10 Secret Video Game Easter Eggs Left By Developers
1. Chris Houlihan’s Secret Zelda Room
In 1990 Nintendo Power magazine fan Chris Houlihan apparently won a competition that allowed his name to feature in an upcoming Nintendo title. That game would be The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and, whilst they got their reward, it wasn’t made known to the public… well, ever really.
Nintendo, for whatever reason, never acknowledged the Easter egg and it remained a secret about the game for two decades. It was up to internet fans to discover the “Chris Houlihan room” in the 2000s after finding text in the code that proved its existence.
Chris’ room is hidden in the trunk of a tree and requires players to essentially glitch or trick their way within, commonly using the Pegasus Boots or bombs to shunt Link inside. In the room, they will find a good helping of blue rupees and a text box that proclaimed this was Chris’ “top secret room”.
Stranger than Nintendo never mentioning it in fact is that Chris Houlihan himself remains an enigma. Whilst winners of similar contests (for the likes of Turok or Mega Man) have come to tell their story, try as they might the Zelda community has never managed to locate Mr Houlihan, whose name is inscribed in one of the SNES’ all-time greats.