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Video & Computer Game Urban Myths

If you swore in Urban Upstart you got sent to prison.
As far as I recall this was actually a vital part of the game and it worked on the theory that you would eventually swear!
 
sherbetbizarre said:
davidplankton said:
BTW it wasn't The Hobbit that shut down after swearing - it was more something like Pi-mania. The Pi-man didn't like swearing. Or violence.

This reminds me of the game The Warlock of Firetop Mountain (based on a choose-your-own-adventure book) - putting swear words into the high score chart would prompt responses, and entering "The Hobbit" would give you the reply "The only game more tedious than this..."
Click to expand...
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The Hobbit 48K game also did used to do that as well sherbertbizarre ... honest! ... because it's the only one of 'those nerdy games I ever tried back then. The kid I used to play it with's Dad had a visit from Sinclair User magazine because he'd built an A.I. doctor program ... we just got the giggles when the journalist asked us to trial it when it got to the farting questions ..
 
Came across the Talking Angela app recently. Some kids think it's evil and that there's some pedophiles controlling the app watching them and so on.

Is 'Talking Angela' App a Threat to Kids' Safety?
Netlore Archive

By David Emery
See More About

safety warnings
privacy invasion
companies and products

"Talking Angela app" Outfit7
See More About

safety warnings
privacy invasion
companies and products

According to online rumors, the popular interactive smartphone app "Talking Angela" threatens kids' privacy and safety by asking personal questions, making inappropriate remarks, and taking photos of children who use it.

Description: Online rumor
Circulating since: 2013
Status: FALSE (see details below)

Example #1: As shared on Facebook, Feb. 25, 2013:

WARNING FOR TO ALL PARENTS WITH CHILDREN THAT HAVE ANY ELECTRONIC DEVICES , EX : IPOD,TABLETS ETC .... THERE IS A SITE CALLED TALKING ANGELA , THIS SITE ASKS KIDS QUESTIONS LIKE : THERE NAMES , WHERE THEY GO TO SCHOOL AND ALSO TAKE PICTURES OF THEIR FACES BY PUSHING A HEART ON THE BOTTOM LEFT CORNER WITHOUT ANY NOTICES . PLEASE CHECK YOUR CHILDREN'S IPODS AND ALL TO MAKE SURE THEY DO NOT HAVE THIS APP !!! PLEASE PASS THIS MESSAGE ON TO YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY MEMBERS THAT HAVE KIDS !!!!


Example #2: As shared on Facebook, Sep. 26, 2013:

ATTENTION PARENTS & GRANDPARENTS! My future daughter-in-law just received this warning from a friend on her page. Do not let your child download the Talking Angela app! It is very creepy! Gracie downloaded it without asking to her kindle fire because it was free and a really cute cat. She brought it to me to answer the question it asked. I immediately noticed it had activated the camera. It had already asked her name, age, and knew she was in the living room! I immediately deleted it! Justin Fletcher read the reviews and other parents reported the same issues! Please share with other parents!


Example #3: As shared on Facebook, Feb. 13, 2014:

I cant even in words say what I just found out.. I am SHOCKED and want to tell and let my friends and family be made aware so they can make sure their children are safe!!! Angelica stayed home from school today and thank GOD she did. Because she was on her ipod playing a game called talking angela, which is similar to talking tom, anyway as she is sitting next to me this interactive cat says to her hi angelica where is your brother? She says o hes right here next to me the cat says o cool, then the cat says so what do you do for fun? Ang says I dont know, (now im being quiet and listening because I think its weird this angela cat knows she has a brother and is talking to her like a person) then its voice changes and in some weird robotic voice it says angelica when u date what do u do on your dates? She looked at me got red in the face and said nothing, then it said stick out your touunge, ill stick mine out too, it said what are some things u can do with your tounge? I can find many things to do with my tounge it said it said lets intrract w our toungues. I that point I had heard enough I zaid ang shut it off now! I was freaked out called the police departnrnt they came to the house saif they would have the internet investigations unit and pedofile investigations unit look into it, they called me an hour latet and said something is behind that cat!!! They dont know if it is local or over seas. While the police officer was there and ang was talking to him she told the police officer saturday night her cousin and her were on the app w angela and it asked the girls their names what her brothers name was what school they BOTH went to, and it took a picture of angelica!!! This is under serious investigation right now! When I googled talking angela I cant even begin to tell you what creepy stuff came up! Google it for yourselves please!! But some things are the cat asking girls for their phone numbers! And if theyve had their firat kiss!!! Take this app off your phone please! Theres a big chance thid cpuld be a door for pedofiles.the police said they have seen thing *like* this but never actually through a childs app but that they are not putting it past them! The girls told angela the cat on saturday their names and she had a brother and then on monday morning when angelica turned the app back on, It remebered her name and that she had a brother!!! These things ARENT supposed to ask you questions!!! and especially not questions about dating toungues or kissing!! I am disgusted! I dont feel safe at all right now! Knowing that there was some creep talking to my daughter and my neice through a talking app!!! Please if you have this app or any like it the police are saying take it off of your phone!!! Copy and share and send out PLEASE! This word needs to spread! I pray the ocean county investigators can crack this thing open!!!!!

