Top 10 Secret Messages Developers Left In Video Games

Like many games of the 80’s, the first “Alex Kidd” holds a plethora of secrets for players to uncover. This hidden heartwarming message, however, can only be found in the Japanese version of “Alex Kidd in Miracle World”. Press the “1” button fourteen times on a second controller when you see the ending message, then press 1 or 2 on the first controller. The ending message will change into a brief letter from the devs, saying, “We dedicate this story to Kōichi and Emi. May children yet to be born be strong, and have love and bravery like Alex. And we, together with Alex, hope that all who love him may be forever happy.”

The “Silent Hill” games are known for being shrouded in mystery. It's like every time you play these games, there’s a new layer to uncover in the narrative and its characters. The devs of “Shattered Memories” went out of their way to throw in a haunting message that some players may not have thought to look for. Using Harry’s phone, dial the phone number for Konami’s Customer Support. While a bit goofy at first, the rep’s final words are what make Harry’s situation even more grim.

This is one of the most notorious cases of developers hiding messages in their games, and rightfully so. For those unaware, “Erika and Satoru's Dream Adventure '' was a NES game with a unique mix of genres in visual novel and adventure games at the time. Thing is that the innocent vibe of this title is forever ruined by one developer’s hidden message. Let the game sit idle for ninety minutes and input a convoluted button combination to see it for yourself. The message is one long rant calling out coworkers for lazy work ethic, perverted behavior - the whole thing is rather alarming.

PlayStation 2 games came up with some awesome tidbits for players to find that have helped make the console memorable to many. “God of War” had one of the coolest secrets for players to discover. Destroy all of the statues in the throne room to unlock the “Secret Message 2” Treasure. Enter the numbers into your phone from top to bottom, left to right, and call it. You’ll get a special message from Kratos and creator David Jaffe congratulating you on finding the little Easter egg. You can find a second phone number upon completing the game on God Mode. And yes, you can still call both of these numbers - we tried it ourselves!

Yes, there are a handful of rants and lash-outs to find in older games. “The New Tetris” for Nintendo 64 is the last of these angry tirades we’re covering in this video, and it’s a bit more personal. Before passing away two years after the game’s launch, programmer David Pridie left a scathing message in the game that specifically called out the game’s producer. According to Pridie, the producer spent development playing “StarCraft” and “EverQuest” while regurgitating information. Pridie later admits of the game’s poor quality, stating, “Could use another month to finish this thing off AFTER all the bugs are fixed. Oh well, woh is me.” [Yes, “woe” is spelled like that in the message.]

How many times have you looked at an out of reach spot in a game and thought, “I bet there’s something up there.” Well, some players might have been disappointed when playing “San Andreas”. Show of hands - who tried and managed to get to the top of Gant Bridge? If you were one of those people, you were greeted with a message on the structure that read, “There are no Easter eggs up here. Go away.” Yes, all that time and effort into climbing a tall structure was for nothing.

Why, yes, there were hidden messages in games going all the way back to the days of “Donkey Kong”! At the time, video games were still new, which meant that there weren’t many programmers let alone people who knew how a video game even functioned. To find the technically brilliant, “Donkey Kong” development studio Ikegami Tsushinki encrypted a message for hackers to discover. If you cracked the game’s code, you’d find a message congratulating you on your efforts and giving you contact information for a potential job opportunity at the company.

Whereas some devs have left messages to call out bad coworkers or send loving messages to fans, the devs behind “Rayman” made their messages a bit more personal (in a positive way). The team dedicated a large handful of passwords to leave behind goofy and kind messages to friends and family as well as a few championing the game, the Atari Jaguar, and even Nintendo. To see for yourself, you will have to play the Atari Jaguar version of “Rayman” as it features a password system different from the PlayStation version.

Longtime “Halo” fans will remember the special birthday message that appears in “Halo 3” that one developer put in the game for his wife. It was a touching tribute that no Xbox veteran will ever forget. However, “Halo 3: ODST” had a message that flew under all of our noses. A poster in the game shows a mysterious ship flying over Earth with text at the top that read, “Destiny Awaits”. Bungie had announced a brand new game without anyone batting an eyelash, and we were able to get our hands on that game five years after the fact.

This was the most cryptic message in gaming history, and we spent over two decades hoping to get official confirmation on its meaning. In “Super Mario 64”, the fountain in Peach’s Castle reads “L is real 2401”, and people became so obsessed with figuring out the meaning of the message that gaming outlets were offering bounties for information. Unfortunately, every turn was merely a theory. It wasn’t until the Nintendo Gigaleak of 2020 when we finally confirmed what we all believed from this message; at some point in development, Luigi was planned as a playable character for co-op gameplay. Sadly, he was cut during development. So, L was indeed real after all!