squittinbricks posted:
hey has anyone documented the secret level yet
BagginUrM0m posted:
wym
squittinbricks posted:
takin that as a no lol
cingclambo posted:
There is no secret level dude.
MarieFan83 posted:
yeh dont u think wed have found somthin like that by now
squittinbricks posted:
what the shell is this then
[ATTACHMENT MISSING]
BagginUrM0m posted:
wtf
cingclambo posted:
That was clearly edited in PaintToolSea. I can tell by the pixels. Stop trying to troll.
NERFNZAPPLZ posted:
wait hang on
squittinbricks posted:
[ATTACHMENT MISSING]
cingclambo posted:
Oh come on, you don't think we're aware you just hooked your CRT up to your tower? Seriously, I'm going to lock this thread.
MarieFan83 posted:
creepy s***. get some help
NERFNZAPPLZ posted:
ive seen it too
BagginUrM0m posted:
stfu NERF no u hvnt
NERFNZAPPLZ posted:
im not kiddin bro I found this myself. there's more of em down in the left tunnel right???
squittinbricks posted:
yeah nerfs right
S_or_Nothing posted:
oh ****, you gotta get rid of that NOW
S_or_Nothing posted:
BOTH of u
cingclambo posted:
You know the rules about double posting, S.
S_or_Nothing posted:
a friend of mine had a copy with that weird stage
S_or_Nothing posted:
said that theres more downed avatars the further u go in
S_or_Nothing posted:
after a while some **** up thing starts chasing u that cant be outrun
S_or_Nothing posted:
i havent heard from him since
squittinbricks posted:
LMAO are you forreal right now, what did he die in the game then die for real or something?
MarieFan83 posted:
omg dont say that even as a joke!
S_or_Nothing posted:
IM NOT JOKING THIS VERSION OF THE GAME IS REALLY MESSED UP
S_or_Nothing posted:
GET RID OF IT
cingclambo posted:
Alright, that's it. Enough is enough. I'm locking this stupid thread. All of you need to get a life.
BagginUrM0m posted:
ur moms so fat she needs two cing rofl
cingclambo posted:
Charming.
*
“Ran into some problems, did we?”
Marie raised an eyebrow at the state of Agent 4's tattered, paint stained Hero Suit, and the various still-weeping cuts and scrapes dotting the exposed portions of skin. To be frank, it looked like the young woman had got in a knife fight with finger paints and lost. Badly. And yet, she was still wearing that bright smile.
“Is no problem!” Agent 4- real name Ubik- said in a thick, heavy accent. “I am strongest woman of village in old country!” she finished, striking a ridiculous pose. “Made of sterner stuff!”
“That wasn't funny the first time, and it definitely isn't the 51st.” Marie groaned, rubbing her temples. Agent 4, conversely, broke into hearty laughter. “Seriously; what the shell happened out there?”
“It's really nothing, honest,” Agent 4 replied- accent still noticeable but nowhere near as forced- “just a run in with a few Flooders.”
Marie's expression turned haggard. “How many times do I have to tell you that you're supposed to run AWAY from Flooders, Four?!”
“In my defence, I thought it was just one. And it looked like it had a broken wheel.” Agent 4 said, her smile turning sheepish. “I didn't expect it to have friends.”
Defeated, Marie simply sighed, before walking forward. “Come on; I'll bust out the medkit.”
Agent 4 balked slightly. “It's just knicks, Marie. I'm fine.”
“The one on your shin looks pretty deep.”
“I'm not walking with a limp, am I?”
Marie let out another groan. “I'm trying to look out for you, y'know.”
“It's my job to look out for you, silly.” Agent 4 said, smile returning.
The barest of blushes crossed Marie's cheeks. “Don't start.”
Agent 4 giggled; “Don't start what?”
Marie rolled her eyes. “You know what. The Thing.”
“The Thing?”
“The Thing where you go all soppy and mushy, putting me before yourself. It's unnecessary.”
“Oh, you mean like the time I said 'someone so pretty-'”
“-'shouldn't be that sad', yes, yes,” Marie said almost too quickly, blush deepening. “And believe me I swoon every single time I recall the very first thing you said to me. But right now, I'm not the one bleeding all over my carefully curated rock and dust.”
“You're no fun, Cuttlefish.”
“And you're too much fun. Now get in the hut.”
Agent 4 let out a dramatic exhale, but nonetheless complied with the order. Before too long she'd shed the remaining tatters of her combat gear and Marie was applying what the agent thought was way more gauze then necessary, but by now she had learned that arguing with Marie rarely went in her favour. Besides, she couldn't deny it was nice to have someone care so much about her well-being
“So...” Marie started after a few moments, briefly chewing her lip. “Any... plans for the weekend?”
