Game Theory - The DEADLY Truth About The Shipwrecked 64 ARG!

Episode Date: June 18, 2024

Join Game Theory Host Tom as he goes step by step, solving the disturbing Shipwrecked 64 ARG. *Credits:* Writers: Tom Robinson and Zach Stewart Editors: Dan "Cybert" Seibert, JayskiBean, Alex "Sedge" Sedgwick, Pedro Freitas and Shannon (Bomb0i) Sound Designer: Yosi Berman

Hello, internet. Welcome to Game Theory, the show that's not afraid to admit when it's all washed up. On a video game island full of law, that is, because I'm finally getting around to talking about the ARG that blew every other ARG I worked on out of the water. We would have probably talked about this sooner, but it came out on January 1st, and we were a little busy here at Theorist. So, after five months, I figured it was high time, we take a look at the difficult and disturbing game that took the internet by Storm. Shipwrecked 64. Now, if this is your first time seeing this game, you might. might think it's going to be similar to other lost video games we've covered in the past,

like Petscope, where we watch found footage of someone else playing the game and see the ARG story unfold before us. But not this time, friends, because this is a game you can actually play for yourselves. That's right, this game puts you in the driver's seat and gives you the opportunity to go around and find the secrets yourself. And there are a bunch to find. But to get them, you have to solve some of the toughest puzzles I've ever encountered. And sometimes, you even have to fight the most basic of game.

instincts. You have to lose. If you do that, you are rewarded with the thing that we all crave. Law. Law about a company fallen on hard times. One man's desperate attempts to save his wife and one of the most brutal mascot killers the internet has ever seen. This is truly one of the most disturbing and outright horrifying game experiences the internet has to offer. But it's also the most fun I've had solving an ARG in a long time. So let's set sail together, loyal theorists. as we go through the puzzles, solutions, and story of Shipwreck 64. Booting up the game, we're immediately given a choice. Well, kind of.

We can see that there are two versions of this game. One from 2023, which is a recreated version of the original shipwreck game for the Nintendo 64, and there's a locked version that appears to be that original game, the one that was removed from store shelves. However, to unlock that version, we need to complete the 2020 version. So, off we go. We take on the role of Buckey Beaver and start the game shipwrecked on an island. No surprise there.

We are then tasked with finding our crew and rebuilding our boat. The bad news is, you only have five days to do it. As a volcano is due to erupt and destroy the whole island, so best get cracking. By exploring the island, you'll find your crew one by one, and they'll ask you to complete a mini-game to free them from the island's inhabitants and rejoin your crew. Walter Walrus needs you to platform your way to switches to free your second boat. Just don't move when the lights go out. Olive Otter asks you to collect 30 coconuts within the time limit, and Giovanni

goose needs you to stop the ovens from catching fire. You can also find the chief of the island, Chief Wolf, who gives you a mini-game to rebuild your boat. Each time you play a minigame, time passes, so be quick about it. You can end the game in one of four ways. You can escape the island with or without your crew, or you can choose to stay and either wait for the clock to run out, killing everyone, or explore the volcano, finding a barge that will not only save your crew, but all the inhabitants of the island. However, the ending you choose doesn't really matter, because by getting any ending, you unlock the thing we're really after, the 1997 version. of Shipwreck 64.

When you start a new game and select this version, we are given a warning that it is not for the faint of heart and that it's unaltered from its initial release. If that's not an invitation, I don't know what is. This is where the true nature of this game starts to appear, because while on the surface it seems to be the same game, something is off about it. There are suddenly locked doors with what appears to be gibberish written on the signs next to them. But we're theorists.

Nothing in these games is just gibberish. This is a substitution cipher. But it's not like one that we've used in the past. Essentially, it involves swapping letters back and forth to create a new phrase. A equals B, B equals A, C equals D equals C, and so on. Deciphering the three signs gives you the codes layer two, room one, layer two room two, and layer two room three. This doesn't mean a whole lot for us. But if you stand around for too long trying to figure it out, you'll see there's more wrong with this version of the game than a few misspelled signs.

