Top 10 Secrets HIDDEN Within Video Game Data

Giving the players the opportunity to explore their favorite Disney-movie inspired worlds, the “Kingdom Hearts” franchise has an expansive library of source material to work from. Although, something has always felt off… where are all the Pixar properties? With a bit of digging into the code of “Kingdom Hearts II”, you can find character models for Woody & Buzz grouped with the other Summon characters. There was even concept art for a “Toy Story” themed world for the first game. At this point, we can only hope that “Kingdom Hearts III” will finally include a Pixar franchise in the actual game, and not just hidden away in the data.

These days, video game music is celebrated worldwide, so much so that we actually have full orchestras that travel the world playing familiar tunes from our favorite games. Back in the day of early discs, however, we either had to play the game and leave it idle or pop it into a computer to hear those memorable melodies. Unfortunately, the latter didn’t work with every disc, but a healthy handful of them implemented this feature. The most famous example came, fittingly, from “Castlevania: Symphony of the Night”, which plays a bonus track not accessible in any other portion of the game. As if that theme song wasn’t catchy enough.

#8: Donkey Kong…with Voices? - “Donkey Kong” (1981)

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Voice acting has become a staple of video games, with the likes of Nolan North of “Uncharted” and “Deadpool” fame enhancing a game’s story through their magnificent performances. However, voice acting in games traces WAY back to 1981. That’s right! “Donkey Kong” is one of the earliest examples of voice acting in a video game. In the arcade version, there are unused audio files assigned to Pauline saying “Nice” and “Help”. According to Miyamoto himself, these were scrapped after they were tested on a native English-speaking professor, who kept hearing “Kelp” instead of “Help.” These recordings weren’t discovered until just recently in 2014, a whopping thirty-three years after the game’s release!

#7: The Unfinished Citadel - “GoldenEye 007” (1997)

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It’s normal for games to have levels scrapped, with some being abandoned due to their insane level of difficulty. But in the case of this N64 classic, what’s left of “Citadel” poses more questions than it answers. With the appearance of a blank geometrical canvas, “Citadel’s” origins remain a mystery, with some speculating it was only to test objects, models, and coding. Since its discovery, a modder known as Zoinkity managed to add enough assets to the unfinished level to make it playable with a basic multiplayer setup. The lack of resemblance to anything in the Bond universe is what makes this unused level so odd to look at.

#6: VS Professor Oak?! - “Pokémon Red/Blue” (1996)

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Ever find it odd that professor battles didn’t occur until “Pokemon X & Y”? As it turns out, the original Pokémon games were about to include this concept, starting with…Professor Oak?! Yeah, our badgering mentor is programmed to be able to battle. Wait…how the hell does he have Pokemon more powerful than the Elite Four? His levels range from 66-70! And get this, judging from his stats, it seems that he was supposed to be the game’s final boss. Oak, we know there’s a time and place for everything, but this fight is happening now…once we find the GameShark required to access it.

#5: Full Arcade Game - “F-Zero GX” (2003)

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Step right up, owners of “F-Zero GX”. If you happen to have a GameShark lying around, then you might want to boot up your old GameCube again. “F-Zero GX” contains the code for its arcade counterpart, “F-Zero AX”, giving players bonus tracks and a hearty selection of vehicles. And hey, those graphics are pretty impressive considering arcade games usually need to run on systems of their own. Falcon, it’s been a while - how about a few laps around Mute City for old times’ sake?

#4: Pikmin, Now on PC - “Pikmin” (2001)

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Well, class, so far, we’ve learned that your old PS1 games can be put into a computer. Add GameCube discs to that list, specifically “Pikmin”. If frolicking amongst those bizarrely adorable creatures on your PC is what you’re after, most people would probably go for an emulator, but that’s a morally ambiguous topic for another day. Instead, simply insert your copy of “Pikmin” into your computer (if it accepts the tiny disc format) and look for the execution file. BOOM! You got Pikmin on your PC… with that annoying debugging menu in the way, but close enough!

Watching cinematics is one thing, but this is just…weird. Upon inserting the game into a computer, you could find a file named “ZZDUMMY.DAT” which would play the short film “Jesus vs. Santa”. Wait, as in the South Park short film? Notice we said “could” because not all copies will have this file as the first 100,000 copies were recalled a few months later after this discovery. Why was this put into the game? Some say it was a joke, others say it was just a programmer trying to figure things out. Either way, someone was fired.

Yes, this might be a phrase you’d hear from somebody playing “Crash Bandicoot”, but did you know there’s an in-game enemy with this as its name? Did you know that enemies in this series had names at all? Starting with “Crash 2”, the names of the game’s enemies became something of an inside joke for Naughty Dog – inside the code, that is. Often named after profane remarks, including “ass” – short for assistant - this in-joke carried on into “Crash 3: Warped”, where the names got more and more profane, with one enemy taking the honor of “mother****er.” If you’re that curious about the other crude nicknames, feel free to dig into the game’s files.

#1: The Infamous…Hot Coffee - “Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas” (2004)

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This is, by far, the most infamous, controversial, and sought-after secret in the history of video games. “San Andreas” was set release with a sex mini-game as part of the in-game dating missions, but Rockstar changed course, and decided to take out this concept from the final game to avoid an Adults Only rating from the ESRB. Well, the proof was in the pudding…er, coffee, and hackers found the evidence, as the game’s files contain the code for it. As a result, the game was stamped with an AO rating anyway, forcing Rockstar to re-package the game with all traces of the mini-game taken out to regain an acceptable M for Mature rating.