When I was a kid I stumbled upon the secret blue rupee room in Legend of Zelda - A Link to the Past for the SNES. I was ridiculed at the time because I couldn't reproduce it. I remember in the dialog box that appears when you enter this room that it was placed there by someone called Chris Houlihan.
How do you get to this room in the game?
The Chris Houlihan room is named after the winner of a contest Nintendo Power ran in 1990 to have your name in an unnamed upcoming game. The existence of this room remained a secret for many years after the game was released.
The game is actually programmed to transport you to this room as a fallback condition whenever an error occurs entering a new area. This means while it's possible to randomly stumble upon it accidentally, it's an incredibly rare event. However, there are at least a few reproducible ways to reach the room. The YouTube video eldarerathis linked to shows a few.
In the GBA port of LttP, the room data remains in the game, but it's no longer reachable without hacking the ROM. The Chris Houlihan reference was also removed from the text.
There's actually several different ways of doing this, and someone put together a convenient Youtube video that shows 5 different methods.
The basic premise is the same in all of the methods, and is based on the fact that the room is something of a failsafe. If a glitch or error occurs while Link is falling into a hole, he gets transported to the room to prevent the game from crashing. Similar things have existed in other games, like the "I HAVE NO GREETING" bug in Oblivion: Shivering Isles.
Also, for the curious, the room wasn't actually "placed" by Chris Houlihan. I can't find a completely authoritative source, but as this Zeldawiki page explains, Chris Houlihan won a contest in Nintendo Power with the prize being that his name would be put in a room in the game somewhere (other sites corroborate this).
Embedded video from above:
Taken from: http://faqs.ign.com/articles/374/374271p1.html
As far as I've read, there are a few methods to gain access to the room. I have everyone at the Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past message board at GameFAQs.com to thank for this information! THANKS GUYS! I hope this FAQ pays tribute to all of your hard work and effort to bring this secret out.
NOTE: To do any of these, you MUST have the Pegasus Shoes, because you HAVE to run.
The first method, and the one I use the most often, and works the most often for me, is the following. Start the game from a save file, and choose to start out at the Sanctuary. As the game starts, you're within the walls of the Sanctuary. Immediately run south, out of the Sanctuary, and then south again, out of the garden of the Sanctuary. Then run west one screen, and turn south as soon as you can. You'll now be in a heavily wooded area. Carefully (and quickly) navigate the trees, bushes and enemies, and head west, to the side passage into the castle walls. Once here, run south, then east, and then north. Run north and run INTO the bush that hides the hidden passage into the castle basement, and you'll fall into it. If you're fast enough, instead of falling into the basement, you'll fall into the Chris Houlihan Room. Neat-o. Thanks to a good guy at the Zelda: LttP message boards, named ABR. Thanks to him, this FAQ is possible, because his help turned me on to this secret!
The second method is similar. Go to Kakariko village, to the vertical pathway on the east side of town, on the edge of town. GO to the north of it, and run north. Run east, past the Fortune Teller's house, and then run south into the wooded area. From here, it's identical to the first method... this version never worked for me, but coincidentally, this is the version most people seem to successfully use, so I was probably not fast enough. You may have different luck, however.
Now for an unconfirmed method. Many people say that if you fall into a hole in Ganon's Tower (e-mail me to confirm WHICH hole), that you will fall into the Chris Houlihan Room. This is unconfirmed.
The fact of the matter is that the room seems to be designed in such a way that if there's any malfunction with the game cartridge, that it'll automatically transport you here. David Wonn sites this one his site, saying that the game scans for problems when entering caves and houses, and if there is a malfunction with the cartridge, you will be transported to the Chris Houlihan Room. This is confirmed, but very, very rare. David Wonn says that you have a better chance of winning the lottery than hitting it this way.
Videos:
from a different user:
What causes the game to load the Chris Houlihan's room is not yet entirely understood. It is believed that the room was intended as a failsafe; if there is a fatal error when the player changes rooms, the game dumps Link into the secret room. Most often it occurs when Link falls down into a hole leading to another area; it is known to be possible from the secret passage hole next to Hyrule Castle, the faery hole that's east of the cemetery, and the hole on top of the Pyramid of Power (where the final battle takes place). There are possibly other ways to enter the Chris Houlihan Room, but they are rare and do not work with any degree of accuracy.
The page was at strategy wiki oh, and you can only access the room once after entered, or, once per run