Agent 4 stifled a giggle; Marie never has been good at small talk, but she thought it was cute. “Oh, the usual; video games and pizza. Why, you got an opening for me~?”
Forgoing the front of feigned annoyance, Marie grumbled earnestly. “I wish; next week is Finals Week for seniors, so they've got me pulling extra long Study Hour sessions. I'm booked solid 'til Monday.”
The agent cringed a little, sheepish smile returning. “Well, you'll be helping shape ample young minds at least! A far nobler way to spend the time.”
Marie let out an apathetic 'meh', though Agent 4 could tell Marie agreed with the sentiment. “Maybe next time. Timing works out though; I'm expecting something special in the mail when I get back anyway.”
“Oh yeah?” Marie said, finishing the last of her wrappings. “What's that?”
“A little slice of my childhood.”
-
Ubik let out a sigh as she closed the door to her apartment, fumbling to get her boots off as quickly as possible. Wiped and aching though she was, anticipation took centre stage as she whirled around to check her letter basket.
“Yessssssss!” She murmured to herself as she spotted a nondescript, square shaped package covered in stamps. She headed towards the kitchen after grabbing it, already tearing it open and ready to dispose of the packaging by the time she reached the bin. Her smile couldn't be any wider as she looked at the case in her hands;
Splatmania 12k6: Ink or Swim. An old Turf War simulator for the KrillStation 2 that she owned as a kid- and played an awful lot of; it was one of the only games she had for a console that new at the time. Though a big part of the experience was the rudimentary online multiplayer that boasted numerous modes and game variations, there was no way her family could afford the expensive internet adapter required (and their connection probably wouldn't have been stable enough anyway); it was the single player campaign- which was also surprisingly robust and quite long for the time- that she sunk hours upon hours into, and what she was hoping to re-experience now.
Clamello's could wait; she needed to pop this in right now. Quickly grabbing a far-too-sugary and ludicrously sweet energy drink from her fridge, she wandered over to her massive gaming setup, fired up the KS2, dropped the disc in, and practically launched herself onto the couch before the console BIOS startup had even finished.
This was going to be awesome.
*
SplatStreak2Sweet posted:
Hey guys, tried searching the forums for an answer and couldn't find one, so I wanted to know, how exactly are you supposed to beat that solo mode mission where you're chased through the warehouse?
gumbo_fodder posted:
the what?
Callie_Is_Best_Grill posted:
dont think I ever ran into anyfin like that
SplatStreak2Sweet posted:
Really? Guess it must be some kind of secret level. Makes sense, it's really hard.
cingclambo posted:
Oh come on, not this again.
SplatStreak2Sweet posted:
?
BagginUrM0m posted:
yeah nice try squittinbricks we kno its u
SplatStreak2Sweet posted:
I have no idea what you're going on about.
squittinbricks posted:
ugh dont mind them they still think this whole things a hoax
cingclambo posted:
This counts as double posting, you know.
SplatStreak2Sweet posted:
I don't know what you think, but I'm not lying. And I'm not a sock-puppet
gumbo_fodder posted:
kinda sounds like something a sock-puppet would say ngl
BagginUrM0m posted:
bro thinks he can type proply and fool us lmfao
squittinbricks posted:
it looked like this didnt it splatstreak
[ATTACHMENT MISSING]
SplatStreak2Sweet posted:
Yeah, that's it. That's not that far from where you start.
cingclambo posted:
Two years later and you couldn't be bothered to learn better photo editing, squittinbricks?
Callie_is_Best_Grill posted:
no that looks pretty real 2 me actually
squittinbricks posted:
shell yeah finally vindicated
to answer your q splatstreak no but tbh I dont know much about it, only ever made it there one and never made it far or got chased by anything but someone else did
SplatStreak2Sweet posted:
Who?
squittinbricks posted:
NERFNZAPPLZ
SplatStreak2Sweet posted:
Oh, him! I used to play in a 12k3 server with that guy- weren't close or anything but he was cool. Whatever happened to him? He just stopped showing up one day.
squittinbricks posted:
dunno, last I heard of him was in the thread i made about it that got locked and archived (cos cing is a scrub
cingclambo posted:
And I'm going to be locking and archiving this one, too. Be thankful I haven't permabanned you, squittinbricks.
