@3rdpig
Back when I was writing code (not games) we had a saying, CACE, or Changing Anything Changes Everything. It was a shorthand for "We have no clue who wrote all this spaghetti code, we don't know what most of it does, but changing the tiniest thing renders the whole thing into garbage". And the more workarounds you put in only makes it worse because the next coder is even more clueless than you. Now imagine it 20 coders down the road.
@middlesiderrider
Lots of these remind me of a repair I did when I was a new mechanic working in an auto shop. There was a customer vehicle (early 90's Buick iirc) that had been in this shop multiple times for a security system issue which would randomly disable the starting system of the car. The shop owner and other mechanic had never been able to figure out the problem. Well the car was brought in and since i was the new guy they have the job to me. I started the extensive troubleshooting using a program called Alldata, and one step was to replace a certain relay with a 30amp Maxi-fuse. If the car then started, the relay was faulty. I performed the test, and the car started, so we replaced the relay. The car wouldn't start... We reinstalled the Maxi-fuse and the car started. It didn't make any sense but it worked so we just left the fuse in there. Of course the security system no longer worked, but the customer didn't care about that, they just wanted their car to start. And it did, with no issue from then on. So I guess you can disable an early '90s GM security system by replacing a certain relay with a fuse...
@Oruninn
We need more of these for sure gameranx you hear me!!
@Myustakrakish
I work on the backend for a game publisher writing tests for a widely adopted system. I make sure that before I put even a single character into my code, I've scanned and rescanned the existing framework to see if something already exists that will do the thing that I'm trying to accomplish. This process can sometimes take days and sometimes I even have to take paper out and start diagramming the way the system seems to work. No one told me to do this, but experience has taught me that I can save face and lots of headaches by taking the time to do this.
@forevertimonn
Please make multiple parts of this. Very interesting stuff!
@artoodeetoo3064
This was excellent content, I love learning about weird deep shit like this. More please!
@takizuzufu5332
I have never done programming on a game, but I have done programming and even I know that sometimes code just does whatever the hell it wants. In college, I was programming something on a microcontroller in C for a lab project and added printf statements as debugging checks to make sure loops were running and when I got the code working, I went to remove all those printf statemesnts (That literally just printed "This is a deubg statement" to the terminal) and the code stopped working. I didn't have time to figure out why so I just changed the printf statements to "For some reason this printf statement is needed for the code to work". So yea I totally feel for game devs
@Shelby_Arr
The "put information boards in NPCs so you can speak to them" trick reminds me of how Fallout 3 implemented moving trains in Broken Steel by putting a train model on the player as a giant hat texture, and having them move, so from their perspective it would seem to be in motion.
@Rokujou1
That thumbnail tho
@SalKhayer
Tech debt is real. I work as a consultant for a variety of software companies, including game dev companies. I have an engineering background, but I don't actually do any of the code; mostly just product consultation and marketing consultation. However, I get to see the code bases whenever I want since I basically get carte blanche, and yes, the tech debt on some of these companies (not just the ones mentioned here, but literally 99.9% of software) is absolutely bonkers. Stuff from the mid-90s, early 00's, you get the picture. Our worlds and lives are built on a house of cards from giants that came before us on archaic software that could fit on a floppy disk.
@montywh
That Megaman "fix" reminds me of my psp hacking days. I was a Pro-CFW user, and even joined the IRC channel ran by Coldbird. One of the updates he put out caused a bug that if you tried to close a game, the psp would crash. So as a workaround, there was a plugin that would launch another game while already running one. With how Pro-CFW worked, I just relaunched the CFW launcher. Told him about it, and after some digging he found the cause of the bug. Turns out back when he was in competition with the other CFW at the time, it was a race of who could utilize the most ram. When CB expanded ram to some extent, he took up the space required to properly close the game and go back to home menu. Clearing that little spot free fixed it
@CameronMcKee
Idk why this was titled Dark Secrets but this is the best vid you guys have put out in a while! Absolutely love hearing these stories
@CrazyC19
You should make this a series
@jaughnekow
Falcon knew what he was doing with that thumbnail 😂😂😂
@saschaberger3212
NBA JAM had something else. A dev gave his favorite team a buff which activates every time they compete against the bulls.
@firefliesowlcity12
This is great, I would love a part 2!
@maddoxspider
I just realised that gameranx got 7.97 milion subscribers, bravo🎉❤
@landonewts
This is an interesting video. Sometimes as a gamer I step back and marvel at the amazing amount of work and talent that goes into the games we play. Art and sound design, music, character design, writing, voice acting, animation…. Easy to forget what drives it all, and a good game lets you do that. HUGE respect to software engineers.
@datwunfool2503
I always like videos that peak behind the curtain of things got done behind making a game. Its kind of crazy how talented and creative some developers get. Its also fun to see how they can cheeze the system and get away with minimal effort too so, always a good topic to cover imo
@Schizm1