So please if your KIDS use this app please shut it down. Because SOME KIDS told them the name of the school they went to and is now on red alert at the school, and please PASS this on to ALL your friends.



Analysis: Talking Angela is a free smartphone app featuring an animated cat that can carry on rudimentary conversations. Contrary to rumor, Angela is not -- I repeat, NOT -- secretly operated by a creepy "pedophile hacker" whose image is supposedly visible in the character's eyes (which makes no sense at all if you think about it, technically or otherwise). There's nothing insidious behind Talking Angela, just a basic AI (artificial intelligence) program designed to provide an enjoyable, reasonably realistic user experience.

I downloaded the app onto my own phone and tried to replicate some of the more troubling interactions described in the messages above, without success. I looked at the app's features and read the manufacturer's documentation and found nothing to support the claims that Talking Angela says inappropriate things, stores private information, takes photos of users, or could be used by pedophiles to stalk children.

When set on child mode, Talking Angela simply repeated everything I said and didn't seem capable of asking or answering questions. In adult mode, the app reverted to text only and was able to ask and answer simple questions on predetermined topics. A few of the questions and responses were mildly personal in nature, but none I saw seemed particularly invasive or wildly inappropriate. Here's how the manufacturer's website describes the app's interactive capabilities:

Q: Does Talking Angela ask personal questions?

A: When not operating in child mode, Talking Angela asks users their name and age. The reason for this is to provide the best possible experience and optimize the app’s content. Although all topics are family-friendly, the Talking Angela app is able to determine the most suitable topics of conversation according to a user’s age. For example, if the user is a child, the chat bot will discuss familiar topics such as school.

This information will be visible to Outfit7 only on an aggregated level. This means that we will be able to see how many users of each age we have, but will not be able to determine the name and age of a particular user.

A press release emailed to me by Outfit7 spokesperson Cassie Chandler further explains how Talking Angela's "chat bot" technology works:

If child mode is not selected, Talking Angela’s highly advanced chat bot function is activated. This is a computer program designed to simulate an intelligent human brain, with the purpose of entertaining adults. We have invested heavily in this cutting edge technology, constantly refining the artificial adult brain to make Angela more intelligent and competent at holding real-life conversations. In line with the interactive progression of all our characters, we have an international team who are fully dedicated to Talking Angela’s responses, both through touch and conversation.

We’ve worked hard to make Angela as intelligent as a human but, the fact remains, she is still a computer program so can be confused by strange questions, incorrect spelling and deliberately provocative words. As such, some of her answers can be strange. All computer programs of this nature have their limitations – which is why the chat bot function is disabled when in child mode.

Though I initiated "conversations" in which I divulged personal information such as siblings' names and my geographical location, the app didn't seem to be able to recall such details from one session to the next, though it did remember my name.

I found that the app did activate the phone's camera to insert a small live image of my face on screen during "chats," but I saw no evidence that photos or videos of me were being taken, stored, or sent to a third party. A statement on the manufacturer's website confirms these impressions:

Q: Does Talking Angela store photos of you?

A: No. The app uses gesture recognition technology through the use of a front camera. This enables Talking Angela to recognize face gestures, which enhances users’ interaction with the app. This function does not take photos or videos of the user and no personal data is shared with third parties.

There are other features parents should be aware of

Courtesy of Stuart Dredge at Apps Playground, here's a short list of real features of Talking Angela which, though typical of such apps, could be of concern to parents:

1. Child mode is easily turned off.

2. The app connects to YouTube via links to promotional videos by Talking Angela's manufacturer, Outfit7. The promo videos themselves are child-safe, but once on YouTube a child could continue browsing and be exposed to videos and user comments that aren't so safe.