From here, you can go through and play the rest of the game as normal. win the minigames and get off the island. But where's the fun in that? There are clearly secrets to find. So, what do we need to do? Well, it starts by losing. That's right, if you lose each of the minigames, things begin to fall apart. Each time you fail, the mini game gets harder and harder to beat.

And with each time that happens, we're treated to some disturbing clips that begin to hint at what this game's law is. Walter's mini game shows us a clip of someone wearing a costume of Bucky, looking down at something with a bunch of squelching noises in the background. May not be able to see what's happening, but our minds can pretty much fill in the gaps, especially with an indie horror game. But this isn't the only secret Walter's game is hiding. Near the final switch, you're meant to go through this door and then out the other side. But if you instead jump over to the other side and then try to reenter the door from the wrong side, you suddenly find yourself in a long corridor with a button at the end that plays a clip from a man named Mark Mullins.

You haven't been acting right. I took her to the hospital, and I walked down to my own. They said that she's going to be there. He's taking someone to hospital, which is useful to bear in mind, but the most notable thing right now is that he mentioned no one has been acting right lately. Could this be referring to the Bucky we just saw? Maybe Mark noticed Bucky's weird behavior before whatever happened in that swelchy video. It's hard to say, but Bucky does certainly continue to get more and more unhinged as time goes on.

When you get to Olivia's section, it's split into two parts. In the penultimate failed attempt, we can hear an audio recording from a woman, entitled Olivia's last phone call. You straight up at the door again, I don't know what to do. Something about us and the spot wrong. Olivia complains about him showing up again, only for Bucky to once again appear, banging to be heard, and the audio going quiet. Normally, this is where I'd start theorising about exactly what's happening here.

But Olive's second section does that for us. You're back in the same room, but if you park or off the walls, you'll find Olive face down in the water, a trail of blood behind her, and another Bucky staring down at her. Bucky, this evil Bucky, killed this woman. Olivia, represented by Olive and dragged her body to the lake. Now, I thought that was pretty dark, but nothing could have prepared me for failing Giovanni Goose's game. Because after a couple of failed attempts, Giovanni stops being interactable.

You can try, but nothing happens. And then... Sorry, we had to blur a lot of that for YouTube. So, if you were wondering, that is a man having his head bashed against a microwave and dunked in a deep fat friar by Bucky. It is brutal. Really, not what I or anyone expected when playing this game for the first time. Oh my God!

Oh, geez! So, what on earth is going on here? Well, if you break out of bounds through this glitchy wall during the Giovanni minigame, you can find a single oven engulfed in flames, with Giovanni Goose laying on top of it. It seems to be a recreation of the gruesome scene we just witnessed, with Giovanni Goose taking the place of the human whose head was shoved in the deep friar. With these characters being mascot costumes,

it's possible that the guy we're seeing is actually Giovanni's human performer, and he was brutally murdered by whoever was playing Bucky. This would also confirm that the dead version of Olive we see floating in the river was another recreated scene. And while we don't know what happened to Walter's performer, Bucky's standing over him with squelching noises playing, yeah, it doesn't give me the best confidence he's okay. That brutal clip we just saw also gives us a date.

But this game came out in 1997, meaning the company would have had to have covered all of this up for seven. years. Is that why these videos are present in the game? To expose the company that the Steam page tells us is known as Broadside Studios? But if that's the case, who's trying to expose them? And why? For that, we need to go to this weird glitch you can find in the living quarters area after you fail the minigames. Walk into the glitching wall texture and you'll find yourself face to face with Chief Wolf once again. Only, it's not Chief Wolf. The name that pops up on screen is Connor. At first, I wondered if Connor was another victim of Buckees, the actor for Chief

wolf, but then I read their dialogue and it is strange. They talk about polygons working together to create an illusion and go on to say that they made all of this. Is Connor the games developer? It's the only thing that would make sense for this kind of dialogue. And there's been plenty of indie horror games with devs trapped in their own games before. Except unlike most of those other game devs, Connor doesn't seem to be interested in escaping. They're just admiring their work.

