# Most unforgiveable cheat of a deathtrap in a game. **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [April 3, 2009, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unforgiveable-cheat-of-a-deathtrap-in-a-game/491914 "2009-04-03T21:12:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2009, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unforgiveable-cheat-of-a-deathtrap-in-a-game/491914/41 "2009-04-05T16:41:08Z")
> [@Todderbob](#): > > I may purchase this game, and attempt to play it when, and only when, I’m feeling cocky. > > Just to put me in my place. You don’t have to buy it. It’s a PC game, [free for download](http://kayin.pyoko.org/iwbtg/). I don’t think the creator is _that_ cruel that he would profit of other people’s suffering. Besides, the game makes liberal use of assets from “real” Nintendo games, and he’d probably get sued if he tried to make a buck off it. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2009, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unforgiveable-cheat-of-a-deathtrap-in-a-game/491914/42 "2009-04-05T17:10:17Z")
> [@DocCathode](#): > > I think it’s KQ7 (I can’t remember which one is Absence Makes The Heart Go Yonder) in which there is a labyrinth. Some of the rooms are trapped, but with the right items or by following clues in The Guidebook To The Green Isles you can make it through. But one room is just a pit that opens and kills you. There’s no sign it’s a trap until you enter. There’s no way to avoid the pit once you enter. It’s an insta death room. I think that is in King’s Quest VI, which is by far the best King’s Quest, but still has instant death rooms/scenarios. Remember Space Quest? You could die just walking around on the planets, from random thing’s you can’t avoid. ---
**Author:** ![Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/half_man_half_wit/32/21766_2.png) [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Half_Man_Half_Wit)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2009, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unforgiveable-cheat-of-a-deathtrap-in-a-game/491914/43 "2009-04-05T17:11:45Z")
> [@HPL](#): > > One of the things that impressed me what how faithful to the book that part was(okay, so a little more difficult). > > Sadly, once you get a gun, it feels like the game stops being nearly as fun and starts to turn into a mediocre shooter _CoughMarshRefineryCough_. > > And boy I was disappointed when your allies in the later chapters turned out to be almost useless. _CoughUSMCCough_ > [@Just\_Some\_Guy](#): > > Really Dark Corners of the Earth is one long “Man, that was obnoxious” sequence after another. Trying to do that door sequence with sloppy console FPS controls can be enough to make you pull your hair out. Later on when you still die in two or three hits and the enemies have random movement patterns with some strangely variable vision (“They couldn’t spot me here last time, why am I getting swarmed now?!”) it continues to not be fun. I stopped when the game finally completely bugged out on me and spawned a pack of enemies at the hiding spot I was saved at. Reload, they spawn, I die, repeat. You’re both right, and I don’t really know how to justify my love for this majorly flawed, sometimes downright unfair game, if it’s just the Lovecraft factor or what, but there’s just so much that this game gets right – the total lack of HUD, the injury system, the ‘dynamic sanity’ (to the point of suicidality), the disturbing visions… It’s a bit much in places, feels like there’s just every conceivable mythos aspect and reference crammed into it, and it does get a bit silly what with mystical force fields and similar magickry, and Lovecraftean horror doesn’t really lend itself well to an adaptation in shooter form – you don’t really get to have a fighting chance with these kinds of things --, not to mention flaws in the overall gameplay and general bugginess, but damn! You get to fight a flying polyp with a Yithian electrogun! ---
**Author:** ![Scuba\_Ben](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/278dde/32.png) [@Scuba\_Ben](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scuba_Ben)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2009, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unforgiveable-cheat-of-a-deathtrap-in-a-game/491914/44 "2009-04-05T17:41:14Z")
> [@Captain\_C](#): > > [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPBgxWyXYKI](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPBgxWyXYKI) > > Winner. I’d be able to play that for about 30 seconds before I’d throw my keyboard at my screen. I recognize that platform games are supposed to be nasty – but that video clip goes beyond “nasty” and “total deathtrap” into “insane.” ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Some\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ad7895/32.png) [@Just\_Some\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Some_Guy)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2009, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unforgiveable-cheat-of-a-deathtrap-in-a-game/491914/45 "2009-04-05T22:48:48Z")
