Developer hid a proposal in every copy of a 'Game Boy' game — but his girlfriend never played it for 3 years so he tipped off a magazine

Surprise proposals have taken on a shape of their own, with people going all the way to make it unique and unforgettable for their partners. One game developer took it a step further and turned to a classic video game for his proposal. Mike Mika, the programming artist, proposed to his girlfriend, Mickey, in 1999 by hiding a secret message inside the game code of every copy of "Atari’s Klax" for the Game Boy Color, as he shared in an interview with WIRED.

How it all started

That day, Mika had finished his work ahead of schedule, and he noticed there was both time and space in the game code’s memory. He knew what to do with this free space: hide a marriage proposal. "She loves puzzle games, I'm doing a puzzle game now, so let me just put that out there, and she will find this thing in the game," he described to the outlet. He hid the code, and when the game came out, he urged her to play it but ran into an unexpected issue. "I leave the Game Boy out, I urge her to play it, and she never picks it up," he laughed. "This goes on for literally, I think, almost like years now. It was like three years," during which Mickey never discovered the proposal. "So do I propose to her normal, or I have this thing here that's really cool, but I can't get her to play it, ever?" Mika wondered aloud.

She spotted her name in a magazine

It wasn’t until June 2003 that Mika finally got an opportunity. He got a call from Chris Bienek of the Tips & Tricks magazine, who talked about the publication of their 100th issue, and asked him whether he had any special codes to share that had never been revealed to the public. “Well yes, I do,” he replied. One night, after the code was published in the magazine, he put the magazine and the game on display in a space where he knew his girlfriend would see it. Then he left the house. “I can't really be here or she'll tell me to do it, so I get out of the house," Mika said.

While he drove around, Mickey returned home and checked the code. To her surprise, the magazine had published her name in the article, so when she opened the game, she knew what to look for. Upon finding the proposal, she immediately called Mika and said yes. “She was kind of miffed that I waited four years, but I swear I tried to get her to play it sooner,” he told Arcade Attack.

What makes a perfect proposal

Mika’s plan was bound to work, given that it was a perfect mix of timing, simplicity, and surprise. A 2013 study by the Open University, cited by OnePlusOne, surveyed over 5,000 people and revealed that deceptively simple gestures like saying thank you, leaving notes, cuddles, and cuppas help relationships get stronger day after day. Another study published in the Journal of Family Psychology documented an analysis of 374 marriage proposals and reported that the best proposals follow traditional “scripts” such as the man kneeling down on one knee with a ring, flowers, chocolates, and so on. Surprises are always welcome, but the timing and place have to be perfect according to the recipient.

From 'Wedding Guy' to 'Donkey Kong Dad'

The proposal code wasn't the only iconic thing Mika did. In 2013, he also hacked the Nintendo game "Donkey Kong" so his young daughter could play it as a female character, in contrast to the original male character. “The experience was eye-opening for me and my daughter’s simple request touched a lot of people. It’s changed the way I approach game design now. I will always strive to create games that enable everyone to feel represented,” he reflected.

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