Hack19.Find and Play Hidden Classics

Hack 19. Find and Play Hidden Classics

Discover bonus retro titles hidden in contemporary titles .

You might have retro games in your home and not even know it! For quite a while now, software publishers have been sneaking ports or emulated versions of classic games into their modern titles. While the list in this hack is nowhere near exhaustive, read on to find out what retro treasures might be tucked away in the games sitting innocently on your shelf.

2.6.1. Animal Crossing

In Nintendo's innovative life-simulation game, you start a new life in a woodland town filled with animal neighbors. As you while away the hours in Animal Crossing you can collect furniture and other things to fill your ingame house withincluding NES consoles that play emulated versions of about twenty different games. And if you have a Game Boy Advance and the appropriate link cable, you can download the games to your GBA and play them until you shut the system's power off.

A memory card included with new copies of Animal Crossing will start you off with two random, common NES games. You're supposed to find the rest of them by playing the game and waiting for special events in town, trading with friends , and/or buying packs of Animal Crossing e-Reader cards, ^[1] hoping to find rare games. But if you want to skip all that, you can use the following passwords to unlock every common game except Tennis and Pinball . To use these passwords, talk to Tom Nook in the town's general store and select the "Say Code" option:

^[1] And an e-Reader attachment, a Game Boy Advance system, and the cable that connects that whole setup to your GameCube.

Balloon Fight : CbDahLBdaDh98d 9ub8ExzZKwu7Zl

Baseball : 1n5%N%8JUjE5fj lEcGr4%ync5eUp

Clu Clu Land : Crm%h4BNRyu98d 9uu8exzZKwu7Zl

Clu Clu Land D : Y#PpfrxSOAMLSG B7H3K5xBho5YSY

Donkey Kong Junior Math : bA5PC%8JUjE5fj ljcGr4%ync5EUp

Donkey Kong : 2n5@N%8JUjE5fj ljcGr4%ync5EUp

Excitebike : 3%Q4fhMTRByAY3 05yYAK9zNHxLd7

Golf : Crm%h4BNRbu98d 9un8exzZKwo7Zl

Wario's Woods : bA5PC%8JUjE5fj 1EcGr4%ync5eup

As of this writing, there is another game that takes little effort to snag. To get Soccer, go to the official Animal Crossing web page at http://www.animal-crossing.com/news.jsp and click the banner with the talking pelicans. You'll be taken to a special Flash-based page where you will be able to enter your name and town information from Animal Crossing to receive a unique code for Soccer. Enter the code using the same methods as the others. (Other games that were previously released in this manner include Donkey Kong Jr . and Donkey Kong 3 , but the pages are no longer available on the site and no universal passcodes have been found for either.)

That leaves five games: Ice Climber, Punch-Out, Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda , and Mario Bros . The only legitimate way to unlock these is to buy packs of Animal Crossing e-Reader cards and cross your fingers that you'll come across cards bearing passwords for the games, or beg a friend to send you theirs (fat chance!). But if you own the Action Replay cheat device for GameCube, there are codes on the disc that will let you unlock these rare games in your copy of Animal Crossing. If you don't want to drop forty dollars on the Action Replay just for this trick, you can hunt down a standalone disc called "Ultimate Codes for Animal Crossing" that retails for about $10 and will let you unlock every NES classic in the game. You can buy the disc direct from the manufacturer at http://us.codejunkies.com.

Animal Crossing was released in the United Kingdom in late 2004, over two years after the U.S. release. Thus, the official UK web site for the game (http://www.nintendo-europe.com/ microsite /animalcrossing/enGB/) is still being updated. At the time of this writing, players from all Western countries could visit the site to get a code for the game Donkey Kong 3 . Unfortunately, there is no telling what games, if any, will be available by the time you read these words.

2.6.2. Metroid

You can buy a near-perfect version of the classic NES title Metroid for $19. 99 as part of the NES Classics series on the Game Boy Advance [Hack #16] . But why would you want to when you can get an identical version of the game included as a free bonus with Metroid: Zero Mission for the GBA? Simply complete the main game (which is a real treat in the first place) to unlock it.

A version of Metroid is also included on the Metroid Prime disc for GameCube, but you'll need some extra equipment to coax it out of its hiding place. Specifically, you'll have to buy and complete Metroid Fusion for the GBA (again, quite a fun experience!), then use a GBA-GameCube link cable (sold separately) to connect your GBA to the Cube. Prime will detect your completed Fusion save file, and unlock Metroid, which you can access from the game's main menu even after you unplug the GBA. Of course, since this version of the game is inferior to the original (with fuzzy antialiased graphics and a reversed control scheme that maps shooting to the A button and jumping to B), you may not want to bother after all.