> [@Todderbob](#): > > What the flying fuck!? > WHO WOULD DESIGN SUCH A SADISTIC GAME?! Well that is the point. There’s an entire subgenre of games these days that are all about being unfair to play. The joke has worn thin at this point especially since the games when removed from the gag context aren’t well designed. They often feature shoddy controls unintentionally, for example. > [@Bosstone](#): > > You don’t have to buy it. It’s a PC game, [free for download](http://kayin.pyoko.org/iwbtg/). I don’t think the creator is _that_ cruel that he would profit of other people’s suffering. Besides, the game makes liberal use of assets from “real” Nintendo games, and he’d probably get sued if he tried to make a buck off it. “Probably” nothing. That game is one long trademark infringement. I suspect that the people who could sue who are aware of it don’t care but it’s just a matter of time before someone litigious finds out about it… ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2009, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unforgiveable-cheat-of-a-deathtrap-in-a-game/491914/46 "2009-04-06T02:09:32Z")
> [@Bosstone](#): > > You don’t have to buy it. It’s a PC game, [free for download](http://kayin.pyoko.org/iwbtg/). I don’t think the creator is _that_ cruel that he would profit of other people’s suffering. Besides, the game makes liberal use of assets from “real” Nintendo games, and he’d probably get sued if he tried to make a buck off it. Not just Nintendo- I see an awful lot of Bomb Jack in there, too. ---
**Author:** ![Cyberhwk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7993a0/32.png) [@Cyberhwk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cyberhwk)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2009, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unforgiveable-cheat-of-a-deathtrap-in-a-game/491914/47 "2009-04-06T06:15:07Z")
[Mega Man II - Quickman](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3q82JR8hFY) (0:59) Deaths are basically required until you finally get a hang of the lasers going off and what’s going to be on the next screen. Even using the “stop time” thing I used to have a hard time making it. ---
**Author:** ![VanillaGorilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f9ae1b/32.png) [@VanillaGorilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VanillaGorilla)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2009, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unforgiveable-cheat-of-a-deathtrap-in-a-game/491914/48 "2009-04-06T06:47:57Z")
How about the original Doom, where you after beating the boss, at the end of the first (?) chapter, you end up in a dark room full of enemies, that was impossible to beat even if you cheated. Of course, you had to die there, so that you could end up in hell in the next chapter. ---
**Author:** ![AngelSoft](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/angelsoft/32/440_2.png) [@AngelSoft](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AngelSoft)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2009, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unforgiveable-cheat-of-a-deathtrap-in-a-game/491914/49 "2009-04-06T07:11:17Z")
Speaking of the Kings Quest games… KQ3…with the super secret time limit to get rid of the wizard! You spend all this time playing the damn game, taking your time to figure things out, and get really close to escaping the wizard and BAM you’re dead cause you took too long. Or even earlier on…getting killed if he finds you holding any item that could be used in a spell. God I hated that game… ---
**Author:** ![hotflungwok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/edb3f5/32.png) [@hotflungwok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hotflungwok)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2009, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unforgiveable-cheat-of-a-deathtrap-in-a-game/491914/50 "2009-04-06T15:54:36Z")
> [@chrisk](#): > > That’s actually funny. I imagine that if you did a ‘look’ or an ‘inventory’ you’d realize that you kept hold of the bomb when you built it - but who really spares time to look around or check their pockets when they’re running away from a freakin’ bomb! 😃 > > In other words, it’s a mistake that follows naturally from the artificial gaming environment but would never happen in real life. Sigh. There was an old text game called Planetfall (I think that’s one I’m thinking about) that had some ridiculous environment problems. Your character had to sleep regularly or they would DIE. And your character had to eat once a day or they would DIE. No long linger weakness or anything, they just DIED. And you couldn’t just sleep anywhere, oh no, you could only sleep on things that were made for sleep, like beds & stuff. And most of these things in the game caused you instant death when you tried to sleep on them, like the beds in the medibay. When you went to sleep there your character was restrained with automated straps and held down while a malfunctioning medidroid injected you with every chemical it had all at once. It was annoying. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2009, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unforgiveable-cheat-of-a-deathtrap-in-a-game/491914/51 "2009-04-06T18:49:25Z")
