5. Fallout 3 Predicts the Future
The story goes that if you kill Galaxy News Radio’s host “Three Dog”, the radio signal will sometimes turn into a “numbers station”. A few forums posters on snopes.com noted that once the above happens, GNR will start broadcasting a monotone voice reading out sets of numbers, followed by morse code. When decrypted, these messages seem to point to certain dates, which along with subliminal messages also heard on the station, lead some to believe that Fallout 3 was predicting future events that hadn’t yet occurred. Gary Coleman’s death and Britney Spears presumably winning an Oscar in the year 2023 are some of the most ludicrous examples. The eeriest of all though, reads as follows:
“I can’t believe they’ve actually done it. Not long left. They were warned, but they just had to keep pushing the boundaries of science. The noise. I can’t take the noise anymore. And the light, dear God! The universe is slowly unraveling around us. I’m not going to wait for death. I have a pistol in the attic.”
~ Paul Cesar
4. Kanye Quest 3030
In 2013, a strange and unofficial JRPG known as Kanye Quest appeared. The game is about the infamous Kanye West – the notorious egomaniac – and his journey into the year 3030. During the story, Kanye can interact with a terminal in which fragmented data is found. When you piece it together, it says something like: “Based Information System. ASCEND and worship The Based God.” That’s pretty crazy, right? Later in the game, Kanye comes across a woman known only as Task Force Member, and she asks what you want to do. In response to your answer, she says: You want to *answer*? I want to *answer* too! Should you type the key word ascend into the sentence, something strange happens. The screen begins to flicker, and you transform into a butterfly. After interacting with each terminal in your ascension, the game asks you on numerous occasions if you’d like to continue – and that you should keep an eye out for changes in your everyday life for the next two weeks. The legend is that the game is a recruitment tool for the Ascension Cult (ascensionism), though anyone who has entered their address (yes, the game asks for that) hasn’t noticed anything, and a glance at the code sees that there’s no place for your answer to actually go. Still, for a game that appears so lighthearted, it hides a creepy and mysterious area that, for two years, went completely undiscovered. Welcome to the internet.
~ Evan Schwab
3. New Mexico Landfill?
Aside from the notorious Area 51, it has been said that New Mexico harbors another dark secret: The Atari Landfill. In the early 80’s, Atari was struggling as it released the flop of a video game E.T., which is now known as one of the worst video games to have ever been created. What was their next move? According to legend, they dumped hundreds of thousands of unsold games and systems into an unmarked landfill in New Mexico, most notably, over 2,000 copies of the infamous E.T. game, leaving them to rot alone in the desert where they belonged. In a strange turn of events, this is one urban legend that is actually true, or at least partially true. Somewhat recently, a team of excavators found the mysterious dump site and retrieved around 1,500 copies of failed Atari games, of course including E.T., the pride and joy of Atari. However, this number is vastly lower than the number of legend, but Atari executives have confirmed that this legend is truthful. Explaining the missing games and systems is still a matter of speculation today. What else are they hiding?
~ Sierra Grafton
2. Lavender Town Syndrome
As everyone who has played the original Pokemon games knows, Lavender Town is the creepiest, most dreadful place in the entire Pokemon universe. It is only fitting that one of the most well-known videogame urban legends is centered around the place that left such an impression upon an entire generation of gamers. To this day, the mention of Lavender Town calls to mind the repetitive high-pitched song that shook us to the core. The music, like the legend, seems to never fade away. According to the legend, in the original Red and Green versions released in Japan, the song contained such high-pitched sounds that the young children exposed to the music suffered many adverse effects including being driven to suicide. The music was said to be edited before worldwide release due to the mass suicides that had taken place in Japan caused by the Lavender Town Song. Legend or not, the song still fills anyone who enters Lavender Town with an unmistakable feeling of dread. What else is to be expected from the town built around a massive graveyard of trainers’ best friends?
~ Sierra Grafton