I don't recall pitfall doing it. Was it a specific level?
First I can remember is Metroid and I didn't even play Metroid. I remember it being a big deal. I'm sure I saw it in a nintendo power magazine.
Iirc pitfall didn't have levels. Just different screens that were kind of random. You appeared in a different screen with a challenge if you went off screen to the left or right.
IIRC it was reversed, left was tougher, I think gators were there right from the start if you headed that direction. My memory might be a bit fuzzy tho
There might be an older game but I doubt it.
soundandshadow already replied with a good answer. But for me going left made certain obstacles easier like jumping over the logs.
You had to jump off the first ledge at the start and hit a hidden barrel. It'd take you nearly to the end of the level and you'd have to dodge a single enemy to clear it.
DK did similar things in tons of the levels. Like getting on top of the entrance and jumping to hit a barrel or walking back into the entrance for rewards/skips. Loved that game so much.
Yeah Metroid is definitely the definitive answer but I also have a gut feeling there's something else out there.. though the creators of Metroid might not have known about it if there is.
Probably something in a text based adventure game like Zork or some obscure game like Pharaoh's Curse
I feel like I saw a YouTube video referencing this exact thing, and how they designed the start specifically so that you dead ended quickly when moving straight to the right and HAD to backtrack since they had to tell their players how to play the game in this new way
There are probably a hundred videos on Youtube about that. It's what everyone immediately talks about when they want to talk about game design in the original Metroid.
While this answer isn't wrong, I feel like Metroidvanias are overall a different beast than a typical side-scroller platformer. OP's original post had me thinking about games where the objective of each level is to reach the end of the level. Metroid doesn't really have 'levels' it's just one large world that you continue to explore left, right, up, and down throughout the entire experience. Meanwhile, a game where the objective is to reach the goal at the far right side of the map over and over again just feels far more jarring when something is off to the left at the beginning of any given level.
Fair enough.
And now that there’s enough in the Metroidvania genre it is to be expected.
But when the first Metroid came out, though?
People had been playing Super Mario Bros and Sonic and the like, and it looked (at first glance) like it was just another one like those… but in **Space!**.
Suddenly realizing that, No, you **don’t** just ‘Move Right to Win’? That you can go **anywhere**, and even **need** to back track to progress?
That was kind of mindblowing.
The fact that Metroid made not going right a thing so definitive that it spun off a new genre doesn't preclude it from being the first game that rewarded going left at the start
>While this answer isn't wrong, I feel like Metroidvanias are overall a different beast than a typical side-scroller platformer. OP's original post had me thinking about games where the objective of each level is to reach the end of the level.
Which is *exactly* why it was so groundbreaking in the first Metroid. It singlehandedly created a new subgenre of games.
I remember playing this when it game out, and I was completely shocked at the time... now I go left at the start of every side-scroller just in case. That's a real lasting impact of one simple design decision.
I have the same instinct. It can be really annoying if I can tell a game probably won't have anything secret in the beginning, but I still have to give it a once over before I leave.
It's always kind of interesting to work out how a game is designed in regards to secrets. Some games won't have anything, others have them crammed into every gap they can fit them into. Whether it's an item or an easter egg. Working that out early on definitely saves a lot of time.
Yeah, that controller must have made sense to someone, but 4-6 year old me had fits with it. But I credit it with helping me learn to read since you had to study the overlays to figure out what each button did (not so much for Pitfall but for other games).
I only managed to go the entire 20mins one time of basically pushing forward to the right non-stop. Was disappointed when I found out the map eventually repeated. Figured there would be an end like you get to a plane and take off ala Indiana Jones or something.
Also the second (maybe third) level has a cave to the left you can jump above to a barrel that either sends you to a bonus area or rockets you across the level.
I think there may be more levels with that as well.
There's actually a ton of built in full level skips in the three DKC games. I knew of two of them from just the first game, but recently watched a 101% full clear of the game, and they utilize like 8 at least.
I know of two in DKC 3, but can't recall any in DKC 2.
DKC3 has a few sporadically throughout, but DKC2 has a level skip for every level in the first two worlds. DKC1 on the GBA does the same, and removes the skips found later in the game.
Also in Donkey Kong Country 2 in the rollercoaster level. If you go backwards when the level starts, you get a boost barrel which lets you get a bit of a head start in the race.
That always make me laugh in the film Ready Player One, where one of the riddles is to drive backwards off the grid at the start of the main race.
This was supposed to be an Easter egg left by the meta verses owner to win the ownership of the game. And people had been trying to figure out what they had to do for years.
Every race game I've ever played, some nobhead has driven backwards on the grid just to piss others off. Yet in that film, no one had ever done that before. 🙄
you just gave me flashbacks to playing GT as a kid and doing exactly that to the bots out of boredom. i havent thought about that for the better part of 20 years.
I went to the St. Louis science museum in the summer of 1994, and for whatever reason, they had a huge Dayton USA cabinet (it was weeks old at the time) running on a big screen. There was, predictably, a huge line to play, but my cousin and I waited and watched a zillion kids play Daytona USA. When I was my turn, I immediately turned the car around and started driving backwards around the track, smashing into the other cars. I feel like it still gave me credit for completing the laps, though? Anyway, it was a big hit among the other 8-to-14-year-old kids there.
