Finding an easter egg in a video game can be oh so satisfying.
To the point where some players, myself included, actively search the maps of our favourite
games, seeking them out.
Sometimes those easter eggs come in the form of hidden messages - ones you have to dig
for, or ones that are right in front of your face.
So today, we’re taking a look at some of the most intriguing ones, with our list of
the top 10 hidden messages found in video games.
10 Donkey Kong – LMD Back in the early days of developing video
games for home consoles, it was fairly common that many of the individuals who worked on
the games would go unaccredited.
So sometimes, developers would sneak their names into the game anyway, typically their
initials, which would often appear when something was triggered in the gameplay.
The most infamous is the initials snuck into the 1993 Atari Donkey Kong game – LMD, standing
for Landon M Dyer, who had ported the game for the Atari 400 and 800 pretty much entirely
on his own.
Dyer had tipped people off about the Easter Egg in a blog post, and eventually it was
discovered that if you completed a series of seemingly arbitrary tasks, it would appear
on the game’s title screen.
9 Uncharted 3 – Last of Us reference Developer Naughty Dog has become known to
produce some of the best games out there, including the Uncharted franchise and The
Last Of Us.
They also were known for notoriously working on one game at a time, but that changed with
The Last Of Us.
Naughty Dog had kept the game’s developed under wraps between 2009 and 2011 – which
was no easy feat.
It was officially announced as their next project at the Spike Video Game awards in
2011 after viral marketing had been making the rounds for the game, with no developer
attached.
Part of the effectiveness of the marketing was the mystery; people knew that it was a
game that had something to do with a deadly fungus, but little more was revealed prior
to then.
But turns out, in Uncharted 3, they gave away the secret.
In a bar in Uncharted 3, there’s a newspaper you can find that reads ‘Scientists are
still struggling to understand deadly fungus.”
Except people didn’t think it was Naughty Dog’s game because of that whole ‘one
game at a time’ shtick.
8 Halo 3 Birthday Message This hidden message took fans years to discover.
Turns out if you set your clock on your Xbox to December 25th and toggle the joysticks
of your controller while on the main menu of Halo 3, another screen will appear containing
a ring that has an inscription on it that reads, “Happy birthday, Lauren!”
Which was a sweet message from one of the game’s developers to his wife.
7 Dead Space – Nicole is Dead A survival horror game set in space, Dead
Space follows the story of a ship systems engineer named Isaac.
The player must navigate your way through the infested mining starship and fight off
the reanimated corpses of the ship’s crew who have been taken over by creatures called
Necromorphs.
You’re also trying to reach your girlfriend, a medical officer named Nicole.
But the game has a hidden message about Nicole’s fate – spoiler alert – she’s been dead
the whole time, and if you look at the first letter of each of the level titles, you’ll
notice that they spell out ‘Nicole is Dead’.
6 Half Life 2 – Headcrabs This one is pretty disturbing.
The headcrab zombies make an appearance in both the first and second Half Life games,
being primarily present in the second during the Ravenholm level.
What makes this level so memorable is that the headcrabs are practically infesting it,
and they have one trait that is rather bone chilling.
Their wail.
Fans of the game may note that their wails have some semblance to a human cry.
Turns out if you take the audio of this wail and reverse it, the headcrabs are crying out
“dear god help” and “help me”.
Which only implies that the humans who the headcrabs have latched on are fully aware
of the horrible thing happening to them, and are in a lot of pain.
Yikes.
It’s pretty petrifying.
5 Sonic CD – Satan If you’ve watched any of our Sonic themed
videos on this channel, or you’re a big fan of the franchise in general, there’s
a good chance you’re quite familiar with the hidden screens that you can unlock in
Sonic CD, mostly with additional concept art and other easter eggs.
One screen in particular is known for being quite creepy - it features a humanoid Mario-esque
crossbreed Sonic paneling the background, with the phrase “Infinite Fun, Sega Enterprises”
signed “Majin” which can translate into the devil.
Except turns out that Majin is actually the nickname for one of the developers.
Still a pretty cheeky hidden message from the makers of the game though!
4 Wasteland 2 - Big Red Button When you see a big red button, your natural
instinct usually is to press it, right?
It’s just so big and red, how can you resist?
Well, in Wasteland 2, a post-apocalyptic RPG from 2014, much of the story is dependent
on the choices you make, with all your choices impacting the world, which got it quite the
positive reviews.
One of those choices comes in the form of a big red button.
But when you press it, all that happens is your screen shakes; talk about anti-climatic.
That wasn’t enough for some people though – a Kotaku journalist pressed the creators
(no pun intended) to let the public know what happened in the game – the button must have
had some effect, but even a year after the game’s release, no one online had figured
out what.
Turns out it opens a secret location on the main map – if you go there, you meet a man
named Aaron Chwatt, who isn’t the most pleasant fellow.
If you ignore his instructions to get lost, you’ll find ANOTHER big red button.
Press that, your screen shakes again, Chwatt freaks out at you saying you’ve doomed everyone,
and then runs away.
So why does this matter?
Aaron Chwatt is a real life comedian who went by the name Red Buttons.
It was all a big elaborate eater egg reference.
3 Arkham City – Calendar Man Arkham City is arguably the best superhero
video game to date.
While Asylum ushered in a new age of gaming with Bats, Arkham City brought the experience
to a whole other level, and including some incredibly memorable and challenging interactions
with the villains of Batman’s rogue gallery.
One in particular though eluded some players for a while – The Calendar Man.
After three years of no one publically announcing they had figured it out, developers Rocksteady
released it the hidden message themselves.
If you set your console’s date to December 13th 2004 – which just so happens to be
the day Rocksteady was founded - the Calendar man references his early work – a reference
to Rocksteady’s early work with the Arkham universe – he continues to go on to say
he was there at the beginning and will be there at the end.
Also worth noting that he’s true to his word – in the last scene of Arkham Knight,
he makes an appearance in the background.
2 No Easter Eggs – GTA San Andreas GTA is known for its satire and sense of humour,
even when it comes to their easter eggs.
So out of all the games on this list, this is the hidden message is the most rewarding.
In an ironic way, of course.
In GTA San Andreas, if you get yourself a jet pack and fly ALL the way to the top of
the Gant Bridge, you’ll find a sign that reads “There are no easter eggs here.
Go away.”
1 Silent Hill: Shattered Memories – Konami Help Line
What could top the cheekiness of that GTA hidden message?
One that’s meta AF.
Silent Hill Shattered Memories is a remake of the original game, and features a whole
lot of psychological mind games, all of which, depending on how you navigate, will affect
the world around you.
One of the tools you have to make use of in the game is your cell phone, and if you’re
paying attention, you’ll notice that certain areas have unique phone numbers living on
posters that you can actually call.
One of which is the Konami Help Line.
The best part?
Once the operator realizes you’re calling from Silent Hill, she says “I regret to
inform you that you are beyond even our help.”
There we have it friends!
Which of these hidden messages have you found?
Were there ones on this list you had no idea existed?
Let us know in those comments below!
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In the meantime, thanks for watching!
I’ve been Kelly Paoli and this has been top 10 gaming.
Catch you all in the next one!