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What is the most bullshit sounding game "trick" that is actually real?

H

Hasney

Member
chronic_archaic said:
In MW3 for the Wii, up until the last patch that was pushed out for it (3 months after it came out...) there was a glitch where if you shot a grenade launcher in the air, then shot at the ground, you would randomly kill an enemy on the other team. No joke. Seriously bewildered someone figured it out and it was in the game. Had it gone public about a month later it probably wouldn't have been fixed. Game is still active sorta.

EDIT: This wasn't a hack to clarify. Literally ANYONE with a stock Wii could do this.
Click to expand...

The hacks in COD4 made it the best version to play in spite of the controls. Host just needed the hack and everyone could benefit of machine guns that fire rockets at the same rate of fire as the gun.
 
M

mclem

Member
I think the Banjo-Kazooie cheats fit the bill.

In one early level there's a chamber with a puzzle in it:

CaMkwvl.png


The objective of the puzzle is simply to spell out BANJO-KAZOOIE on the floor by walking to each letter and stomping it. This takes a little while because 'typing' isn't a quick process.

You can, however, enter other things there.

There's the cheats actually shown to you in-game that I'm not counting (because, well, they're explicitly shown to you in-game. And I'm fairly sure they can't be used until you've seen them - they're not actual cheats, even though they're presented as such, just upgrades under the theme of cheating)

REDFEATHERS - doubles limit of red feathers
BLUEEGGS - doubles limit of blue eggs
GOLDFEATHERS - doubles limit of gold feathers

...and there's some bonus unlockables that are also shown to you in-game

BOTTLESBONUSONE - Makes Banjo's head large.
BOTTLESBONUSTWO - Makes Banjo's hands and feet large.
BOTTLESBONUSTHREE - Makes Kazooie's head and wings large.
BOTTLESBONUSFOUR - Makes Banjo's head small and his torso long and sausage-like.
BOTTLESBONUSFIVE - Makes Banjo's head small, his hands and feet large, and gives him a sausage body.
BIGBOTTLESBONUS - Makes Banjo's head, hands, and feet, and Kazooie's head and wings, large.
WISHYWASHYBANJO - Turns Banjo into Washing Machine Banjo.
NOBONUS - Returns Banjo and Kazooie to normal.

But the real cheats... First, note the length of those. Now, imagine your reaction on seeing *these* claimed to also work:

CHEAT NOW YOU CAN SEE A NICE ICE KEY WHICH YOU CAN HAVE FOR FREE - Ice wall blocking Ice Key in Freezeezy Peak disappears.
CHEAT OUT OF THE SEA IT RISES TO REVEAL MORE SECRET PRIZES - Sharkfood Island in Treasure Trove Cove rises from the sea, allowing collection of the Pink Mystery Egg.
CHEAT A DESERT DOOR OPENS WIDE ANCIENT SECRETS WAIT INSIDE - Door in Gobi's Valley vanishes, allowing collection of the Blue Mystery Egg.
CHEAT DONT YOU GO AND TELL HER ABOUT THE SECRET IN HER CELLAR - Metallic crate in Mad Monster Mansion's cellar opens, allowing collection of the Cyan Mystery Egg.
CHEAT AMIDST THE HAUNTED GLOOM A SECRET IN THE BATHROOM - Green Mystery Egg appears on top of Loggo in Mad Monster Mansion's bathroom.
CHEAT THIS SECRET YOULL BE GRABBIN IN THE CAPTAINS CABIN - Red Mystery Egg appears on top of the bed in Rusty Bucket Bay's ships's bedroom.
CHEAT NOW BANJO WILL BE ABLE TO SEE IT ON NABNUTS TABLE - Yellow Mystery Egg appears in Nabnut's House in Click Clock Wood (winter).
CHEAT BANJO BEGS FOR PLENTY OF EGGS - Infinite Blue Eggs.
CHEAT NOW YOU CAN FLY HIGH IN THE SKY - Infinite Red Feathers.
CHEAT A GOLDEN GLOW TO PROTECT BANJO - Infinite Golden Feathers.
CHEAT GIVE THE BEAR LOTS OF AIR - Infinite air while swimming.
CHEAT LOTS OF GOES WITH MANY BANJOS - Infinite lives.
CHEAT DONT BE A DUMBO GO SEE MUMBO - Instant 99 Mumbo Tokens. Will remain even after quitting.
CHEAT AN ENERGY BAR TO GET YOU FAR - Instantly get eight honeycomb containers.
CHEAT THIS COMES IN HANDY TO OPEN SOME WHERE SANDY - Open Treasure Trove Cove.
CHEAT THERES NOWHERE DANKER THAN IN WITH CLANKER - Open Clanker's Cavern.
CHEAT NOW INTO THE SWAMP YOU CAN STOMP - Open Bubblegloop Swamp.
CHEAT GOBIS JIGGY IS NOW DONE TREK ON IN AND GET SOME SUN - Open Gobi's Valley.
CHEAT THE JIGGYS DONE SO OFF YOU GO INTO FREEZEEZY PEAK AND ITS SNOW - Open Freezeezy Peak.
CHEAT THE JIGGYS NOW MADE WHOLE INTO THE MANSION YOU CAN STROLL - Open Mad Monster Mansion.
CHEAT WHY NOT TAKE A TRIP INSIDE GRUNTYS RUSTY SHIP - Open Rusty Bucket Bay.
CHEAT THIS ONES GOOD AS YOU CAN ENTER THE WOOD - Open Click Clock Wood.
CHEAT THESE GO RIGHT ON THROUGH NOTE DOOR TWO - Open the 180 Note Door.
CHEAT NOTE DOOR THREE GET IN FOR FREE - Open the 260 Note Door.
CHEAT TAKE A TOUR THROUGH NOTE DOOR FOUR - Open the 350 Note Door.
CHEAT USE THIS CHEAT NOTE DOOR FIVE IS BEAT - Open the 450 Note Door.
CHEAT THIS TRICKS USED TO OPEN NOTE DOOR SIX - Open the 640 Note Door.
CHEAT THE SEVENTH NOTE DOOR IS NOW NO MORE - Open the 765 Note Door.
CHEAT YOULL CEASE TO GRIPE WHEN UP GOES A PIPE - Raises the big pipe near Clanker's Cavern.
CHEAT BOTH PIPES ARE THERE TO CLANKERS LAIR - Raises the two pipes near Clanker's Cavern.
CHEAT UP YOU GO WITHOUT A HITCH UP TO THE WATER LEVEL SWITCH - Raises the water level near Rusty Bucket Bay.
CHEAT THEY CAUSE TROUBLE BUT NOW THEYRE RUBBLE - Removes all breakable walls.
CHEAT YOU WONT HAVE TO WAIT NOW THERES NO CRYPT GATE - Removes the crypt gate near Mad Monster Mansion.
CHEAT DONT DESPAIR THE TREE JIGGY PODIUM IS THERE - Reveals the Jiggy pad for the Click Clock Wood puzzle.
CHEAT THE GRILLE GOES BOOM TO THE SHIP PICTURE ROOM - Removes the grille blocking the Rusty Bucket Bay puzzle.
CHEAT SHES AN UGLY BAT SO REMOVE HER GRILLE AND HAT - Same effect as the Bubblegloop Swamp Witch Switch.
CHEAT GRUNTY WILL CRY NOW YOUVE SMASHED HER EYE - Breaks the eye of the Grunty statue.
CHEAT THIS SHOULD GET RID OF THE CRYPT COFFIN LID - Breaks the lid of the crypt coffin.
CHEAT ITS YOUR LUCKY DAY AS THE ICEBALL MELTS AWAY - Breaks the ice ball blocking the pipe to Cheato near the Freezeezy Peak puzzle.
CHEAT WEBS STOP YOUR PLAY SO TAKE THEM AWAY - Removes all webs.
CHEAT YOULL BE GLAD TO SEE THE SHOCK JUMP PAD - Makes the Shock Jump Pad usable.
CHEAT YOU WONT BE SAD NOW YOU CAN USE THE FLY PAD - Makes the Flight Pad usable.

They do, indeed, work.
 
