[HN Gopher] How many video games include a marriage proposal? At...
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How many video games include a marriage proposal? At least one
Author : bbayles
Score : 326 points
Date : 2025-11-13 15:33 UTC (5 days ago)
(HTM) web link (32bits.substack.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (32bits.substack.com)
| cameron_b wrote:
| This is beautiful. Thanks for sharing.
| pmarreck wrote:
| Looks like they got married in 1997
|
| https://www.chicagotribune.com/1997/07/10/melissa-duffy-scot...
|
| If indeed it's "Scott Elson Corley".
| skrrtww wrote:
| The latter link is referring to different people.
| pmarreck wrote:
| Ah, thanks for pointing that out, you're right.
|
| Deleted the false divorce link ;)
| netsharc wrote:
| It even says Corley, [Actual first name] Scott (Scott as
| middle name).
|
| Ah, 2025, where people can't even pay attention to the
| order of words any more.
| pmarreck wrote:
| Maybe DBAD?
| koakuma-chan wrote:
| This feels so medieval, the way the announcement is written.
| kQq9oHeAz6wLLS wrote:
| Pretty standard, actually. Maybe not today, I dunno. I
| wouldn't say medieval, though.
| 14 wrote:
| Indeed. It felt like an obituary but to announce a wedding.
| Looking up the town Wikipedia states a population of just
| under 20k as of 2020 so back in 1991 when that article was
| written most likely less. So a very small community and I
| imagine that back then it was just common for people to make
| announcements like that.
|
| But I also think the city did hold some old fashioned beliefs
| and views. 1. "In 1992, Lake Forest gained national attention
| when it attempted to ban the sale of offensive music to
| anyone under the age of 18.[15] City council members used
| existing ordinances against obscenity--defined in the codes
| as "morbid interest in nudity, sex or excretion"--to buttress
| their campaign.[15] Mayor Charles Clarke stated, "If they
| sell an obscene tape to somebody underage, we will
| prosecute."[15] The person who came up most frequently in
| discussions of obscene content was Ice-T, a rapper who has
| since also performed as an actor."
|
| Interesting to think back to those days and remember how
| censored thing were. I was born in the 80s so nude scenes or
| swearing was just not a thing on standard broadcasting here
| in Canada. I remember hearing shit on a show at some point
| and it really stood out. Then channels like Showcase came
| along and it seemed like it was wild as a teen. Now anything
| ever aired back then feels tame to today. I am surprised what
| defines PG13 hasn't been changed because I am certain there
| is nothing happening in a PG13 movie up to a R rated movie
| that my teens don't know about. Anyways I am going on here if
| I continue I am going to start talking about how I am against
| ID to use the internet. Just found the article like you say
| strangely written. Cheers
|
| 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Forest,_Illinois
| aidenn0 wrote:
| While Ice-T was a rapper, I suspect that it was his work
| with Body Count (a metal group) that was the problem in
| 1992, as _Cop Killer_ was the poster-child that year for
| "we need to ban some music"
| 14 wrote:
| Yes I remember those days. I was pretty young but it
| definitely made news and was definitely a hot topic.
| People adamantly argued that music like that was a huge
| factor influencing defiant, disobedient anti police youth
| at the time. No mention of the influence of societal and
| economical disparities many minorities and some
| communities faced. But the truth is there are many
| factors that influence all our beliefs and feelings and
| music is absolutely something that has effect on how we
| feel.
| yed wrote:
| As someone who grew up in this area at this time period, I
| can tell you that Lake Forest doesn't have much of a sense
| of community of it's own separate from the Chicago
| metropolitan area. North Chicago suburbs tend to sound like
| small communities on paper, but it's impossible to tell
| when one ends and another begins, so they all sort of bleed
| together into a single mega-suburb.
|
| I think it was just normal to put such announcements in the
| newspaper at this time and this is the format of how it was
| done.
| missingdays wrote:
| "This content is not available in your region"
|
| Medieval indeed
| mproud wrote:
| The article says High Voltage Software, which is correct.
|
| I hope someone passes this post to him.
| mtillman wrote:
| A guy I know proposed to his wife in the end credits of summoner.
| They're still happily married afaik.
| xp84 wrote:
| Imagine if you did that - in the end credits - and she couldn't
| make it all the way to the end of the game. "Wasn't meant to
| be!"
| mtillman wrote:
| Not just that, I think it was summoner 2 which means she'd
| have to be real committed!
| samplatt wrote:
| Summoner aka the game the "Attacking The Darkness!" video came
| from! :D
| astrocat wrote:
| The heart-warming gem:
|
| > I sent a note about these Easter eggs to Scott Corley [the
| game's developer]. He said that he had recently pulled out the
| game to show the marriage proposal to his son. But he'd forgotten
| the code and couldn't make it work! He and Melissa did indeed
| live happily ever after.
