Hidden messages to “those in the know” have been around for a long time. People love hiding them, and people love finding them. They’re even called “Easter Eggs“, in reference to the western tradition of finding hidden eggs in the springtime.

While cruising through a GD-ROM image file looking for things of interest, xiaopang333 found something quite unexpected: a message directly towards rippers and hackers of Dreamcast games from the developer:

To whomever releases this pack..

Let me give you a few bits of info:

- I emulate a U.S. Genesis, including territory lock-out.
- “.sga” files are standard Genesis/Megadrive “.bin”files renamed.
- The emulator is looking for some parameters to be passed via Ginsu.
If you don’t know what that is, you’ll figure it out:

MDE_US.BIN ALTBEAST.SGA MODE2 SKIP0 SOUND0

MODE0 = standard, fastest video mode settings
MODE1 = slower, supports some extra features
MODE2 = slowest, includes window layers (used by some games)
MODE4 = same as MODE0 with background skewing

SKIP0 = no sprite skipping until maximum reached
SKIP1 = moderate sprite skipping, used to prevent major slowdown
SKIP2 = maximum sprites skipped

SOUND0 = standard sound emulation
SOUND1 = sound tempo increased

And don’t forget to pay your respects to Uncle Sonic.
Sony just doesn’t get it.

- Gary

Read on to find out who Gary is and possible reasons why he made the message!