DES MOINES (New York Tropes News Service) -- Word of an unusual discovery by an area middle-school student is spreading like wildfire across arcades the country's heartland. James Feely, 12, was as surprised as anyone else at the result of his furiously agitating the joystick on Friday around 4 pm. Amazingly, the Street Fighter II character he was controlling responded by hurling a fireball at his opponent.
"The, um, dude was just, eh, I was going to make him kick, do a fast and low, um, and wham! he went, he made like a, uh, with his hands, and then fire shot it out!" Feely said, quickly running off to tug on another boy's sleeve.
Although other children in Mike's Good Time Arcade were unable to duplicate the maneuver, several witnessed the on-screen spectacle. They responded to the cries of Feely and his co-player, Dennis Guyver, 11, as the fiery mass coalesced. The bystanders then watched with amazement as the incendiary sphere left the hands of Feely's on-screen representation, Ken, and moved singlemindedly leftward across the screen. When it reached Guyver's bellicose and rotund avatar, Honda, it struck him with tremendous force, knocking him down.
"I won, actually, you know, I won the game," Guyver said. He was quick to point out that Honda was not knocked unconscious by Feely's unwitting and unusual tactic. The Japanese fighter stood back up and used his massive abdomen to deliver a pummeling to Ken and, ultimately, to triumph.
A hidden program element like this, which is occasionally found in games or other software, is call an "Easter egg" by computer programmers. For the most part, such Easter eggs do unspectacular things like reveal the names of the programmers involved in developing the game. This is the first known Easter egg that might enable an arcade game player to visit harsh destruction upon his opponents.
Feely could not say how exactly he moved the joystick prior to uncovering this flaming Easter egg. One game player, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, suggested that Feely's overall hyperactive behavior was the caused of the unusual joystick jostling. This, the source suggested, was due to his missing his dose of Ritalin that day.
Children throughout Iowa are dropping quarter after quarter into machines to try to duplicate this unusual behavior. The feeling among them is clear: They, too, will certainly be able to hurl simulated fireballs soon. "I'm gonna figure it out this time for sure," said Peter Solthorp, 15, as he placed another quarter in the machine. Two minutes later, he repeated his statement as he took out another quarter and fed it into the slot.