BagginUrM0m posted:
dang, a broken troll is right twice a day ig
Callie_is_Best_Grill posted:
no wait hang on I wanna kno where dis is goin
gumbo_fodder posted:
yeah man this is getting interesting
SplatStreak2Sweet posted:
I just wanted to know if it was possible to outrun that thing, jeez. Didn't think I'd be stirring up old drama.
cingclambo posted:
If you guys want to make up dumb creepypasta, go elsewhere. This is a serious Splatmania forum. I'm locking any future threads about this made up “super spooky secret level” before anyone gets to reply from here on out, and making even mentioning it a ban-able offence First and only warning.
*
'Cold Pizza is better then Hot Pizza anyway' Ubik thought to herself, closing the lid on the remaining slices and setting the box aside. She'd long since lost track of time- she really should get a clock in here- but she was about halfway through the campaign mode, if her memory served her right. Hally- the name she'd chosen for her player character- had just conquered the Hammerhead League, only to be stabbed in the back by the first NPC you meet and who sticks by you throughout the first half of the mode, defecting to another team and vowing to tear you and the one you've built down out of jealousy. Down a member and with few friends outside of the team due to your dominance of the Turf scene, you're forced to participate in the underground circuit to try and find talent to recruit. Ubik was having a blast- the camera controls could be a bit wonky, but for the time the game came out it had a lot of depth in the controls and the challenge was firm but fair- and recalled this next chunk of the campaign being her favourite part, eagerly hitting the “confirm” button to start the next stage.
Needless to say, she was surprised when the loading screen didn't feature the name of the level above the loading bar. The little characters that would animate around the borders were also missing. Fearing a crash and thanking the autosave gods, she started getting up to reset the console before noticing a level load in once the bar filled up, but it wasn't one she recognised.
Hally had spawned in a mostly featureless corridor, lined with nothing but metal panelling of various kinds; she could make out textures for different styles of cross-pattern flooring, some grating, panels lined with black and yellow warning tape, tons more variation then she'd expected. No music, she noticed- only the stock sound of footsteps on metal as Ubik moved her character forward, bringing her into an open hall. The walls, floor, and ceiling were all just random jumbles of the different metalwork textures in various states of decay, but that wasn't what drew her attention- it was the numerous dotted bodies of enemy characters laying on the ground, each one either laying in puddles of or dotted in streaks with a shade of blue that wasn't one of the possible ink colours the game could use. Their faces were all set to neutral, too; normally when enemies were splatted, they made a pained expression before exploding into ink and, naturally, re-spawning; from what she could infer, these were outright “dead” opponents.
“Oh my cod...” Ubik started, mouth agape as she took in what she was seeing.
She burst into laughter, glee creeping up from the surface. “Points for effort, but man, zero originality!”
She'd normally have been annoyed that someone had duped her with a romhacked version of a game- least of all one that was clearly evoking a 'haunted game' aesthetic- but the person she bought this from clearly pulled out the stops to mess with her. Hacking an old Super Squintendo game to make the games unreasonably hard and change all the text to swears was amateur hour; KrillStation 2 games were still a bit of a tough nut to crack, especially to this extent. Custom graphics work, editing of game behaviour, it was legitimately impressive. Enough so that Ubik just had to see where it was going.
For at least the first few minutes, it was much of the same; hallways and larger open rooms dotted with corpses of fallen Inklings, nothing beyond the sound effects of walking or firing her character's then-current-now-classic Rosé, Squeezer, just in case anything happened. Worry creeping in that this was all the hack had to offer, Ubik was caught off guard by a faint, warbling screech. Yes, just caught off guard- definitely not spooked by it. The game lacked directional audio, so she took a gamble on what direction it might've come from and walked- not that it was easy to really gauge where she had or hadn't been already without any landmarks or design distinction. It seemed to be paying off, though; the screech was getting louder, occasionally swapping out for garbled speech that sounded... familiar. It wasn't Inklish, from what she could tell, but she swore she could make out some words that sounded familiar.
Ubik gulped, toes curling in unease and palms beginning to sweat slightly. A part of her was mad at herself for letting this stupid thing start to get to her, but she couldn't shake the feeling that something was really off all of a sudden. She leaned in slowly, moving Hally at slower speeds as she descended down another hallway, waiting for another soundbyte to indicate something.
PLAP
PLAP PLAP
PLAPPLAPPLAPLPLAPLPALAPALALAPA
Ubik recoiled back into the sofa as the sound of gunfire- and the visuals of shots beginning to rain down on her- forced her to start moving, doubling back the way she came. The screeching came again, this time sounding much angrier.
