5 Video Game Urban Legends

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Ever since video games were first created, there have been video game urban legends. Some of these are definitely believable while other ones are so obviously fictitious. We’re not entirely sure how many these myths got started, but we can only guess that it is associated with the lack of Internet in the ‘80s and ‘90s. Back then, we couldn’t exactly check up on these things the way we can now, which makes it pretty easy for rumors like these to grow and take on lives of their own. Since it is always good to know the difference between fact and fiction, we’re going to debunk some of these urban legends.

5. Saddam Hussein Bought Thousands Of PlayStation 2 Consoles

Back in 2000, Saddam Hussein was rumored to have bought as many as 4000 PlayStation 2 consoles. Government agencies believed that Hussein and his cronies were planning to bundle them “together into a sort of crude super-computer and use for a variety of military applications.” This turned out to be false though. While it was technically possible for one to connect a series of PlayStation consoles together and combine their 128-bit processors, it would require additional software, which Iraq didn’t have.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_2_retail_configurations Source: Wikipedia

4. The Atari Landfill

There was a longstanding rumor that millions of Atari games were buried in a New Mexico landfill site back in the early 1980s. According to urban legend, Atari buried unsold copies of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, one of the most reviled video games ever released, and the Atari 2600 port of Pac-Man.

This urban legend was proven to be true. In 1983, Atari did fill a landfill site with its products. It had a disastrous year in 1982, which led to Atari being sold off by its parent company. Stuck with millions of games, they opted to bury them.

3. Tomb Raider Has A Nude Code

Rumors that Tomb Raider has a nude code have been floating around since the mid ‘90s, probably because the Lara Croft icon was just a tad bit too sexy for her audience. The nude code doesn’t exist, but that hasn’t stopped gamers from trying to find one. Fake codes and secrets are all over the Internet, but don’t be fooled.

2. Polybius

Polybius was an arcade cabinet that was said to have induced various psychological effects on its players, including vivid nightmares and, in some cases, suicidal tendencies. About a month after it was released, it reportedly disappeared without a trace. Even stranger, there is no evidence that this game ever existed or that it had that such a negative psychological effect on the people who played it.

1. Pong Was The First Video Game

While Pong is believed to be the world’s first video game, it actually isn’t. A game by the name of Computer Space is the world’s first widely available video and arcade game. It wasn’t a success though because it was too complicated for users to grasp quickly. Pong, on the other hand, was much easier and became much more popular as a result.