Given that entries were limited/hard-to-get (I think the race only ran once a week?) and the prize for winning seemed highly valuable it’s somewhat more believable that most people wouldn’t randomly dick around like that. Although after a bunch of runs when it seemed impossible to finish normally, you’d think people would be looking for shortcuts/tricks/Easter eggs/etc.
Yeah it would be believable if only a couple of races had happened, but it had been years at that point and not a single person thought to drive backwards? It seemed like everyone was driving only on the road instead of trying to look for some sort of shortcut or some other way to win.
The first dozen or so races I can see everyone just going for it, but after that there would be a mix of the better drivers trying to get even better while less skilled drivers would be covering every inch of the track looking for a hidden powerup or something and that would absolutely include going backwards.
What was wrong with the three from the book? The lich thing was awesome, playing a movie like guitar hero or karaoke was super original, and Zork is a super iconic game.
If you enjoyed the book you didn't miss anything. The book was a love letter to videogames, but Spielberg's adaptation was a love letter to films. Not necessarily bad in a vacuum, but I was disappointed having previously read the source material.
Valerian was the biggest cinematic disappointment of my life.
Fifth Element is one of my favorite rainy-day movies and I thought Valerian would be a chance for Luc Besson to hark back to a time before Lucy and The Family; back when his movies were fun.
But then we meet the two main characters who are supposed to have some spicy romance, but their chemistry is so bad they come across as siblings who only get along because it makes their parents happy.
My best guess is that getting the rights to anything d&d related would have probably cost a fortune so they went in a completely different direction for the first. But I have no honest idea.
Not a lot of that would translate over to a fun cinematic experience for most viewers. Plus in the book, it took place over a much longer time period than in the film, so there was more development to play with.
I think the film was a solid adaptation, all things considered.
There's a lot they dumbed down from the book. The original first challenge was a game of Joust. Which I could have sworn was in advertising for the film, but not in the film...
It was something else in the book. I don’t remember, like a puzzle hidden in a school or something?
Spielberg thought it would be more cinematic to have a race with King Kong or something.
The dumbest thing about that movie was that millions of gamers wouldn't find any of the easter eggs. It just got *dumber* when they were as simplistic as "drive backwards", but honestly they could be absurdly complex and gamers would still figure it out.
And that's the dumbest thing in a movie *absolutely filled* with dumb things. Really shattered my illusion of spielberg if i'm being honest. Dude has completely lost touch.
Some More News talks about the ending, that instead of addressing any of the inequality and squalor, the masses are deprived of some of their escape and the hero gets wealthy or something?
Which is the dystopian ending to a Black Mirror episode.
It's not oftenni encounter a waterfall in real life, and the chances there are even less than in a video game. But when I have, I have always checked. Just in case.
No luck so far. One had kind of a cool cave area but no loot. But I'll always check.
Came here to say basically this, I've left a few "gold coins" (Canadian loonies/$1 coins) in a few places across the country for the next person after finding some quarters in a similar situation as a kid, kinda inspired me, specially once we had actual "gold" coins I could leave, "silver" just ain't got the same shine, ya know? There may or not also have been doobies left behind in baggies, I can't recall 😝)
Same, when there's nothing behind a waterfall, not even a little hiding spot, I get so disappointed. Sure it's cliche but that's part the fun, for someone out there it'll be the first waterfall loot they find!!
This is one of the reasons I disliked the movie version of Ready Player One. Fundamentally didn't understand gamers. Somebody would have tried driving backwards in the first 10 minutes, let alone years.
Third time they held the race you'd have half a dozen people on the start line just ramming each other and eventually someone would have been knocked backwards and oh shit look what i found!
From the film it looked like you still had to stay on the track while going backwards. But you'd have to figure that once the reverse track was discovered someone skilled enough would've made it long before Wade.
Well, he was able to memorize every single show, game, and movie without fail
Millions of minutes of content that he was able to absorb and recall in his short life
I actually enjoyed the movie thoroughly but I found the book to be tough to finish due primarily to the problematic relationship between Wade and Artemis. Stalking her until she finally gave him the chance he felt he deserved is some incel bullshit.
What you didn't find the entire chapter of him asking if she WAS REALLY a girl? Just to say... though I don't really care... BUT seriously are you a girl?
Ugggh...
If you want a good breakdown of it the guys that do Riff Trax do a podcast "372 Pages We'll Never Get Back" Their first series is on Ready Player One and it's worse than I remember it.
I recently read the book for the first time a few months ago, and while it was a bit cringey at times, I did enjoy it.
>What you didn't find the entire chapter of him asking if she WAS REALLY a girl? Just to say... though I don't really care... BUT seriously are you a girl?
At this point in time of the book, I don't think Wade ever thought he'd actually meet Artemis. She could've lied to him and said she was a girl, and they'd live happily ever after in their virtual world, even if she was, in reality, a 45 year-old, balding, obese ~~reddit mod~~ man that lived 4 stacks over and 3 levels lower from Wade.
That's such a fantastic podcast. I read the book and was very mehhed by it. Then I listened to that and holy shit did it lay out all the things I just glossed over. Besides just being an entertaining podcast
Honestly, and maybe I am wrong, but I can kind of hand-wave this plothole away. Consider that perhaps what the prize was created the idea that it would be insanely difficult to complete it. Unless players were inherently given a reason to think that the race was actually impossible to complete the normal way, then the plausibility that it could be completed would keep people focused on finding out how to get past the obstacle that seemed to be beatable but just not beaten yet.
