July 7th, 2009 by James Ransom-Wiley
Who knew? You can put a price on obscure video game secrets, after all. Buried in 25,000-odd lines of game code for twenty-six years, an ancient “Easter egg” has been uncovered — thanks to a modest cash reward — from the Atari 8-bit port of Donkey Kong. Hint: You’re looking at it (pictured above). Don’t see it? It’s the initials: LMD. Yeah, that’s it.
Last year, in an unabridged blog post about early-80s programming for Atari, celebrated coder Landon M. Dyer offhandedly remarked, “There’s an Easter egg [in the Donkey Kong port], but it’s totally not worth it, and I don’t remember how to bring it up anyway.” Still, game databaser Digital Press thought it worth it enough to offer up a $75 reward for discovering the hidden treasure; or, more accurately, a reward for discovering the process by which the Easter egg is triggered, as it was known that the bonus itself was simply the programmer’s initials displayed on the title screen. In turn, the seventy-five bucks was worth it enough to a Mr. Don Hodges to scour the game code and dig up the dusty trail to the Easter egg. There are plenty of eggs left to crack, too, if you’re looking for adventure that pays.
Head past the break for the suspenseful reveal. The video’s got quite the build-up. Be patient.
Continue reading Donkey Kong Easter egg cracked 26 years late
Donkey Kong Easter egg cracked 26 years late originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 06 Jul 2009 22:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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January 4th, 2009 by Kenneth Caldwell
Filed under: It’s-a Mario World
Along with the New Year’s celebration comes a heap of (potentially unrealistic) personal resolutions for the future and an equal dose of nostalgic recollection of 2008. You have already seen our
10 Best Games of 2008 and
the 10 you should have downloaded among dozens of other annual lists, so your sense of hindsight should be fairly well-attuned during this first weekend of 2009. So where, you might ask, does our Mario fit in?
This week we are highlighting some classic Mario game secrets which did not necessarily occur in 2008, but which should nevertheless be recalled during all possible occasions if only to reaffirm our steadfast allegiance. These recollections are like wormholes to our early platforming pasts, histories in which the surprising discovery of a well-hidden 1-up or warp zone could redefine the realm of the possible in the Land of the Mushrooms. Yeah, and they are also reminders of what we were doing earlier today. Now, we are no soothsayers, but it’s a good bet that 2009 will be full of more coin-hoarding, cape-rippling good times. For now, though, let’s look back at some of the top secret areas of early Mario games. Warp to the gallery!
It’s-a Mario World: Classic Secrets originally appeared on Nintendo Wii Fanboy on Sun, 04 Jan 2009 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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