This four-digit code, 0451 has surfaced in several games.
Indeed, this code has been regularly showing up in AAA titles, but the earliest example of its appearance can be led back to 1994’s System Shock. It’s one of the many games that Warren Spector has created. Spector talked about the subject in a 2015 video, which was a let’s play of Deus Ex. The speciality of the video was that its creators, namely Spector, Sheldon Pacotti, and Chris Norden played with basically their game. In this video, Spector revealed that the 0451 code was something special, as it was used by Looking Glass Studios (which was located in the United States, namely in Cambridge, Massachusetts), the developers of System Shock. This code was required to enter the building. On Twitter, someone asked if the code was from Fahrenheit 451. (This dystopic novel was written by Ray Bradbury – its first publication was in October 1953.) Spector’s response follows: „The Bradbury reference is just a nice bonus. Sorry…”
After System Shock, multiple games used the code. First, BioShock did it in 2007, and remember, that game was meant to be the spiritual successor of System Shock. Four years later, in 2011, Deus Ex: Human Revolution also utilised the code, and we don’t need to explain its relation to Spector. Later, in 2014, Alien: Isolation slightly twisted it around to 4510. The digits are still there, though. In 2016. Dishonored 2 had “451,” but you can add that zero in front of it. In 2017, Mafia III used 0451 for an elevator, and last but not least, this year, Wolfenstein: Youngblood used this code. That is a lot of games.
Four digits that return often – perhaps because it’s easy to type it on the numpad even with closed eyes.