| elzbardico wrote:
| This made my day
| theginger wrote:
| The old trope of forgetting your wedding anniversary cheat
| code.
| QuantumNomad_ wrote:
| At least we know he's not cheating
| giancarlostoro wrote:
| We got around this by keeping the same number but swapping
| the months out. Started dating in August, actually got
| legally married same month, but the ceremony was in October
| all of the same day. I used the cheat code of familiarity to
| never forget.
| jdeibele wrote:
| I proposed on 01/01 and got married on 07/07. Both 2001 so
| 01/01/01 for the proposal but I didn't want to wait until
| 07/07/07.
|
| I originally wanted to do 01:01 on the 1st but we both were
| asleep by then. We dated for almost a year before the
| proposal.
| eleveriven wrote:
| The fact that they did live happily ever after just makes it
| even sweeter
| ralferoo wrote:
| Or he could have just googled "scott corley melissa".
|
| Using archive.is just because the article is region locked to
| US-only: https://archive.is/SeCmf
| MarkusWandel wrote:
| "Ever after" with a time limit. If you actually google as
| someone suggested, the third hit is for the divorce
| proceedings.
| alchemist1e9 wrote:
| Wrong marriage. They are still married today and had four
| children.
| johnisgood wrote:
| "had" or "has"? Huge difference! I will assume "has".
|
| Edit: oops, yeah, "have", not "has". My bad. :P
| alchemist1e9 wrote:
| sorry I changed to "have".
| inanutshellus wrote:
| Arguably Melissa _had_ four and thus they _have_ four,
| eh?
| UniverseHacker wrote:
| "Have" is the word you are looking for, "has" isn't
| grammatically correct. However, "had" in past tense is
| also correct, as it refers to the fact that they were
| born in the past, it does not imply (as you seem to be
| saying) that the children aren't alive anymore.
| doubled112 wrote:
| I used to have kids. I still do, but I used to too!
| robotnikman wrote:
| Aw, that's sweet! Glad it worked out well for him, always nice
| to see some good news.
| proofofconcept wrote:
| Reminds me of this vid by a guy who did a romhack of Chrono
| Trigger to propose to his then-gf who was playing through it for
| the first time:
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_HMLvLB7b0 "I proposed by
| hacking Chrono Trigger (Oct 24, 2008, 6m 57s)"
|
| He writes in the description about what he was going for as far
| as making it seem like part of the actual game while still
| referencing their romantic history, and how well it worked (good
| for them!).
| powerclue wrote:
| That's me! I made that 17 years ago, still happily married.
| Took me like two weeks of full time tinkering. It involved a
| lot of trial and error messing with a hex editor.
| proofofconcept wrote:
| Good for you both! That is so awesome :D
| brian-armstrong wrote:
| Thank you for sharing the video way back when. I remember
| thinking it was very touching.
| westmeal wrote:
| Props man, wish you guys a happy life :)
| Herodotus38 wrote:
| I remember that video! 14 years ago it inspired me, to
| program a text adventure game proposal for my wife (still
| happily married). Thanks!
| jihadjihad wrote:
| The way "romhack" was spelled made me think it meant "romance
| hack" for a second, which based on the video you linked seems
| appropriate, too.
| Lownin wrote:
| I'm reminded of this proposal project done with Portal 2 that
| Valve actually assisted with
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8SdYz7cq04
| MayeulC wrote:
| It did make me think of a Borderlands one I heard about.
| Unfortunately, I cannot find a good writeup, and the video
| listed here is unavailable: https://gamesbeat.com/7-awesomely-
| geeky-video-game-marriage-...
| AIorNot wrote:
| Mine did
|
| -back in 2013 I made a short iphone game in unity for my wife and
| installed it on her phone - when she got past the first level it
| played a photo montage and marriage proposal, I was also there
| with a ring btw
| BoorishBears wrote:
| Is Magic The Gathering close enough? https://draftsim.com/mtg-
| proposal-art/
|
| Apparently it took Richard Garfield (creator of both the game and
| the card) 3 games before finally drawing the card on a 4th game,
| and casting it to propose
| lovegrenoble wrote:
| Nice, thanks for sharing.
| archargelod wrote:
| That reminds me about an easter egg[1] in arcade racing game
| Horizon Chase. If you trace a heart shape (on mobile
| device/nintendo switch screen) at the start of the race, it plays
| a short video with a proposal at the end. Game is very fun too.
|
| [1]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoeKgQifaO4
| zkmon wrote:
| Software teams back then enjoyed much more freedom and natural
| wild context. IT departments, security, audit etc weren't as
| pervasive as today. Yahoo chat, movie downloading, online games
| were all part of work life.
