DownGrader
Member
Okay, since we started to post obvious leak bullshit here...
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Hilariously bad fake leaks, hoaxes and rumours
- Thread starter DownGrader
- Start date
My very own fake 
A friend and I Fabricated a story with an accompanying image to convince/prove to some random gaming chat room baaaack in the day that there was a Final Fantasy 7 remake or sequel forget which, in the works.
The lowdown was that this game was being developed unlicensed/illegally in Egypt for a new underground/3rd party console developed solely for the Egyptian 'grey' market.
This was the first leaked screen:
edit: Can anyone guess what game is being used as a background/environment?
A friend and I Fabricated a story with an accompanying image to convince/prove to some random gaming chat room baaaack in the day that there was a Final Fantasy 7 remake or sequel forget which, in the works.
The lowdown was that this game was being developed unlicensed/illegally in Egypt for a new underground/3rd party console developed solely for the Egyptian 'grey' market.
This was the first leaked screen:
edit: Can anyone guess what game is being used as a background/environment?
This isn't the magazine you're thinking of, but is this the picture:
That's from the March 2002 issue of EGM.
IncognitoPanda
Member
I believed this for so long.
TheLostBigBoss
Banned
This isn't the magazine you're thinking of, but is this the picture:
That's from the March 2002 issue of EGM.
Holy shit that's the picture I think.
Definitely not the same page, unless I'm misremembering (Which is completely possible considering it was 13 years ago), but holy shit I've finally been vindicated that I'm not insane!
THANK YOU
Dr. Buni
Member
This could have been an amazing follow up to OoT and MM.Zelda U 4chan 'leak' using Xenoblade Chronicles pic
Lol j. Ester
This post is written like as this happened years ago. Anyways, the actual "2" is real. Now what it means is up in the air, even Kojima directly denying it doesn't guarantee it's not real because of what he did with the Phantom Pain.
MaximumSpider
Banned
The 999th Pokemon will be a Yoshi!?
The big brother of a friend of mine asked to borrow my MK cart when this joke made the rounds. Didn't say what he wanted it for. When I got it back, there was a tear on the front art where he had placed the sellotape. Didn't know what had happened 'til years later when I read about the April Fools joke.
SeventhSon
Member
Hidden One
Member
He had a 5 month ban I believe. He'll be back in time for E3...But will he come back to post?PSY・S;150400574 said:
Phoenix Fang
Banned
I'm surprised no Panzer Dragoon fan has mentioned this yet.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eg5FWzj79Ns
This made me cry when I found out it was fake.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eg5FWzj79Ns
This made me cry when I found out it was fake.
Oh god, why did you have to make me remember this?!?!?!?!?I believe this was from EGM:
Lord of Castamere
Member
With the last couple of leaks they've done, do we want them to?
Sega Phoenix. Love the top air grill. (NOT)
lool I love all the fake consoles/mockups.
eso76
Member
Ah yes, needs some context.
Two versions of Street Fighter were released on C64 (possibly speccy too ? can't remember) Euro and US.
Euro was released first, was a really bad port with ugly upscaled sprites, missing moves (no secret moves at all), stages and enemies.
US version was much nicer looking, despite using tiny sprites, featured all the moves and was a better port and a fairly decent game overall.
Only one version of Street Fighter existed for the commmodore Amiga, ported by the same devs who gave us the horrid C64 Euro version, and was similarly lacklustre.
This one Italian mag claimed the Amiga also got its "US version" of Street Fighter at last, made by Discovery (legendary developer of the recently released Sword of Sodan, a technically impressive action game, featuring huge sprites) and reviewed it (98% !), claiming it was absolutely arcade perfect and one of the best games on Amiga.
Took people far too long to realise the review appeared in April issue.
hydrophilic attack
Member
.
tensuke
Member
I meant the walls of text as the "cutscenes", sorry.
The truck was mysterious because it's completely invisible without trading with a friend to specifically sequence break the game. If you're playing through the game normally, it's completely off screen and you'll never even know that it exists.
This one isn't entirely a case of gullible kids, it's just weird.
It's real. Page 31 of the manual for the Red/Blue versions. The Zubat art is placed near the text but is otherwise unrelated, the collage of Professor Oak 'tips' just happens to crop it in a way that makes it seem relevant.
April's Fool, eh? I know something better... ;_____;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=if2VnNWyQsM
It's a Touhou fangame. It was created for severval months, screenshots were posted more or less regularly. And then, on a first of april, a trailer was released. It looked awesome as hell - and in the end, we got a "Happy April Fool" and the creator announced that it all was a giant hoax. He released some (all?) of the graphics and that's it, no game no nothing.
You can easily get to it without any trading.
Simply blacking out on the ship after getting the HM causes the ship to drive off the next time you enter the area, allowing you to progress to any extent of the game (and unlocking Surf) before coming back in order to explore the area. (Changed in the FireRed/LeafGreen remakes, in which you are required to do it prior to going to Cinnabar)
The reason people thought it contained something special is because the area being explorable with Surf is an easter egg as it is otherwise inaccessible if you just leave the ship normally. People thought just because you could return to it at a later point, there HAD to be something secret there if you are able to do it like that instead of the ship simply being gone if you try to go back to it.