Like they're proud of it, gruesome videos and all. Considering how hard this character is to find, I have a feeling this. This is more like a self-insert NPC, a sign to the player early on from the dev that they're heading in the right direction. Okay, so we have an idea of who did this, but we still don't know why he felt the need to turn against Broadside. So, let's keep digging. Remember those locked doors I pointed out earlier? The ones with the sign saying layer two, room one. Well, once you completely fail each minigame, those locked doors become unlocked and allow you to travel to a deeper second layer of the game.

Which, I guess, explains the layer two thing. Now, I'm not going to run through how to do every little puzzle in each of these next rooms, or for the entirety of this game, for that matter. There are so many puzzles that this would be an hour-long video if I were to explain each one step by step. Not every puzzle has law significance either, and finally, I actually think it's just fun to leave some mystery for you guys so that you can go and play this for yourselves. I promise you, it's well worth it. But what I do want to do is to explain the primary puzzles that you need to solve to progress.

Because I have never seen ciphers like this used before, and this won't be the last time they get used either. So, if you go into Walter's door, you'll eventually come across a room with a number of cabins and an audio player on the wall. It's labelled with code is RXBC, and playing it gives you a string of words. These words are part of the phonetic alphabet. Romeo, X-ray, Bravo, and Charlie. And look at that. Those words line up with the four letters of the code label. But every keypad in the game is a four number code, not letters.

So how does that work? Well, you have to take the number of times each word is said to get the number for each letter. In this case, Romeo is said six times, X-ray twice, Bravo twice, and Charlie four times. 6-2-24. That will unlock the next part of your path. The second kind of puzzle is found through Olive's Door. In one of the rooms is a recorder playing the song Hot Cross Buns. And on the wall, it says Code is E-C-D-C. If you explore a little, you'll find another recorder that talks about downloading sheet music.

And that is exactly what you have to do here. Look at the sheet music for Hot Cross Buns, count the number of times the notes E, C and D are used, And bam, that's your code. I told you these ciphers were clever. But it's Giovanni's door that is the most interesting. Inside is a small theatre, which, if you stop and look at the screen, you'll see our four mascot friends, except they look nightmarish. I initially wondered if these were monster versions

and that maybe this was the Bucky that killed the other three. But we saw from earlier that the Bucky looked pretty normal when he attacked. So I'm not entirely sure what to make of this right now. Nevertheless, we must carry on to the next room, a red dining hall, and after some puzzles, an art gallery. In the gallery, there is a keypad on the wall that once again requires a four number code to unlock. Next to it, you can see banners of four colors in order. Red, blue, blue, green.

And if you paid attention to the room, you'll notice all the paintings are coloured. Some of them have numbers on them. Red is eight. Blue is three and green is nine. Those numbers remain the same throughout the game, so do take note. But once you get through the hallway, you'll start to hear something. I like that they're just giving us the lore. That is exactly what they're doing, Matt.

this audio gives you all the backstory on broadside animation that we could possibly need to know. We learn of a man named Rex, an artist that struggled to find success, but eventually, in the 1940s, his first character, a rabbit, suddenly took off, only for him to lose the right to that character, eventually leading to the creation of Bucky Beaver. If this sounds familiar, it should. It's exactly the same thing as what happened to Walt Disney and Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, and the rise of arguably the most famous cartoon character of all time, Mickey Mouse. And just like good old Disney, after a lot of success with this new cast of characters,

eventually they would open up a theme park called Studio Grounds. However, this recording offhandedly mentions a previous park that Studio Grounds is based on, one located on an island that you could only travel to by boats. To get to this point in the game, we've traveled through kitchens, dining rooms, beach huts, pools, theaters, all things that would make sense at an island theme park. It's not just the murders that are being recreated inside this game. This whole place is a recreation of that original theme park, Broadside Beach. Beyond the corridor is a museum and a switch.

