Swear words not allowed in high scores on arcade machines

[markronz]

So my friend, who is a writer, emailed me a question.  Sadly, I do not know the answer but I thought the fine folks on this website might have an idea!   Anyone know what video games wouldn't let you do this?   Or what they said when you tried?

Hey Mark,
 
I'm, um, writing a poem about Pac-Man (or just high scores in general) and I have a question--do you remember when or what video games stopped letting people use bad initials like ASS or FUK for their high score names? Do you remember what the machines said when you tried to do that?
 
Thanks!
 
J

Thanks!

[EightBySix]

I remember one game used to say "Initials naughty"... Burnin' Rubber possibly.
It amuses me that someone was employed to come up with all the rude combinations of 3 letters when making the game 

[RayB]

Most of them allowed the words. Computer memory was too small and precious to waste on a database of swear words to blacklist.

[Turnarcades]

I've only found modern games do this - console games, later arcade games and frustratingly, many pub quiz machines. I actually enjoy purposely mis-spelling rude words to go on Touchmaster machines without censoring!

[leapinlew]

Furthermore, Pacman/Ms.Pacman didn't allow you to enter initials.

[markronz]

Furthermore, Pacman/Ms.Pacman didn't allow you to enter initials.

I was going to put something along those lines in my original post!  I knew that I swear!       But alas, I did not, so thank you for the correction.   I guess I was just more or less looking for a list of games that did it.  But I could only think of the touchmasters too.

I remember one game used to say "Initials naughty"... Burnin' Rubber possibly.
It amuses me that someone was employed to come up with all the rude combinations of 3 letters when making the game 

Thanks EightBySix!

If anyone thinks of any others, let me know!

[Smeghead]

hehe it always used to be my trademark back in the day to enter 3 initials, the first was always F, the last of the 3 was always K and you can guess the middle one   

[SlayerAlex]

i always felt sorry for people who really had those initials

[DillonFoulds]

I always use P.I.G on my high scores... I've got 4 initials (DTEF), so I get screwed out... poor 'E'

[I/O]

Furthermore, Pacman/Ms.Pacman didn't allow you to enter initials.

Nor Galaxian, Frogger, Scramble (and probably Super Cobra), and Gorf.

[grantspain]

i can't remember the game but there was one when you entered a swear word it would then come up "bad boy"

[Malenko]

off topic, my buddy josh and his father always entered their initials as SON and DAD; I always put mine is as TOM (even though I've always spelled my name Thom)

[Haze]

There are many games which do this, some of them even censor non-swear words.  I seem to remember several Capcom titles censoring 'SNK' etc.

It's always amusing when you open up a rom in a hex editor, when you're initially studying it, looking for hardware / manufacturer clues and find a bunch of censored words in plaintext.



This being US games collection, but in many cases you can find similar lists of censored words ;-)

[SlayerAlex]

Furthermore, Pacman/Ms.Pacman didn't allow you to enter initials.

Nor Galaxian, Frogger, Scramble (and probably Super Cobra), and Gorf.

you really couldnt input initials in Frogger? i always thought you could because of the Sienfeld episode. lol


tv lies to me again

[Malenko]

well in the timeline of the episode its not possible, but JROK has a high score save kit:

http://www.jrok.com/sohs/frogger/frogger.html

If you have a real frogger and want to add high score support

[hypernova]

Horn?  Why Horn?

What's a macke?

[Donkey_Kong]

well in the timeline of the episode its not possible, but JROK has a high score save kit:

http://www.jrok.com/sohs/frogger/frogger.html

If you have a real frogger and want to add high score support

Do you think the writers even realized the fact that initial entering wasn't a feature of the game Frogger? Maybe not...

[Smeghead]

Didnt they have WORM RAM or whatever? Writable ROM thats saved scores after power off?

[ahofle]

i always felt sorry for people who really had those initials

 

[tommyinajar]

Way back when, there was a metalhead kid that lived 24/7 in the local arcade. He had all of the top scores plastered with "N.F.L."
Now I know why- http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=efilnikcufecin

[DeLuSioNal29]

My buddy's initials were J.A.Y. and his first name was Jason.   

[Level42]

I still love entering SEX in Bubble Bobble !

[I/O]

Do you think the writers even realized the fact that initial entering wasn't a feature of the game Frogger? Maybe not...

There is no such thing as history. [1984]

[lilshawn]

i always put my initials in games and stuff as SDP stands for "sh** disturber professional" 

sometimes i'll sign my paycheques "SDpro" since it kinda looks like my name, the tellers give me a dirty look when i smile from it.