Credit to Tim Buckley - Ctrl Alt Del

It's not just one game.
I still do this, and it regularly reaps benefits.

Donkey Kong on gba

Sonic 1 for Master System...Bridge Zone, act 3...
- ...i've always considered that a game gear title first, even though both formats were released nearly simultaneously...

That's what's bugging me about Ready Player One the most. You can't tell me it took YEARS for gamers to figure out the secret about the racing track.
- The secret that took years to solve was more obscure than just a special jump in a race in the book.
  
  Yeah the movie really didn't do the book much justice. The message was the same, but the movie completely undermined itself. Saying 'Real life is more important than the digital world because it's where real connections and food is.' doesn't hit as hard when it's the very fact that it was Wade's obsession with the digital world and having encyclopedic knowledge of Halliday that allowed him to win. The book is still clunky but it's Wade's actions in the real world that really set's him apart from the sixers and gunters.

In Serious Sam there was a secret you could only reach by starting running backwards while the level was still loading

Bum Tickley is still going after all this time?
- Tim Fuckley?
  
  B^U

not one game at all, it's pretty much tradition.

is this loss?

Kids these days didn't know how to video game.

Donkey Kong Country did this to me forever
- Metroid.
  The morph ball is to the left to show you that the screen scrolls both directions, as most games at the time didn't let you go "backwards"
- Also at the end of the level. I remember 3 had balloons n stuff there.
  
  Mario world has some secret exits you had to access by going under the goal and past the ending as well.
- Yup.

Doom ]['s chainsaw.
- That level was the Entryway, and the chainsaw is next to an outside area that Doomguy presumably came in from. That means he had to have walked right past the chainsaw on the way in.
  How did he even make it to doom ii with such poor observational skills?

- How dare that person not plant some pies in there every now and then
  
  Aren't sweets like really bad for dogs?
  Edit: Don't hate me, I was just asking a question. I know nothing about dogs.

That's why I find idea that no gamer in Ready Player One tried running a car backward offensive.
- The book had a much better story for the first key.
  
  I mean, how did he have the foresight to know that almost everyone would go to school inside his videogame?
- Its like, people rub against every square inch of geometry in say, Destiny 2, just to get out of bounds. It's insane that no one just...tried cause they're bored even.
  
  I always remember back in world of warcraft, before you had flying mounts, there were spots you could spam jump on to slowly climb the barrier mountains and get up to the flat area they never meant for you to see. Good times.
- There’s a little explanation in that it costs to get in to the race. So naturally people wouldn’t want to waste the attempt, except there’s always someone that will pay the fee and try just about anything.
  
  except there’s always someone that will pay the fee and try just about anything.
  Especially when the prize is that big.
  
  That might buy you a few days, but not the absurd amount of time in the story.

TIL CAD is still going and it looks different.
- But can you truly see it when the quality is so bad it's blurry af?
  Original:
  
  https://cad-comic.com/comic/backtrack/

This is the exact same instinct that drives us to run away from the obvious path first. "Clearly that's where the final boss is. Let me just check what's down this way first..."
"...oh no wait, there's a point-of-no-return ledge here. Ok, so maybe that other way was actually where the secret was. I'll go back..."
"...hmm, there's another ledge on this side too. Let me just put in a save point and...ok, yeah, this one is the final boss. Let me reload and check the other path..."
"...ugh, it restarted me way back here? And respawned all the enemies when I reloaded? That's frustrating..."
"...THEY BOTH. LED. TO THE SAME. EXACT. PLACE."
- Modern games have gotten super "hand-holdy" to the point where it's fucking annoying... but one QOL improvement that I will take every time is when games prevent you from moving forward in a story because you missed something and moving forward means you'll miss it forever.
  I get it, and when I was younger I was all about that shit... But I'm too old for that shit lol
- In Breath of the Wild after the tutorial plateau, players are supposed to go between the two big mountains that are easy to see and easy to pass for a beginner. There they find a steed and this weird korok guy.
  I on the other hand decided to go the direct route up a steep cliff where two guardians wait to tell you that this is not the way. After I snuck past them, which took me about 2 hours and like 20+ retries, I nearly stopped playing cause "the game was so hard".
  I have a bachelor in have design btw...
- This is why I have 120 hours in 40 hour games.
  