Hit it and we end up in a new hub room. Solve the puzzles and we find a computer with a switch that opens up a browser tab showing us a website for a company called Cogware Games. This About Us page tells us about the employees. Elizabeth, Harry and Connor. Looks like we were right about Connor being the dev of this game. These guys talk about their desire to pursue 3D graphics as well as adult humor and, quote, Some Edge.

Yeah, I think you might be. of overshot that one guys. Moving forward though, the tone suddenly shifts. On the walls are drawings of a game of Hangman with most of the name Brandon filling in the spaces. Text warning us to stop and a drawing of Bucky with this third eye open. Something tells me going down here is going to start connecting a lot of dots for us. We're going to see things as they really are. And so, in search of that sweet, sweet law, we continue to venture down into layer three. Here, the world is dark. We're given a single candle and a tape recorder. Someone is describing the death we saw played out with the character Olive back on layer one.

Someone in a Bucky costume, dragging a woman to the water and drowning her in the lake. Confirming that what we've been seeing in the game are recreations of real-life events. We have to continue on until we reach a computer, and it has a lot to say. The horrors that are to come, the concept of the layers we find ourselves in, and the ciphers we have been solving. The substitution cipher is a language known as Beaver Scratch. The alphabet puzzle is called a Shakespeare cipher, the music puzzle is a Mozart cipher, and the picture puzzle is a Picasso cipher. While this information is certainly useful, I feel like it would have been more useful,

you know, a layer ago when I was banging my head against the wall trying to figure out how they worked. But no matter. We're here now and we must go forth exploring the three doors available in order to move on. Technically, you can actually only explore two doors, but there are important audio recordings in each one, so of course I've checked them all out. Two of them come from Connor who describes how progress for the game is going, describing areas and characters from Shipwreck 64, and how they're going to be presented to someone

called Mark later. Oh, oh, Mark. The guy from that audio tape we heard earlier, the one with the terminally ill partner. If Cogware Games is working on a broadside game and they're going to be presenting to Mark later, that would mean that Mark is likely a higher up at broadside. But based on this third recording we get from Connor, it seems like he's not the easiest guy to work with. He's not even enough. His stares must be set astronomically high. Plus, after the, you know, the thing I found, I just got to be honest. much less safe around that man.

Once again, Connor is leaving a breadcrumb trail to reveal to us the truth about what happened and the company behind it all. It seems like Connor found the footage of these deaths, the ones that we've been witnessing. I mean, I wouldn't feel safe around a guy that lets monsters like this run loose, would you? Yet, he also seems to still be willing to work with Mark. He's not acting like he wants to expose the truth he's found. So, what changed for him to do so later? Oh, and speaking of Monster, this particular room offers us insight into one of the characters

we've not been able to identify, Bucky himself. So far, we found the victims, the devs of the game, and Mark. But the serial killer Bucky has remained a mystery. However, after looking at this wall, I believe we finally have a name. On the wall, we see the words, Who Are You? Along with a drawing that will look familiar to those of you who cleared the puzzles in Walter's Waterway. It's a statue of Bucky. There's also seven letters missing, just like the ones we saw earlier in the hallway that

spell out the name Brandon. Brandon is the name of the guy inside the costume. the one that was acting strange and lashed out to his co-stars. This is where the gameplay gets a lot harder, because now we're being attacked by monster versions of the four major mascots that we saw in the glitchy footage. Turns out, these are known as dwellers, and they are horrifying.

