4. Placeholder internet
Sam & Max Episode 5: Reality 2.0 | 2006 | PC
The second-to-last installment of the episodic Sam & Max adventure games was basically just one long string of in-jokes, from the obsolete arcade machine that only speaks in Sinistar-inspired threats to the floating gold coins and Final Fantasy-inspired RPG battles. But if you're an old-school gamer, and we mean really old school, then the biggest treat comes toward the end.
Warning: spoilers ahead. Without going into too much detail, the episode climaxes with the global collapse of the internet, which up until then you'd been wandering around inside with the help of virtual-reality goggles. While the internet pouts and waits to self-destruct (taking you with it), a placeholder called "Reality 1.5" pops up. It's distinctly less flashy than the virtual world you were just exploring; in fact, it's all text, and you'll need to navigate it by using simple commands like "Go," "Look" and "Get." The whole sequence is a nice little homage to text-adventure games like Zork, which - way back before the advent of newfangled things like "graphics" and "sound" on computers - used to be all the rage for people who wanted something a little more cerebral than Space Invaders.
If you actually got this joke without us having to explain it, extra points to you for being, like, totally old. You'll probably need them for when you get eaten by a grue.
3. Armies of the Night
The Warriors | 2005 | PS2, Xbox, PSP
It's no secret that Double Dragon, the 1987 arcade classic that all but single-handedly started the brawler genre, ripped off its tough-guys-in-vests-fighting-gangs schtick from the 1979 cult film The Warriors. So it was only fair when Rockstar Games' 2005 adaptation of The Warriors did likewise, stealing Double Dragon's side-scrolling action for a hidden bonus game called Armies of the Night.
Armies even lifts Double Dragon's iconic opening, with the heroine getting punched in the gut and carried off by bad guys, only to have her red-vested savior(s) follow seconds later, once they finally get their garage door to open. Sadly, the overt in-jokes end there, but Armies of the Night is still peppered with subtle references to games like Final Fight and Combatribes, making it an especially cool experience for fans of old-school brawlers. See for yourself:
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