| bcraven wrote:
| I think Sam Andreas' Hot Coffee reveal made a lot of studios
| very wary of including (on purpose, or accidentally) extra
| content.
| mbg721 wrote:
| Even before that, SimCopter had a bit of a blow-up.
| NebulaStorm456 wrote:
| This trope has been used in "Free Guy" movie (not a marriage
| proposal but as a love letter)
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Guy
|
| Guy reveals to Millie that his code is actually a love letter to
| her from Keys: during the development of Life Itself, Keys had
| encoded what he knew about her tastes into an AI routine in the
| game, which was eventually incorporated into Free City,
| explaining why Guy felt drawn to MolotovGirl.
| asimovDev wrote:
| https://scorley.com
|
| really love Scott's website. what a time capsule. Wish the
| visitor counter still worked. I hope he's doing alright nowadays
| 8f2ab37a-ed6c wrote:
| That's incredible, great find.
| muragekibicho wrote:
| What's the criteria for changing HN post titles?
|
| The earlier posting was 'A marriage proposal hidden across two
| playstation games' or something like that.
|
| Is there a HN bot doing this or is it the mods?
| philipwhiuk wrote:
| It's the hard suffering mods.
| dang wrote:
| Yes, we changed it in keeping with
| https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html: " _Please use
| the original title, unless it is misleading or linkbait; don 't
| editorialize._"
|
| In this case, though, "Under the microscope: NCAA Basketball
| Final Four 97 (PlayStation)" didn't seem right, so I used
| language from the opening paragraph instead. That's one valid
| place to look, when scouring a page for representative language
| suitable as a title.
|
| https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...
| mos87 wrote:
| ehr.. dozens?
|
| This brings the Fallout 2 memories anyway...
| travisjungroth wrote:
| This one was real.
| puzzlingcaptcha wrote:
| For those who missed out: you could end up in a shotgun wedding
| then get a divorce in New Reno, Las Vegas-style.
| miklosz wrote:
| Wait till you marry. She will make you play infinite number of
| games!
| skavi wrote:
| I went to U of I and I'm super curious about that " I-L-L /
| I-N-I" option. Any chance someone's found out what it does?
| montag wrote:
| The Klax port for Game Boy Color (1999) contains a hidden wedding
| proposal. It took Mike Mika's girlfriend 3 years to find it
|
| https://tcrf.net/Klax_(Game_Boy_Color)
| flobosg wrote:
| Not video games, but the article reminded me of marriage
| proposals in scientific articles:
|
| https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822%281...
|
| https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S037843711...
| collinmcnulty wrote:
| For others clicking through, check the acknowledgements
| harel wrote:
| This little heart warmer taught more more about game/binary
| hacking than more specific articles on the subject.
| eleveriven wrote:
| A story with emotional weight makes the technical bits stick
| better
| eleveriven wrote:
| It's like watching someone do digital archaeology, brushing off
| memory addresses instead of fossils
| cowLamp wrote:
| star wars battlefront 2 (the good one) also has one
| wigster wrote:
| i remember richard garfield (game designer/MTG) created a
| proposal card...
|
| https://magicuntapped.com/index.php/articles/proposal-the-ma...
| demiters wrote:
| Don't see it mentioned yet - the guy behind the fantastic YouTube
| channel CodeParade created a beautiful little game, custom engine
| and everything, all just to propose to his girlfriend:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EF91O2wMX0
| pgporada wrote:
| The one I wrote in Perl did. It also worked.
| https://github.com/pgporada/ourperlgame
| alexpotato wrote:
| I always find stories like this fascinating and heartwarming.
|
| Why?
|
| B/c:
|
| - My wife is not nerdy or technical at all
|
| - In fact, I'm the only one in my entire extended family
| (cousins etc) that is technical
|
| So anytime I hear a story about married couples where both are
| SWEs (or equivalent) it's wild to me.
| potato3732842 wrote:
| I haven't read the article yet but I assume he's talking about
| the credits of Star Wars Battlefront 2 from 2005. We'll see if
| I'm right.
|
| Edit: I was wrong, the author doesn't even list it.
| ProfessorZoom wrote:
| there was one in spider-man, and the girl left him for his
| brother
| ranbato wrote:
| Grim Dawn by Crate Entertainment has a secret area with a chest
| containing a wedding ring. Easter Egg for one of their backers to
| propose.
|
| I'd add a link, but Cloudflare...
| mosburger wrote:
| I didn't do this, but I did use a spare unsigned short (used for
| memory alignment) in the Quantum Atlas 10K II disk drive's servo
| firmware to store my wife and I's anniversary date just for
| yucks. :P
| byearthithatius wrote:
| So incredibly niche and specific but also theoretically
| viewable/verifiable. This is incredible.
| throw7 wrote:
| Does Bill Gates count?
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