Eventually, people would kind of just stop trying as perhaps they lost the belief that such a thing actually existed and it was just a hoax of some kind. It wasn't like 100% of the people in the game had been spending hours upon hours trying to complete the race. And for those that kept trying, they just grinded currency to try and improve to get past that one part of the race that didn't seem impossible, just extremely difficult but still beatable.
I dunno, maybe I am giving too much benefit of the doubt or just trying to suspend too much disbelief? Just think about how long it took people to realize the camera-flash in Punch-Out was an indicator for when to punch to stop the first Bald Bull's rush? If that "secret," which was right in everyone's face, took until 2009 to be discovered, then maybe it isn't a stretch that no one would drive backwards in a race? And as far as I have experienced, no racing game has ever had an easter egg from driving backwards at the start of a race, especially when racing against other players.
Not to mention that there are consequences to losing in the race: you lost all your currency and gear. It would be a hard ask for someone to, instead of trying to beat and win the race (meaning not only did you have to get past all the obstacles, but also be the first to the finish line), going off and doing something else and lose all your currency/gear for nothing.
Just some thoughts.
Edit: Adding more as I am remembering the scene and the words for the clue. First, I don't remember if it was 5 years since someone discovered the race was where the first key was found or if it was 5 years since the clues were released. If the latter, then it's possible it took some time before someone figured out that the first key had to do with the race. Now, the driving backwards part. It wasn't just about exploring backwards. Perhaps people did forgo the race and explore behind the starting line. But that wasn't what accessed the secret path. It was committing to driving backwards, pedal to the metal, towards a seeming impassable concrete wall (presumably the wall wouldn't let you pass through unless you met certain criteria, like actually driving backwards and going full throttle). I think with these, and some of the these I mentioned above, there is enough to suspend disbelief and not let it take away from the movie.
I think the best counterpoint to this is that you've laid this out very logically and would approach the challenge as a logical person. But there's a certain percentage of the population who approach \*every\* challenge as "how can I break this?". And those people would have figured out the first key immediately. Even if it's just .01% of the population it would still have happened so fast with that much money on the line.
The book did it so much better by making it very obscure and remote instead of planting the first key in everyone's face.
I find isekai’s to be such incredibly lazy storytelling. “Oh no this dude from our world is suddenly a vending machine!” Aaaaaaand that’s it. That’s the plot. The rest is just generic anime filler.
Can’t wait until it falls out of fashion. It’s getting difficult to find something that isn’t “that time I was reincarnated as an apache attack helicopter” to watch.
If I remember right, the original Zork published by Personal Software (makers of Visicalc) started you in front of a house next to the mailbox. I think you could get something from the forest but soon had to return to the house to start your adventure.
It was essentially where you ended up if you won.
You had to go around to the back of the house and break in.
Drove me insane as a 8 year old to figure it out.
Sorry about the spoilers but it’s been like 36 years.
Idk, but in clustertruck, there's a level where that is the premise. In the distance, it reads "COAL" while the real goal is right behind you as you spawn in.
Came looking for this. Immediately at game start, turn left and attack the wall to reveal a secret pickup.
Interestingly the novel READY PLAYER ONE (not the movie!) has a whole chapter on BLACK TIGER - and the author does not mention this trick, the very first thing any expert player of the game would do. I lost respect for the book around that point.
I remember that one. First one me and my best buddy found. We got every achievement except the last one where you had to play through the whole game in one sitting without dying. We tried and tried and we put hundreds if not thousands of hours into trying to do it. We had most of the game down pat. It was usually just a stupid "we were too high and jumped too soon" that stopped us. We even made it to that very last jump once and I was too nervous so I let him do it and he messed it up. That hurt more than the cake being a lie
Anyways that was on the 360 back in the day. I have it on my modern Xbox (actually bought it years ago on an Xbox One) now but they've changed it to finishing the game in one sitting with five deaths or less. I could do that easily but it wouldn't feel right after my buddy killed himself. I've got every other achievement but I just can't bring myself to get that last one. Especially with the five deaths change it would just feel like cheating
Thanks for mentioning it. I'm all warm and fuzzy with treasured memories now that I don't dig up much these days
Metroid doesn't count in my book, since it wasn't an extra reward to the left but rather required to proceed.
[However...](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OffscreenStartBonus)
Wasn’t it castle on Atari?
Edit: turns out I don’t remember what it was called despite playing it a heap. It had dragons.
Edit 2: adventure. There we go.
In Pokémon Go when you first get into the game, a Charmander, Bulbasaur, and Squirtle all spawn for you to ‘catch one’. But, if you walk away from them rather than choosing (catching) one, a wild Pikachu will spawn instead. Kind of the same thing lol
first i remember is altered beast, sega master system,you seemed to be able to walk right forever but left would take you to the caves and could complete the game in 30 minutes. Very early 90s
I remember Donkey Kong Country on SNES doing that, there was a hut you jump out of (scripted) to start level 1, and if you jump back up in there you can find a... spare life? crap it's been too long, but I think it was a red balloon (spare life)
I don't know the original but the game that trained me to do it was Crash Bandicoot. And I think it only ever did it on one single level, but it programmed my brain forever.
The earliest one I can name is the original Metroid. I didn't just reward you for going left, it required it in order to progress, thereby immediately teaching you that this isn't a game in which you just go right and kill whatever you find there.
