Mythbusters: The Truth Behind 10 Great Videogame Myths

We look at some of the most enduring myths surrounding games and the industry to see if there's any truth to these legends.
10/1/2009 9:13 AM | 12 Comments | Page 1 of 2

1. You can jump over the flagpole in Super Mario Bros.

The myth: Hey, so you know Timmy down the street? Well, he said he could jump OVER the flagpole in Super Mario Bros. He told me he could! No, I didn't see it, but his sister says she saw him do it. No, he can't do it on any level; he said you can only do it in World 3-3 when that elevator thingy gets high enough and you jump at just the right time. Oh, and once he said he did it in 7-1. I tried like a MILLION times, though, and I couldn't do it without the Game Genie. Come on, man, Timmy wouldn't lie! Would he?

The truth: "No way!" "Yes way!" "No WAY!" Yes WAY!

Status: Plausible.


2. It's illegal to play pinball in Ocean City, N.J. on Sundays

The myth: It's well known that pinball machines were once seen primarily as gambling devices and, for this reason, banned in many American towns. This ban was enforced perhaps most famously in New York City, where, in 1942, then-mayor Fiorello LaGuardia took a sledgehammer to dozens of pinball machines at a press conference.

The New York ban was lifted in 1976, after a dramatic demonstration before the City Council showed that pinball was indeed a game of skill. But, according to Internet sources (both respectable and less so), the word didn't fully reach Ocean City, N.J., where you're reportedly still not allowed to play pinball on Sundays.

The truth: Like many myths, there's a grain of truth in this one. Chapter 5, Section 3.7, Subsection F of the Ocean City, N.J. City Code does indeed discuss the legal hours of operation for not only pinball machines, but all "Coin-Operated and Non-Coin-Operated Amusement Machines or Devices ... including but not limited to pinball machines, pool, billiards, rifle or pistol target shooting, air hockey, simulated motor vehicle operations, aptitude testing, computer and/or electronic games." In other words, arcade games.

Here's the relevant section of the law, which at first glance seems to confirm the myth. But see if you can pick out the key phrase that throws a curveball at the myth as it's usually stated:

No licensee of a non-arcade premises containing coin-operated or non-coin-operated amusement machines or devices shall permit them to be played between 12:00 midnight and 9:00 a.m. weekdays or between 12:00 midnight Saturdays and 9:00 a.m. Monday.

If you caught that "non-arcade premises" phrase, you may have a future as a law reporter. Despite the myth, the law against Sunday arcade-game-playing actually exempts Ocean City's many arcades, which Subsection A defines as "any building, structure or premises which has for its primary purpose or function, the offering of coin and non-coin-operated amusement machine or devices." In other words, the locations most likely to have pinball machines (and other "Amusement Machines or Devices") in Ocean City, N.J. are indeed allowed to own and operate them on Sundays. Good news for vacationers looking for their Sunday gaming fix.

Status: Busted.


3. Luigi is hidden in Super Mario 64

The myth: When intrepid players found that collecting all 120 stars in Super Mario 64 unlocked a rooftop encounter with Yoshi, many gamers understandably wondered what other classic Mario characters might be hidden in the game. These gamers must have been incredibly excited when they ran into one of the many mythical methods for unlocking and/or playing as Mario's eternal understudy, Luigi.

Most of these methods were incredibly elaborate, making them hard for most casual players to confirm. But why go to the trouble, when the Internet is full of pictures and even videos that do the confirmation for you? And then there's the matter of the grainy message on the game's ghost fountain pedestal. If you squint real hard, it kind of looks like it says "L is Real 2401." How much more proof do you need?

The truth: Sorry, this one is just a rumor. Photos and videos that purport to show Mario's green-clad brother in Super Mario 64 are either Photoshop creations, emulator-powered modifications or from the game's Nintendo DS re-release, which actually did include a playable Luigi. Both Nintendo and Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto have denied the rumor many times, but that doesn't mean there's nothing to it. In fact, in a recent interview with Wired.com, Miyamoto did admit that an unreleased test version of the game "had Mario and Luigi running around in that 3-D world." Could some hint of that test have made it into the final game code? If so, it definitely hasn't been found yet.

Status: Busted.


4. Atari buried millions of unwanted VCS cartridges in the New Mexico desert

The myth: It's a powerful physical demonstration of the industry's first real financial crisis: an army of dump trucks dumping millions of excess game cartridges in a remote New Mexico desert and covering the resulting landfill up with concrete. As the story goes, in 1983 Atari was reeling from an unprecedented number of unsellable cartridges being returned by retailers that had once been desperate for product to sell. The main reason: hubris on Atari's part. The company reportedly manufactured 12 million copies of Pac-Man (despite the existence of only 10 million VCS systems at the time) and 5 million copies of a rushed, near-unplayable game based on the hit movie "E.T." With the company bordering on financial ruin and unable to sell or store the millions of returned games, they did the only thing they could think of: loaded them up into dump trucks and rolled them out to the desert.

The truth: Despite some doubts by a former Atari insider that the company would simply throw out so many cartridges (rather than recycling and repurposing them), the story is corroborated by contemporaneous accounts in The Almogorado (N.M.) Daily News (from the city that houses the infamous landfill) and The New York Times, which even quoted an Atari spokesman as confirming the dumping. Cry "liberal mainstream media" all you want, but on this one, I think you can trust the Times.

Status: Confirmed.


5. Saddam Hussein tried to use linked PlayStation 2s as a missile-guiding supercomputer

The myth: Rather than rewrite history, I'll simply quote extensively from the always-reliable almost-never reliable WorldNetDaily, whose Dec. 2000 story seems to have started this myth:

Both the U.S. Customs Service and the FBI are investigating the apparent transfer of large numbers of Sony PlayStation 2s to Iraq, according to military intelligence sources.

A secret Defense Intelligence Agency report states that as many as 4,000 of the popular video game units have been purchased in the United States and shipped to Iraq in the last two to three months.

... A single PlayStation can generate up to 75 million polygons per second. Polygons, as noted in the DIA report, are the basic units used to generate the surface of 3-D models -- extremely useful in military design and modeling applications.

... What could Iraq do with such a primitive super-computer constructed with Sony PlayStation 2s?

"Applications for this system are potentially frightening," said an intelligence source. "One expert I spoke with estimated that an integrated bundle of 12-15 PlayStations could provide enough computer power to control an Iraqi unmanned aerial vehicle, or UAV -- a pilotless aircraft."

... Current United Nations sanctions prohibit the sale or transfer of virtually all types of computer hardware and technology to Iraq. However, computer-based video game systems -- like the PlayStation 2 -- are not included in the ban. Iraq's scientists and engineers have apparently found a convenient loophole in the U.N. sanctions.

The truth: Again, there's a grain of truth to this one: The PlayStation 2 was reportedly subject to special military export permits in Japan, and researchers were later able to used linked PS2s to craft a supercomputer. That said, many of the computing claims in the WorldNetdaily story were wildly overblown, and UK intelligence sources told ZDNet that the charges were "nonsense." Also, as far as I know, no stockpiles of modified PlayStation 2s were discovered during the invasion of Iraq. Then again, maybe they're hiding with the weapons of mass destruction...

Status: Busted.