R

retroman

Member
Here's a strange but real cheat for Creatures II on the Commodore 64:

The built-in cheat in Creatures II is unorthodox. To gain infinite lives, the player must wait for the credits screen to appear, then wet his finger and quickly rub it across Joystick Port One. A big picture of Maximus Mouse (from the games Summer Camp and Winter Camp by Thalamus) will appear, waving his arms every time the player rubs his finger across the port. The player must repeatedly rub the port until Maximus Mouse turns grey, at which point the Fuzzy fountain will also flash to confirm that the cheat is now active.
Click to expand...

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creatures_II:_Torture_Trouble#Cheats
 
Razzorn34

Razzorn34

Member
This one from Super Mario Bros. I remember a friend telling me this. Thought it was complete bullshit until I finally got it to work.

Small Fire Mario - Super Mario becomes Small Mario when grabbing a Super Mushroom.

The Small Fire Mario glitch is performed by having Super Mario, Fire Mario, Super Luigi, or Fire Luigi hit the axe. If Bowser hits the player while the player hits the axe, Mario will flash but stay Super Mario. Bowser will be defeated, and then the player will move on to the next level after rescuing the level's mushroom retainer. The game continues as normal, except when the player gets hit, they die. Collecting a Super Mushroom will make the player Small Mario, and when they get hit they'll become Super Mario again. When the player grabs a Fire Flower as Small Mario, the player will become Fire Mario, but in the smaller body. When Mario shoots a fireball, he will become large, then, when the animation is complete, he returns to the small size. If Mario dies, the player will need to repeat the glitch in order to play as him again. A similar variation on this is to do the same thing with Small Mario. Mario will do his usual dying animation, but the screen will scroll over, like normal, to the mushroom retainer, even though there is no Mario. When transforming, Mario will do a swimming "pose" on the ground.
 
T

Trey

Member
One of the skulls in Halo 3 had to be gotten by jumping through holograms of Halos in a specific order.

Bungie literally had players jumping through hoops.
 
JohnSpartanLee

JohnSpartanLee

Member
Being able to explore areas outside the castle in SotN through the "Sword Brothers glitch" (and other similar glitches) and having these areas actually add to the map and completion percentage (up to 400+%):

World Beyond Walls
 
N

NesFe

Member
In Quake 2 multiplayer, there was a map where if u get a grenade launcher, a rocket launcher, armor, walk into a certain corner, throw a grenade at it and stand on it and then shoot the rocket into the ground at the same time, you'd fly off the map into the sky and stay stuck there and you could still shoot players, fun times.

Sniping from you base in counter strike in the map italy, i think. Spawn buy sniper and shoot through walls from you base to theirs.
 
H

HappehLemons

Member
Dahbomb said:
In Devil May Cry 3, there are two methods of playing 2 player DMC3:

*During the Arkham fight, the 2nd player can take control of Vergil by pressing Select/Start on the controller.

For the Doppelganger style, the clone can be controlled by a 2nd player. With Super Dante, DMC3 becomes a bootleg co-op game.
Click to expand...


Umm.. WHAT? No way.....
 
N

noquarter

Member
Septimus Prime said:
Blow into the cartridge, then insert it about 95% into the NES and slam it down against the plastic in the front part of the console.

It helped a lot of my games boot.
Click to expand...

Afrikan said:
I was going to say Blowing into NES cartridges... or putting two NES cartridges into a Nintendo, to get the bottom game to work.

but I guess we are talking about different things.
Click to expand...
What does sound a little more like bullshit and works even better is taking the 72-pin connector out of an NES and boiling it in water to get your NES working without using the cartridge blowing trick.
 
Turnstyle

Turnstyle

Member
Creatures 2 on the C64 had a totally bizarre built-in cheat.

Copied from Wikipedia:

The built-in cheat in Creatures II is unorthodox. To gain infinite lives, the player must wait for the credits screen to appear, then wet his finger and quickly rub it across Joystick Port One. A big picture of Maximus Mouse (from the games Summer Camp and Winter Camp by Thalamus) will appear, waving his arms every time the player rubs his finger across the port. The player must repeatedly rub the port until Maximus Mouse turns grey, at which point the Fuzzy fountain will also flash to confirm that the cheat is now active.
Click to expand...