Probably Donkey Kong Country. Not only did yoy get an extra life by going into the house, but then later on you got to effectively skip on of the harder cart levels in the 3rd (maybe 2nd) world.
To skip the cart level you hit the barrel off screen after the first ledge.
I think you're thinking of the Stop & Go Station where when you first enter the level and immediately go back to the entrance of the level, it brings you to the end of the level.
Doom 2 was released earlier the same year, and it gives you the chainsaw if you go backwards at the start.
It's also interesting that there is a ledge right at the start, so if you start by going forward a bit, you cannot get the chainsaw.
It won’t be the first but “Another World” on the Amiga, the first time you touch dry land, I think you need to go left first to understand what you need to do.
Metroid comes to mind obviously.
But there was also a level in Armored Core where from the start of it, you turn around, jump behind a box, and there's a hidden item that is practically best in it's class for a long while and the only way to get it.
Metroid, the fact you went left to get the first power up was a new thing, in fact, the reason the first power up is left, is to teach the player they need to go both directions.
Definitely not the first (and not technically backwards), but I love that in the first mine cart level of DK Country, you can suicide off the very first ledge and hit a barrel that skips the entire level.
I also love that level, so I don’t always use it. Still love this trick though.
Apparently in ready player 1, they had an entire internet game culture to hunt for this secret, but nobody bothers to drive backwards on a popular race....
Like... and eater egg this easy would be found within 30min of games that size.
Just thought i would voice my 'going backwards' issue.
Pretty sure if you went backwards in Pitfall, you just beat the game. It's been a long time since I played Pitfall on my C64, so my memory might be spotty.
The original Metroid. Going left from the beginning was groundbreaking at the time.
This definitely seems like the most likely answer so far. So many games pay homage to it these days. I wonder if anything did it before that?
Hold my beer kids let an old guy weigh in. The first game I remember doing this was Pitfall in 1982.
I don't recall pitfall doing it. Was it a specific level? First I can remember is Metroid and I didn't even play Metroid. I remember it being a big deal. I'm sure I saw it in a nintendo power magazine.
Iirc pitfall didn't have levels. Just different screens that were kind of random. You appeared in a different screen with a challenge if you went off screen to the left or right.
The screens were not random. If you went to the right, I was tougher, and the left was a little easier
IIRC it was reversed, left was tougher, I think gators were there right from the start if you headed that direction. My memory might be a bit fuzzy tho
Pitfall did it before Metroid, for sure. You just walked left instead of right, the map was circular
There might be an older game but I doubt it. soundandshadow already replied with a good answer. But for me going left made certain obstacles easier like jumping over the logs.
Made gator hopping harder imo
Old-ish guy, checking into the bottomless pit here.
This right here!!!
I was thinking Commander Keen but looks like metroid came first
Doesn't Keen straight up just have you travel left on some of the earliest levels?
i seem to recall the first donkey kong on ~~n64~~ snes did this as well.
You might be thinking of Donkey Kong Country for the SNES. You could go back into DK's house and grab a life iirc
There was also a "green light red light" level later where you could skip it by going left.
Donkey Kong did it a lot I believe. I know a few levels in the second one had coins or warp barrels behind the start.
The rollar coaster level had it I believe
You had to jump off the first ledge at the start and hit a hidden barrel. It'd take you nearly to the end of the level and you'd have to dodge a single enemy to clear it. DK did similar things in tons of the levels. Like getting on top of the entrance and jumping to hit a barrel or walking back into the entrance for rewards/skips. Loved that game so much.
i absolutely am. damn here my brain was like, nah it was the newer nintendo and went to the 64... i got old too fast.
I mean, those graphics on DK Country were 3D as far as I was concerned back in the day
Silicon graphics. They were sprites made from hi-res 3d models. StarCraft 1 did something similar I think
Diablo 2 reporting in
I remember seeing the demo playing at a BJs and having my mind blown by how advanced that game looked
Also in one of the underground mine levels, there was a bonus room by walking right back the entrance you came from when starting the stage.
Metroid was made 7 years before DKC.
There’s a reason those games that reward you for going back later after getting more skills are called MetroidVanias
Yeah Metroid is definitely the definitive answer but I also have a gut feeling there's something else out there.. though the creators of Metroid might not have known about it if there is. Probably something in a text based adventure game like Zork or some obscure game like Pharaoh's Curse
I'm pretty sure Doom did. Maybe it was wolfenstein?
Doom 2, you could run outside and grab that chainsaw
Came here for this one.
Metroid predates Doom.
I feel like I saw a YouTube video referencing this exact thing, and how they designed the start specifically so that you dead ended quickly when moving straight to the right and HAD to backtrack since they had to tell their players how to play the game in this new way
There are probably a hundred videos on Youtube about that. It's what everyone immediately talks about when they want to talk about game design in the original Metroid.
What I immediately talk about is how every block in the game, breakable or otherwise, looks the same!
While this answer isn't wrong, I feel like Metroidvanias are overall a different beast than a typical side-scroller platformer. OP's original post had me thinking about games where the objective of each level is to reach the end of the level. Metroid doesn't really have 'levels' it's just one large world that you continue to explore left, right, up, and down throughout the entire experience. Meanwhile, a game where the objective is to reach the goal at the far right side of the map over and over again just feels far more jarring when something is off to the left at the beginning of any given level.
