In the era of the dashing nineties, when game journalism was in its infancy, and the Internet was not developed as it is now, hanging noodles on the ears of the audience was as easy as shelling pears. What is characteristic – the seedlings of rumors were often not overly creative players, but the editorial staff of magazines, obviously trying to soak up interest in their publications. We decided to dig deeper into history and have prepared for you the ten most vivid rumors that excited human minds during the time of the information hunger.
Translation difficulties
IN Street fighter 2 Ryu’s phrase, uttered after defeating an opponent, was: “You can’t beat me until you learn to resist sho ryu” Gore-localizers did not understand that they were talking about the famous reception Shoryuken and did a literal translation for the western version. As a result, a legend about the character was born Sheng long. The editors of the then gaming magazines scattered tons of letters asking for clarification of the situation. And while some made a helpless gesture or refuted this information, employees of the publication wildly popular at that time Electronic gaming monthly decided to recoup on overly persistent readers and issued material dedicated to the “secret” hero.
In order to clash with Shen Long, gamers needed to go through all the circles of Hell, namely: get to the final boss without taking damage, and then survive ten rounds, also without getting in the face a single time and not hitting Bison. After that, the hero of the occasion should jump out from the edge of the screen, give a kick to the Glavgad and start the battle with you.
Despite the absurdity of the conditions against which a different boss fight in Dark souls 3 seem like a party in Bejeweled, people bought it. Perhaps this was due to a fake screenshot that looked realistic at that time. But the fact of the publication in April and the plate at the bottom of the page with a call to send their versions of April Fools’ jokes did not bother anyone. Therefore, information was quickly picked up by other publications, without bothering to verify the authenticity of the secret or ask permission Egm. It got to the point that the Chinese company Jademan comics placed the hero on the pages of a comic book released based on the game. In the end, the magazine had to publish a rebuttal in December of the same 1992.
It’s funny that five years later, the editors repeated the prank, introducing Shen Long as a secret hero Street fighter 3. This time they approached the rally more thoroughly, having come up with an entire background, drawing art and issuing six screenshots to replace two. However, this time the people no longer bought, which is rather strange – later you will understand why. But in the fourth part of the game, the character Goken appeared, inspired by a fiction about Shen Long.
I’m not a bug – I’m a ninja Ermak
Another oldest urban legend from the world of games was born thanks to the debug menu in the arcade version Mortal kombat. Word ERMACS – nothing more than an abbreviated phrase Error Macros, indicating an error in the program code. Also, she allegedly could be found in the table of records, which gave impetus to the appearance of rumors of a second (after Reptile) secret character.
However, the effect of an exploding bomb was made by a letter from a certain Tony caseypublished in the above magazine Electronic gaming monthly. In it, the guy talked about how he won the battle for Johnny Cage with his friend, not taking damage in any of the rounds and using only punches. Then, to the surprise of both, a red ninja named Ermac appeared on the screen and quickly kicked his ass Tony. By a “happy coincidence” the guy had with him Polaroidtherefore to his letter he attached a photo of dubious quality.
Since the magazine will subsequently become a real mecca of such “jaundice”, it can be assumed that the fake letter was made by the editorial staff. Later, ordinary players also picked up the baton, poisoning the tales that Ermak appeared in Scorpio’s place as a result of a bug repainting the suit and replacing the name on the health scale. In response to that Midway even put a message in the sequel, which was shown after passing the game – CEAMR ODSE NTO EXITSdecoding as Ermac does not exist.
Ultimately, the developers decided to capitalize on this legend and made Ermak a full-fledged character, debuting in Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. By the way, a girl Scarlet appeared in a similar way, rumors about the existence of which have been circulating since the second part of the game. Say, because of a bug, Kitana’s costume was painted red. Later, when the character debuted as DLC for MK sample of 2011, Ed boone denied this information.
Tomb Raider
An athlete, Komsomol member and tomb raider named Lara Croft was one of the first female characters to have sexually emphasized sexuality. Since the average gamer of those years was a teenager at the stage of puberty, rumors about the possibility of undressing Madame with the help of a cheat code spread much earlier than the notorious modification Nude raider, where the heroine appeared before the player in which the mother gave birth.
Funny that Eidos even tried to sue the owners of sites involved in the distribution of not only the mod itself, but even screenshots from it. Nowadays, porn sites on such things already seem to be a long time ago, so nude patches for games (including those involving Lara) come out with enviable regularity.
The crossover that was not there
This time the owners fell victim to prank Resident evil 2who were asked to discover a secret character who migrated here straight from the series Street fighter – Akumu. In order to gain access to the brutal warrior, “all in all”, it was necessary to go through all four scenarios six times to rank A, using only a knife and a gun. And during the seventh passage – enter the word AKUMA instead of GUEST in the computer located in the Umbrella laboratory. The article also said that Akuma does not need weapons, since he prefers to incinerate enemies with fireballs. In addition, all the doors in the game swing open before him without any keys.
Considering how much time and effort this trick required, I don’t even want to imagine what curses the players could brand the publication’s staff for this seemingly creative joke.
