Secret Messages In Video Games

My Game Boy collection was a pretty typical one with all the standards like Link's Awakening, Pokemon and Super Mario Land, but there was an exception. I bought the Game Boy Color version of the obscure puzzle game Klax back when it was new. The reason I did this was because I'd heard the developers stuck hidden messages into the game.

There aren't just hidden messages, in fact...there are hidden minigames, an unadvertised Game Boy Printer feature, and even a marriage proposal, all stuck inside and unlockable with specific password codes. It was unusual for a Game Boy game to be like this, or at least for word to get out so quickly that secret content had been snuck into it.

But it happens more often than you might think. Throughout video game history, hundreds of titles have had hidden messages crammed into them by developers for one motive or another. Here are some of the most interesting, gathered from The Cutting Room Floor...

Every version of this game for the PC has this message hidden in the code, which is inaccessible in the game itself. You have to peek into the game's guts to see it, and if you're the type to engage in such activities, it tells you:

The exception is the Amiga version, which has a much friendlier message for hackers:

This is a good point to bring up one of the most famous hidden messages in games....

Nintendo outsourced production of this game's code to Ikegami Corp, who put a similar message into the ASM:

This under-the-table outsourcing led to some legal problems down the line, but that's a story for another day.

This arcade game was allegedly the world's first sneak peek at the Nintendo Ultra 64, but the Ultra-less product that came out two years later ran on a totally different chipset with a different graphical style. It also contains this message buried somewhere in the code:

Cruis'n USA wasn't developed BY Nintendo, but the company eventually took ownership of the brand.

I'm aware Game Genie isn't really a GAME, therefore I'm stretching the qualifications a bit, but this was worth pointing out. Both the Game Boy and Game Gear versions of the hacking device contain the same secret messages, which can be revealed in-game with button codes. Very few of them make any sense.

If you push Up, Down, Left and Right on the code-entering screen, you get the above message. But some other potential messages you can get are:

HELP! I'M A
PRISONER IN A
GAME GENIE
FACTORY!

THERE'S RAIN
OUTSIDE,

AND THAT IS
WHY A,

LAUNDRY DAY,

NEEDS A CLOTHES
DRIER.

WASHING, WASHING
ON THE LINE,

WHO'S THE FAIREST
OF THE FINE?

BLUEY WHITENESS!

PROVOCATION IS
NOT A JOB FOR
AMATEURS.

BEWARE:



STRIPES!

'BREEZY':-

FRESH AIR FROM
THE ALPS!

COMES IN AN
EASY-TO-USE
AEROSOL CAN!

Who wrote these -- the two stoners from the Game Genie commercials? "EXCELLEEEEEEENT."

This Game Boy title is your typical Bart-themed barely functional cash grab from Acclaim, of which there were many at the time. It also contains a love note to someone named Maria. The note is an extended part of the first level and is inaccessible through normal gameplay -- you'll warp to Level 2 before you see it, unless you enter a special code.

June 1990 is far away from this game's final build date, which is listed elsewhere in the code as July 31, 1991. The game was released that November. I'm guessing Screen 4 means June 1990 was the date of their honeymoon. At any rate it's weird to see what appears to be some guy's wedding vows written in the Groening font.

There's a love note in the SNES version of Doom! A special engine had to be written to get the game to run on the Super FX 2 chip, and its programmer declared his love for his wife in rainbow colors on the texture map of the skybox in the first level. It's conveniently out of view and impossible to see during normal gameplay, but this is what the whole birmap looks like:

Rage/Reality Engine written by Randy Linden.
Special thanks to my loving wife, Jodi Harvey.

There might actually be more secret junk in Gremlins Unleashed for the Game Boy Color than there was in Klax for the Game Boy Color, though no one knew it at the time. Some disgruntled employee the boss wasn't keeping an eye on crammed the ROM with unauthorized drawings, copyright violations and private jokes. The images could be seen with open passwords this whole time and were adorned with scrolling messages, several of which contained language way beyond the box's ESRB rating.

The above image is of Gizmo getting drunk and mimicking a then-current Budweiser ad, while this text scrolls beneath it: "TESTING THE GAME, HAVING A BUG....WHASSSSSUUUUUUUUP!"

Entering "J-C0NN0R" brings up a drawing of Stripe in a leather jacket aiming a shotgun at your face, while entering "B0B-M" brings up a Bob Marley Gremlin. Enter "WIND0Z" and you get a fake BSOD screen with a message of rebellion beneath:

The coders of this game had to made this project using Micro$oft Windoze, and the f****** instablity of Explorer. They also had to code on COMPAK buls*** computers. This combination of hardware and software used to crash almost twice every day with a maximum number of crash recorded at 9 in one day!!!

There were several images the boss told this guy to remove that he DIDN'T remove and displayed proudly elsewhere, like these unauthorized Pokemon and Digimon sprites. The scrollng test says an altered version of the Robocop with three legs was allowed in-game.