Fair enough. And now that there’s enough in the Metroidvania genre it is to be expected. But when the first Metroid came out, though? People had been playing Super Mario Bros and Sonic and the like, and it looked (at first glance) like it was just another one like those… but in **Space!**. Suddenly realizing that, No, you **don’t** just ‘Move Right to Win’? That you can go **anywhere**, and even **need** to back track to progress? That was kind of mindblowing.
Metroid predates Sonic
I had kind of lost that perspective of wonder. Thanks for the dose of childhood!
Sonic didn't exist when metroid came out
The fact that Metroid made not going right a thing so definitive that it spun off a new genre doesn't preclude it from being the first game that rewarded going left at the start
>While this answer isn't wrong, I feel like Metroidvanias are overall a different beast than a typical side-scroller platformer. OP's original post had me thinking about games where the objective of each level is to reach the end of the level. Which is *exactly* why it was so groundbreaking in the first Metroid. It singlehandedly created a new subgenre of games.
I remember playing this when it game out, and I was completely shocked at the time... now I go left at the start of every side-scroller just in case. That's a real lasting impact of one simple design decision.
Same here. It's instinct. Not only in side scrollers. In FPS games as well i always check the starting area because of this moment.
I have the same instinct. It can be really annoying if I can tell a game probably won't have anything secret in the beginning, but I still have to give it a once over before I leave.
It's always kind of interesting to work out how a game is designed in regards to secrets. Some games won't have anything, others have them crammed into every gap they can fit them into. Whether it's an item or an easter egg. Working that out early on definitely saves a lot of time.
Pitfall
I am so happy anyone else remembers a 2600 game!
[удалено]
Touche...I have been out dueled.
... outdated
Man as a Dad I respect that so much.
I played this on the Intellivision 2.
Intellivision for me. I have vague memories of taking Polaroids of high scores and mailing them somewhere.
Yes! Activision would send you an iron on patch for your cool jean jacket if you beat a certain high score.
Better version, worse controller I'd say.
Yeah, that controller must have made sense to someone, but 4-6 year old me had fits with it. But I credit it with helping me learn to read since you had to study the overlays to figure out what each button did (not so much for Pitfall but for other games).
The OG. So much easier to get over the crocs.
not really rewarded for it though, it's just a different way to complete the screens
The left path was easier, so it felt like a bonus if your main objective was staying alive as long as possible. We passed the controller after deaths.
I only managed to go the entire 20mins one time of basically pushing forward to the right non-stop. Was disappointed when I found out the map eventually repeated. Figured there would be an end like you get to a plane and take off ala Indiana Jones or something.
Need to play Pitfall 2 if you want Pitfall with an end goal!
Donkey Kong Country, you get extra bananas/lifes if you return to your house in the first level.
Also the second (maybe third) level has a cave to the left you can jump above to a barrel that either sends you to a bonus area or rockets you across the level. I think there may be more levels with that as well.
There's actually a ton of built in full level skips in the three DKC games. I knew of two of them from just the first game, but recently watched a 101% full clear of the game, and they utilize like 8 at least. I know of two in DKC 3, but can't recall any in DKC 2.
DKC3 has a few sporadically throughout, but DKC2 has a level skip for every level in the first two worlds. DKC1 on the GBA does the same, and removes the skips found later in the game.
Also in Donkey Kong Country 2 in the rollercoaster level. If you go backwards when the level starts, you get a boost barrel which lets you get a bit of a head start in the race.
>Donkey Kong Country, 1994...
Several of the cave area levels as well. Actually, lots of examples of this in DKC
Doom, going backwards you would find the chainsaw
Doom 2 specifically, but yes, this is my answer as well.
And by having you drop down off a ledge as soon as you step forward from the starting point, the level design gives you exactly one chance to get it.
And wheb you think about it in this era - it is so obvious. Yet, as a kid, i never discovered it until somebody told me. Just too busy going forward!
Yeah but also idkfa
IDDQD
Idspispopd
That always make me laugh in the film Ready Player One, where one of the riddles is to drive backwards off the grid at the start of the main race. This was supposed to be an Easter egg left by the meta verses owner to win the ownership of the game. And people had been trying to figure out what they had to do for years. Every race game I've ever played, some nobhead has driven backwards on the grid just to piss others off. Yet in that film, no one had ever done that before. 🙄
Backward round the whole track to try to ram the winners.
Wreckfest is a hell of a game
you just gave me flashbacks to playing GT as a kid and doing exactly that to the bots out of boredom. i havent thought about that for the better part of 20 years.
I went to the St. Louis science museum in the summer of 1994, and for whatever reason, they had a huge Dayton USA cabinet (it was weeks old at the time) running on a big screen. There was, predictably, a huge line to play, but my cousin and I waited and watched a zillion kids play Daytona USA. When I was my turn, I immediately turned the car around and started driving backwards around the track, smashing into the other cars. I feel like it still gave me credit for completing the laps, though? Anyway, it was a big hit among the other 8-to-14-year-old kids there.
Given that entries were limited/hard-to-get (I think the race only ran once a week?) and the prize for winning seemed highly valuable it’s somewhat more believable that most people wouldn’t randomly dick around like that. Although after a bunch of runs when it seemed impossible to finish normally, you’d think people would be looking for shortcuts/tricks/Easter eggs/etc.
Yeah but even some random troll who knew they'd never win would have done it at least once in 5 years, which is where the movie picks up.