2.6.3. Star Wars Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike

Gamers who preordered Rebel Strike, a GameCube-exclusive mission-based shooter that draws on the most intense battle sequences from the first three Star Wars films , received quite a nice bonusa GameCube disc with a demo of the game and an emulated version of the classic Star Wars arcade game, complete with Tempest-style color vector graphics.

An even better surprise awaited once Rebel Strike was finally releasednot only was the original Star Wars arcade game unlockable, but its two arcadeonly sequels as well. To unlock all three games, enter the Passcode screen from the Options menu and enter "RTJPFC!G / TIMEWARP " for Star Wars, "!H!F?HXS / KOOLSTUF" for The Empire Strikes Back, and "!?ATH!RD GAME?YES" for Return of the Jedi.

2.6.4. Donkey Kong 64

Back before Microsoft acquired them, British developer Rare was all lovey-dovey with Nintendo. Among Rare's voluminous Nintendo 64 output was Donkey Kong 64, the first and only fully 3D platform game starring the legendary monkey . Since the title was equal parts Nintendo and Rare, it seems only fitting that both companies' first big hits be represented as Easter Eggs.

Thus, players will find not only the original arcade Donkey Kong but also Rare's classic Spectrum action game JetPac tucked away in DK64. They aren't exactly hidden, thoughyou're required to find both games and then achieve a certain score in order to complete the main adventure.

Donkey Kong

In the Frantic Factory level, you'll be able to buy the special technique "Gorilla Grab" from Cranky Kong. Once you have it, you'll be able to pull the lever next to the Donkey Kong arcade machine and activate it. Complete the game twice to unlock it in DK64's main menu.

JetPac

You'll see the JetPac machine every time you visit Cranky's laboratories. But the old monkey won't let you play it until you bring him 15 banana medals. Once you get them, score 5000 points in JetPac and you'll unlock it from DK64's main menu.

2.6.5. Star Fox Assault

Like Donkey Kong 64, Star Fox Assault is the fruit of a team-up between Nintendo and an outside developerNamco in this case. Though none of the previous Star Fox titles are unlockable (a shame, as they were both better than this GameCube installment!), the design team at Namco tucked away three of the company's classic arcade shooters in the game as rewards for good performance.

Unfortunately, for some reason the American version of the game only includes one of the bonus titlesXevious, which is unlocked by collecting silver medals for each of the game's ten stages. You'll have to buy the Japanese version of the game if you want to play Battle City (collect all ten bronze medals) or Star Luster (collect all fifty S-Flags).

2.6.6. Pitfall!

Of the many amazing titles that Activision, the video game console world's first independent software publisher, released during the heyday of the Atari 2600, David Crane's masterpiece Pitfall! is easily the most popular and perhaps the best. This seminal platform game put the player into the shoes of Pitfall Harry as he collected treasure in a jungle filled with perilous dangers.

Given the original title's near-timeless place in popular culture, Activision has attempted to revive it on modern consoles numerous times. From Super Pitfall on the NES to Pitfall: The Lost Expedition on the Xbox, Pitfall Harry has starred on nearly every major console (although occupying a far less central role). And the original Pitfall! games are hidden in a few of them.

If you still have the Super NES version of Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure, you can play the original game by pressing the A button six times, followed by the Select and Start buttons , at the Game Start screen. In the PC version of the game, typing the phrase "letsdothetimewarp" at any time during gameplay will have the same result.

In the PSone title Pitfall 3D: Beyond The Jungle, go to the Password screen and enter "CRANESBABY" to play the classic game. Unique to this version are some secret Easter Eggstry pressing the L1 and L2 buttons simultaneously during gameplay for infinite lives, or hit the Triangle and R1 buttons simultaneously when one of the dreaded crocodiles is on screen for a secret message.

And in Pitfall: The Lost Expedition for PlayStation 2, GameCube, and Xbox, you can unlock versions of Pitfall! and Pitfall 2: The Lost Caverns. In the PS2 version, hold the L1 and R1 buttons while on the title screen, then push Circle, Circle, Left, Right, Circle, Square, X, Up, Circle to unlock the first game. To unlock the sequel, hold L1 and R1, then push Left, Right, Left, Right, Triangle, Triangle, Triangle. (The codes for the Xbox and GameCube versions of the game differ slightly. To find them, go to http://www.gamefaqs.com/search/index.html?game=pitfall and click on the Code hyperlink next to the appropriate version of the game.)

2.6.7. Mortal Kombat Deception

Well, it's not exactly hidden, but to promote its latest entry in the Mortal Kombat fighting game series, Midway removed the original Mortal Kombat from Midway Arcade Treasures 2 [Hack #16] and placed it on a separate bonus disc included in the Kollector's Edition of Mortal Kombat: Deception for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox. Bad news for Arcade Treasures fans ( especially GameCube owners ), but good news for Deception buyers .