Building a Gaming Empire In 1984

"That's incredible."

Steve nodded, his eyes also catching sight of the players who had just successfully tested the cheat.

That one Easter egg alone was enough to carry an entire issue of the magazine. When Ethan had something to share, he really shared it. What a guy.

"Besides that one, are there any others?"

"Of course."

Ethan smiled. Just as he was about to drop another bombshell, he suddenly swallowed the words at the tip of his tongue.

"Hmm... Wait. How about we turn this into an event instead?"

"An event?"

Steve's heart skipped a beat. He immediately realized he might be walking away with an enormous scoop today and eagerly followed Ethan's train of thought.

Ethan stood up, walked behind the counter, and rummaged through several game disks before returning to his seat.

"I wonder if you remember Atari's SwordQuest series of treasure hunt events?"

SwordQuest was undoubtedly one of Atari's greatest achievements during its golden age.

Built around the four classical fantasy elements, Earth, Fire, Water, and Air, the series was originally planned as a four-part saga. Each game also came packaged with a comic book produced by DC.

Players had to search both the game and the comic for hidden clues that would ultimately lead them to a real treasure. The winner could even receive a sword made of solid gold and encrusted with jewels.

The creativity behind the event's operation was absolutely brilliant. Unfortunately, the sudden arrival of the video game crash meant only the first three installments were ever completed.

It really was a shame.

"Mr. Ethan... are you planning to hold a treasure hunt as well?"

Steve's eyes lit up with excitement, he'd truly struck gold this time.

Wasn't this tomorrow's headline already?

"Exactly. Instead of simply telling everyone what the Easter eggs are, wouldn't this be much more interesting?"

Ethan pulled out the floppy disk version of Contra.

"The first Easter egg is hidden in the floppy disk version of Contra. The hint is: Underground Base. Remember, it's only in the floppy disk console version."

A full megabyte of storage on a floppy disk meant there was an incredible amount of room for tricks like this. Setting Contra aside, he immediately picked up the floppy disk for Metal Gear.

"The second Easter egg is hidden in Metal Gear. The hint is: Wreckage. This one can be found in both the arcade and console versions."

Finally, he picked up the floppy disk for Wolfenstein 3D.

"As for the last one, I can tell everyone outright, I hid a secret weapon in the game."

"A chainsaw."

...

Several days later, the newest issue of Electronic Games, featuring illustrations from Ethan's interview, was released on schedule. Unlike previous editions, this issue could practically be called the GAMENOVA Special.

The new game review section was filled entirely with a comprehensive review of Harvest Moon, evaluating nearly every aspect of the game objectively, carefully listing both its strengths and weaknesses.

Its final score skyrocketed from the previous issue's 3/10 all the way to 9/10, officially drawing a line between the magazine's past judgment and its new one.

Besides the Harvest Moon review and a detailed technical breakdown of the NovaBox, the real sensation throughout the gaming community was the developer interview.

No one had expected Electronic Games, which had only recently fallen out with GAMENOVA, to publish an exclusive interview with Ethan Hayes.

The interview itself was even more astonishing.

Easter eggs?

There were tons of hidden Easter eggs!

GAMENOVA had been hiding them all along!

No one could have imagined that, months after these games had been released and just as discussion around them had begun to cool, there were still hidden secrets that nobody had ever discovered.

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Most exciting of all was the notice printed in bold.

"The first player to discover each Easter egg may mail proof to Electronic Games. Rewards will be issued after verification by the event organizers."

It immediately ignited another wave of gaming fever.

...

Ironically, the first Easter egg to be discovered by the frenzied player community was the one everyone had assumed would be the hardest, the one in Metal Gear.

The winner was a small arcade owner named Henry.

His arcade was called Arcade Area.

The accompanying photograph showed him standing beside a Metal Gear arcade cabinet while proudly hugging a Metal Gear mech figurine crafted from gold and other precious metals.

Although the photo was somewhat blurry, it was still possible to make out what appeared to be a hidden room.