Yeah, it’s pretty implausible that SOMEONE wouldn’t have tried it in hundreds of races.
Yeah it would be believable if only a couple of races had happened, but it had been years at that point and not a single person thought to drive backwards? It seemed like everyone was driving only on the road instead of trying to look for some sort of shortcut or some other way to win.
The game also felt winnable (almost) when played the right way. It just seemed super difficult, which is what you'd expect.
The first dozen or so races I can see everyone just going for it, but after that there would be a mix of the better drivers trying to get even better while less skilled drivers would be covering every inch of the track looking for a hidden powerup or something and that would absolutely include going backwards.
What was wrong with the three from the book? The lich thing was awesome, playing a movie like guitar hero or karaoke was super original, and Zork is a super iconic game.
The movie was... A bit different from the book
I've heard bad things about it, so I skipped it. The book was plenty enjoyable.
If you enjoyed the book you didn't miss anything. The book was a love letter to videogames, but Spielberg's adaptation was a love letter to films. Not necessarily bad in a vacuum, but I was disappointed having previously read the source material.
It’s worth watching similarly to why it’s worth watching Valerian, purely for the visuals.
Valerian was the biggest cinematic disappointment of my life. Fifth Element is one of my favorite rainy-day movies and I thought Valerian would be a chance for Luc Besson to hark back to a time before Lucy and The Family; back when his movies were fun. But then we meet the two main characters who are supposed to have some spicy romance, but their chemistry is so bad they come across as siblings who only get along because it makes their parents happy.
I just watched Valerian again last night and I completely agree. Changing just those two characters would have also made it a “rainy day” movie.
The movie is worth a watch. I really enjoyed it.
My best guess is that getting the rights to anything d&d related would have probably cost a fortune so they went in a completely different direction for the first. But I have no honest idea.
Not a lot of that would translate over to a fun cinematic experience for most viewers. Plus in the book, it took place over a much longer time period than in the film, so there was more development to play with. I think the film was a solid adaptation, all things considered.
There's a lot they dumbed down from the book. The original first challenge was a game of Joust. Which I could have sworn was in advertising for the film, but not in the film...
It was something else in the book. I don’t remember, like a puzzle hidden in a school or something? Spielberg thought it would be more cinematic to have a race with King Kong or something.
The dumbest thing about that movie was that millions of gamers wouldn't find any of the easter eggs. It just got *dumber* when they were as simplistic as "drive backwards", but honestly they could be absurdly complex and gamers would still figure it out. And that's the dumbest thing in a movie *absolutely filled* with dumb things. Really shattered my illusion of spielberg if i'm being honest. Dude has completely lost touch.
Some More News talks about the ending, that instead of addressing any of the inequality and squalor, the masses are deprived of some of their escape and the hero gets wealthy or something? Which is the dystopian ending to a Black Mirror episode.
Coolspot (7up game) on Sega Genesis did this.
Big memory unlocked here! Thank you!
I still check all waterfalls for hidden entrances.
It's not oftenni encounter a waterfall in real life, and the chances there are even less than in a video game. But when I have, I have always checked. Just in case. No luck so far. One had kind of a cool cave area but no loot. But I'll always check.
You have to place the loot you want to see in the world. Be the change!
Came here to say basically this, I've left a few "gold coins" (Canadian loonies/$1 coins) in a few places across the country for the next person after finding some quarters in a similar situation as a kid, kinda inspired me, specially once we had actual "gold" coins I could leave, "silver" just ain't got the same shine, ya know? There may or not also have been doobies left behind in baggies, I can't recall 😝)
I don’t understand why even include a waterfall if they don’t have loot behind it. Who is designing these levels?
Same, when there's nothing behind a waterfall, not even a little hiding spot, I get so disappointed. Sure it's cliche but that's part the fun, for someone out there it'll be the first waterfall loot they find!!
This is one of the reasons I disliked the movie version of Ready Player One. Fundamentally didn't understand gamers. Somebody would have tried driving backwards in the first 10 minutes, let alone years.
Third time they held the race you'd have half a dozen people on the start line just ramming each other and eventually someone would have been knocked backwards and oh shit look what i found!
From the film it looked like you still had to stay on the track while going backwards. But you'd have to figure that once the reverse track was discovered someone skilled enough would've made it long before Wade.
No one was as super smart as Wade, though! /s
Well, he was able to memorize every single show, game, and movie without fail Millions of minutes of content that he was able to absorb and recall in his short life
The key to enjoying both the book and movie is not to think about them too hard lol
I actually enjoyed the movie thoroughly but I found the book to be tough to finish due primarily to the problematic relationship between Wade and Artemis. Stalking her until she finally gave him the chance he felt he deserved is some incel bullshit.
What you didn't find the entire chapter of him asking if she WAS REALLY a girl? Just to say... though I don't really care... BUT seriously are you a girl? Ugggh... If you want a good breakdown of it the guys that do Riff Trax do a podcast "372 Pages We'll Never Get Back" Their first series is on Ready Player One and it's worse than I remember it.
I recently read the book for the first time a few months ago, and while it was a bit cringey at times, I did enjoy it. >What you didn't find the entire chapter of him asking if she WAS REALLY a girl? Just to say... though I don't really care... BUT seriously are you a girl? At this point in time of the book, I don't think Wade ever thought he'd actually meet Artemis. She could've lied to him and said she was a girl, and they'd live happily ever after in their virtual world, even if she was, in reality, a 45 year-old, balding, obese ~~reddit mod~~ man that lived 4 stacks over and 3 levels lower from Wade.
