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9 of gaming’s greatest mysteries solved
We run through many of gaming’s mysteries that took years, some almost decades, to figure out.
Game designers are a curious bunch. Some will meticulously craft a gorgeous game for you to explore, filled with challenges, puzzles or brain teasers, each ranging and escalating in difficulty, all before culminating in a brilliant finale. Some just want to see the gaming world burn by packing in almost unsolvable puzzles, weird mysteries or ridiculous Easter eggs that take months, years, some even decades, to find or solve.
These are some of those solutions – the ones that took what felt like for ever to find, the ones that required more than just heading to an uncharted area of the map. Read on, as we explore these almost impossibly cracked Easter eggs.
1. The uncollectable coin in Mario 64
Believe it or not, even as recent as 2014, fans were still finding new things in Nintendo’s incredible Super Mario 64, the 3D platformer that took the plucky plumber into a new dimension. Back in 2002, someone on walkthrough site and gaming discussion forum GameFAQs discovered that there was a coin you couldn’t collect on a course called Tiny-Huge Island. Unlike the other 191 coins found on the level, this one was special. This one was unobtainable. Dubbed as 'the impossible coin' by the Mario community, the golden relic is found underneath the ground, right by a slope next to a metal ball generator – basically impenetrable, and impossible to grab.
Super Mario 64 fans were stumped by the coin. Some thought that it might've been overlooked by the game’s programmers, but in 2014, after 18 years, someone actually managed to do the impossible and grab the coin. As seen in the video above, YouTuber pannenkoek2012 managed to collect the piece of gold, but it was done as a tool-assisted run. With help from emulation, using tools like slow-motion, frame-by-frame advancing, or quick loading of save states, pannenkoek2012’s video shows what can be theoretically done if human limitations in skill, reflex and consistency weren't an issue. Still, after 18 years, we’re glad to see this one solved one way or another.
2. There’s really no Bigfoot in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
Let's face it, Bigfoot's not real.
© Rockstar Games
Much like in real life, the myth of Bigfoot is one that's sparked debate over the years. Did Bigfoot really exist? Rockstar Games’ Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas gave us a virtual take on the mythical monster, with many claiming that they have managed to see the beast in the 2004 game, but even as recent as 2013 (in a New Yorker piece, no less), there were still people looking for Bigfoot within the huge game.
At the time, there were swathes of players who'd uploaded clips to YouTube with supposed sightings of Bigfoot in the game’s Back o Beyond region, but even Rockstar’s CEO at the time, Terry Donovan, said that "there is no Bigfoot, just like in real life.”
Of course, GTA: San Andreas was notorious for packing in all sorts of Easter eggs, leading many sceptics to still think Bigfoot is out there – but after over a decade, let’s put this one to rest. Bigfoot’s not in San Andreas.
3. Seven years to find a Halo 3 Easter egg
Bungie’s Halo 3 is a classic Xbox 360 staple, heralded as one of the best in the series. While most Easter eggs are found quite quickly, one that was in Halo 3 was left undiscovered for seven whole years. Back in 2014, gamer Lord Zedd managed to find something within the game that had been left buried.
As seen in the video above, the message 'Happy Birthday Lauren' pops up if you load up the game on Christmas Day and then press both thumbsticks on the controller down. A quite niche Easter egg, the text was included by a member of the development team, Adrian Perez, who directed it to his wife and never really expected it to be found.
4. Mew really is in Pokemon Red and Blue without a Game Genie
Let’s face it, how many of you were fooled in Pokémon Red and Blue and thought there really was a Mew hiding under that truck by the S.S. Anne? We’ll 'fess up, as we were caught out all those years ago, but it turns out that there is actually a way to get Mew in the game – all without using a pesky Game Genie or Game Shark cheating device.
In 2003, a glitch was discovered that enables you to basically catch any Pokémon in the game, including the elusive and legendary Mew. The glitch itself relies on another glitch, dubbed the Trainer-Fly glitch, which is caused by encountering a rival Trainer in their line of sight, and then escaping from them. For certain 'Long-Range Trainers' which can spot the player at a defined point, there’s a frame in which you can still bring up your Start menu and use a Field move or item – in this case, using Fly or a similar item that lets you escape will then cause the trainer to spot you, but then you fly away from them, causing the game to believe that you’re starting a battle when you’re not, causing various values to be read by the game improperly, giving you the main part of the glitch.