3. There are in-app advertisements which, if clicked, take the user to an app store external to the game.

4. Talking Angela allows in-app purchases using virtual coins, a certain number of which come free with the game but more of which must be bought from an app store -- linked to within the game -- using real money.

Knowledge is power

It goes without saying that parents ought to supervise their children's use of computers and smartphones, and that goes for downloadable games and apps, as well. It also goes without saying, or at any rate I hope it does, that parents need to learn at least a little bit about how such devices and apps work in order to properly supervise their use. Ideally, this would entail reading the documentation, downloading the app, trying it out, and familiarizing oneself with all of its features before handing it over to the kids. Some parents may do so and decide Talking Angela isn't appropriate for their children. That's perfectly okay.

But sharing baseless rumors and gossip is neither constructive nor a fulfillment of anyone's parental responsibilities.

Update: Did a 7-Year-Old Go Missing After Installing Talking Angela?

http://urbanlegends.about.com/od/busine ... la-App.htm
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News about the app:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-57619752-76/talking-angela-programmer-talks-hoaxes-ai-mastery-q-a/

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/535...-despite-viral-privacy-concerns-and-warnings/
 
I distinctly remember the "swearing shutdown" trick in the ZX Spectrum text adventre game Valkyrie 17. If you swore, it would present you with a (very convincing) mock up of the Spectrum home screen (The "1982 Sinclair Research" one). Once you pressed a key it would re-open the game saying "next time it's for real!". If you swore again the game would shut down.

As if I didn't get enough grief for swearing from my parents, my computer was now getting in on the act.... :roll:
 
The Talking Angela app report reminds me of the 90's Chris Morris show called Brasseye .... the episode was called Pedogeddon, a spoof on how the media sensationalise child abuse ... it didn't go down to well with the powers that be and his series was cancelled ...a satirical report on the show pretended that a computer puppy was actually controlled by pedophiles ..... I think you can watch the episode on youtube.
 
SameOldVardoger said:
liveinabin1 said:
The first ET cartridge has been unearthed: https://twitter.com/majornelson/status/ ... 72/photo/1

It looks very clean for something that has been buried for 30 years.
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I thought E.T. for Atari 2600 was a rare game, but a bunch is available on Ebay:
E.T. Atari 2600 - Ebay
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It sold LOADS for the time - but still not as many as Atari hoped.....

The game eventually sold 1.5 million units, becoming one of the best-selling Atari 2600 titles. However, between 2.5 and 3.5 million cartridges went unsold.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E.T._the_Extra-Terrestrial_(video_game)
 
Not sure why they're digging them up again if they were buried for a good reason, i.e. nobody liked them. Maybe they'll bury them all over again once the excavation is completed?
 
The problem is that they made more copies of the game than there were Atari 2600s in existence. They couldn't have sold them all!
They were left with loads.

The game itself isn't bad. The programmers we forced to rush it out the game and it has a couple of flaws in what it an OK game.
 
It's one of the most famous tales of the 80s videogame bust, worth reading the Wikipedia page actually, the story is an interesting insight into how things worked back then.

After negotiations completed, Kassar called Howard Scott Warshaw on July 27, 1982 to commission him as developer of the video game.[9][15][16] Kassar informed him that Spielberg asked for Warshaw specifically and that development needed to be completed by September 1 to meet a production schedule for the Christmas holiday. Though Warshaw had spent over a year working on consecutive development schedules for games (seven months working on Yars' Revenge and then six months on Raiders of the Lost Ark), he accepted the offer based on the challenge of completing a game in a short time frame and at Spielberg's request.[14][16] Warshaw considered it an opportunity to develop an innovative Atari 2600 game based on a movie he enjoyed.[16] Kassar reportedly offered Warshaw US$200,000 and an all-expenses-paid vacation to Hawaii in compensation.[14] Kassar then told him to arrive at the San Jose Airport a few days later to have a meeting with Spielberg.[16]
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E.T._the_Extra-Terrestrial_(video_game)

Nowadays, most videogames based on a movie licence would have teams of hundreds working on each aspect of it (music, story, character design, level design, canon etc etc.....) and be in development for almost as long as the film itself.

ET pretty much took one person three months to make from top-to-bottom and had sales figures that today's licences can only dream of.

Still not sure how they thought they would sell more copies than there were consoles though :lol:

The early history of Atari is littered with these sorts of tales....apparently production meetings often took place in the company hot tub with plenty of herbal refreshment......
 
Not really an urban legend but too bizarre not to post.....



"My friends tell me the graphics are the best. I don't know what that means..."
 
