I'm very excited for this, everyone who knows me knows I love a good video game, and you
guys all know I love creepy stories - this video is gonna be a match made in heaven.
Video games as we know them have been around for about 50 years - not too long, but enough
time for some very creepy stories to emerge about them.
It turns out that games can be haunted, games can be more creepy that you can imagine, some
games have even caused terrible events and curses to happen in real life.
You need to know what to watch out for before its too late.
My name is Danny Burke and this is the Top 10 Video Game Urban Legends.
Coming in at number 10 we have The Super Mario Shadow People.
Super Mario Galaxy is a game known for pure fun - bright colors, familiar faces and a
whole lot of bouncing around.
Its also gained a reputation for featuring the Shadow People.
At the beginning of the Shiverburn Galaxy level, strange shadowy figures can be seen
at the top of the cliff in the background.
At first, many people brushed this off as just peoples imagination running wild.
Then someone took the initiative to look through the game files.
They found that the name of the background image is -Hell Valley Sky Tree- … umm, who
said anything about Hell Valley.
The internet exploded with conversation.
Who were these shadow people, always watching you, even though you can never get any closer
to them - and nobody ever mentions them.
Some people have tried to explain these away as trees but others say, I ain't seen no trees
that look like that.
Its one of those things where if Nintendo actually acknowledged it, it may not be so
creepy, but the fact that they have refused to means people are still left wondering who
the Shadow People of Hell Valley are …
Next, up at number 9, we have The Hall of Tortured Souls.
This is a well-known Easter egg that was hidden in the coding of Windows 95.
Deep in the coding of the Windows 95 software, there is a hidden game.
Nobody knows who found it first, but this is how you do it.
To enter the game, go to Microsoft Excel 95.
Open a new blank Excel worksheet.
Go down to the 95th row and select the whole row.
Tab over to column B. Goes to help / about.
Tap and hold control alt and shift and then click the tech support button.
Then, the game will appear.
Its called -Hall of Tortured Souls-.
Players use their arrow keys to move in 8 different directions, eventually, you will
find a staircase.
The walls are surrounded by the text of the creators.
On the next level, there is a small room with red walls.
Again, the names of the creators will flash up on the screen.
Go down and enter the room where you were before.
Type the magic world EXCELKFA.
Another room will open where you have to follow a zig-zagging black path.
Eventually, you will find the end of the game - a picture of the developers of the software.
The whole thing is a little unnerving.
Even though the game has been discovered and completed, many people are creeped out by
its name - Hall of Tortured Souls - … they feel there may be something much darker hidden
deeper in that game, maybe you'll be the one to find it …
Next up at number 8, we have Polybius.
Some call this the most dangerous video game ever made.
The story begins in Portland in 1981.
A local arcade hall was attracting more visitors than normal.
All the games were busy but only one had a long line of people wanting to play - a new
game - Polybius.
The players couldn't stop playing.
When they were finally forced off it, they began to act strangely.
They felt nauseous, stressed and had terrifying nightmares, others had seizures.
There were even reports of all the madness forcing people to suicide.
The one common thing that everyone felt was that they were unable to control their own
thoughts.
Then, people began to notice that the game was being serviced a lot more than usual.
Other games might get checked by technicians once a month, but Polybius was being checked
every week.
Men in black suits would come, record its data and leave - they would never take the
coins and seem to have no interest in the money.
After a while of this, the mysterious arcade game vanished as soon as it arrived - taken
by the same men in suits.
People believed that the men and the machine were from the CIA - that it was all part of
a mind control program - an experiment that was sending subliminal messages to players.
So - was there any truth to this?
That's the faith you need to put into the story.
The story has been repeated and spread for almost 40 years now but its hard to verify
as the arcade machine and the men who monitored it disappeared without a trace.
If this program has continued to modern times though, perhaps they've just got better at
hiding their experiments.
Next, up at number 7 we have The Ghost of GTA V. Its been almost 5 years since GTA 5
was released and by now it seems that players really have discovered every last secret and
easter egg the game has been hiding.
One of them sticks out as a lot more creepy than others though.
Near the peak of Mount Gordo, there is a flat rock on the ground which bears the word JOCK,
written in blood.
Between 11 PM and midnight in the game, the player can see the ghost of a woman appear
near the rock with long black hair and wearing a white dress.
She is said to be the ghost of Jolene Cranley Evans.
She was the wife of Jock Cranley, a famous stunt double in the game from years ago.
The story goes that she didn't want to move from their home near Mount Gordo to the city
of Los Santos so that Jock could pursue his stunt double career.
He took her up for a walk on the mountain and pushed her off where she fell to her death.
He was arrested but released due to lack of evidence.
Now, she haunts the mountain in the game.
If players go to a nearby campsite they can hear screaming or an incomprehensible whispering
sound which, if played backward, says let's see your shot.
If you try to approach her ghost, she will vanish into the night …
Next up at number 6 we have Luigi Is Dead.
There's something you Luigi fans never want to hear.
However, there are clues in some Super Mario games that he really is.
In Luigi's Mansion, during the blackout that happens after the Boss battle of Area 3, Luigi
journeys to the telephone room and answers two calls.
During these calls, while Luigi is holding the phone to his ear, the player must wait
until there is a lightning flash and then they will see that Luigis Shadow has been
twisted into a way that looks like he's been hanged.
Now, some say this shadow is the metaphorical shadow of a much darker game than what was
actually released - it's just that they forgot to take this part out.
Others say this was intentional and nod from the developers to the fact that Luigi has
been dead for many years - he killed himself after always having to live in the shadow
of his more popular and famous brother.