Inside was the wreckage of another armored machine, one that differed from the standard Metal Gear design.

According to the article, Henry had stumbled upon it completely by accident while demonstrating a strategy to help a customer who was stuck.

While doing it he saw that there had apparently been a hidden room that no one had ever noticed before.

In the photograph, Henry was surrounded by equally excited players.

Someone had even placed a crown on his head for decoration. He looked like a genuinely popular guy.

Henry's discovery only made the Easter egg hunters even more fanatical. His success proved that the magazine hadn't been fabricating the story.

The hidden secrets were real, and you could win prizes by simply playing games.

News like that attracted people from every corner of the country.

Even those who had never played games before began flooding into arcades after hearing about the event, then spent entire mornings debating whether they should buy a NovaBox.

Of course, newcomers first had to spend a considerable amount of time simply learning how the games worked.

Finding hidden Easter eggs was an entirely different matter.

….

That afternoon, at an arcade in New Mexico.

John stood in front of a newsstand, staring at the contents of the magazine in disbelief.

An Easter egg hidden in Contra?

Keyword: Underground Base?

"That thing was an Easter egg?"

Almost instantly, he realized exactly what the article was referring to.

In the console version of Contra, if the player reached the boss of Stage 7 without using a continue, successfully destroyed every surprise spiked wall that popped up from the ground while dodging the oncoming minecarts, and defeated the exclusive end stage boss without taking a single hit, the game would suddenly change.

Instead of loading the normal final stage, the screen flashed, displaying the message.

"UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS DETECTED."

The player would then be transported to a hidden Underground Base.

Inside was a completely different stage hidden beneath the alien fortress.

The underground bunker was filled with reinforced steel corridors, conveyor belts, automated gun emplacements, security cannons, and experimental defense robots unlike anything found in the rest of the game.

Waiting at the end was ARES, an abandoned prototype defense computer built by the military before the alien invasion. The massive machine occupied the entire screen, protected by four armored weapon pods mounted around its central core.

Each pod attacked differently. One fired stream of machine-gun rounds, another launched slow-moving missiles, while the remaining two swept the arena with energy bolts.

Players had to destroy all four weapon pods before the glowing central core became vulnerable. Once exposed, the core opened periodically, giving players only a brief window to unload their strongest weapons before it sealed shut again.

It was easily the toughest battle in the game, demanding careful movement and precise timing rather than overwhelming firepower.

After destroying ARES, the screen displayed a special message.

"You're the boss now. Mission Complete. Prototype Weapon authorized."

The boss then dropped the Omega Cannon, a weapon never seen anywhere else in Contra. Its blue energy blasts pierced through not all but many enemies and obstacles, and once unlocked, it became available in future playthroughs by collecting a hidden weapon capsule in Stage 1.

John had triggered it completely by accident before. He had simply never imagined it was actually a hidden Easter egg.

"Wait!"

John suddenly slammed the magazine shut, his eyes trembling.

Don't tell me... Nobody else had discovered this? That couldn't be right.

The requirements weren't even particularly difficult. It was an entire hidden stage, a secret boss, and an exclusive weapon!

Thinking no further, John immediately rushed home and drafted a letter before mailing it to the address listed in the magazine.

...

A few days later, news that the second Easter egg had also been discovered once again exploded across the gaming community.

However, the contents of the Easter egg were even more shocking than the reward itself. What did they mean by saying the console version of Contra had a hidden final stage, a secret AI boss, and an unlockable weapon no strategy guide had ever mentioned?

Didn't that mean everyone had only been playing an incomplete version of the game all this time?

Wonderful! So, you made it but wouldn't let people play it?

….

Meanwhile, after reading the reports, Ethan burst into laughter.

He had just simply added some easter eggs in these games. After all, the floppy disk had more than enough storage space, so creating a few additional easter eggs really hadn't taken much effort.

Yet the publicity generated by these Easter eggs far exceeded the tiny development cost required to create them.

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