That's a stroke of genius. 90s ironic humor already used in the early 80s.
 
Maybe Stevie was using his little-discussed sixth sense, as seen in the weirdo documentary The Secret Life of Plants where there are numerous scenes of him walking through a forest without bumping into anything.
 
At least it fits the thread topic now! Every cloud...
 
Still not sure how they thought they would sell more copies than there were consoles though Laughing
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Beware the great god wikipedia! :lol:

Snopes tells a different version.

He reckons that when Pac-Man was released in 1982 there were 10 million consoles and 12 million Pac-Man cartridges were made.

They made 5 million ET cartridges, most of which were allegedly returned.
 
Beware the great god wikipedia!
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Not information from Wikipedia, but from Mr Bin who has been a poster on the Atari Age forums for about 12 years now. He has also illustrated labels and manuals for the games that are still being made by serious 2600 fans [/quote]
 
I Bought This Game Two Weeks Ago, And I Still Can’t Play It

The video game industry is no stranger to fizzled hype. But for all the controversies about delays, unstable launches, or games that are just plain terrible, until recently I've never had to stop and wonder whether or not a game actually exists. Then I went in search of a mysterious fighting game named Death Cargo.

I started to poke around online for Death Cargo earlier this month after Kotaku received a number of complaints from disaffected customers who had been trying to play it since March, when creator and publisher Necrostorm says it was first released.

A studio better known for its work making gory horror films, Necrostorm first announced Death Cargo back in 2011. It even released playable beta in 2012. After that, however, the game that had piqued fighting game aficionados' interest suddenly went quiet. Necrostorm pushed back its official release several times before finally settling on the March 2014 launch.

What happened next? The stories that Death Cargo customers told me all went something like this: after ordering (or pre-ordering) a version of Death Cargo from Necrostorm, they eagerly awaited the arrival of what looked like an exceedingly bloody self-aware throwback to the glory days of Mortal Kombat. After the wait went on longer than expected, they started to get curious or just plain impatient. Physical copies of the game never showed up, and the digital versions either got stuck during the activation process or didn't work at all.

When these dissatisfied customers demanded refunds for the game, Necrostorm was quick to oblige. But when they took their complaints to the company's official Death Cargo forums, they were greeted with legal threats. Or, more often, they were threatened with legal action and then kicked out of the forums and issued refunds whether they wanted them or not. Necrostorm made similarly aggressive statements to irate and expectant Death Cargo customers on the game's Facebook page, and even other gaming forums on occasion.

............

To reiterate: Necrostorm is a small Italian production company best known for making movies in the blood-drenched horror sub-genre known as "splatter films." Machella therefore told me that the studio's core fans aren't necessarily as tech-savvy or video logging-inclined as straight up gamers, which would explain the relative absence of Death Cargo footage from third party sources.

I spoke with a seasoned horror movie buff and occasional critic for enthusiast publications who's familiar with most of Necrostorm's film work. He asked that he remain anonymous for this story, but he told me that his experience purchasing and trying to play Death Cargo was nothing like the ones he's had watching and reviewing the studio's movies.

"The big question seems to be, here: Is the game fake?" he wrote me in an email at one point. "I say 'no'. What I think it is, is unfinished."
Click to expand...
Full story:
http://kotaku.com/i-bought-this-game-tw ... 1582829826
 
I wonder if it's just a plain scam, and the profit comes from the people who one way or another don't follow through on getting their money back, and from any interest received during the time the money is in the company's account.
 
OneWingedBird said:
I wonder if it's just a plain scam, and the profit comes from the people who one way or another don't follow through on getting their money back, and from any interest received during the time the money is in the company's account.
Click to expand...

The old computer games magazines would have adverts from games wholesalers that offered games at way below the shop price but more importantly, long before they were released. Being naive (and about eight years old) I persuaded my parents to send a cheque for a piece of vapour ware for the ZX Spectrum called 'The Last Ninja' that had been announced by the software company and was so I believed available for purchase.

Six months later the company announced it would never appear for the Spectrum (Commodore only), by which time I had cottoned onto the con, basically the moment any game was announced it would start to appear in the lists of games available, the idea presumably being that in the time between sending in the cheque and actually receiving the game sufficent interest had been gained that the company would have made a nice profit despite offering the game at below the shop price. The downside to the scam of course being that occasionally the games simply didn't appear, but it was down to the consumer to request the cash back (or not if they had forgotten).

