Over the past decade or so, as the gaming community has become more connected, a peculiar set of stories and rumors have bubbled to the surface.
Video Game Urban Legends Part 1
Some of these yarns are so farfetched they debunk themselves, but every so often one turns out to be true – and in doing so lends a sliver of credibility to all the others. It makes you wonder “What if?” What if one of the following stories is more than just one person’s imagination? Set aside your doubts and open your mind the macabre possibilities these stories posit, because you never know. I’ve provided a little music below to help set the mood, now crank those tunes and let’s get on with the creepiness! WARNING: Some of these tales are extremely disturbing, and it is not recommended to read through this if you are faint of heart…
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FALLOUT 3 predicts the FUTURE?
In-game radio station Galaxy News Radio is hosted by a guy called Three Dog. If you kill him in the game, he is replaced on the air by his assistant, Margaret. If you then skip past the ‘Galaxy News Radio’ mission and then destroy Raven Rock, GNR will occasionally turn into a ‘numbers station’. These allegedly exist in real life – radio transmissions which are heavily coded, most likely relaying military data or suchlike. In Fallout 3, they (again, allegedly) feature the voice actor of Three Dog (Erik Dellums) reading out numbers in a sad-sounding voice. These are then followed by a string of morse code.
But the supposed number station’s codes are different and can be interpreted as dates….
Not just any random dates….dates to major events mentioned alongside them….
And here’s the creepy part….some of them have EVEN come true!
“Nine-four-five-four-two-zero-two-zero-one-zero. Accident in the gulf, several dead. Oil spill apparently averted.”
On 9:45 at 4/20/2010 (which is 20/4/2010 according to the format followed in India), an explosion took place in southeast of the Louisiana coast. The explosion killed 11 workers and injured 17 others. The explosion caused the Deepwater Horizon to burn and sink. The same blowout that caused the explosion also caused a massive offshore oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, considered the largest accidental marine oil spill in the world, and the largest environmental disaster in U.S. history.
“one-two-zero-five-five-two-eight-two-zero-one-zero. What are you talkin’ about? You’ll be missed.”
On 12:05 at 5/28/2010 (or 28/5/2010), infamous American actor, voice artist, and comedian Gary Wayne Coleman passed away due to an epidural hematoma.
There are multiple future events predicted. The most notable ones are:
“I can’t believe Britney’s actually won an Oscar!” 21:33 February 27, 2023
“I can’t believe they’ve actually done it. Not long left. They were warned, but they just had to keep pushing the boundaries of science. The noise. I can’t take the noise anymore. And the light, dear God! The Universe is slowly unraveling around us. I’m not going to wait for death. I have a pistol in the attic.” This is actually the only message not preceded by a string of numbers.
It may be worth nothing that the latest date on any of the messages is 1:27 July 6, 2027.
What could the final message mean? And if it really is accurate…..then do we really want to know?
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SUPER MARIO GALAXY 2: HELL VALLEY
Ahhh Mario…everyones favourite little red plumber jumping around here and there, saving princesses and what not…
There’s nothing creepy about him, is there?
Super Mario Galaxy 2 released on the Nintendo Wii on May 23rd, 2010. In the Shiverburn galaxy, if you change to first person mode, you can see mysterious shadowy figures looming in the horizons. These thin, alien-like figures are never seen in any other level, and their appearance has never been explained. There are various horrific myths leading to an explanation, but all we can do is wonder where they fit in to the vast Mario mythos….
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SQUALL DIES MID-WAY IN FINAL FANTASY VIII
In Final Fantasy VIII, at the end of disc one, Squall is impaled by an ice shard while fighting one of the games main bosses, Edea. Squall awakens at the beginning of disc two with no wounds at all from the battle and no one ever brings up that Squall was killed. It is also at this point when the game goes from being a fairly realistic fantasy game to being an over the top, fantasy where all realism goes out the window. I mean a good portion of the plot takes place in outer space!
It is believed that Squall actually dies from his wounds that he suffers during his fight with Edea at the end of disc one…. the rest of the game is simply a dream Squall is having as he passes away….
This would explain why the game has such a surrealist tone after disc one. It would also explain the collage of images we see at the end of the game as Squall’s life flashes before his eyes. Among those images is a shot of Squall without a face which just adds icing to the creepy cake.
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MAJORA’S MASK
The legend of the haunted Majora’s Mask game was born on the popular web community 4Chan. A user posted a story about how he obtained a blank N64 cartridge with “Majora’s Mask” written across it in black magic marker. He posted photos and videos along with the story that showed us a twisted and sinister version of one of the most beloved games of all time….
Upon starting the game the user noticed that there was already a game saved on the cartridge simply titled “Ben.” He ignored the save file and started a new game and noticed that all the NPCs (non-playable characters) would refer to him as Ben. He deleted the “Ben” file and tried to start a new game. The game became more erratic. The music would play backwards and his character began to be followed by a statue of the game’s main character with a creepy smile on its face. Eventually, the “Ben” file returned to the game. Along with it was another new file simply titled “drowned.” Every time he played after the two files appeared his character would simply die and creepy messages would sprawl across the screen:
“You’ve met with a terrible fate, haven’t you?”
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“PALE LUNA SMILES WIDE”
Pale Luna is an enigmatic, text-based adventure game. It’s also almost impenetrable. Your quest begins innocently enough: “You are in a dark room. Moonlight shines through the window.” There’s some gold, a shovel, and some rope nearby, along with a door to the east. If this was your typical adventure game you’d probably have to escape the room using an esoteric combination of gold and shovels, but Pale Luna is hardly typical.
Attempting to use the shovel results in “Not now” while using the rope gives you an ominous “You’ve already used that.” Gradually, players head east into the woods, where they endlessly cycle between the four cardinal directions. Your only companion is Pale Luna, whose message repeats “PALE LUNA SMILES WIDE.” After a great deal of trial and error one player, by the name of Michael Nevins, managed to solve this maze, and received a set of longitude and latitude coordinates for his trouble.
-Congratulations
—— 40.24248 ——
—— -121.4434 ——
Upon which the game ceased to accept commands, requiring the user to reboot one last time.
After some deliberation, Nevins came to the conclusion that the numbers referred to lines of latitude and longitude — the coordinates lead to a point in the sprawling forest that dominated the nearby Lassen Volcanic Park. As he possessed much more free time than sense, Nevins vowed to see Pale Luna through to its ending.
The next day, armed with a map, a compass, and a shovel, he navigated the park’s trails, noting with amusement how each turn he made corresponded roughly to those that he took in-game.
Though he initially regretted bringing the cumbersome digging tool on a mere hunch, the path’s similarity all but confirmed his suspicions that the journey would end with him face-to-face with an eccentric’s buried treasure.
Out of breath after a tricky struggle to the coordinates, he was pleasantly surprised by a literal stumble upon a patch of uneven dirt. Shoveling as excitedly as he was, it would be an understatement to say that he was taken aback when his heavy strokes unearthed the badly-decomposing head of a blonde-haired little girl.
Nevins promptly reported the situation to the authorities. The girl was identified as Karen Paulsen, 11, reported as missing to the San Diego Police Department a year and a half prior.
Efforts were made to track down the programmer of Pale Luna, but the nearly-anonymous legal gray area in which the software swapping community operated inescapably led to many dead ends.
Collectors have been known to offer upwards of six figures for an authentic copy of the game.
The rest of Karen’s body was never found….
What do you think? Any creepy videogame stories you’d like to share? Feel free to post them in the comments below!
Wow that last one was down right creepy…
Yeah I saved the best for last lol