Polybius
In the second half of the 90s, the topic of conspiracy theories was in great demand in the world of cinema, as proof of which alone “Men in Black” and “Secret materials”. Apparently, someone who came up with the legend of Polybius. Information about this slot machine has been added to the database. coinop.org February 6, 2000. From the description it followed that in 1981 several arcade rooms were installed in the suburbs of Portland, Oregon. Polybius caused strong psychoactive effects and game addiction among gamers, and government officials periodically visited the hall, collecting statistics for subsequent analysis.
American journalist Brian Danning made the assumption that this legend is primarily due to the early version of the game Tempest, which really could lead to epileptic seizures, migraines and nausea due to the peculiarities of the graphic design. The presence of “people in black” is due to the fact that the owners of the halls were suspected of organizing review. And although there is still no reliable fact confirming the existence of Polybius, this th city legend managed to leave behind a vivid legacy.
For example, a machine with a game can watch in one of the series The Simpsonswell known Avgn released a story with his own investigation, eventually slipping into the traditional satire for the show. We also note that, based on rumors, several fan-made video games were released – in particular, for Atari 2600 and you won’t believe PS4.
The Resurrection of Iris
In our country, where the Internet at that time was accessible only to the elite, false lies were known through readers’ letters, published in The Great Dragon and “Country of Games” with a note from the editorial board: “We refuse to believe it.” A few years later, one of the fans party decided once again to throw a stone into the garden of scammers-hypozhorov and gave birth to a very humorous text. Also the phrase Aeris dies subsequently became a forum meme, indicating that the main (or at least one of them) hero of the game, movie or other work will die.
Just don’t show it to the Indians
In the first part Diablo the player met with a herd of grazing cows, clicking on which a certain number of times, you could hear one of three phrases. We don’t know, in whose head the idea crept in then that massacre against an army of armed cows is cool, but in Blizzard found such a joke very funny and gave it a massive move. Legend has it that you need to click on the cows several times in a strictly defined sequence. After that, you will find yourself at a secret level, teeming with future steaks, but so far taking halberds into their hooves and ready to chop the hero himself into dust.
In fact, the myth was embodied only in the sequel, where it was possible to open access to the secret location of Moo Moo Farm by combining two items. This bloody mess looked like this:
Subsequently, the developers turned it all into a local meme, periodically inserting references into other games. For example, on the boot screen in World of warcraft you can observe the phrase There Is No Cow Level, concurrently being one of the cheat codes in Starcraft. And when the time came Diablo 3 – Blizzard did not deny herself pleasure again to remind about a long-standing urban legend.
Naked volleyball
I swear, if the publication’s staff set a goal to write a dissertation on the psychology of gamers, they wouldn’t have to go far for an example. And all because for the umpteenth time in a row the “secret” published in the April issue was taken seriously by many. After an audience that did not sparkle with intelligence and ingenuity exposed fake, the editors were inundated with angry letters.
Meanwhile, the appearance of erotic content in the game could well have taken place, given that for Dead or Alive 2 Was created a nude model of a clone of Kasumi, which can be seen in a secret intro. Yes, without the image of the genitals and, excuse me, the nipples, but still. However, the protection of the Xbox by that time was already successfully overthrown, so the fan-made nude-mod for the game did not take long. And, by analogy with Nude raider, the developers subsequently even sued the authors of the “strawberry”.
You have honey here … yetis roaming the streets
And although the release GTA: San Andreas came at a time when the Internet was no longer a luxury item, and there was no end to the abundance of the print press, this did not prevent the game from acquiring a mass of urban legends, a detailed description of which could be devoted to separate material. Apparently, this was facilitated by both the gigantic dimensions of the in-game world by the standards of those years, and the frenzied popularity of the San andreas. One of the most popular tales spoke of the existence of a snowman, which could be found on the deserted expanses of Weststone and Flint County.
IN Rockstar They reacted promptly enough, and already in 2005 on the pages – who would have thought – Egm appeared rebuttal on behalf of the co-founder of the company Terry Donovan. To admit, it was very ironic to see this in a publication that has earned a reputation. Evgenia Volnova from the world of igrozhura. Nevertheless, on the Internet for a long time fake screenshots and videos “walked”. And when the fifth part was born, the developers showed by their example that they can do irony no worse than magazines by hiding two Easter eggs in the game. The first is score with a Yeti sign, inaccessible to research. And the second is an optional mission The last onein which Franklin encounters an eccentric dressed up in a bigfoot suit.
A nightmare
If the story is about a slot machine Polybius seemed creepy to you, then the legend of Pale luna certainly shocked. Spiritual text quest The lurking horror and spreading from hand to hand in the 80s on the San Francisco Bay Area. The peculiarity of the game was that if you enter the wrong command Pale luna “Hung up” the system, but there was no possibility of saving.
Someone Michael Nevins gained patience and came to the end by numerous trial and error. Having received the mysterious coordinates 40.24248 and -121.4434 as a reward, the guy armed himself with a shovel, compass and map. The desired place was located in the vast Lassen Volcanic National Park. Having reached the desired point, Michael began to dig, but instead of the expected treasure he found the girl’s half-decomposed head. Police later identified her as an 11-year-old. Karen Paulsonmissing a year and a half ago. Find the body, as, however, and the author of the game failed.
Of course, in our time, only a child or a person who is much behind in development will be able to believe in such a story. But, apparently, in the 80s people were too impressionable, since they conveyed all this horror story to our times. The end result Pale luna even got a few games and shorts created based on such terrible stories.
