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34 Secrets We Learned About Our Favorite Video Games

*Zelda Secret Tune*

34 Secrets We Learned About Our Favorite Video Games

August 18, 2023

We all have our favorite video games. The ones we play for hours on end, trying to get to the next level or beat the final boss. But what about the secrets behind these games? The things that the developers never wanted us to know? Below are some of the craziest secrets we’ve learned about our favorite video games. From secret levels and characters to hidden messages and glitches, these revelations definitely surprised us.

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SUPER MARIO The Chain Chomp monsters in Mario games + are based on a dog. When Shigeru Miyamoto was a child, his neighbor had a chained dog who constantly barked. + CRACKED.COM — Source: 21 Games We Grew Up On (With Weird Backstories)

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FINAL FANTASY Final Fantasy got its name because its creator + figured he was done. Square was out of money after a + string of unsuccessful games. Hironobu Sakaguchi chose the name Final Fantasy because he thought it would be his last game. CRACKED.COM — Source: 21 Games We Grew Up On (With Weird Backstories)

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Kirby

KIRBY Kirby was a placeholder for a to-be-designed + character. Game designer Masahiro Sakurai dropped a circle into his game as he was designing it, figuring he'd flesh out the character later. Eventually he decided he liked the little sphere as-is, and added a few little details to give it personality. CRACKED.COM — Source: 21 Games We Grew Up On (With Weird Backstories)

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ATOMIC BOMBERMAN Atomic Bomberman almost had a really + filthy mouth. EAT MY DUST AND LICK MY CRACK. 11 I'LL BREAK YOUR TIME FOR A F#CKIN' HEAD WITH F#CKIN' DIRTNAP, A RATCHET. YOU SH!TF#CK. WOULD YOU GUYS KNOCK OFF THIS MACHO SH!T AND HA! YOU'RE HURRY UP? F#CKED! The disk contains voice tracks for a number of seriously nasty exclamations, all done in the voices of the characters. They weren't incorporated into the game, but the unused tracks were there. CRACKED.COM — Source: 21 Games We Grew Up On (With Weird Backstories)

30

The First Easter Egg Ever

ADVENTURE The first Easter egg was created by a disgruntled + Atari employee. ADVENTURE معر VIDEO COMPUTER SYSTEM GAME PROGRAM 3 GAMES VIDEO THREE SKOD LEVELS ONE PLAYER SALE created Warren Robinett, the programmer on Adventure, knew he wouldn't get credit for his work. So he created a secret room with his name written on the floor. By the time it was discovered, the games had hit the shelves. Atari decided to tell people it was a hidden feature, and coined the term Easter egg. CRACKED.COM — Source: 21 Games We Grew Up On (With Weird Backstories)

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CENTIPEDE Think you're a space ship shooting lasers, in Centipede? You're not. You're an elf named Oliver who lives in a magical forest. You usually get along fine with the centipedes, but a wizard enchanted them to attack you. Now you're fighting them off with your wand. CRACKED.COM — Source: 21 Games We Grew Up On (With Weird Backstories)

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MARIO Everything about Mario was created to + conserve pixels. Mario's creator Shigeru Miyamoto added: A hat, so he wouldn't have to draw hair, a nose and mustache, so Mario's face wouldn't just be a blob, and overalls, to give Mario's arms definition. CRACKED.COM — Source: 21 Games We Grew Up On (With Weird Backstories)

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34 Secrets We Learned About Our Favorite Video Games — Source: 13 Weird Workarounds Behind The Magic Of Fav Games

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34 Secrets We Learned About Our Favorite Video Games — Source: 13 Weird Workarounds Behind The Magic Of Fav Games

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34 Secrets We Learned About Our Favorite Video Games — Source: 13 Weird Workarounds Behind The Magic Of Fav Games

24

Grand Theft Auto

GRAND THEFT AUTO Grand Theft Auto was inspired by a bug in + another game. Race'n'Chase Game Design Version 1.05 March 22. 1995 с 1995 DMA Design Ltd Rockstar released a driving game called Race'n'Chase, and early testers panned it until they found a glitch. It + was a bug that caused the police to try to run players off the road. So instead of running missions, players screwed around while the police tried to run them off the road. And GTA was born. CRACKED.COM — Source: 21 Games We Grew Up On (With Weird Backstories)

23

Nintendo

SUPER MARIO (ETC.) Mario's mushrooms look like hallucinatory Amanita + Muscaria mushrooms. Developers needed a way to make Mario fit into the game environment properly, so they picked mushrooms. They claim the resemblance to the psychedelic shrooms is coincidental. CRACKED.COM — Source: 21 Games We Grew Up On (With Weird Backstories)

22

DONKEY KONG Donkey Kong was supposed to be the hero, + not the villain. M DK The game manual explains that Donkey Kong was Mario's pet, and he escaped because Mario mistreated him. CRACKED.COM — Source: 21 Games We Grew Up On (With Weird Backstories)

21

Video Games

ASTEROIDS Spacewar is just like Asteroids, only better- + and it came first. Spacewar was a two-player game where you could shoot the other player, there was a black hole in the middle of the screen, and the star field was based on actual star fields. Asteroids: 1979. Spacewar: 1962. CRACKED.COM — Source: 21 Games We Grew Up On (With Weird Backstories)

