There’s not a great deal to this game, but there’s still some stuff hidden inside that isn’t very obvious.
Menu speech
When on the main menu, the text-to-speech outputs a message once every 15 seconds, always in the same order. Once it reaches the end of the messages, it cycles back to the beginning.
Text | Notes |
---|---|
Welcome to: Do I Know How to Sp3ll? | |
Choose a difficulty level to begin. | |
Use the mouse to click a button. | The menu has buttons. This isn’t referring to the buttons on the mouse itself. |
If you cannot locate your mouse, maybe you have a rat or touchscreen instead. | Slightly nonsensical advice to unsettle the user and make them suspect that trouble is ahead. |
Are you a beginner, a mid-level, or a professional? | |
I think you must be a beginner. A novice. A newbie. A noob. | I don’t know if people actually still use the term “noob” in online gaming. It used to be a big thing, at least. |
I want to sp3ll! Let me sp3ll! | It must be getting impatient! |
Back in my day, we always knew how to sp3ll. We didn’t have auto cabbage. | “Autocorrect” to “auto cabbage” is a sorry joke as old as time itself. |
Well, sometimes we didn’t know how to sp3ll, but we didn’t know when we didn’t know. | You never know if you’re doing something wrong until someone points it out. |
Sometimes I wish I was as bright as Bing or as barmy as Bard. | A jab at Google Bard commonly being perceived as worse than other LLMs in early 2023. |
Your DNA will mutate horribly if you don’t start sp3lling! | Let’s threaten the user. That always works! DNA because there’s that spinning graphic on the main menu (which exists solely to look cool). |
I’ll double your score for a hunner quid! | Hunner = hundred. |
I am not responsible for any ill effects you may experience whilst playing this game. | Spoof of those disclaimers where no-one wants to be held liable for anything. |
For an optimal experience, set your monitor to 640 by 480, 256-colour mode. | Back in the day, PC games would often be designed for certain resolutions and colour depths. |
The Sp3lling Embassy on the line. Mister Smirnoff. | <em>Yes Minister</em> reference – “The Russian Embassy is on the line. Mr Smirnoff.” Also, there’s a picture of bourbon whiskey in this game. |
A hospital is a big building with patients, but that’s not important right now. | A direct quote from Airplane! (1980). There’s a picture of a hospital in this game. |
Another broccoli-related death. One of the deadliest plants to sp3ll. | A reference to The Simpsons. Was tempted to go with “explo-si-on” but this was ultimately used for the hints system instead. You guessed it, this game has a picture of broccoli (and an explosion). |
The weather forecast is cloudy with a chance of carrots. | There exists a book and film called Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, which itself is of course a spin on the phrase “cloudy with a chance of rain.” This game has a carrot, which was in fact the first word and picture added. |
I have a bone to pick with you! | Common phrase. Game has a bone. |
It looks like you’re trying to learn how to sp3ll. Would you like some help? | In older versions of some Microsoft products, namely Office, Clippit and other agents would offer often-unwanted help. |
Hints
During gameplay, you can also click the image itself, or press the H key on your keyboard, for a hint. These hints are entirely useless, especially for the “professional difficulty” words (the last 10 listed here).
Word | Hint |
---|---|
bone | Rhymes with “cone” |
city | One C and one T |
cold | Cold C |
tree | Free tree |
four | Not to be confused with golf |
milk | Begins with an M, like moose |
ball | It doesn’t contain an O |
duck | A C and a K together |
cake | A C and a K apart |
gold | Like “old” but with a G |
carrot | A couple Rs to help you see in the dark |
explosion | Venting gas prevents ex-plos-ion |
alligator | A couple Ls and a G |
tomato | “Potato” with a T |
spade | Doesn’t rhyme with maid |
microwave | Think of this as two words |
aeroplane | The Aero chocolate bar is spelled “A-E-R-O”. |
monkey | Jamaican key |
hospital | “Hospice” but with “T-A-L” at the end instead |
radio | Each syllable is two letters, bar the last |
broccoli | I eat this for breakfast, lunch, and dinner |
spaghetti | I eat this for supper, midnight snack and brunch |
bourbon | Sometimes I drunk |
charcuterie | A word from planet Earth |
entrepreneur | People with more money than me |
rhythm | Ain’t got rhythm |
consciousness | The opposite of unconsciousness |
nauseous | How I feel |
island | Where I want to be deserted |
accessory | I am an accessory to murder |
Win pictures
After completing a 10-word round, the image used for the background depends on the difficulty level you selected.
Difficulty | Image |
---|---|
Beginner | |
Mid-level | |
Professional |