10 Ridiculous Video Game Puzzles Everyone Cheated For

6. Meryl's Codec Frequency - Metal Gear Solid

Hideo Kojima strikes again with one of the most hilariously devious troll-jobs in video game history.

His inimitable PS1 classic Metal Gear Solid tasks the player to make contact with Meryl early on, requiring them to figure out her codec frequency by themselves.

Colonel Campbell tells Snake that her frequency is "written on the back of the CD case", but back in 1998, players weren't used to such fourth wall-breaking references in their games, and many assumed they had to seek out a CD case within the game itself.

Given that Kenneth Baker hands an MO Disk to Snake earlier in the game, it was pretty reasonable to presume you had to somehow examine the disk.

But of course, Campbell was referring to the game case itself, which cleverly concealed the solution in plain sight, with Meryl's frequency - 140.15, by the way - visible in a screenshot on the back of the case.

If you were unlucky enough to rent the game, you were likely left clueless, unless your local rental establishment kindly included the code on a piece of paper.

Many players were instead forced to either seek help from a guide, or just brute force the solution by testing every possible frequency. Yawn.