Nintendo says its just a glitch, but others say that's just a coverup and as much as Nintendo
fans don't want to hear it - Luigi is dead.
Next up at number 5 now we have Lavender Town.
Those of you that have played the original Pokemon games on Gameboy may already be familiar
with how creepy Lavender Town is.
I mean, the whole town is based around dead Pokemon - that's kinda the point - but there
is a story that goes way deeper and darker than you know.
Following the release of Pokemon Red and Green, there were a number of reported child suicides
in Japan.
When players got to Lavender Town, the music had a strange effect on them.
Let's hear it really quick as a reminder.
People said the song was created with a hidden code that would drive children to kill themselves.
The subliminal code used very high frequencies, ones that only young kids can hear and not
adults.
This became known as Lavender Town Syndrome.
Two hundred suicide supposedly committed suicide because of this, and many more developed illnesses
and afflictions.
The children who committed suicide usually did so by hanging or jumping from heights.
Those who did not succumb to the suicidal pull still complained of severe headaches
after listening to the Lavender Towns theme.
According to the legend, the developers in Japan were forced to fix the frequency of
the song to be at a lower frequency before international release.
That's the -safe- version you and I and many others have heard - but they say the real
version can still be found out there, waiting for its next victim …
Moving on to number 4 now we have the Xbox Voices.
When the Xbox was first released in 2001, it was praised for its power and cutting-edge
technology.
Microsoft didn't want to waste all of that when the console wasn't being used and so
they added some ambient noises which played while it was idle.
These noises started out normal at first but quickly got very strange.
People said it sounded like the console was channeling voices from the dead.
Naturally, people wanted answers from Microsoft.
Was this some sort of subliminal messaging?
Was it supposed to influence dreams when players fall asleep with the console on in the room?
Well, the company said it wasn't actually their own music, it was public domain audio
from NASA transmissions from the Apollo Missions.
For those of you that don't know, these were the missions that went to the moon.
If you think you can handle it, Id recommends listening to the whole thing.
People report hearing robotic voices, whispers, and even Halloween music.
Either people are imagining things or Microsoft and NASA have some explaining to do.
Next up at number 3, we have Killswitch.
This game is just straight up creepy - if it does actually exist.
You see, back in 1989, this game was released in which the player had the choice of playing
either a Ghast or Porto.
It was nearly impossible to play as Ghast as he was invincible which meant that almost
everyone chose Porto.
Items you've found appear at the bottom of the screen.
You find pieces of a tape recorder and could listen to events that transformed the mine
you're in into the hell that it became.
The game was very, hollow, empty, confusing and just creepy all around - but the weirdest
part is yet to come.
The story goes that if anyone does complete the game, Killswitch is designed to self-terminate.
It deletes all traces of itself on the person's computer.
This is bad news because only a reported 5000 copies were ever made.
This continued to happen until every last copy was wiped and the company who made the
game vanished from existence.
A small community of people are trying to replicate the game based on the stories they've
heard, but its slow work and many feel it's not worth the trouble it could ultimately
bring …
Moving on to number 2 now we have Herobrine.
Any of you who have played Minecraft will surely have heard of this character.
When you first play the game, you'll have the ordinary standard skin.
One day, early in the history of the game, a player said he spawned a new world.
He was playing as normal, mining and building when he saw something moving among the dense
fog.
He thought it was a cow and so chased it.
It wasn't though, staring back at him was a character that had the default skin, but
his eyes were empty.
There was no name above his head, he double checked to make sure he wasn't in a multiplayer
mode.
The character quickly ran off and disappeared.
As the game went on, strange things kept happening, parts of the game looked like someone had
been there before, even though this was single player.
Every once in a while, he claimed to see the strange doppelganger, watching from the fog.
After posting this story to the forums, he received a message from a user called Herobrine.
It simply said stop.
Eventually, he and some others found that Herborine was the name of a Swedish player,
possibly the brother of Notch who is Minecraft creator.
They asked Notch if he had a brother, he replied -I did, but he is no longer with us- … thus,
the legend was spawned of the creator's dead brother living on in the games coding.
Watching players.
Watching every player.
Unaware of the afterlife he's ended up in.
And finally, at number 1 we have Berzerk.
This was a very popular arcade game first released back in 1980 and was a great success
and highly addictive.
However, it will always be remembered as the first game to be linked to the deaths of some
its players - 3 to be precise.
The first was said to be Jeff Dailey, he allegedly entered his initials twice in the Berzerk
machines top 10 players list before dying of a heart attack.
His score was 16,660, people said if you remove the binary numbers of 1 and 0, you get 666.
The next victim was Jeffs friend, a guy called Peter Burkowski.
According to the arcade owner where the machine was housed, Peter arrived and began Berzerk
at 8:30 pm.
He was a top student who hoped to become a doctor - he was also very good at arcade games.
After 15 minutes of playing, he posted his initials next to two high scored on the leaderboard.
He then took four steps away, put a quarter into a different game and then collapsed dead
from a heart attack.
The third death was said to happen to a guy who got into a fight over a quarter that was
put into the Berzerk machine.
He was stabbed to death.
Of course, people began to connect the dots and become convinced that this arcade machine
had something to do with it.
Its rare that a kid dies during or just after playing any video game - but 3 all connected
to the same one?
You can see why the legend of Berzerk has persisted …
Aaaaand breath.
Were safe now.
Well, I loved that, like I said at the start, that was a combination of two of my favorite
things in the world.
Why don't we combine urban legends with another topic for our next video?
Did anyone get some suggestions?
Let's just make sure it's scary.
Thanks for watching as always guys, my name is Danny Burke and Ill see you all in the
next video.