  This, plus looking at a tiny little toe-sized piece of unexplored minimap on the opposite side of the world and thinking, "but what if there's something important there?!"
  
  I play games this way too, but I feel like the bigger factor in my playtime way higher than necessary is that I don't want to miss any dialogue so I talk to every NPC until they repeat themselves. Most of the time that's the second time you talk to them so I definitely get a lot out of that.
  
  ..during the bg3 character creation
- Accidentally going the right way is so infuriating.
  
  Especially if you get too far and the game takes control of your character to start a cutscene before you can turn back around.
- WTF I don't come here to be attacked like this
  
  It's ok. We're all here for each other.
- I still remember being really mad I missed the "added effect" materia in the original FF7. You can never ever go back to that cave, so if you don't turn around to pick it up you never get it. Pain.
  
  I never even saw the "Alexander" summon materia until I played the game as an adult. Despite having the official Brady Games strategy guide.
- Yeah.. I felt that. Hard. I need to actively tell myself it's not worth wasting so much time. Other times I just can't be bothered and I mindlessly waste time checking everything cause it somehow feels like less work.

Also in this list: checking under stairs and behind waterfalls
- And hitting every bit of wall that looks suspiciously flat and empty. I'm looking at you, Miyazaki.

In Sega Genesis/Mega Drive Aladdin in several levels in the beginning you have go forward a bit and then return back to the start to find the secret. Needles to say, it also messed me up for life.
- Sonic on the game gear does this on the second boss

Every single waterfall I find I must check behind it, forever.
- Go play tunic!
- Yeah, it's all about waterfalls. And, I like it because a cave behind a waterfall makes some sense. It would be hard to see, but it's not a solid barrier.
- I still get irrationally upset when there isn't. But, if a game gives me a waterfall find (or 2, or 3 like Avowed) it will rocket to the top of my list.
  Lived in a place that had a koi pond and waterfall fountain years ago. I placed a small adventurer and treasure chest behind it. Wonder if it's still there.
  
  I really love that you did that. I hope some kid (or an adult that’s a kid at heart) found it! Imagine how stoked they were!

Developer: here's a fun little thing people will be excited to find!
Player: I will never trust anyone again
- I love it, when Devs anticipate that players might break their levels and reward them for it.
  E.g. when I played Supraland, I had it happen several times, that I managed to get to places that were obviously not intended to be reachable - you know the drill: Low poly terrain, low res textures, holes in the terrain, invisible walls everywhere,... You keep exploring that wasteland, carefully managing to not fall of, go around a corner and... There's a chest there waiting for you.
  Or some of the coin stacks in Super Mario Odyssey, that you'll never really see or collect, until you do some crazy trick jumps or so to get on top of $building.
  
  Super Mario Odyssey is such an amazing game. If the sequel is anywhere near as good, I might get a Switch 2 just for that.

Credit to Tim Buckley for briefly becoming one of the most widely mocked people on the internet and spawning a meme that lives on to this day but just rolling with it and continuing with his dream of making webcomics.
- Credit for Tim Buckley for being the father of one of the greatest vocalists in history, Jeff Buckley (RIP).
  Err... wait...
- Iirc correctly there was something about somewhat scamming his patreons or so. Ny memory is hazy but something about a drawing tablet?
  
  Ah well if true then that sucks. I'll have to look into this.

Donkey Kong Country…
- This is the one.
  
  There is another.
- How about that roller coaster race level on DKC2? If you don't go backwards as soon as the race starts, you miss that sweet speed boost.
  
  Why can't we go backwards? For once...backwards...really fast....as fast as we can....really put the pedal...
- Replayed it the other week, soo many levels start this way
- Some of the skips are so fun, I love the cannon canyon level for it.