20

LEGEND OF ZELDA Zelda originally had you defeat an enemy by + screaming at it. EEK! Originally the Japanese NES had a microphone, and the way to defeat a Legend of Zelda monster called Pols Voice was to scream into the mic. CRACKED.COM — Source: 21 Games We Grew Up On (With Weird Backstories)

19

Space Invaders

SPACE INVADERS Space Invaders' increasing speed is because of a + hardware problem. Even after a year working on the hardware, the invaders moved really slowly. They only sped up when there were fewer of them on the screen, because they'd been shot. Hence the slowly accelerating pace. CRACKED.COM — Source: 21 Games We Grew Up On (With Weird Backstories)

18

METAL GEAR Metal Gear is a stealth game because it started + out on a slow system. It was originally designed to run on a computer called an MSX2, which could only support a few characters (and bullets) at a time without crashing. CRACKED.COM — Source: 21 Games We Grew Up On (With Weird Backstories)

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MONKEY ISLAND Monkey Island was inspired by Pirates of the Caribbean, and vice versa. In 2000, ILM began conceptualizing a movie based on The Curse of Monkey Island, which was inspired by the Disneyland ride. The movie never got made, but writer Ted Elliott went on to write Curse of the Black Pearl. CRACKED.COM — Source: 21 Games We Grew Up On (With Weird Backstories)

16

MARVEL SUPERHEROES vs. STREET FIGHTER There's a pervert in the Japanese version of Marvel Superheroes vs. Street Fighter. He's an older man named Norimaro who dresses like a schoolboy. Не spends his time trying to take Chun-Li's picture. If you beat the game with him, he steals her panties. CRACKED.COM — Source: 21 Games We Grew Up On (With Weird Backstories)

15

SILENT HILL The creepy fog in Silent Hill is there to hide the + game's slow load time. It sets a creepy atmosphere, and prevents players from seeing monsters until the last second, but it's actually there to conceal the fact that the scenes take a while to render. + CRACKED.COM — Source: 21 Games We Grew Up On (With Weird Backstories)

14

LEGEND OF ZELDA The beta version of Zelda let you choose either a sword or a boomerang. IT'S DANGEROUS TO GO ALONE! TAKE THIS. The game was also originally meant to be set both in the past and the future. Link got his name because he was meant to be the connection between the two. CRACKED.COM — Source: 21 Games We Grew Up On (With Weird Backstories)

13

34 Secrets We Learned About Our Favorite Video Games — Source: 13 Weird Workarounds Behind The Magic Of Fav Games

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34 Secrets We Learned About Our Favorite Video Games — Source: 13 Weird Workarounds Behind The Magic Of Fav Games

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34 Secrets We Learned About Our Favorite Video Games — Source: 13 Weird Workarounds Behind The Magic Of Fav Games

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Jak and Daxter

34 Secrets We Learned About Our Favorite Video Games — Source: 13 Weird Workarounds Behind The Magic Of Fav Games

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34 Secrets We Learned About Our Favorite Video Games — Source: 13 Weird Workarounds Behind The Magic Of Fav Games

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34 Secrets We Learned About Our Favorite Video Games — Source: 13 Weird Workarounds Behind The Magic Of Fav Games

7

Tomb Raider

TOMB RAIDER Lara Croft has a big chest because of a mistake. Artist Toby Gard, one of the people in charge of designing + Lara's character, was editing her dimensions. When he decided to increase her bust size by 50%, he mistyped 150%, and an icon was born. CRACKED.COM — Source: 21 Games We Grew Up On (With Weird Backstories)

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GRADIUS The Konami code was left in the game + by accident. в A START Gradius was so hard that Kazuhisa Hashimoto couldn't play to test it. Не eventually added a simple set of button presses to give himself a full set of power-ups. Не forgot to delete the code before the game was released. CRACKED.COM — Source: 21 Games We Grew Up On (With Weird Backstories)

5

FARMVILLE Farmville F is a shameless ripoff of a game called + Farm Town. Farmer Farm LEARNING DE ROPES Farm Town Farmville HAMP Farm Town debuted just months before Farmville spammed its way into Facebook history. The gameplay and visuals are virtually identical. CRACKED.COM — Source: 21 Games We Grew Up On (With Weird Backstories)

4

EVERYTHING IN ZELDA: A LINK BETWEEN WORLDS + IS TILTED BACK. What the game looks like from top-down. What the game looks like from a different angle. That's because a true top-down view would make the game incredibly boring looking g - you'd only really get to see the top of Link's hat. CRACKED COM — Source: 13 Weird Workarounds Behind The Magic Of Fav Games

3

YOUR FALLOUT: NEW VEGAS CHARACTER WATCHES + CUTSCENES IN A ROOM. Whenever a cutscene plays, your character is teleported in front of a screen that plays it. You can't see that because the camera is fixed in first-person view. CRACKED.COM — Source: 13 Weird Workarounds Behind The Magic Of Fav Games

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SKYRIM CLEVERLY + REUSES ASSETS. If you glitch into the game's underworld hellscape, you'll find that some tables are just shelves clipped through the ground. CRACKED.COM — Source: 13 Weird Workarounds Behind The Magic Of Fav Games

1

Fallout 3

FALLOUT 3 TURNS THE PLAYER INTO + A TRAIN. Since it would be too complicated to create a functioning train system, the developers decided to turn the train into an armor piece. When you start the train, the game equips a train hat on your character, which gives the appearance of a moving, functioning train. GRACKED COM — Source: 13 Weird Workarounds Behind The Magic Of Fav Games

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