I'm sure it was all against distance selling regulations etc. but let's face it we were all younger and the world seemed a much more trustworthy place.
 
Moooksta said:
Though technically not untold as the story is on this thread.
Click to expand...

And in internet articles every few months since 1996.
 
Moooksta said:
TRAILER for "Atari: Game Over".

Though technically not untold as the story is on this thread.
Click to expand...


Atari: Game Over is definitely worth a watch on Netflix, if you have it. It came about during that brief period when Microsoft wanted to branch out as a proper TV content producer. It's when they financed this, started work on a Halo TV series, even had preliminary work on a Blakes 7 remake. Only this project actually came off.

But, yes. It's not an urban myth. Atari genuinely did have E.T. cartridges dumped in the Alamagordo area desert. For real.
 
Here's a more modern UL from the world of videogames. It concerns Blizzard's Overwatch, the unexpected breakout online multiplayer shooter of a couple of years back.

For the unitiated, there's not actually very much to Overwatch. It's a really well balanced online shooter, with Blizzard's well-crafted cartoon style, set around a superhero team named (funnily enough) who disbanded by a government edict some years earlier. But all of the story, the details of the characters, the backstory? Isn't really in the game.

I mean there are hints at it, and some of the limited time co-op story events they have put on have showcased some little parts of back-story for the game. But the rest has only been put out by Blizzard through CGI shorts, comic books, and extensive articles on their Overwatch website.

Why? Well, in part because Overwatch actually began its life as a different game. Called 'Project Titan' during development it sounds a lot like the original plan was to produce something closer to Destiny or The Division. They kept a lot of the backstory from that time, such as the disbanded Overwatch team, its former black ops team 'Blackwatch,' shady enemy organisation 'Talon', and a former robot uprising by robots named 'Omnics'. The characters you play as theoretically belong to some of those factions, but really that has no relevance or effect on the game itself.

What fleshes the game out a little is the incidental conversations characters have with each other. Entire conversations, in fact, which occur in the spawn rooms at the start of matches (while you wait for the match to be set up and begin). These make hints at characters past relationships, glimpses into their personalities, and helps flesh them out a little.

And that is where the following UL comes from.

It involves the two characters Mercy and Reaper.

Dr Angela 'Mercy' Ziegler is a Swiss scientist who operates as Overwatch's healer. Styled very much on an Angel, complete with flaming wings, her purpose is to heal and resurrect fallen party members. The game's lore also mentions that it was Mercy who brought fellow character Genji back from the dead, after it was believed he had been killed by his brother Hanzo. She is painted as a pacifist, who reluctantly joined Overwatch as chief medical officer.

Whereas Reaper was formerly Gabriel Reyes, the leader of Overwatch's black ops team 'Blackwatch'. Lore says Reyes was responsible for accidentally revealing Blackwatch's existence to the public after assassinating a Talon boss who he shouldn't have. Talon responded by blowing up Overwatch's Swiss headquarters (while he and Overwatch's Commander were still inside)

Reyes was believed killed but apparently survived. In a fashion. He now works for Talon, where as 'Reaper' he keeps his identity hidden behind a mask, and his cells are now simultaneously decaying and regenerating, causing his body to fall apart and rebuild itself over and over again.

At the launch of the game there was no information as to exactly how that came about.

During Overwatch's first year a number of posters online started mentioning that if you had Reaper and Mercy in your squad, then there was an interchange which could occur between the two, in the spawn room while waiting for the march to start. It was supposed to go:

Mercy: This isn't what I intended for you, Reyes.

Reaper: You knew exactly what you were doing.

Which would imply that whatever happened to Reyes, which resulted in his now semi-corporeal state, occurred due to some kind of direct interference by Mercy. Which would certainly cast her in a slightly less angelic and humanitarian role than she outwardly presents.

Reddit users have been talking about this interchange since the game's beta. Because in a game with so little clear story on show it would have big implications.

Only here's the thing. This dialogue doesn't exist.

Datamining the game has never revealed any evidence of this dialogue existing. But Overwatch is updated regularly. Changes to match rules, aesthetic details, character abilities, and even audio. It's a live game. And so, it is theorised, that this dialogue may have been removed.

There are theories as to why this line might have been removed. The prevailing is either it was a lore change or a roll back on information. Specifically, Mercy having anything to do with Reaper's creation. Did the plan change? Did Blizzard re-conceal? There is no concrete answer either way.

Just a lot of online conspiracy theories. :)

Certainly during the first year after release there was only one specific spawn room conversation you could trigger between Mercy and Reaper. Which went:

Mercy: What happened to you?