(Which turned out true for the remakes, in which you can pick up a lava cookie near the truck because Game Freak knew people are going to be trying to find something special there again using the same method)
J
JoJo UK
Unconfirmed Member
Every time I remember this I get upset
.The thread title implies 'hilariously unsuccessful', but I think there's space for a story about one that achieved it's goals perfectly... while also being 'hilariously bad'.
The Textfire Hoax.
A little context; the link goes into significantly more detail:
Text adventures still exist. There's a couple of programming languages designed specifically for the construction of them; Inform, TADS, Hugo. There are annual competitions, taken very seriously. It's regarded as an experimental form of game design, with a very heavy focus on storytelling, as you might imagine from a text-based medium; as such, it tends to adopt the term 'Interactive Fiction' these days, to distance itself a bit from the more Zorkian dungeon delving, although Zorkian dungeon delving is still very much a thing.
On April 3rd, 1998, the following package appeared on the Interactive Fiction Archive:
A 12-pack, with sixteen games in it.
The backstory? A company had appeared out of nowhere (Okay, not out of nowhere; out of Piedmont, California. That's a recurring theme), making commercial IF, and this was a pack of demos of those games. People who the existing IF community had never heard of, a company they'd never heard of, but actually quite competently made - if bizarre, and brief - games.
Extract from "Operate! - An interactive adaptation of the popular parlor game":
People were, to say the least, bemused. Some were believers, others were sceptical.
More games were released, as rumourmongering and discussion went on over time. There was George, a story about climbing into a bear's enclosure at the zoo. And finally, there was the reveal; Masta'mind, a game that challenged you to associate the Textfire releases with their real authors, all known and established figures in the IF community who banded together to perpetrate the hoax.
It's one of the best-handled April Fool's Jokes I've seen in gaming, I think, in part because it was interactive; there were real gaming products to fiddle with. The writing was genuinely amusing and silly, there was actually a real mystery to participate in at the end of it; it was very much in the spirit of fun. Nevertheless - to get back to the point of this thread - the things at the heart of the hoax were hilariously bad.
The name Textfire lives on in the IF community even now, used generally when they want to parody the idea of commercialisation. Emily Short's Savoir-Faire claimed a 'Collector's Edition' produced by Textfire; Textfire Golf was a genuine golf game in IF trappings (heavy emphasis on the banter between players; think a golf equivalent of Poker Night At The Inventory, without the mashup-of-characters aspect).
You can play the games even now with a bit of work; they're downloadable from the above link. You'll need to run them through an appropriate interpreter.
Finally, as a coda to the Textfire story, here's the story of Textfire from someone who was on the inside.
The Textfire Hoax.
A little context; the link goes into significantly more detail:
Text adventures still exist. There's a couple of programming languages designed specifically for the construction of them; Inform, TADS, Hugo. There are annual competitions, taken very seriously. It's regarded as an experimental form of game design, with a very heavy focus on storytelling, as you might imagine from a text-based medium; as such, it tends to adopt the term 'Interactive Fiction' these days, to distance itself a bit from the more Zorkian dungeon delving, although Zorkian dungeon delving is still very much a thing.
On April 3rd, 1998, the following package appeared on the Interactive Fiction Archive:
Code:
the TextFire 12-Pack, the first in a series of annual demonstration
packages by TextFire, Inc.
This package contains demos of the following games:
Inform:
Revenge of the Killer Surf Nazi Robot Babes from Hell
Bad guys
An Exploration of Colour
Flowers for Algernon
Once: A Fable for the Lost
Zugzwang: The Interactive Life of a Chess Piece
TADS:
Coma! An Interactive Action Thriller
The U.S. Men's Hockey Team Olympic Challenge!
The Inanimator
Insomnia
Jack's Adventures, or On The Run In Fairyland with a Golden Goose and a Magic Guitar
Operate! An interactive adaptation of the popular parlor game
Pumping!
A Tenuous Hold
Verb!
Hugo:
Will The Real Marjorie Hopkirk Please Stand Up? An Assassin's Nightmare!A 12-pack, with sixteen games in it.
The backstory? A company had appeared out of nowhere (Okay, not out of nowhere; out of Piedmont, California. That's a recurring theme), making commercial IF, and this was a pack of demos of those games. People who the existing IF community had never heard of, a company they'd never heard of, but actually quite competently made - if bizarre, and brief - games.
Extract from "Operate! - An interactive adaptation of the popular parlor game":
Code:
[b]> cut corpse with scalpel[/b]
You carefully peel aside skin and muscle while simultaneously shifting protrusive organs into neighboring cavities.
In this manner, the proper bones are revealed.
The crowd roars. "LET THE BONEJACKING BEGIN!"
[b]> take bread basket with tongs[/b]
Done.
A little girl in the front row bellows with rage. "The body requires additional plundering! Continue!"
