SpaceBees Jul 12, 2008

It cost me an arm and a leg to get into this club!





Recently I've become a fan of reading about video game hoaxes and urban legends. Most of the ones I find are complete bullshit, and always have to do with the original Pokemon games to some degree. For example, that the Lavender Town music made some kids commit suicide. Or stupid myths involving things in Zelda games that would even be technically possible on N64 hardware.



However, I have stumbled across some good ones, some of which are more well known then others. If you know any, feel free to share them, I find this stuff really interesting.



Shen Long in Street Fighter



Probably the most famous one. One of the win quotes in Street Fighter 2 had a mistranslated version of the attack Shoryuken. The original victory phrase was "You must defeat my Dragon Punch to stand a chance!" It was translated as "You must defeat Shen Long to stand a chance!"



This caused Electronic Gaming Monthly to create what was probably the biggest prank in video game history. They convinced players that Shen Long was a hidden character in Street Fighter 2, and to unlock him you had to complete the game in an absurdly difficult way.



Eventually, it was revealed as an April Fool's Joke, and players were furious.



The character Gouken in Street Fighter 4 is more or less based on Shen Long.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheng_Long



Polybuis



This one is a crazy urban legend that is said to have originated on Usenet. Essentially, a new prototype arcade game was released that proved to be incredibly popular. Many players became addicted, with cases of insomnia, nightmares, and suicide apparently. There were also rumors that the FBI was monitoring players that achieved high scores. To this date there is no evidence it exists, but I guess a ROM was released about two years ago. It seems like a pretty normal game, but I could see how it would bother someone with epilepsy.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polybius_%28game%29



Killswitch



This one is really bizarre and difficult to even explain. The gist of it is that it was a Russian PC game with a very limited run, about 10,000 copies. Upon completion, it would delete itself. It is (in)famous because there were puzzles and levels that players never found ways to complete. The game took place in a Russian factory that was inhabited by demons.



Like I said, its difficult to explain what this game is even about, but you can read more here:



http://invisiblegames.net/archives/killswitch/



Phantom



The Phantom was a game console that basically played PC games. It had a ton of hype and then was never released. I really can't say much more about it because I can't find any information on it. I've heard it was some sort of investment scam.



So if anyone else has any good ones, feel free to share!