> [@Rigamarole](#): > > Dying deep in any dungeon in the original Everquest. _growls_ For those who haven’t played, the problem with it is that you reappear (typically back in some inn) naked. No armor or weapon, unless you had spares stashed in the bank just for this reason. No light source, if you were one of the unfortunate races without night vision. And your body with all your nice gear on it? Was at the bottom of that dungeon with all kinds of ticked-off monsters between you and it. I still not-so-fondly remember playing my monk (a character class that did pretty darned good without weapons or armor), along with another friend playing his monk, clearing our way down into SolB after a failed Nagafen raid. I don’t remember if this was pre-necro corpse summoning or if we didn’t have a necro, but we had to take turns feigning death and carefully dragging all of the raid members’ corpses out from under the very still-alive dragon. ---
**Author:** ![Algorithm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/algorithm/32/12204_2.png) [@Algorithm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Algorithm)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2009, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unforgiveable-cheat-of-a-deathtrap-in-a-game/491914/52 "2009-04-06T19:21:54Z")
Nobody here played _Battletoads_? [The](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idZ9C0Qtj2A) [entire](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1lfiCtdO2c) [goddamn](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lpg_MCmvBf4) [GAME](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lRuBdA08tI). ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2009, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unforgiveable-cheat-of-a-deathtrap-in-a-game/491914/53 "2009-04-06T19:37:23Z")
> [@Just\_Some\_Guy](#): > > Well that is the point. There’s an entire subgenre of games these days that are all about being unfair to play. The joke has worn thin at this point especially since the games when removed from the gag context aren’t well designed. They often feature shoddy controls unintentionally, for example. Indeed, it’s called platform hell: [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PlatformHell](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PlatformHell) > [@](#): > > “Probably” nothing. That game is one long trademark infringement. I suspect that the people who could sue who are aware of it don’t care but it’s just a matter of time before someone litigious finds out about it… Could you make a case for satire/parody fair use or is that walking the line in this case? ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Some\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ad7895/32.png) [@Just\_Some\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Some_Guy)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2009, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unforgiveable-cheat-of-a-deathtrap-in-a-game/491914/54 "2009-04-06T21:58:47Z")
> [@Jragon](#): > > Could you make a case for satire/parody fair use or is that walking the line in this case? To use one of the easier examples in what way is it a satire of the person Mike Tyson? You could make an argument along those lines for some of the appropriated material but not all of it. Games that aren’t part of the parody are another example of that. Even with parody these are ripped images rather than their own translation of them. Not that I expect it to go to court if anyone hostile ever notices the game. There will be a cease and desist letter and it will go; possibly to return with a rude graphic in the place of the one that was mentioned in the complaints. I suppose I should add that I personally don’t care about the infringement. _I Wanna Be the Guy_ is clearly not hurting anyone (even if it’s not really helping either 😉 ) and it’s a hobby project even if they’re selling IWBTG merchandise. I just don’t put on blinders regarding it. Should that day come when it gets shut down I won’t waste any outrage on ranting about “greedy companies”. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2009, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unforgiveable-cheat-of-a-deathtrap-in-a-game/491914/55 "2009-04-06T22:21:50Z")
