Seriously, I'm incredibly amused by the fact that Leland had a promotional T-shirt offer ready to go here. They sure were pretty confident this game was going to be semi-successful in the arcades. So what does a guy gotta do to get a free shirt?

That's right, you have to finish the game FIVE times to find out what Mr. G's name is. Each time the game is finished, assuming you're putting in the same initials and birthday (what was Leland's obsession with knowing player birthdays, anyway?), one extra letter is revealed. How rewarding! Going through all bullshit just for one extra letter! And chances are, if you were hip to the "radical" lingo that was going around in the early '90's, then you probably have a good chance of guessing what his name is by the first two letters - GN*****.

...

MR. GNARLY! TOTALLY TUBULAR, BRO! WORD!

So, there it is. The t-shirt offer that NOBODY would have ever seen if the game hadn't been saved and emulated by MAME, since it's doubtful that anybody who ever played the game was patient (or rich) enough to want to get to the end five times in a row. (as for how I did it... well, long story short, I cheated). And now I've given the secret away. Time to mass mail that address and demand free t-shirts!

...or not. Remember, it WAS a "limitted" time offer and all. And the other problem is... well... Leland sorta went out of business. A loooong time ago. I can't imagine how that could have happened when they were creating excellent games like Asylum. If they were still around, I'd love to see the expression on their faces if they started getting postcards demands t-shirts for a game they never released. So one must wonder.... what would happen if you DID end up sending a postcard to that address? Would anyone ever receive it?

A simple Googling of the street address (what the hell kinda gay street name is "Friendship Drive", anyway?) turned up something I found to be most intriguing:

http://rimsinland.oes.ca.gov/Archive/malhaz22.nsf/0/0ea90a277f85934288256b54006983a8?OpenDocument

That URL leads to a "Hazardous Materials Spill Report" that was filed because of an industrial plant at that address that was emitting a "strong possibly hazardous chemical odor" near a person's house. I have an idea of what may have caused that odor....an unflushed Magic Toilet.

I also found this but I have NO fucking clue what to make of it. Seems like 1841 Friendship Drive is one cursed place though, eh?

Something tells me this story isn't quite over yet...



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