What issue did that infamous "PROTIP" come from?

You know the one.



I've gotten a request for a better quality version of this image, but every single one I can see is the same low-quality scan, with the ugly horizontal banding and everything. Worse, not a single resource seems to be able to cite an issue of GamePro or review thereof that produced the image. Does anyone have any information on it?

What the hell is that thing on the left anyway? Looks like a slope.
e: nevermind, I'm stupid. I think the horizontal lines confused me.

It's a spoof, created by Linguica, IIRC.

^^ I think I recall reading that as well when I searched about it.

It's funny though how many places on the internet treat it as though it actually existed:

http://thephoenix.com/boston/recroom/24888-20-greatest-bosses-in-video-game-history-13/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyberdemon
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/protip
http://www.destructoid.com/blogs/randombullseye/pro-tip-shoot-at-it-until-it-dies-my-goodbye-to-gamepro--217287.phtml

etc

There's blast marks on the wall on that image where rockets have previously hit. Don't think vanilla Doom had that.

Grazza said:

It's a spoof, created by Linguica, IIRC.

Indeed.

http://www.doomworld.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&postid=638978#post638978

It's an April Fools prank, I was playing the long long con

edit, June 27, 2016: sigh, ok. For posterity, the fake protip was created on March 7, 2004, and originally posted in this post here. It was not actually an "April Fools prank", and it wasn't even a "prank" per se - I made a couple of what I thought were obviously fake protip images and posted them in a thread for people to have a sensible chuckle at. I didn't think anything more of them, until a couple of months or years later when I started seeing the Cyberdemon one spreading around the internet and turning into what we nowadays would call a meme (although no one called it that back then). At that point, there was no way to put the genie back in the bottle. So that's basically the whole story.

Well played, Stine, well played.

The man, the myth, the legend is back. In all seriousness didn't you make a similar "poster" for Action Doom as an advertisement? I seem to remember something like that for Action Doom.

I was beginning to assume it was fake, but didn't want to presume.

The sad thing is, I thought it was real this entire time. Good show, sir.

I just corrected Wikipedia's Cyberdemon page:
"The widespread claim, occurring in many places on the Internet, that this "pro tip" was published by GamePro, however, is erroneous, as it was actually created by Linguica, founder of Doomworld. [8]"

and once again the world is at peace

Shadow Hog said:

The sad thing is, I thought it was real this entire time. Good show, sir.

Close enough: it was a real fake.

I've always figured the ZDoom scortch marks were meant to be the subtle "tell", as GamePro wouldn't have been reviewing or making player's guides for DOOM by the time ZDoom existed. Also, it's a bit of a troll if you think about it, since it simultaneously proves that people who fall for it don't realize DOOM didn't have scortch mark decals - that, or that they are extremely inobservant.

I myself have found a multitude of places claiming this is authentic and using it as a primo example of poor writing in those guides. I never correct them because I think it is:

• First, funny, and
  
• Second, a perfect example of how pseudo-history gets created.
  

If in 50 years the majority of people think this image is authentic, eventually nobody will know the better and it will join the great ranks of all the other things we take for granted just because somebody told us so.

I bought it too. I figured it was from a retrospective article or something, hence the scorch marks from using a modern engine.

I didn't even notice the scorch marks until this thread, so.

...well Ive been fooled for a long time.

Always thoughtthat was real. Never noticed the scorch marks either..

I just want to point out to whoever edited http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyberdemon that it wasn't actually an April Fools prank, I just said that because it was April 1 when I replied to the thread. I'm posting it here as "evidence" of the truth because I don't want to edit the entry and have it reverted as WP:ORIGINALRESEARCH or whatever the hell those wikipedians call it

Shadow Hog said:

I didn't even notice the scorch marks until this thread, so.

This^

Didn't know this was fake, but now I guess it's kinda obvious. Well played Linguicia.

^^ Fixed that for you. At least, I'm thinking "a gag" is more accurate than "an April Fool's prank".

Linguica said:

I just want to point out to whoever edited http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyberdemon that it wasn't actually an April Fools prank, I just said that because it was April 1 when I replied to the thread. I'm posting it here as "evidence" of the truth because I don't want to edit the entry and have it reverted as WP:ORIGINALRESEARCH or whatever the hell those wikipedians call it

This is probably the best interpretation of the monkey business that is wikipedia standards.