In the video game Superhot, after
being uploaded and freed from your useless, disposable body,
there is some tiny red text against a black background that shows up for a few seconds on the monitors. What does it say?
asked Aug 2, 2019 at 15:29
-
A screenshot would be useful– JenayahCommented Aug 2, 2019 at 15:31
-
@Jenayah I’m trying to make one small enough to upload right now :-)– StormblessedCommented Aug 2, 2019 at 15:34
-
2Is this truly on topic?– Levi C. OlsonCommented Aug 3, 2019 at 1:46
-
@DJSpicy why do you think it wouldn’t be?– StormblessedCommented Aug 3, 2019 at 1:48
-
2@Stormblessed because its a video game that's not very SFFish– Levi C. OlsonCommented Aug 3, 2019 at 1:49
|
Show 2 more comments
3 Answers
Riffing off of Valorum's answer, guru meditation is a reference to a famous Amiga error. From The New Hacker's Dictionary:
Amiga equivalent of panic in Unix (sometimes just called a guru or guru event). When the system crashes, a cryptic message of the form “GURU MEDITATION #XXXXXXXX.YYYYYYYY” may appear, indicating what the problem was. An Amiga guru can figure things out from the numbers. Sometimes a guru event must be followed by a Vulcan nerve pinch.This term is (no surprise) an in-joke from the earliest days of the Amiga. An earlier product of the Amiga corporation was a device called a ‘Joyboard’ which was basically a plastic board built onto a joystick-like device; it was sold with a skiing game cartridge for the Atari game machine. It is said that whenever the prototype OS crashed, the system programmer responsible would calm down by concentrating on a solution while sitting cross-legged on a Joyboard trying to keep the board in balance. This position resembled that of a meditating guru. Sadly, the joke was removed fairly early on (but there's a well-known patch to restore it in more recent versions).
answered Aug 2, 2019 at 20:47
-
4
-
@Darren: My brother got me a paper copy of the Hacker's Dictionary at a tender age. Commented Aug 2, 2019 at 22:34
It says
Software failure. Press left mouse button to continue.
Guru Meditation #00000004.48454C50
I managed to freeze-frame it on this "ending" video
As @Fuzzyboots has pointed out in his answer, the words relate to an (old) easter egg error message used on Commodore Amiga computers. In this instance, a software failure that would require a reboot, the numbers 48454C50 spelling out "help" in ASCII code, which signifies a fatal error that the computer can't diagnose.
-
Not an "easter egg". More like a "sudden rage event". That's the cost of not shelling out for a proper MMU. Commented Aug 3, 2019 at 18:18
-
Animated gif here ...
#00000004.4E454C50means that CPU hit an illegal instruction in the task that can be found at address 0x4E454C50. That's too high an address for a Motorola 68000 though, which would only go to 0xFFFFFF Commented Aug 3, 2019 at 18:31 -
2@DavidTonhofer: The second number is almost certainly 48454C50, which spells out "HELP" in ASCII code. It's what the Amiga would show if it couldn't determine the relevant address for some reason (e.g. because the error handling code itself crashed and the machine had to reboot before displaying a deferred error box). Commented Aug 3, 2019 at 21:13
Software failure. Press left mouse button to continue.
Guru Meditation ?000000004.48454C50
I'm not sure what the ? is. Possibly a block ▊ or a hash #