> [@Algorithm](#): > > Nobody here played _Battletoads_? [The](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idZ9C0Qtj2A) [entire](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1lfiCtdO2c) [goddamn](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lpg_MCmvBf4) [GAME](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lRuBdA08tI). Could you be specific? I’m on dial up and videos take forever to load. I actually have Battletoads in my NES right now. It’s damn hard but I wouldn’t describe it as cheesy or sneaky. ---
**Author:** ![Algorithm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/algorithm/32/12204_2.png) [@Algorithm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Algorithm)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2009, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unforgiveable-cheat-of-a-deathtrap-in-a-game/491914/56 "2009-04-06T22:58:09Z")
> [@DocCathode](#): > > Could you be specific? I’m on dial up and videos take forever to load. > > I actually have Battletoads in my NES right now. It’s damn hard but I wouldn’t describe it as cheesy or sneaky. The game is actually pretty enjoyable for the first two levels. Up until the first half of 3, it’s about average for difficulty. Then, you get to the bike stage in the second half of level 3 (video 1), and you are almost assured to throw the controller down in frustration. It’s really difficult until you’ve played through maybe a dozen times - you pretty much need to memorize where the walls/jumps are, or have superhuman reactions. Things just happen way faster than you’re used to and any mistake = death. With a few exceptions, things just more and more frustratingly difficult from there. Some of the other levels: [ul] [li]Level 4: Ice blocks appearing from off the screen move quickly and knock you down repeatedly, killing you. Enemies fire from off the screen while you are on moving platforms over insta-kill spikes. Probably impossible on the first try.[/li][li]Level 7: The second video shows the jet portion of this stage. It’s like level 3, except worse. There are several parts where you simply can’t pass them unless you’re previously familiar. You have to move to the front of the screen at just the right spot on a forced scroll to avoid the obstacle. If you aren’t at just the right spot on the screen, you die. This happens many times.[/li][li]Level 9: See video 4. TONS of blind drops. If you aren’t hugging the proper wall, you die. You can’t know which way is correct unless you’ve already played it. It’s also a very, very long level. Probably the most frustrating part of the game.[/li][li]Level 10: Basically you have to race an enemy that is much faster than you to the bottom of an area 3 separate times. Unless you already know how it’s laid out, you will die. The third video shows this. Very small mistakes will kill you in the 3rd race, and you have to start over. Fun![/li][li]Level 11: Just awfully boring. You are on a bike and have to hold down the direction you are moving on a winding track to get away from a glowing orb. Can be done on first try with good reflexes, but again, it’s really difficult without foreknowledge of the layout and some thick callouses on your left thumb.[/li][li]Level 12: Ascending a tower, you have to stop at certain points and wait for enemies to pass. You can’t know which points they are unless you’ve already seen it. If you try to keep going, they’ll unavoidably knock you down, killing you. This happens many times.[/li][/ul] You get a bit of relief when you get to the final boss, which is trivial compared to the rest of the game. Levels 5, 6, and 8 are also comparatively pretty easy. I’ve never beaten the game legitimately on the console, and I have no desire to. This coming from a guy who regularly picks up his 8-bit NES or emulator to beat a game here and there to unwind. If you were able to play through the entire game and win without wanting to seriously harm the level designers, you are a far better person than I could ever be. ---
**Author:** ![Darkhold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@Darkhold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darkhold)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2009, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unforgiveable-cheat-of-a-deathtrap-in-a-game/491914/57 "2009-04-07T06:10:48Z")
There’s an old NES game I can’t remember the title of (I’m sure someone will come along in a few mins and spot it. It was also on SEGA and PC) you play a wizard going down into a dungeon to fight another wizard backed up by a dragon. The game is filled to the brim with mazes and traps that if you don’t have memorized you die. For instance there’s a room filled with worms under the floor. Step on one and it bursts up and you die. You get a worm detector but it’s useless as you have no idea which direction it’s warning you against (and to me there were several moments where it seemed to be giving me the ‘close but not in danger yet’ sound and the next step I took I was dead I got through purely by memorization). But the real kicker is that if you forgot to search a body in the second room you couldn’t get a scroll from a guy in the next to last level which in turn meant you couldn’t beat the end boss who required you used several items in exactly the correct order to beat (something you also had to memorize as there was no way you’d know which order to use the items and he has at least one ‘fake out’ shot encouraging you to waste an item). The whole game was surprisingly short and easy (aside from the poor controls which I never fully got used to) once you memorized it but until then it was controller pounding rage inducing BS. ---