[b]> put bread basket in bone vat[/b]
You drop the bread basket into the bone vat, eliciting a hoarse cry from the gallery. "WE ARE PLEASED. ANOTHER!"People were, to say the least, bemused. Some were believers, others were sceptical.
More games were released, as rumourmongering and discussion went on over time. There was George, a story about climbing into a bear's enclosure at the zoo. And finally, there was the reveal; Masta'mind, a game that challenged you to associate the Textfire releases with their real authors, all known and established figures in the IF community who banded together to perpetrate the hoax.
It's one of the best-handled April Fool's Jokes I've seen in gaming, I think, in part because it was interactive; there were real gaming products to fiddle with. The writing was genuinely amusing and silly, there was actually a real mystery to participate in at the end of it; it was very much in the spirit of fun. Nevertheless - to get back to the point of this thread - the things at the heart of the hoax were hilariously bad.
The name Textfire lives on in the IF community even now, used generally when they want to parody the idea of commercialisation. Emily Short's Savoir-Faire claimed a 'Collector's Edition' produced by Textfire; Textfire Golf was a genuine golf game in IF trappings (heavy emphasis on the banter between players; think a golf equivalent of Poker Night At The Inventory, without the mashup-of-characters aspect).
You can play the games even now with a bit of work; they're downloadable from the above link. You'll need to run them through an appropriate interpreter.
Finally, as a coda to the Textfire story, here's the story of Textfire from someone who was on the inside.
DownGrader
Member
Whoa. That was definitely a great read and a great hoax! Definitely awesome.
Starwolf_UK
Member
Off-topic: Someone is working on Pokemon hack that has a nuzlocke mode which enforces the rules so it quite literally doesn't let you capture anything after your first battle on a route (they are adding some things to stop you getting stuck).
Most of those are from Nintendo Official Magazine. I was happy when they shut down (which only happened as the magazine publisher went bust) and were replaced with Official Nintendo Magazine (which a few months ago also shut down).
This one was just a cruel joke.
Ugh, that's embarrassing. I thought I had copied this link here, serves me right for not paying attention.
Right, but that's exactly it... in a normal playthrough, you're never going to have Surf when you're on the map where the truck is. By the time you've gotten Surf, the S.S. Anne has left and that particular map will never be accessible again.
It would be different if you could see the truck as you passed by on the dock or something, but having unique art tiles placed just out of the sight of the player? That you can only see by trading a Pokemon, or by blacking out after you've talked to the captain? I can understand why that captured the minds of kids for a while.
ThankeeSai
Member
IIRC, wasn't this some college kids or something? They were split into groups in class and each group was tasked with making a youtube video. The winner of the task was the one whose video got the most hits on youtube.
As rumours about Project Cafe were everywhere at the time, they made this knowing they'd get a lot of hits.
I'm pretty sure that's the story behind it, but I may be totally wrong
Poltergust
Member
So they are real?
Good, I thought my world was crumbling for a moment there. I was 100% that they were real.
this one i knew was fake, but i fell for the nintendo.com"Catch Luigi" code
i didnt read the instructions too carefully before printing it out but the fake sprite looked legitimate, and it was from nintendo itself. realized i was had when i started following the steps and it had "turn the gameboy upside down three times" halfway through
Zomba13
Member
Definitely real. I loved those guides. Those tips were bad but the actual maps and item locations were such great helps as a kid.
kutthoat5150
Member
That pic of Gabe holding his knives and hl3 title in the back monitor screen, like he forgot it was on when he decided to take a selfie
Found it
Found it
Mat-triX
Member
I remember seeing this well before E3 2014 started and I knew it was bullshit, mainly for the 'edgy' Zelda Wii U title. Sure Symphony of the night 2 and Xenogears: Origins set off the BS Alarms, but not to the extent of a dark, generic Zelda (atleast 'Shard of Nightmare' sounds generic).
The fact that people STILL want to make Nintendo 'Mature' so it would be cool to like them, boggles my mind (makes me think they're insecure). Like Nintendo for what they ARE, not what you want them to be...
A realistic final title would have been "The Legend of Zelda for Wii U" unfortunately
Super Mario Universe for the GBA
http://youtu.be/KkWE3hmArwM
Brought to you by the Nintendo On creator. I remember wishing it was read. Sheesh.
http://youtu.be/KkWE3hmArwM
Brought to you by the Nintendo On creator. I remember wishing it was read. Sheesh.
Crimsonclaw111
Member
This was by the same guy as Nintendo on? It looks like shit and obviously fake lol.
That pic of Gabe holding his knives and hl3 title in the back monitor screen, like he forgot it was on when he decided to take a selfie
Found it
That's just mean.
CapitalismSucks DonkeyBalls
Banned
I cannot find a picture of it but it was in an old Offical Xbox Magazine regarding Halo: CE. It was a picture of Master Chief holding a purple electric guitar which was supposed to be the secret unlockable weapon if you beat the game on Legendary in under 3 hours.
I remember the image vividly and I wish I could find the picture.
I remember the image vividly and I wish I could find the picture.