To get Mew, you have to run through a few more steps, such as battling a specific trainer, and then completing the glitch before the game will sprout up and give you a battle with a wild Pokémon based on the Special stat of the Pokémon last battled. As Mew’s index number is 21, battling any Pokémon with a Special stat of 21, such as a specific Youngster’s level 17 Slowpoke or a certain Swimmer’s level 16 Shellder, you’ll end up with Mew at the end of the glitch. Handy, right? Even better, it still works even today on the Nintendo 3DS eShop versions of the game – but unfortunately, any Mews obtained with this glitch can’t be traded.
5. GoldenEye packed in a ZX Spectrum emulator
The N64’s GoldenEye was an incredible console title, showcasing that FPS games could work without a mouse and keyboard. Developer Rare included plenty of weird glitches, Easter eggs and extra game modes in the game, but one specific instance was not discovered until 2012, a whole 15 years after the game debuted.
Rare apparently had a team working on a ZX Spectrum emulator, and for some reason, that code was incorporated into the game. Instead of removing it for release, Rare just patched over it, and still had the fully working emulator on the cart. It wasn’t until 2012 and a lot of technical know-how that a fan-developed patch re-enabled it, but the only real way of accessing it is through an N64 emulator – funny when you think about it, an emulator within an emulator.
6. Donkey Kong’s hidden initials
Developers hiding their own names or initials in a game is as age-old as youths scrawling their names into desks at school – we’re wondering if any teachers took 26 years to discover them, though. Donkey Kong on the Atari 400 contained a secret that took that same 26 years to find, with developer Landon M Dyer hiding his little signature behind some devious programming.
To get LMD to appear on the title screen, you need to die with a score that contains a certain digit combo, lose your last life by falling, and then set the difficult to level 4 – we’re wondering how it was finally discovered.
7. Zelda’s hidden fan room
This one’s rather odd: fans actually knew about this hidden room in The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. Way back in 1990, Nintendo Power magazine ran a contest in which one lucky reader would get their name enshrined forever within an unannounced NES game, but as time went on, that eventually turned out to be a SNES game, the first Zelda title on Nintendo’s new console back in 1992.
It wasn’t until the early 2000s that the winner, Chris Houlihan, actually got his recognition: the room wasn’t actually found until then. Hidden on a plaque in a hidden room that’s basically impossible to get to by normal means, players have to glitch Link over to the location to find the hidden gem. We’re hoping Nintendo actually notified him to begin with.
8. The trials of Trials HD
RedLynx’s incredibly difficult yet addictive motorcycle trials game, Trials HD, doesn’t seem like it’d be ripe for a difficult riddle, but the developer packed the 2009 game full of secrets that took years to finally figure out. Trials HD packed in a puzzle so convoluted that it took a network of players, and even a little help from RedLynx, to finally solve. Many of the game’s tracks contain background art with famous number sequences, binary code, DNA sequences and more, and once put together the ‘solution’ came together in 2012, as seen in the video above.
9. The black monolith in Fez
Phil Fish’s incredible Fez was a feast for the eyes and brain, with many players finishing the game and finding most of the game’s secrets, but one in particular took Fez fans years to solve – and even then, it wasn’t an elegant way to work it out. Fans banded together on a website and resorted to brute-forcing the solution, all while the mystery tormented the Fez community.
To start with, in Fez, you’re tasked with collecting special cubes, but there are also hidden 'anti-cubes', but it goes further than that. There are even more super secret cubes, called 'red cubes', of which there are only three in the whole game – and to find the last one, you need to solve the black monolith. Which isn’t as simple as it sounds. To start with, you need to jump into the game’s New Game + mode, which gives players the ability to see the world in the first-person, which then makes it possible to solve one of the puzzles in an anti-cube chamber. Add in a torn-up map that players almost lost their wits over deciphering, and you were left with a series of button presses. Tap those on your controller at a certain place in a certain room in first-person would reveal the floating black monolith, and your red cube prize.
Of course, it’s not as simple as this sounds, and plenty of Fez fans took months, if not years, to finally figure it all out – we’re left wondering if any fans managed it without looking at a shred of evidence online.
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