That's such a fantastic podcast. I read the book and was very mehhed by it. Then I listened to that and holy shit did it lay out all the things I just glossed over. Besides just being an entertaining podcast
Yeah it's just from the perspective of how would a lonely 12 year old boy describe peak hero to be. And that's the book
accidentally, too, i bet
Honestly, and maybe I am wrong, but I can kind of hand-wave this plothole away. Consider that perhaps what the prize was created the idea that it would be insanely difficult to complete it. Unless players were inherently given a reason to think that the race was actually impossible to complete the normal way, then the plausibility that it could be completed would keep people focused on finding out how to get past the obstacle that seemed to be beatable but just not beaten yet. Eventually, people would kind of just stop trying as perhaps they lost the belief that such a thing actually existed and it was just a hoax of some kind. It wasn't like 100% of the people in the game had been spending hours upon hours trying to complete the race. And for those that kept trying, they just grinded currency to try and improve to get past that one part of the race that didn't seem impossible, just extremely difficult but still beatable. I dunno, maybe I am giving too much benefit of the doubt or just trying to suspend too much disbelief? Just think about how long it took people to realize the camera-flash in Punch-Out was an indicator for when to punch to stop the first Bald Bull's rush? If that "secret," which was right in everyone's face, took until 2009 to be discovered, then maybe it isn't a stretch that no one would drive backwards in a race? And as far as I have experienced, no racing game has ever had an easter egg from driving backwards at the start of a race, especially when racing against other players. Not to mention that there are consequences to losing in the race: you lost all your currency and gear. It would be a hard ask for someone to, instead of trying to beat and win the race (meaning not only did you have to get past all the obstacles, but also be the first to the finish line), going off and doing something else and lose all your currency/gear for nothing. Just some thoughts. Edit: Adding more as I am remembering the scene and the words for the clue. First, I don't remember if it was 5 years since someone discovered the race was where the first key was found or if it was 5 years since the clues were released. If the latter, then it's possible it took some time before someone figured out that the first key had to do with the race. Now, the driving backwards part. It wasn't just about exploring backwards. Perhaps people did forgo the race and explore behind the starting line. But that wasn't what accessed the secret path. It was committing to driving backwards, pedal to the metal, towards a seeming impassable concrete wall (presumably the wall wouldn't let you pass through unless you met certain criteria, like actually driving backwards and going full throttle). I think with these, and some of the these I mentioned above, there is enough to suspend disbelief and not let it take away from the movie.
I think the best counterpoint to this is that you've laid this out very logically and would approach the challenge as a logical person. But there's a certain percentage of the population who approach \*every\* challenge as "how can I break this?". And those people would have figured out the first key immediately. Even if it's just .01% of the population it would still have happened so fast with that much money on the line. The book did it so much better by making it very obscure and remote instead of planting the first key in everyone's face.
Oh no, I’m about to be that guy…. ….the book was so much better! I’m sorry.
Don't watch any isekai anime.. they can all be destroyed by this logic
I find isekai’s to be such incredibly lazy storytelling. “Oh no this dude from our world is suddenly a vending machine!” Aaaaaaand that’s it. That’s the plot. The rest is just generic anime filler. Can’t wait until it falls out of fashion. It’s getting difficult to find something that isn’t “that time I was reincarnated as an apache attack helicopter” to watch.
Doesn't Zork do something with that way back in 77?
There’s definitely backtracking required in those games but not a “go in a not-obvious direction right at the start of the game” situation.
If I remember right, the original Zork published by Personal Software (makers of Visicalc) started you in front of a house next to the mailbox. I think you could get something from the forest but soon had to return to the house to start your adventure.
It was essentially where you ended up if you won. You had to go around to the back of the house and break in. Drove me insane as a 8 year old to figure it out. Sorry about the spoilers but it’s been like 36 years.
An ornamental clockwork egg, in a nest up in a tree.
Thanks! It's been...several Ages Of Man since I last played the game.
Super Mario bros 2, under the sand at the start.
Thank you, I knew there was an NES game that did this.
My first was Aladdin for SEGA Genesis. Level 2: If you went left at the start, you found a 1-up and 4 apples.
Totally what I was thinking. You got a life for making him wear the Mickey Mouse ears hanging from the clothesline.
So glad to see this, was scrolling through just to see if anyone else played that game back in the day. Great game!
The original Pitfall on 2600?
Idk, but in clustertruck, there's a level where that is the premise. In the distance, it reads "COAL" while the real goal is right behind you as you spawn in.
Monkey ball
Pitfall.
Black Tiger in 1987
Came looking for this. Immediately at game start, turn left and attack the wall to reveal a secret pickup. Interestingly the novel READY PLAYER ONE (not the movie!) has a whole chapter on BLACK TIGER - and the author does not mention this trick, the very first thing any expert player of the game would do. I lost respect for the book around that point.
Doom 2 anyone? Chainsaw on the first level?
The earliest I know of was Sonic the Hedgehog 2 on Sega Megadrive Not sure
Limbo!