Shock and surprise gave way to that sense of glee again, the tense atmosphere evaporating. There was something else in here, after all.
She'd doubled Hally back to one of the nondescript halls- one with a few different elevated sectors of floor, and waited, eyes keen on the hallway she'd come from. It didn't take long for something to emerge, but it moved fast enough that it was hard to get a bead on exactly who or what it was- not helped by the fact that it seemed to have immediately noticed where she was, and began firing with a range that could reach. Somewhat prepared for a bullsquit ramp up in difficulty, Ubik took the risky fall off the floor so she was covered by the incline up to it, and waited to hear what direction the foe was going to take. She saw ink flying at her from the left- a path that would have lead to more cover- so she was forced to take the right, firing wildly into the open as a form of deterrence It didn't seem to do much- some of her foe's shots landed, and Ubik noted with some annoyance that her health hadn't regenerated from the previous attack. Muttering a quick 'käi vittu, jobu' under her breath, she pressed forward in a slalom motion, catching a glimpse of red tentacles before her own shots obscured the figure, landing but not seeming to quell the thing's own fire much if at all. It was a battle of attrition, and the odds weren't in her favour, but with the lack of any cover and the speed at which this thing adjusted its aim, Ubik didn't have many options.
SPLAT
“Gahhh!” Ubik moaned in frustration, the inevitable defeat stinging more then it should. Her frustration didn't last, though, as she noticed Hally collapsing to the ground as a puddle of blood began to form around her, just like the other bodies. Unease began to bubble up, face falling, as instead of displaying the usual “game over” text, the screen just stayed static as the attacking figure stood in the distance. Then, it began walking forward, coming into clearer clarity as it stopped just shy of the fallen avatar.
Tentacles with suckers on the outside.
Eye masks without a line across the bridge of the nose.
Rounded ears, one of which was concave.
Those details were almost more alarming then the fact that the figure's eyes weren't much more grotesquely angry glowing red dots amidst black sclera, or that it's mouth was twisted in a gnarled expression of fury- two textures she knows she's not seen on any character model in the game before.
It just stood there, glaring at her through the screen- not Hally, her. Almost mocking her. She set the controller down with trembling, subconsciously leaning forwards, trying to take in the fact that the enemy model was clearly an Octoling.
“<TRAITOROUS POND SCUM!>”
Ubik merely flinched at the loud soundbyte, more concerned with the fact that that was definitely Octolang. Grammatically correct, pronunciation indicating a native speaker. She'd had the insult yelled at her more than once out in the field to mistake it for anything else. Were it not for the recognisable continue screen music kicking in, she'd have been lost in her thoughts for longer. Almost on instinct, she selected the “yes” option, grinding her beak slightly as the normal loading screen- “Back Alley Blues” and all- appeared as normal, the level in question loading in as expected. The speech sound effects as the story and tutorial text rattled off aggravated her deeply; she knew that whatever she'd just experienced, it was going to be an uphill battle trying to trigger it again.
Regaining her composure, Ubik stiffly retrieves her work phone from the desk, walking over to the console and turning it off. As expected, it only takes a single ring before the owner of the number picks up.
“Captain? It's Four. I'm sorry to call so late, but we have a very real problem.”
-
“You're never gonna clue me in to what these meetings are about, are you?”
Avex winced at the hurt tone in Soma's question as he saw Troubadour walk into the restaurant, heavy bags under her eyes that the painters mask couldn't obscure. She wandered over to a table, Ubik sat there waiting; besides the four of them, the establishment was empty, as expected of the early hour.
“It's need to know, mate. And you don't need to know,” Avex said, though his tone was even and gentle. 'It's for your own good.'
Soma tutted, shaking his head. “Whatever. What're the orders?” 'It hurts that you won't let me in.'
Avex swallowed his bubbling emotions; now wasn't the time. “The usual cup o' joe for me.”
Troubadour nonchalantly produced her wallet, flashing an obviously brand new Ika County ID. “Pint of Tentabrau.”
“It's 6 in the bloody morning.” Avex said, flatly.
“Bite me.” Troubadour responded, just as flatly.
“I'll have a Red Bullfrog, Soma, thank you,” Ubik said softly, somewhere between tired and shaken.
“You got it.” Soma nodded, already retrieving a mug with one hand and a pint glass with the other. He turned to stare daggers at Avex. “And I know; upstairs when I'm done. Trust me, I don't need your permission to head back to sleep with how tired I am.”
Avex sighed, getting up from the barstool. He'd only made it a step away before Soma interjected.
