GREENSBORO, N.C. — Hey, so this is pretty cool. Longtime devotees of 2003’s The Simpsons: Hit & Run have discovered an Easter Egg that’s remained hidden for 20 years. In a subtle nod to the classic season seven episode ‘Marge Be Not Proud,’ if the player enters their name as ‘Thrillhouse’ their entire PS2 will explode right there on the spot!
“That’s so cool,” said local gamer Alec Knapp, watching as firemen put out the blaze consuming his childhood home. “A reference is one thing, but when we see Milhouse enter his name into the megapopular Bonestorm game Bart wants more than anything, his hair is blowing back to show just how exciting that part alone is. There’s no way they could make wind blow my hair back, but detonating my entire entertainment center is pretty dang close!”
When contacted about the well-hidden secret, developers of the game played it real cool by acting like they didn’t know what anyone was talking about.
“No, there’s no way we could have done that or would have done that,” said Nigel Brooke, one of the lead programmers on Hit & Run. “It sounds like someone might have been playing on a very old PlayStation 2, possibly in a set up with way too many wires and fire hazards, and that’s probably what really happened. The timing is merely a coincidence. We might have made Homer say ‘Woo hoo!’ or something like that, but no way we would’ve blown up people’s PlayStations.”
Despite the clear danger inherent to the combustible Easter Egg, the game’s reputation seems to have grown even higher among its many fans since the discovery.
“Wow, that’s next level,” said local fan Maddison Cline. “I knew about the things like if you played the game on Halloween or Christmas the main menu was all different, but I had no idea that the right name could turn your PlayStation 2 into a little bomb. Or a big bomb, depending on what model you’re playing on. This sounds weird, but I think I’m gonna try it?”
As of press time, readers probably shouldn’t enter their name as ‘Thrillhouse’ in The Simpsons: Hit & Run on the PlayStation 2, but we haven’t heard anything about the GameCube, so it miiiight be okay?