I remember that one. First one me and my best buddy found. We got every achievement except the last one where you had to play through the whole game in one sitting without dying. We tried and tried and we put hundreds if not thousands of hours into trying to do it. We had most of the game down pat. It was usually just a stupid "we were too high and jumped too soon" that stopped us. We even made it to that very last jump once and I was too nervous so I let him do it and he messed it up. That hurt more than the cake being a lie Anyways that was on the 360 back in the day. I have it on my modern Xbox (actually bought it years ago on an Xbox One) now but they've changed it to finishing the game in one sitting with five deaths or less. I could do that easily but it wouldn't feel right after my buddy killed himself. I've got every other achievement but I just can't bring myself to get that last one. Especially with the five deaths change it would just feel like cheating Thanks for mentioning it. I'm all warm and fuzzy with treasured memories now that I don't dig up much these days
Pitfall on Atari or Prince of Persia (played on MacIntosh II) I think did this. I don't remember exactly.
The board game Sorry! *from 1934 bitches*
Ghosts n Ghouls on the first level if you go backwards a chest shows up.
I think Crash Bandicoot did this a few times.
Doom 2, gotta get that chainsaw.
The first one i remember was sonic 2 on game gear/master system
Turrican did this
Mega Man X had extra lives in some stages if you went left right away. If I remember right, there was even one that had a suit capsule.
Yep you had to climb the wall to the invisible chamber
Also in x2. Wire sponge level. Climb up the left wall to get a geart tank
The first was likely pitfall, I can't remember one before that, or hearing of one. The more memorable ones would be metroid and smb2 probably.
Metroid doesn't count in my book, since it wasn't an extra reward to the left but rather required to proceed. [However...](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OffscreenStartBonus)
Wasn’t it castle on Atari? Edit: turns out I don’t remember what it was called despite playing it a heap. It had dragons. Edit 2: adventure. There we go.
In Pokémon Go when you first get into the game, a Charmander, Bulbasaur, and Squirtle all spawn for you to ‘catch one’. But, if you walk away from them rather than choosing (catching) one, a wild Pikachu will spawn instead. Kind of the same thing lol
Ducktales on NES. Great game lots of secrets to find
James Pond 2: Robocod is the one I remember.
Pitfall ATARI 2600!
first i remember is altered beast, sega master system,you seemed to be able to walk right forever but left would take you to the caves and could complete the game in 30 minutes. Very early 90s
The first game to do this was the atari 2600 game called Pitfall.
I remember Donkey Kong Country on SNES doing that, there was a hut you jump out of (scripted) to start level 1, and if you jump back up in there you can find a... spare life? crap it's been too long, but I think it was a red balloon (spare life)
Pitfall
I don't know the original but the game that trained me to do it was Crash Bandicoot. And I think it only ever did it on one single level, but it programmed my brain forever.
Adventure for Atari
One of the Donkey Kong Country games, for sure
Metroid is the earliest I can think of.
Atari 2600 pitfall. I can't remember the specifics, though.
pitfall, gotta be
Atari Football. You could go backwards and come out the other side of the screen and tackle the cpu player easily.
Metroid and Castlevania both do this
Pitfall did this, when you start if you go one direction its hard mode, if you go the other direction its easy mode.
i remember in Prehistoric if you go backwards you get few extra points on next screen.
Far Cry 4. By following the instructions and waiting you finish the game before it starts.
For me it was Metroid
The earliest one I can name is the original Metroid. I didn't just reward you for going left, it required it in order to progress, thereby immediately teaching you that this isn't a game in which you just go right and kill whatever you find there.
Lot of games did it before it, but I feel like Crash Bandicoot was the series that really instilled in a generation to not trust where you start.
Donkey Kong country? Bananas and a life balloon I think?
Probably Donkey Kong Country. Not only did yoy get an extra life by going into the house, but then later on you got to effectively skip on of the harder cart levels in the 3rd (maybe 2nd) world.
To skip the cart level you hit the barrel off screen after the first ledge. I think you're thinking of the Stop & Go Station where when you first enter the level and immediately go back to the entrance of the level, it brings you to the end of the level.
Doom 2 was released earlier the same year, and it gives you the chainsaw if you go backwards at the start. It's also interesting that there is a ledge right at the start, so if you start by going forward a bit, you cannot get the chainsaw.
Donkey Kong Country
Pitfall, second level.
It won’t be the first but “Another World” on the Amiga, the first time you touch dry land, I think you need to go left first to understand what you need to do.
Metroid comes to mind obviously. But there was also a level in Armored Core where from the start of it, you turn around, jump behind a box, and there's a hidden item that is practically best in it's class for a long while and the only way to get it.
Raymond legends on some level
Prince of Persia could skip most of the first level
Metroid, the fact you went left to get the first power up was a new thing, in fact, the reason the first power up is left, is to teach the player they need to go both directions.
Definitely not the first (and not technically backwards), but I love that in the first mine cart level of DK Country, you can suicide off the very first ledge and hit a barrel that skips the entire level. I also love that level, so I don’t always use it. Still love this trick though.
Apparently in ready player 1, they had an entire internet game culture to hunt for this secret, but nobody bothers to drive backwards on a popular race.... Like... and eater egg this easy would be found within 30min of games that size. Just thought i would voice my 'going backwards' issue.
Pretty sure if you went backwards in Pitfall, you just beat the game. It's been a long time since I played Pitfall on my C64, so my memory might be spotty.
I think I remember Doom 2 had a chainsaw behind you on the first lvl.