Edit: damn, already mentioned!
 
S

Starwolf_UK

Member
The Hermit said:
007 Goldeneye for N64 had a bunch of codes, but everyone though they were just unlockables.

About 3 years (IIRC) after the launch, Rare revealed a bunch of them, including one that allowed to play almost every character of the game including NPC, here it is:

Hold L + R and press C-Left.
Hold L and press C-Up.
Hold L + R and press LEFT on the Control Pad (not the analog stick.)
Hold L and press RIGHT on the Control Pad.
Hold R and press DOWN on the Control Pad.
Hold L + R and press C-Left.
Hold L and press C-Up.
Hold L + R and press RIGHT on the Control Pad.
Hold L + R and press C-Down.
Hold L and press RIGHT on the Control Pad. If that doesn't work, hold L and press DOWN on the Control Pad.

I was sure it was a lie until I tried it.
Click to expand...
RARE only revealed that one and it was much nearer launch. The other codes* were figured out using RAM dumps (basically whenever a game has button press cheats it has some sort of button logger so when the sequence is entered the cheat will activate, now given the steps have each step requiring multiple buttons held probably made the codes a bit more obscure).

*-Include all the in-game cheats, unlocking individual levels and max ammo cheat.
 
A

Accoun

Member
Quake 1 E2M1

"Wait, so you can just jump over the gap and complete the level in just a few seconds? Who would make a level like that?"
Well, they did. Probably since on one thought you could strafejump back then? There's also a rocketjump that skips most of the level in E1M6. Hell, you can finish the first chapter in under 3 minutes and there are quite a few skips in it that don't include things like getting out of bounds (which I remember form Aria Of Sorrow runs for example). Just watch Quake Done Quickest.
 
P

Palette Swap

Member
A recent one is unlocking The Lost in BoI Rebirth, it involves dying in specific ways with 4 different characters:
Isaac must die to a Mulliboom in The Basement or The Cellar.
Magdalene must die to her own bomb in The Caves or The Catacombs.
Judas must die to any Mom attack in The Depths or Necropolis. Being killed by any monster spawned by Mom will spoil the entire attempt at unlocking The Lost.
Azazel must die to any Satan attack in Sheol. Being killed by The Fallen in the boss room or a Kamikaze Leech will spoil the entire attempt at unlocking The Lost.
The Lost will be unlocked after dying to a Satan attack.
Click to expand...
 
K

Kerned

Banned
mclem said:
CHEAT NOW YOU CAN SEE A NICE ICE KEY WHICH YOU CAN HAVE FOR FREE - Ice wall blocking Ice Key in Freezeezy Peak disappears.
Click to expand...

Holy shit. Is this the only way to get that key? Because I remember that key taunting me behind that ice and I never figured out how to reach it.
 
J

JessicaPadkin

Member
The secret duck race in Shenmue 2. Such a bizarre amount of work has gone into it (full voice acting etc.) for something that only a small minority of players will see. Ah, that's Shenmue for you.
 
Yoshi

Yoshi

Headmaster of Console Warrior Jugendstrafanstalt
chrislowe said:
Pressing Start + A in title screen in Super Mario Brothers to continue on the level you died on.
Sounded too simple
Click to expand...

I actually never knew this until now. I should take a look at the manual. I wonder, if it's really explained in the manual, why they didn't just offer a continue after losing all lifes?
 
J

Javier

Member
Kerned said:
Holy shit. Is this the only way to get that key? Because I remember that key taunting me behind that ice and I never figured out how to reach it.
Click to expand...
Without hacking, yes. The Ice Key, along with the Mystery Eggs seen at the end of the game when you complete it 100%, were supposed to be items hidden in the game whose way to get them was to be revealed in the sequel Banjo-Tooie. Presumably you would get the item in BT, and then you would proceed to take out the BT cart and put the BK one in the console, which would activate the "Stop N' Swop" feature which will let you get the item in BK. In the end, Rare couldn't implement the feature proper and Nintendo didn't allow it (too much risk of consoles and carts getting bricked, I'm guessing).