**Author:** ![Jihi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jihi/32/17768_2.png) [@Jihi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jihi)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2009, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unforgiveable-cheat-of-a-deathtrap-in-a-game/491914/58 "2009-04-07T06:36:02Z")
> [@Darkhold](#): > > There’s an old NES game I can’t remember the title of (I’m sure someone will come along in a few mins and spot it. It was also on SEGA and PC) you play a wizard going down into a dungeon to fight another wizard backed up by a dragon. Sounds like [The Immortal](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Immortal_(computer_game)). Infamous for it’s difficulty. Here’s a [walkthrough](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MplIJ38gpFo) of the first level. ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2009, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unforgiveable-cheat-of-a-deathtrap-in-a-game/491914/59 "2009-04-07T06:51:35Z")
> [@Ferret\_Herder](#): > > _growls_ > > For those who haven’t played, the problem with it is that you reappear (typically back in some inn) naked. No armor or weapon, unless you had spares stashed in the bank just for this reason. No light source, if you were one of the unfortunate races without night vision. And your body with all your nice gear on it? Was at the bottom of that dungeon with all kinds of ticked-off monsters between you and it. > > I still not-so-fondly remember playing my monk (a character class that did pretty darned good without weapons or armor), along with another friend playing his monk, clearing our way down into SolB after a failed Nagafen raid. I don’t remember if this was pre-necro corpse summoning or if we didn’t have a necro, but we had to take turns feigning death and carefully dragging all of the raid members’ corpses out from under the very still-alive dragon. Even if you did have a necromancer, the corpse summon spell cost a soul shard (or was that for a necro rez? My memory is hazy), which could only be gained by sacrificing a player and thus subtracting EXP from them. And raids were totally reliant on monks for the old FD pull even though, if I recall correctly, rangers could also FD. But since their FD had a chance to fail it was essentially useless as you couldn’t afford to risk training the whole dungeon onto the raid again because of a failed feign death. ---
**Author:** ![DKW](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dkw/32/3118_2.png) [@DKW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DKW)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2009, 7:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unforgiveable-cheat-of-a-deathtrap-in-a-game/491914/60 "2009-04-07T07:47:53Z")
This might not qualify as the _most_ unforgivable, but it certainly was an extremely nasty area in a game that had no shortage of them. In Prince of Persia 2, in the last part of the first area (before you take the flying carpet), there’s a rickety bridge that you need to cross, right to left. On it is a skeleton that _cannot_ be disabled no matter how many times you hit it. This usually ends when the entire right two-thirds of the bridge collapses, sending you (and the unfortunate skeleton) plummeting into oblivion. Here’s how to survive this trap. 1. Fight your way past the skeleton, so that you end up facing right. 2. _Don’t_ let the skeleton run to the right! It’ll hit a switch that’ll close off the passage you need to get out of here. Thwack it before it can do this. 3. Position yourself juuuust at the edge of the bridge section that’ll collapse. 4. When the bridge collapses, _immediately_ hit left… 5. …then _immediately_ hit the button to grab the ledge. If you see your sword fall into the abyss, congratulations, _you did it right_. Climb up and continue to the magic carpet sans weapon. If you don’t follow this procedure exactly right, you die. I understand that ridding you of your sword is an important turning point in this game, but sheesh…talk about your sledgehammer solutions… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unforgiveable-cheat-of-a-deathtrap-in-a-game/491914.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unforgiveable-cheat-of-a-deathtrap-in-a-game/491914.md?page=4)