Unsurprisingly, UFO 50 has a secret meta-game that I have only scratched the top of.

UFO 50 has been taking over my life for the past few days. When I'm glued to the simple Windjammers pleasures of Bushido Ball I'm throwing my big walrus around perfect blue skies with Waldorf's Journey. I don't know if I'll ever be able stop playing it. Kerry described it as a "superb retro style smorgasbord" in her review.

UFO 50, in addition to hosting 50 8 bit style console games belonging a fictional 1980s company, is really dedicated to fiction of its games’ provenance: Each has a little history and references to other games are found throughout the entire collection. It also has an eight-digit code terminal in the main menu.

Warning: If you prefer to find out all of this for yourself, please be aware that spoilers may follow.

Players are discovering codes in a very rapid pace, both on Reddit and the Steam community forums. Some codes are only functional: the prefix EXEC followed by the four-digit game code will load the game. EXEC-GOLF, for example, loads Golfaria. The prefix HELP will also bring up a list with commands for the game. LIST-GOLF allows you to see GOLF's position in the list of all games. When I enter LIST GOLF, I get this:

It only shows 17 entries. If I enter the game at the end of the list with LISTOVER, I can see up to 50. What if I want to see past50? There's a 51st codenamed game called MIAS.

By the way, this isn't your only option to find the 51st title. One Redditor found the code within Barbuta which is the first UFO 50 game and, if I may say so, a huge glorious pain to my arse. There's a Reddit thread that details a bizarrely complex chain of events that led to the discovery of EXEC MIAS and beyond. I haven’t followed it myself, but suffice to say that there are other codes that aren’t just shortcuts.

What is the 51st UFO50 game? It starts in a cellar. The player character, a humanoid-looking frog, is locked in a basement. It has an eerie feel to it, even though the 8-bit pixel graphics are the same as the other games in the collection. After a few interactions, you'll have access to a computer in your basement that contains what appears to be an early version of Paint Chase.

Is EXEC MIAS a game or a meta-narrative of UFOsoft? How deep is it, how many prototypes am I able to access, and what else does UFO 50 have hidden? I'm just as obsessed with UFO 50 as I was back when Spelunky HD had hidden secrets.