The whole thing is described in detail here: http://banjokazooie.wikia.com/wiki/Stop_'n'_Swop

I don't think the Treasure Trove Cove cheats were ever meant to be revealed to players. They were first discovered through hacking after BT was out, so I'm guessing Rare put them there for the sake of testing things in the game during development (but didn't remove them for some reason).
 
M

mclem

Member
Javier said:
I don't think the Treasure Trove Cove cheats were ever meant to be revealed to players. They were first discovered through hacking after BT was out, so I'm guessing Rare put them there for the sake of testing things in the game during development (but didn't remove them for some reason).
Click to expand...

I think I might have an idea why they were so complex and awkward, and I don't think they were used during development in that form for the most part.

The approach with development cheats for games I've worked on has tended to be to make them very easy to access while development is going on, and the BK sandcastle cheats are far too long-winded and inconvenient (bear in mind that the interface, too, is unwieldy!); I suspect they existed in a much simpler form at that stage; maybe just a two-character code with an internally-distributed reference sheet, or something?

Then, when the game was close to final (and even then, probably only in release builds), they decided to keep the cheats intact in case they were needed to test the final release code in certain contexts, but massively increase the complexity of inputting them to make it unlikely that they'd be found in the released game.

At least, that's how I'd have handled it.
 
Yoshi

Yoshi

Headmaster of Console Warrior Jugendstrafanstalt
mclem said:
I think I might have an idea why they were so complex and awkward, and I don't think they were used during development in that form for the most part.

The approach with development cheats for games I've worked on has tended to be to make them very easy to access while development is going on, and the BK sandcastle cheats are far too long-winded and inconvenient (bear in mind that the interface, too, is unwieldy!); I suspect they existed in a much simpler form at that stage; maybe just a two-character code with an internally-distributed reference sheet, or something?

Then, when the game was close to final (and even then, probably only in release builds), they decided to keep the cheats intact in case they were needed to test the final release code in certain contexts, but massively increase the complexity of inputting them to make it unlikely that they'd be found in the released game.

At least, that's how I'd have handled it.
Click to expand...
Considering the texts that were attached to the codes was translated, I think they were just meant as easter eggs and possibly as a hook for Banjo-Tooie (where you could have gotten the codes, entered them in B-K and only then changed the cartridges).
 
F

Flappy

Banned
In Creatures 2 on the Commodore 64, you activeded the cheats by licking your finger and rubbing the controller port.......Yes. It works.
 
D

deadfolk

Member
We had a really old (pre-atari) video game console with a light-gun. All the games were inbuilt and there was a slider to select the game.

I discovered that if you left the slider halfway between the shooting game and the football game, a game of football would start, but it was possible to shoot the ball and it would disappear.
 
R

Randam

Member
TheLostBigBoss said:
Nothing. There was a thread a few months back about a dude mis-remembering something and said that if you save the game at 11:11:11 you reset the game with all weapons and items at 9999 ammo/usage

Hearts were broken, some men never recovered.
Click to expand...

mis-remembered what?
 
B

B_Spooky13

Member
Reptile-MK1.jpg


This.. You would hear whispers of it through Arcades, of a secret green ninja named Reptile.. Hear a kid say that he saw it happen once but they couldn't figure out how and the Reptile was really hard.

But once the console versions of it came out it was more easy to find out how to do it.
 
W

whiteninja

Member
In Secret of Mana, all weapons can get final upgrade orbs from rare treasure chest spawns in the last dungeon except for the sword, which remains at lvl 8. Normally when you reach the final battle
the sprite and girl will get extra spells unlocked that when cast at the same time, will temporarily unlock the "final level" of the sword: The Mana Sword.
There is another way to get the final orb by a trick detailed here that will permanently upgrade the sword. I'm not sure if this will work in emulators as I only tried on a real console.
 
riskVSreward

riskVSreward

Member
Afrikan said:
I was going to say Blowing into NES cartridges... or putting two NES cartridges into a Nintendo, to get the bottom game to work.

but I guess we are talking about different things.
Click to expand...
Blowing into cartridges does not get them to work, in fact it builds up moisture and over time makes them even less reliable. It turns into grime and prevents connections between the pins.