I mean, that's what being a gamer is. You know the tropes.
You know someone should know them as well. So they surely can and will apply them.
And you sure as fuck ain't letting another gamer get the upper hand on you, we don't do that here

The most damning game for me was Dragon Ball Z: Super Saiya Densetsu on SNES.
It was an rpg. A good like 10 hours into the game you're wondering around on Planet Namek and the only way to progress in the story is to find Dende. Well you get pretty much no info or hints about where he is. Well all the houses and huts all have decorative pots in them, kind of like the kind you could smash in Zelda games. In DBZ, at no point was anything in any of these pots, and you couldn't break them, or even get acknowledgement that pressing a button near one of these pots even "checks" the pot. All the pots seem to just be decor you can't interact with.
Of course, that's where Dende was. The only thing in any pot in the entire game was a kid that you were required to find in order to continue progressing, found half way into the game after you've decided already that the game won't let you interact or check pots, and then making you check all the rest of the pots for the rest of the game because "they hid one thing in a pot, surely there could be another".
- Yup. The worst Dragonball game, that for some reason I sometimes replay. I get the feeling that there is a spirit of a good game in there, if it was almost completely reworked. Something like a fusion with Legendary Super Warriors.
  Anyhow, the game is pretty funky and has obscure stuff to it. Escargo being needed for fusing a Super Piccolo (1.9 billion BP), getting an third wish with Porunga, or getting Goku to Earth before the battle of the Saiba Men commences.
  
  Other than that annoyance with dende and the pots, I still really enjoyed the card aspect of the game and playing through it. Not the worst rpg I've played. Plus I was all about dbz way back then, and just glad I could find a translated rom of the game.

- Bonus points for your appropriate username

Venom's 1up in Maximum Carnage

I always try to figure out which direction the game wants me to go so I can try going the opposite way first.
- I mean, we can't risk advancing the game and leaving unexplored areas behind
- It's almost frustrating to play something with no intended path because it takes away my option to deliberately take the wrong one.
  
  There usually is an intended path regardless. Signposting is definitely something that's done even in open world.

As a Wolfenstein 3D player that checks every square centimeter of every wall for secret passages, I feel this pain.
- There was some amazing stuff in some of those hidden passages. It was well worth it in that game. Doom/Doom 2 had a lot of that, too.

Aladin had that extra life at the start of the first level.

Prehistoric had something on the left

It was Castlevania that did this to me.
- Super Castlevania had this cool leap of faith just before dracula! I found out after losing to him and losing all gear, so you can imagine how I was feeling after jumping and trying to kill myself

And then the movie adaptation of Ready Player One acted like placing something before the starting line is some kind of super-sneaky hiding method.
- That movie was a cringe fest start to end.
- I look at that less as a plot point and more as a nod to video game design. I really liked that movie.

For me it's waterfalls - have to check behind every single one for a hidden cave.
This has proven to be problematic in real life, like when I visited Niagara...
- Please stick to the rivers and the lakes that you're used to.
- There are tours that take you behind the falls near the turbines. Or at least used to be.

Chainsaw in the first level of Doom 2?

Tons of games did this in the 2d side scrolling period.
- James Pond 2 springs to mind.
  Didn't one of the Spring Yard acts in Sonic 1 have a spreedrunner-friendly red spring too?

Ha! In Kirby they put stars or collectibles or plot items in obscure places in just about every game!

Old school Armored core gamer here. This is me.
- Wasting ammo on random sections of wall, or vents, or shipping crates...

B^U
- Ngl, I'm kinda surprised ol' BUckley is still doing comics
  
  What, like he has other useful skills?

Note: Your character is highly unlikely to "Whump" into the left side obstacle. They are more likely to do the Michael Jackson standing walking in place motion while you try probing the left side for openings and weaknesses.

Doom 2

Lego Star Wars instilled this as well as leaps of faith

Oh crap. I do it too. It's useful in Rayman Origins and Legends. (Maybe once)

Based on a true story.

Sackboy does this a lot

Has my guy never considered spinning around on spot, or is getting a screen full of up close wall texture just part of his gaming experience?

been awhile since i got on lemmy i was hoping this place was immune to "every aspect of my lack of personality is from my self diagnosed mental illness" posts that flood facebook and reddit...guess not. going by internet posts/comments more than half of humans have autism/ADHD/OCD, which makes them the neurotypical ones at this point.