To be fair it IS in the spirit of Gremlins to have a bunch of mischievous, unapproved content hidden throughout the game. Remember the Gremlins 2 movie interrupting itself? This is on brand!

Recently made semi-famous due to an overt reference in an episode of Smiling Friends, this game also contains in its code -- for completely unknown reasons -- a large block of text from Scott Berkum's essay Why Smart People Defend Bad Ideas.

We all know someone that’s intelligent, but who occasionally defends obviously bad ideas. Why does this happen? How can smart people take up positions that defy any reasonable logic? Having spent many years working with smart people I’ve catalogued many of the ways this happens, and I have advice on what to do about it. I feel qualified to write this essay as I’m a recovering smart person myself and I’ve defended several very bad ideas. So if nothing else this essay serves as a kind of personal therapy session. However, I fully suspect...

You get the idea. It could go on. Also, did you read those words in the voice of Alan's landlord? So did I.

This Playstation 1 game is on my list of "Disney-related things to write about eventually" because the tangent it goes down is an interesting one on the level of Cinderella III. What this game proposes is that Jafar has a sister much more competent than he was, who destroys Aladdin's entire life in the span of one night and then you have to spend the entire game getting everything back. Nasira is voiced by an unrecognizable Jodi Benson in a completely unhinged, over-the-top performance that's as far from Ariel as you can get. Also, Jasmine goes skateboarding. This thing is wild.

But if you dig around in the game's code you can uncover this message from the development team:

Not sure what "profiling this" means, but there's also a photo of the team stuck elsewhere in the binary:

This game no one played based on the movie no one saw contains this super-secret message:

WARNING: DON'T EAT  
LOTS OF ICE-CREAM   
AND PRUNES AND DRINK
VAST AMOUNTS OF     
GRAPEJUICE TO AVOID 
ACID INDIGESTION... 
WELL SOUND, SORTED, 
BANGING, TOP TUNE,  
BLEEP BLEEP, CHINESE
SWEET AND SOUR      
LONG LIVE ACID BASS 
LINES, WAYNE.       
WWWAAAAGHHH HUHUHUHU
DIDDLA DIDDLA DIDDLA
NATAS SEVOL EM WEEEA
DANNGGGGA DIDDDDEEEE
WWWEEEAAAARRRRRRRRRR
TWINKLY TWINKLY TWEE
YOU KNOW, IT'S      
STRANGE. I CAN EAT  
AS MUCH AS I LIKE,  
AND NEVER PUT ON ANY
WEIGHT!  PASS THE   
CREAM CAKES....

This Famicom game may not be well known, but in actuality, it's got one of the most notorious secret developer messages of any game. The message is viewable within the game itself, but requires a ton of button combos to make pop up, which you can only do AFTER you have let the game sit on its ending screen for NINETY minutes.

After an hour and a half has passed, the game music will stop, at which point you must press A + B + Start + Select + Left on Controller 1 and A + B + Right on Controller 2. If new music starts up, you did it correctly and must then press B + Select + Right on Controller 1 and B + Right + Down on Controller 2. Once that's accomplished, a special message from one of the game's lead programmers to his development team will start:

Mmm, that's a nostalgic song playing. Those were good times. Meanwhile, who the hell are these people with this project? I'm so glad it's over. You think it's nothing but good memories? Hell no! Let's use this space to give out some thanks.

First off, Kaoru Ogura, who ran off with some guy in the middle of the project. Yes, you, you bastard. Don't show up at the office without showering after having sex 6 times the previous night. Next, Tatsuya Oohashi. Yes, you, you bastard. Don't give me your flippant s*** — coming in late on the day we ship the ROM like nothing's amiss. You can give me all the porn you want; I'm not forgetting that one. All that f****** weight you put on. No wonder you paid out 18,000 yen and still got nothing but a kiss out of it. Kenji Takano, Namco debugger. You are a part-timer; don't dick around with the project planner. And finally, Kiyoharu Gotou, the biggest thorn to my side in this project. Yes, you, you bastard. Once I get a time machine, I’m sending you back to the Edo period. Go do your riddles over there.

Ahh, that's a load off... wait, no it's not. Kiyoharu Gotou — yes, you, you bastard. Aaaagh, just disappear already.

Come to think of it, some people were helpful to me, too. Mr. Okada, who took all the good stuff. I know all about your abnormal fetishes. Yamagishi, who swore off Soaplands until the project was over. Go ahead, knock yourself out now. Iwata, who joined in midway and gave it all he had. Sorry I yelled at you. Keep hanging in there. Udopyu Fujimura, you probably had it the worst of all. Thanks. I mean it. Gotou's the one to hate here. Also, Takayama, Kudou, Suzuki, Makki, Kaneko, Aihara, Sato (the angel of my heart), Iga. Thanks, everyone.

Yoko-G, good work. This game is dedicated to your wife's birthday.

And after all of that, ALL OF THAT, press A + B + Up on Controller 1 and you will receive one last message:

Kazumushi, I'm sorry I couldn't come back home much. I love you and always have. Hidemushi