SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Kotaku runs a story about the game that "spontaneously" unlocks on the date of the death of Satoru Iwata:
When a Switch owner named Setery told a gaming forum about how NES Golf randomly appeared on her Switch's screen, commenters accused her console of being haunted. Switch hackers' subsequent race to unearth NES Golf now indicates that there's a hidden game on the console and, actually, it appears to be a heartwarming tribute to the deceased Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata.
[...] Prior to heading Nintendo, Iwata was a programmer... The story goes that, after several developers turned down the task of developing the NES's Golf, Iwata found a way to fit the game's 18-hole course onto a cartridge's modest memory.
On July 11th, 2015, Iwata succumbed to cancer at age 55. As Nintendo CEO, Iwata was known for his "Iwata Asks" column on Nintendo's website and his appearances at major Nintendo events. Thanks to Nintendo Directs, he also became associated with a very specific gesture.
[...] Fast forward to early summer, 2017, when hackers discovered a hidden NES emulator on the Switch referred to as "Flog," Ars Technica reports. "We thought they had included it during manufacturing by mistake," Plutoo, one of the Switch hackers... Last weekend, bored, Plutoo decided to look into it. ... He says he discovered two intriguing details: "The code looked for the date July 11th, and the code right before seemed to enable the 'Joycon sixaxis' motion sensors."
[...] And the motion laid out in the code's numbers, he said, appeared to match Iwata's famous Nintendo Direct gesture. Pluuto and his co-conspirators knew that July 11th was the day Iwata passed away, and also that he programmed NES Golf back in the '80s. Also, obviously, that "Flog" is "golf" spelled backwards.
[...] Here's the problem: The Switch knows what day it is. As long as the Switch has been connected to the internet and updated, users can't seem to fool the system into thinking it's the day that will trigger Golf to appear. An internet user going by Fiskerdin, ..., happened to have an unboxed Switch lying around his house. ... "I booted the unopened Switch up, did the setup procedure, and decided to try it out the gesture which was posted," he explained over email. "I simply put both Joy-cons parallel to each other and pointed towards the ground, then raised them in a vertical position and waited, the screen turned blank, an audible cue was played, and then I was greeted with the Golf menu."
[...] Hearing about the memorial, Kotaku East reporter Brian Ashcraft pointed me to the the Japanese tradition of Omamori, which refers to "guide or protect."
Traditionally, they are talismans made of silk and paper left at shrines. Now, they're made out of all sorts of things, like toys or memory cards, which could help protect digital security. They channel spirits who will help guide the Omomori-owner.
It's refreshing to see a gaming/hacker story that doesn't focus on the number of cores, price and consumer electronics, but on ingenuity, respect and tradition.
(Score: 5, Funny) by Mykl on Friday September 22 2017, @04:59AM (3 children)
I hear that there's a similar Easter Egg in the XBox. On the anniversary of Steve Ballmer's resignation, if you jump up and down in front of your Kinect while screaming "Developers! Developers! Developers!" then the XBox will launch Excel.
(Score: 3, Touché) by c0lo on Friday September 22 2017, @05:43AM (2 children)
Are you sure?
Because I'm gonna sue you if, after buying all that and performing the ritual, all I'll get is the login panel asking me for the Office365 credentials.
(grin)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by sgleysti on Friday September 22 2017, @01:27PM (1 child)
Well, of course you have to log in. Wasn't software always sold as a network-linked subscription?
Kidding. I actually forced myself to switch from Eagle to KiCad for electronic design because eagle switched to subscriptions for new versions.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday September 22 2017, @03:33PM
Lotsa quirks in Kicad to adjust to, but does the job at the end of the day. Good luck and patience.
(fortunately for me, it was the first PCB CAD I got my hands on.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Booga1 on Friday September 22 2017, @04:59AM (1 child)
Now THAT is how you do an Easter Egg!
(Score: 5, Insightful) by c0lo on Friday September 22 2017, @05:26AM
Even if using the same techniques, this is a lot more than an Easter Egg:
1. it's a tribute to Satoro Iwata's life, including the engineering period of it
2. it's a ritual celebration. From the "celebration" part, it takes the specific day of the year. From the "ritual" part, it requires the "conjuring" gestures.
3. it has that Omamori* mystical connection. As childish as it may appear, I do feel better knowing that, deep in in the firmware's memory, there is this positive presence rather than only a NSA backdoor or Sony's rookit.**
I don't know if, from the above, any of you get to this feeling that in life there more than "science and objectivity, economy and property, anything that can't be rationally demonstrated or dealt with is better ignored or fought until rebuttal or confirmation"
---
* That jstor [jstor.org] link defines a bit better what Omamori means: essentially "conduits through which the sacred power of life flows into human beings". Are you able to grok this?
** yes, I know, it can be all of the three and then some more. If you feel the compulsion to tell me this, then I'll ask you "what's you point?"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday September 22 2017, @05:51AM
I'm really grateful for inserting the links and sanitizing the typos.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 3, Insightful) by linkdude64 on Friday September 22 2017, @07:38PM
Best video game developer and hardware manufacturer in the business.
Gone are the days of TRUE easter eggs in video games - inside jokes and sentimental details hidden away by devs passionate enough about what they do to go the extra mile and sneak something meaningful into their labor of love. Every little quirk you find generates a truly obnoxious and immersion-breaking pop up window "SECRET #130 FOUND! Achievement unlocked!" So much for feeling like a creative or explorative individual.
To be a major competitor in this very competitive and cut-throat industry in an age of content-cutting, laziness, and cold-hearted business practices while retaining this sort of humanity is encouraging at worst, and downright heartwarming at best.
I can't wait for Xbox's disastrous retaliatory campaign: "Tweet out #LoveYouXBoxFam at your next family funeral for a chance to win a FREE* Xbox(R) One(tm) Brand(c) T-Shirt!"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 22 2017, @07:46PM
Summary a little disjointed - better to rephrase than to quote chunks maybe? Good article though.