“... Sorry. I just... you're not in any sort of... trouble, are you?” The usually sunny squid said in a meek tone. “Y'know; anything dangerous?”
Avex chuckled, shaking his head. “You don't know the half of it, bruv. But I'm cushty; I can keep me head above water.”
Soma wasn't wholly satisfied with the answer, chewing his lip, but he nodded in response. “Ok. I'll have your drinks sorted in a bit.”
“Cheers,” Avex said with a wave, making his way over to the table, sitting down next to Troubadour. He cast a glance over at her. “Long night?”
“Very.” she grunted, removing her mask in preparation and setting it on the table opposite her. “S'fine. Couldn't sleep anyway.”
“Still going to the meetings, I hope?”
“... Yeah.”
“Good.”
Ubik twiddled her thumbs, carefully choosing her time to interject. “Th-thank you, Troubadour; I know it was asking a lot.”
“I just said it's fine,” Troubadour replied in a harsh tone; she immediately regretted it and her expression betrayed that, continuing; “I know it's important and I don't mind helping. You don't have to apologise or thank me or whatever.”
“Mmh.” Ubik mumbled, continuing to twiddle her thumbs as the table fell silent, and stayed so for the agonisingly long three minutes until Soma returned with the finished drinks; Avex gently blew on the surface of his coffee without taking a sip, Ubik nursed a quick gulp from her can, and Troubadour had already thrown back half of the pint before Soma had even closed the door leading to the living quarters. When the sound of footsteps on stairs faded, Avex turned to Troubadour.
“Floor's yours, Troub.”
“Well,” Troubadour started, pausing to let out a quiet burp, “It wasn't very hard to decompile the game- either the copy I procured or the one you gave. Not my usual area of expertise but you Inklings don't make the most robust anti-piracy features.”
“So fairly easy going then?” Ubik asked, eager for more.
“That bit was; meticulously comparing line after line of code for any discrepancies wasn't,” Troubadour groaned, taking another swing of her beer. “Forgot how much I fucking hated hex.”
“And?” Avex said, raising an eyebrow.
“No difference.” Troubadour sighed, shrugging her shoulders before shooting a glance at Avex. “And yes, I double checked and triple checked. Which is accounted for in my invoice, by the way.”
“That... that can't be right!” Ubik said, heart rate increasing slightly. “The kind of stuff I saw would've indicated major changes to the game code.”
“I hear ya, Ubik, but there wasn't.” Troubadour said, tone softening slightly. “It was one for one.”
“Surely something in the texture files? The sound folder?!” Ubik said, disbelief strewn across her face.
“Nada.”
Ubik put her head in her hands, letting out a moan. “That makes no sense. You can't change a game and leave no traces of it.”
“You've done a lot of patrols of late, mind,” Avex spoke up, casting a concerned glance at her. “Can see you got roughed up a bit too.”
“You don't seriously think I made it up, do you?” Ubik said, clearly wounded.
Avex shook his head. “I didn't say that; maybe you fell asleep and dreamed it, or something.”
Ubik huffed, crossing her arms and resting her head in them, looking sadder then Avex had ever seen her. “I know what I saw. I know I was wide awake. Somehow, this game from 13 years ago had an Octoling in it.”
Avex looked down in thought for a moment, staring at his coffee. “That's what's bothering you.”
“Of course.” Ubik said, matter of factly. “Everything else? Stock bad internet story stuff. Might've spooked me a bit, but that's not the issue. An accurate depiction of a species that we thought was extinct well before we knew otherwise? That's suspicious. That's why I called the Captain.”
Avex nodded. “I figured that; just weren't sure. The rest sounded bare spooky, mind.”
Placing the now empty pint glass down a little heavily, Troubadour cleared her throat. “Do you think you could find that level again?”
Ubik looked over at Troubadour briefly, before pausing to think. “I don't know. I'm not even sure what I did to get there in the first place. I asked an old friend of mine to do some digging in old Splatmania communities to see if anyone's said anything, but...”
“That's not a 'no'.” Troubadour responded.
Avex looked confused. “You want her to try finding it again?”
“I want us to take a crack at it, in a controlled environment.”
A small smile crossed Ubik's lips. “Your lab?”
“Already got the recording software ready and a bunch of snacks stocked up.” Troubadour said, face flat but pride clear in her voice.
Avex laughed. “Geffen won't be pleased, having his beauty sleep interrupted a second night on the trot.”
Troubadour finally cracked a smile, albeit a cheeky one. “He can handle a little nostalgia of his own.”