But regardless of this new threat, we are still on the hunt for the law, and it is everywhere on this floor. If you look at the walls very carefully while you're solving puzzles, you'll find notes from Cogware games, and these blow a massive part of the broadside backstory wide open. There are dozens of these notes around the level, but after just a couple, you start to get the picture. I was at the offices last night. I had brought a drive with me. It contained our

presentation from Broadside. I didn't grab the drive on the way out. When I slid my drive into the slot, nothing I included was there, but instead a branching web of folders, the contents of which were repulsive. Many different folders, so many names, so many labels, so many mistakes. It's sickening. Folders dedicated to old cartoons, but not just that, cover-ups too. A little girl was crushed in the squirrel cruise, quite literally, head caught between the track and the boat. I saw the pictures, it's as bad as you think. Oh, and it gets worse, so much worse. Not only have guests died, but employees have two. Before studio grounds, they owned an entire island, and on that island, at the very least, there were three deaths. Connor definitely saw the horrifying footage

that we've seen, the three employee deaths that happened on an island resort owned by Broadside, but Cogware Games decided to recreate murders and all. But if you keep going, and complete the various Picasso and Mozart ciphers, as well as a few code-based puzzles that are lying around, and then you collect the batteries for the in-game computer, we are actually treated to a zip folder full of at least some of the files that the notes mention. We have three folders named Olivia, Nathan and Gary. Olivia's folder contains Olive's character model,

pictures of her as a human and in costume, and the audio recordings we've heard, as well as this note that once again confirms that what we've witnessed in the game is 100% a recreation of what happened that night. By checking Gary's folder, we can also find the footage that we've already seen, as well as the aftermath of his corpse from being dunked in the deep friar. Gary was Giovanni's actor, which leaves Nathan as Walter's actor. And in his folder, we finally see what was missing from the mysterious squelchy clip we heard earlier. Bucky walked over to him and beat him to death with a chair.

Yeah, it was never going to be good, was it? And yet, the question remains, why give this to us? Why expose Broadside like this? I mean, sure. The company is clearly not a good company. But is that enough motivation? Connor found these files, but still seemed to be willing to work with Mark on this game. This is also an official game after all.

Broadside were paying for this, so why risk it? Well, before you finish the plaza, there is one audio recording that shines some light on this, and it's from our friend, Mark. The entire brand's been going down the drain. The best option we got is to cut the game studio we've hired. I'm going to schedule a meeting with them, and if they don't have exactly, exactly what they promised, we cut them off. I'm throwing the exact same amount of money I'm paying for hard. these medical bills until this game studio.

Broadside was bleeding money, which is unsurprising when you're busy, you know, covering up murders, running TV shows, theme parks, and your own freaking private island. Plus, this person, Harley, seems to be the loved one that Mark mentioned earlier in the audio log, the one that's going to be in hospital for a long time. He's also having to pay for those medical bills. And so, the best plan of action is for him to cut all funding to the video game, or so he thinks. For a small indie studio, losing a deal like this could, cause them to completely go under.

If that happens, they'd likely want revenge, especially if they happened to stumble across a bunch of files that revealed to them the cover-ups and murders that the company had committed. And once we leave layer three, that is exactly what we see play out. Layer 4 to start with is essentially a tech demo, but use the elevator to descend into the sewers and you'll once again face a game as worst nightmare. Not scary monsters, no, we love that stuff.

Instead, you once again have to lose by getting caught by the dwellers. Landing yourself in a jail cell, but also giving yourself access to a new area with some Picasso ciphers and two new audio logs from Connor. One titled Devlog, Panic, and the other, Resolution. Toss the script. Toss the f***. It's done. It's over. I can't even lie to my stuff on this recording. It went horribly. All that worked, all for nothing.

It's only a matter of time until I get their two-week notices on my desk. Change a plan. Liz has already done everything she needed to. Harry's done, well, enough. I'm taking the reins now. I'm completing this song. No help, no influence from Broadside, Mark, or any of those disgusting fuck. I was worried about what he'd do to me?

