Video games are a rather young medium when you compare them movies, comics, books, and just about any other form of entertainment.
In spite of having a relatively short lifespan so far, video games have had a rather interesting history. In fact, video games have given birth to some rather interesting urban legends over the years.
Could any of these video game urban legends actually be true? Here are the weirdest ones that we think are pretty creepy!
1. Polybius
One of the most well-known urban legends in the world of video games is Polybius. The game was said to be created by the CIA as a way to control the gamer's minds.
As you might expect, it didn't actually do anything to anyone's mind, but that doesn't stop people from talking about it. Still, it's a creepy story that makes you wonder if a video game could do some sort of mind control if programmed a certain way.
2. Pokemon Causes Suicide
Can a song actually lead to suicide? Rumor had it that kids in Japan who heard the original Lavender Town theme would be driven to suicide.
The theme had some incredibly high frequencies, which supposedly led 200 children to kill themselves. It's dark, it's creepy, and it's probably not true.
Fortunately, the music for Lavender Town was changed. Even if it never caused any suicides, it was a terrible song to listen to!
3. The Madden Curse
This is one of those weird situations where it happens so much that you have to wonder whether it's true or not.
Every year, the cover athlete on the Madden games suffers some kind of terrible injury. And those who don't get hurt still seem to have a terrible season immediately after being featured.
In recent years, the curse seems have been broken—but only time will tell if the Madden curse will strike again!
4. The Killswitch Self-Deleting Game
This creepy game is designed to delete itself after completion, thus wiping any trace of its existence.
Supposedly, there were only 5,000 copies of the game released. With most of them allegedly having deleted themselves, there aren't many copies out there anymore. How convenient.
The footage of the game is definitely weird, but it doesn't seem worth the hype that it received.
5. Nude Codes
Every kid talked about this one on the playground at school—there was supposed to be a secret cheat that would make Lara Croft naked.
No one ever knew the code (because there wasn't one), but every kid seemed to claim they knew someone who knew someone who saw it for themselves.
Obviously, this was before the internet was popular, so all we had was the word of our friends.
6. Diablo's Secret Cow Level
While Diablo II eventually did get a secret cow level, the rumors about such a level actually started with the original Diablo—and there was definitely no cow level back then.
But players were convinced, and they tried everything under the sun to get the secret level to open. At least Blizzard decided to get in on the joke and make the dreams of Diablo fans come true.
7. Blowing on Nintendo Cartridges
Everyone who played games during the NES and SNES era probably blew on their cartridges to get them to work.
You put the game in, ready to have a good time, and it doesn't work. So you assume there's dust on the cart and you give it a quick blow and it works.
However, blowing on it wasn't what actually solved the problem. Removing it from the console and putting it back in allowed it to remake contact. Still, it felt like blowing on it helped, and every kid told their friends that it was the secret fix.