forest leading up to Mt. Silver. Since the mountain is inspired by Mt. Fuji, the maze is likely derived from Aokigahara, a forest at the base of Mt. Fuji that is famous for its density and natural soundproofing. Because Aokigahara is also notorious for its popularity as a suicide site, it's likely that the maze was removed in favor of a shorter, more conventional route to avoid stoking controversy from Japanese audiences.
2
"Blast processing" is a marketing term coined by Sega of America to promote the Sega Genesis as the cooler and more powerful console compared to the SNES. It was such an effective campaign that it caused Nintendo to spend millions of dollars to ramp up their own smear campaign to rebut the claims, helping to create the textbook example of a "console war" between two rivaling video game companies through aggressive marketing and advertising. It is true that Blast processing as presented in advertisements at the time does not exist in any released Genesis game, but its creation was based on a real, low-level progressive processing method that ultimately went unused by developers.

The basic idea is that the hardware's video processor is "blasted" continuously, with the Genesis' 68000 processor working flat-out to change the color of every individual pixel during an active scan, a process where the "guns" on a CRT screen move from left to right and then down to the next line and so on. It was believed at the time that this function could be used to increase the Genesis' somewhat constrained color palette to showcase 256 color static images if timed right (this number would be exceeded by other developers like Jon Burton from Traveller's Tales who later discovered the trick).

Sega of America Senior Producer Scott Bayless claimed that Sega technical director Marty Franz first discovered the trick by "hooking the scan line interrupt and firing off a DMA [direct memory access] at just the right time", as firing it off at the wrong time would result in the scan lines appearing out of phase. This timing/synchronization issue, on top of the more pressing issue of the feature using all of the 68000's CPU time (meaning that while you could run the feature, you couldn't actually play the games that use it), effectively made it useless for cartridge games, and no shipped Genesis games ever used the feature. It’s speculated that it could have been used for Sega CD games, as the add-on had its own CPU that could run the feature, but this also did not come to pass.

The people responsible for the name "Blast processing" are Bayless and Sega of America's PR team. They interviewed him about the specs of the console, and he described to them how the feature could "blast data into the DAC's [digital-to-audio converters]". When talking about how the name came about, he assumed the PR team just liked the word "blast" without understanding what Bayless was explaining, and Blast processing was invented by them to more easily and vaguely sum up the technical capabilities of the Genesis when marketing it. Bayless later expressed reservations about the phrase, calling it "ghastly".

It should also be noted that this feature was not exclusive to the Genesis. In 2020, former Sculptured Software programmer Jeff Peters claimed that they discovered a similar technical trick on the SNES before Sega started using the phrase, but it was focused on audio rather than graphics. He claims that when porting Mortal Kombat to the SNES, Sculptured Software encountered an issue where the amount of graphics data being put onto the cartridge meant that sound had to be cut back drastically. To overcome this problem, Peters and his team used a homegrown system which allowed them to read sounds from the cartridge one at a time and blast them directly to a buffer in the sound memory. While the two tricks were achieving different things, it's interesting to note that both were possible on either console, despite Sega's insistence that only the Genesis could achieve Blast processing.
person MehDeletingLater calendar_month December 21, 2022
Persona 5
1
Fans believe Suguru Kamoshida is based off of former judo gold medalist Masato Uchishiba who spent 5 years in prison for rape and had all his medals and honors revoked.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
1
If you listen closely to the music being played in the Divine Beasts, you can make out Morse code for "S.O.S." This is very likely a distress call the Champions made when they were attacked by the Ganon Blights 100 years prior to the start of the game.
Pokémon Scarlet
subdirectory_arrow_right Pokémon Violet (Game)
1
Although the Paldea region is based on Iberia, its starters may take inspiration from the modern culture and fauna of New World places that Spain and Portugal colonized and influenced. Specifically:

•The Skeledirge line may represent Mexico. Its name, secondary ghost-typing, and skeletal imagery evokes Mexico's Día de Los Muertos (Day of the Dead), a celebration of the former lives of deceased loved ones where, among other things, celebrators may dress in flamboyantly colored costumes and paint skulls on their faces. Crocalor also has a head growth resembling a Sombrero. This and the line's theme of singing to attack may also be a reference to Mariachi folk music. In a fauna sense, Crocodiles are also endemic to Mexico.

•Quaquaval's influence may derive from Brazil's culture. This can be seen in the name which has elements of Carnival, a Catholic festive season popularly celebrated in Brazil with lavish parades. In addition, it being part fighting-type and being dance-themed may be based on the Brazilian martial art of Capoeira, a fighting style that heavily resembles dancing in many of its moves. Quaquaval is also based upon the South American Crested Duck.

•Meowscarada, while possibly taking inspiration from Iberia itself with its resemblance to the Iberian Lynx, could also take cues from the Southern United States, specifically the State of Louisiana. This is because New Orleans, in Louisiana, is known for its Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) celebrations as part of Carnival, which iconically feature performers in elaborate masks, hence Meowscarada's name evoking the word Mascarade. Although Louisiana was influenced by France, it was also conquered by Spain later, along with a lot of the Southern U.S. It may also be based on Louisiana's prominent diasporic religion surrounding Voodoo. Meowscarada's species may furthermore be based off of the Bobcat/Red Lynx, a relative of the Iberian Lynx.
Pokémon Scarlet
subdirectory_arrow_right Pokémon Violet (Game)
1
Tandemaus and Maushold may have dark origins as they may be based on the concept of a "Rat King", where several rats' tails are tied together or tangled by a person (although there have been reported cases of this happening without human interference). Explaining the German-sounding name of the Pokémon, the Rat King concept is named after the German term "Rattenkonig" which, in turn, is based on the villain of the same name from the short story "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King" who is sometimes depicted as being comprised of several mice or rats.

Also the Pokémon themselves may be aesthetically based on toy-like dioramic objects called "Sylvian Families" in Japan (or "Calico Critters" in English countries) which are essentially dressed-up mouse dolls in different whimsical small settings that make the mice look more like a human family. These Sylvian Families started in Japan in the 1980s, which is when many of the veteran developers at Game Freak would have grown up.
Alien: Isolation
1
There are a few references to the original movie.
1. Scattered around the Torrens and Sevastopol station are drinking birds. The first one found is in the hypersleep chamber.
2. During Mission 2 in the baggage claim area, players can hear the faint sound of meowing before it abruptly stops as they approach the primary airlock. This is a possible reference to the cat Jonesy from the first movie.
3. Another reference is found when players discover the deceased Alistair Smythe who has a rolled-up magazine shoved down his throat. Spoiler:This is how Ash tried to kill Ellen Ripley.
Persona 5 Royal
1
Shujin's psychiatrist Dr. Takuto Maruki is introduced during the month of May and is always offering snacks to anyone that visits him. The protagonist can even obtain some healing items when he visits him during certain ranks. This is probably due to Spoiler:how he visited Rumi in the hospital empty-handed after her traumatic experience where a burglar broke into her home and murdered her parents. Maruki then tries to have snacks on hand to give to students in an effort to remember her.
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