Reaper: You tell me, doc!

Which is in some ways similar, but certainly not as specific as the oft claimed interaction.

Reaper does have another incidental line of solo dialogue:

Reaper: Don't forget, you are responsible for this.

Which can be heard in this YouTube clip of all of his dialogue. But it doesn't get used in co-ordination with the Mercy clip, and it appears to have now been removed from active use in the game.

Eurogamer covered this one in July last year: https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/...ogue-that-everyone-remembers-but-doesnt-exist

I posted it to the Mandela Effect thread, back then.
 
I remember several of these around Final Fantasy VII - chiefly amongst them that you could resurrect Aeris, or get the character Zack to join your party, though there were plenty more. They were usually based around misinterpreting lines of dialogue or names of items that had been badly translated, or assuming significance where there was none.

It was all nonsense, of course, but the combination of the game already being larger than what most gamers were used to (I believe it was the first three disc game for the PS1), those bits of mistranslation making it feel that there were unanswered questions, and good old fashioned playground rumours (particularly when the internet was still relatively in its infancy), all conspired to make people believe it.

As recently as four or five years ago, I had a conversation with a woman in her early 30s who insisted that she had revived Aeris, and done so through the methods described in all these old internet rumours - I said to her that the items in question do nothing, that people have looked at the source code and so on and determined that none of it was ever true, yet she is absolutely adamant that she did it.

The simple solution is that she's just a liar, but it's a very odd thing to invest so much in a lie that wasn't even your own lie in the first place. I think that's what I find so odd about how urban legends spread - someone has to invent the story in the first place, and that's fine, but then so many people need to invest in it being true, with no tangible benefit to themselves for doing so. Especially in a case like this, where the story is provably false, yet the story isn't just that it had been done, but that she had done it. She has a personal investment in a lie concocted by some anonymous online prankster.

Perhaps she honestly remembers having done something in this game that was never actually possible, and it was just a false memory? Perhaps, at school, she had lied about it to impress her friends, and the lie had lived for so long that she had convinced herself?

I suppose if this came about today, we'd all be ascribing it to the Mandela Effect...
 
I remember one of those. If you could get to Lvl 99 before leaving the Midgar section of the game you'd be able to save Aeris! All bollocks, of course.

But a) People wanted to believe you could save her (because it comes a such a huge shock when it happens) and b) Weapons which only she could use kept on turning up in locations which you could only access after the plot had removed her from the game.

Loved FFVII, though. It was the first MASSIVE RPG I ever played. Even though by today's standards it's pretty small.
 
Likewise, utterly adored the game.

I hadn't heard the Level 99 before Midgar version of the story - that's just cruel, though definitely of the same breed as so many playground video game rumours, in that it requires you to do something either so difficult or so tedious that you'll either never bother, or be convinced you didn't pull it off quite right to get the desired effect.

The version I heard, from several sources, was to do with - I'll get the names wrong, it's been twenty years! - the toy soldiers you found in a few places called something like "1/34 Soldier". The idea was that you had to collect all 34, and then take them to a specific location - the location was some sort of blacksmith's house, which you only ever had to visit once during the course of the story, but nevertheless had its own designated location on the World Map. So you had a combination of a location that felt like it should be more significant than it was, and an item that was utterly useless, in a game (and indeed a genre) where useless items simply don't exist.

I can't remember if it was definitely "1/34 Soldier" or something like "1/16", but the name implied that there was a set number of them available, but there were actually fewer than that in the game, so again the task required would be an impossible one. IIRC, it was one of the game's many poor translations, and a more accurate name would have been something like "1:16 Soldier", with the number representing a ratio, not a quantity, as they were supposed to be toy soldiers, or scale models. Hence why they were won as low-rank prizes at the Gold Saucer, or found in kids' bedrooms, or beside the bed of trainee soldiers. It was just a bit of a joke item.


The other version stemmed from the Japanese version of the game - there was, hidden in the source code (as I don't believe it was accessible in-game), a Materia called something like "Underwater Breathing", which led people to believe that it was used to go underwater to recover Aeris' body. But, in the Western release, they added the WEAPON optional bosses, and the Underwater Materia was required to battle Emerald WEAPON underwater.

Apparently there was a perception at the time that American gamers wanted more of a challenge from their games, so Square added the optional bosses to provide that on the Western release. I wonder how many other urban legends stem from regional variations in game content, back when that sort of thing was more common?
 
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