We can now pinpoint the exact year videogames turned from God's light thanks to the discovery of a 'nude code' for Smurfette in 1984
I was a videogame-obsessed teenager in the 1990s and it seemed like every single gaming magazine (and several of my friends) had one holy grail: The Tomb Raider nude code. The small detail of Core Design's blockbuster adventure game not actually having one was irrelevant: Thanks to a few doctored screenshots and irrepressible playground murmurings, the legend persisted and, for decades to come, it felt like no Tomb Raider feature was complete without the «nude mod» explainer boxout.
One need only look at some of the more questionable corners of modding to see that the human impulse to see virtual humans naked shall never subside. But now we may have a new origin point for one of videogaming's most persistently grubby habits. Brace yourself: It's over four decades old, and involves… Smurfette.
Nothing new under the sun is there. This news comes courtesy of the wonderful Videogame History Foundation, which is dedicated to preserving and celebrating the medium's history, and recently added a scan of Electronic Games magazine, volume 2 issue 16. As well as featuring an excellent cover photo of a nerd fighting a bald man wrapped in a curtain, it includes a reader letter relating to the nude Smurfette discovery.
«Content warning: glitched naked pixel smurf,» says VGHF, in what is both one of the greatest content warnings of all time and four words you probably won't ever see jammed-together ever again. «Just discovered in our archive: We thought 'nude codes' in games dated back to the original Tomb Raider, but we found a functional one in Electronic Games way back in 1984.»
Content warning: glitched naked pixel smurf Just discovered in our archive: we thought «nude codes» in games dated back to the original Tomb Raider, but we found a functional one in Electronic Games way back in 1984. archive.gamehistory.org/item/4f6b3af...[image or embed]@gamehistoryorg.bsky.social
The game in question is Smurf: Rescue in Gargamel's Castle, and on the letters page one enterprising soul
Read more on pcgamer.com