The reason people think it does is because actually just constantly reinserting it makes it more likely you'll line up the pins correctly. Cleaning your games and systems properly with metal polish and rubbing alcohol will keep them working on the first try.
 
S

Sword Familiar

178% of NeoGAF posters don't understand statistics
riskVSreward said:
Blowing into cartridges does not get them to work, in fact it builds up moisture and over time makes them even less reliable. It turns into grime and prevents connections between the pins.

The reason people think it does is because actually just constantly reinserting it makes it more likely you'll line up the pins correctly. Cleaning your games and systems properly with metal polish and rubbing alcohol will keep them working on the first try.
Click to expand...

I found a trick that works like 99% of the time. You just insert the cart as far out as possible so the spine touches the wall when you push it down.
 
riskVSreward

riskVSreward

Member
Sword Familiar said:
I found a trick that works like 99% of the time. You just insert the cart as far out as possible so the spine touches the wall when you push it down.
Click to expand...

Yup, that will work too. It's usually because the grime settles to the bottom of the pins so not fully inserting it keeps the grime away from the contact points. I used to do this myself as a kid, really just wiggling it around and constantly resetting has good yields.

But if you ever get a chance to open a cart, you will see what I'm talking about. And if do you keep everything clean and polished, you don't have to do any gimmicks to get them to work. I've cleaned out thousands of NES carts, I've seen some terrible disgusting shit in there... *shudders*

Inserting dirty games into your system will pass the dirt onto it, and systems/internal pin connectors are a huge pain in the ass to clean. I recommend anyone who still plays cart games to get a bottle of Brasso, 90%+ rubbing alcohol, and the screw bit to open the carts. You wipe away the grime with Brasso and cotton swabs, then wipe off all the residue with alcohol. Clean out every game that you intend on putting in the system, never put a dirty one in. Just abiding by this has kept my NES working strong for years.
 
T

TheAngryMonkey

Member
MilesWebber said:
In Super Mario Bros. 3, in world 1, crouch on a white box for about 15 seconds and you'll phase through the box and be able to run behind the scenery. Useful for getting the flute in World 1.
Click to expand...

This was just a normal mechanic in the game right? RIGHT? We all did this back then. You can do this anywhere there is a white block.
 
R

Rich!

Member
The world first reveal in the UK's N64 Magazine of the sandcastle codes used to access all the hidden areas, secret eggs and the Ice Key in Banjo Kazooie, all discovered by (I think) subdrag and icemario of The RWP.

I remember absolutely stunning all my mates the next day after trying to convince them I had access to all the hidden items, and then showing them Sharkfood Island and the hidden egg after school when they came round

Didnt ever tell them how I achieved it lol


TheAngryMonkey said:
This was just a normal mechanic in the game right? RIGHT? We all did this back then. You can do this anywhere there is a white block.
Click to expand...

Yeah. Its the only way to get to the secret toad house and second whistle in World 1 as mentioned, but goddamn was it obscure.
 
G

Glowsquid

Member
The Treasure airships in SMB3.

Treasure Ships are summoned through a trick that must be perfomed by following a specific method:

The player must be in either Grass Land, Water Land, Sky Land or Ice Land.
A Hammer Bro must be on the map.
Mario or Luigi must finish a stage with a Coin total ending in a multiple of 11 (zero doesn't count).
The tens digit of the player's score must match the multiple of 11.
As each second left on the timer will award the player 50 points, the timer must be stopped on an even number so that the number of points received is a multiple of 100. Alternatively, an odd number will work if the score is 50 points off from the correct multiple.
Click to expand...

edit: whoops, already mentioned.
 
P

publicpwnerer

Member
I just watched that Far Cry 4 secret ending...and it's absolutely brilliant.

Love those surprises, especially a lot of modern games have taken away that element of gaming...the cheat codes, the secret / quirky stuff.
 
M

mclem

Member
SoulUnison said:
I like that there's a code to unlock the area you're already in.
I'd say they were just being completionist, but there's no code for Mumbo's Mountain.
Click to expand...

I suspect there was a system in place to start in TTC during development, but it'd still work to the base state of the game and have it locked off if you were to leave and attempt to re-enter.
 
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