By the time I'm done with him, he regret the day he first uttered my name. Connor was blindsided by Mark's decision. He was ready to go in with a full presentation, only to be completely shot down and cut off from the project. Now, he's mad. Mad enough that he's going to make Mark regret everything by outing Broadside's awful practices, by recreating the parks as well as all the murders that took place, and by leaving a trail of breadcrumbs that we've been piecing together of how Broadside and Mark treated Cogware games.

Anyone that got their hands on this game would be able to figure out what happened, and it would likely mean the end of Mark and Broadside. That could have been where the story ended. A scorned developer taking revenge on a man that ruined his career. However, the game keeps going. There's a demo for a game that you have to download and play to unlock more codes, which, can I just say, is insane for an ARG. video game. It's one thing to link to webpages and YouTube videos like we've been doing throughout this game,

but to create essentially a second game just to hide a few codes, I tip my hat to you, sir, truly inspired. But thanks to that demo, we now have access to the final layer, layer 5. At this point, we are introduced to a new character, a character that the game describes as made of wood and cloth, except it can move and even speak. you understand what I need you to find me. If you do as I ask, you'll know everything, every single detail of what has happened. You are speaking my language, weird, statue looking thing. And so our last task is to find this thing 10 times on the original island map.

And if we do, we finally get to the end of this game. We're met with a final audio log that shows the meeting between Connor and Mark, where Mark shut down the whole thing, leading Connor to create that earlier audio log and take over the project. to reveal the truth about Broadside. But sadly, his revenge didn't seem to fix anything. We end up in a final tunnel that leads to a balcony. The only option is for us to jump off it. And by doing so, we cut to real footage of a real balcony,

as well as a statement from Cogware Games. Connor took his own life. We get some slides reminding us that when these details inside the game were found, the game was pulled from store shelves. Connor's efforts were once again going to be covered up by Broadside, likely pinned on him as a rogue indie game developer trying to slander their good name. Just like we've seen time and time again in other indie franchises.

The majority of them were total fabrications from the mind of a complete lunatic. Lawsuits pending. And with that, knowing he couldn't do anything to stop them, and with his own reputation destroyed, Conner jumped off the balcony, leaving behind nothing but a broken family, a broken game, and his own personal calling card, an MPC wolf hidden inside the glitches of the game that someone might one day find. And that, my friends, is the sad but incredible story of shipwrecked.

X-64. The story of a studio turned theme park attraction that was responsible for the deaths of dozens of people, only for them to cover up the entire thing to keep their success going. It's a story of a CEO who appeared to be ruled by greed, cutting corners, staging cover-ups, and firing a game studio that was genuinely just trying to make a good product. But it turns out it wasn't greed, it was love. Mark was desperate to save his partner. They needed life-saving care, but as is often the case, the cost was just too much. So, he did the only thing he could. Cut off the game studio funding.

Only for them to reveal to the world all the tragedies his company had caused and tried to hide. He tried to stop it, but after all these years, the truth has finally been revealed. In the end, both sides ended up losing. What an incredibly powerful story and an incredible gaming experience. However, while I feel really good about the artists we've come to today, I can't help but feel there's more that I'm missing. I know that there's a bunch of posters and audio recordings that he didn't get to simply due to time, but even still, despite the length of this video and the hours I've spent

playing the game, I actually think I've only scratched the surface. We still don't understand why Bucky's actor went on a murder spree. If this game is designed to be a recreation of the real island, then what are the dwellers about? We saw enough pictures of these nightmarish characters, so where do they fit into all of this? And what's the truth behind that weird wooden entity we chased around the island at the end? I know the answers to those questions do exist. However, it's going to have to wait until next time, because to fully understand them, we're going to have to venture beyond just the game and into the deep law that hides in documentaries, demos, and ARGs that are all present on the developer's YouTube channels.

In the meantime, friends, remember, that's just a theory. A game theory! Thanks for watching.