In the days before the internet when you could simply look something up in seconds, the only way you could really find things out was by word of mouth. School yard rumours were rife, only to be scuppered and disproved with a certain amount of disappointment. The following incidents are some of the biggest video game myths that turned out to not be true.

Pokemon Red/Blue – Look in the back of the truck!

When I was growing up me and my cousin were completely obsessed by the original Pokemon games. The hours I would spend staring at my gameboy screen in wonder was quite crazy, the worst was at night on long car journeys. I didn’t have a light attached so I’d rely on street lamps instead. Now the biggest myth surrounding those games was the one regarding Mew. Everyone wanted to catch the elusive little bastard and some bright spark claimed to have found the way. Now I can’t remember when or where I heard the rumour but apparently if you traded a Pokemon with a friend who knew surf and used the move to get to a little Island before the SS Anne sailed off, you would find a truck. Now if you do something to the truck (this bit was always a bit vague) then you would be put into a battle with Mew where you could then capture him/her whatever, they didn’t have gender at that point. Sadly this wasn’t true, so if you’d gone through all that effort of trading with someone and bothered to go to the truck you’d be feeling pretty salty. I didn’t have any friends to trade with so I had the last laugh…I think.

The Classic Video Game Fix

Possibly my favourite games console – the Nintendo 64 was subject to a great myth when you were faced with a cartridge that didn’t work. If you simply blew into the bottom you would eliminate the issue and could carry on happily gaming to your hearts content. Regrettably this has since been debunked and probably made things worse in the long run when you blew the dust and crumbs further into the cartridge. It acted almost as a placebo for both you and the game however. If you did it you almost fooled the game into working because you believed so much.

Minecraft – The Herobrine times

When Minecraft came out it blew up. I mean blew up. It was massive in the gaming community, it was such a good mix of addictive yet simple gameplay that it just worked. I was there with the best of them mining away in the endless pursuit of happiness …otherwise known as diamonds. Now there was a certain rumour circulating about a strange encounter on a single player game of Minecraft where the player met someone else. He looked like the games protagonist only he had white eyes and the name Herobrine over his head. There was apparently several accounts of players finding this “person” or finding things missing/changed on their maps. This was later debunked but the interesting thing is that Mojang have played along with the myth putting the line “Herobrine removed” on many of their later updates. All publicity is good publicity after all.

Tomb Raider – The Birthday Suit

I was a massive fan of the original Tomb Raider, it was an atmospheric, well thought out epic that took you from dinosaurs to ancient myths. Lara Croft has of course been celebrated as one the most well known and revered female protagonists in gaming ever since. There was however talk on the grape vine of a certain cheat that would render Lara completely starkers. I’m sure that made a lot of people at the time extremely excited and subsequently disappointed but I was around 9 years old and playing it with my Dad and Auntie at the time so that would have been slightly awkward had that been true. The cheat was disproved to much dismay, but since there have been numerous mods added to the game that would achieve the same result. So if it’s your dream to see a naked Lara Croft eaten by a T-Rex then live happy.

There are so many little secrets and hidden easter eggs in video games that I am not surprised that these were cooked up. I was and still am a little peeved that I didn’t find Mew in the truck, and I will forever blow on electronics in an effort to make them work no matter what people tell me but I hope things like that will always be out there as it all adds to the collective excitement of video games for those who play them.