Out of Bounds: Eight Videogame Places You're Not Supposed to Go
6/10/2009 12:33 PM | 16 Comments | Page 2 of 2
Adventure: "Created by…" Room
Warren Robinett was a programmer at Atari in the early 2600 era, a time when "development team" meant one guy, working alone. Despite the groundbreaking work done by its solo auteurs, Atari's policy was to deny programmers any public credit, lest they demand a bigger share of the company's zillion-dollar cash flow.
So in his best-known work,
Adventure, Robinett created one of the first Easter eggs: a well-hidden room that displayed the text "Created by Warren Robinett," although the real message was, "Up yours, Atari." The renegade coder managed to keep the secret from his bosses until it was too late for them to change the code -- no small feat, considering the entire game fit into a tiny 4K ROM.
How to get there: Take the bracket doodad to a flashing corner where you can pick up an invisible dot thingy … you know what, just do what the dude in the video did.
What to pack: Special brownies. If you think that color-strobing text looks cool sober, try it in a "mellower" state of mind, if you know what I mean. I mean marijuana. Ingest marijuana in some form and then go watch the pretty words. God, I have to spell everything out for you, don't I?
Grand Theft Auto III: Ghost Town
Even in-game movies need sets. The "ghost town" in
GTA3 is a group of building facades that appear in the background of an early bank-robbery cut scene. The fake street is hidden behind Shoreside Vale and, while none of the 3-D models are solid, the textures are actually more detailed than the ones used for the game's "real" streets.
How to get there: Fly the Dodo clipped-wing aircraft (it takes some practice, but it's doable) around the hills of Shoreside Vale. You'll have to settle for the aerial view, as there's nowhere to land. For a closer look, PC users
can install a mod that adds a bridge to the ghost town and solidifies the buildings.
What to pack: Air-sickness bags. The Dodo's no Gulfstream.
Resident Evil 4: Under the Sewers
This glitch in
RE4, which allows you to explore the space below the Spanish sewers, is a fairly common clipping bug. The strange twist is that the bug reveals further ghosts in the machine -- namely, a mini-cut scene that doesn't appear in the normal course of the game. The "lost" footage shows a brief look from a Novistador bug-creature's point of view as it approaches Leon.
How to get there: Stand near the top of a ladder in the sewers after killing nearby Novistadores and draining the water. Get as close to the wall as possible while the "Jump Down" command appears on-screen. Jump down. If you were in the right position, you can pass through the wall in front of you.
What to pack: You're wading through sewer sludge, so a bottle of Purell wouldn't hurt.
DOOM II: John Romero's Head
Do you remember when we worshipped John Romero? Me either. But apparently it happened, as the final level of the
DOOM sequel contained a veritable shrine to the game's co-creator. There's even a play-it-backwards-to-hear-the-SECRET! voice clip thrown in there, which is
the oldest trick in the book.
How to get there: On the 30th (and last) map of the game, type the cheat code "idclip" while playing to turn off clipping. Walk through the face of the final boss to reveal Romero's head. Yes, you have to cheat to get there. But it's
DOOM II. Did anybody play this game without cheating?
What to pack: A copy of
Daikatana. Wave it in front of the severed head and laugh. In other words,
make John Romero your bitch.
Where have you gone off the beaten path? Share your exotic gaming travelogues in the comments.
Check out more glitchy goodness from Crispy Gamer's John Teti:
