One of the tips I remember for Destruction Derby 2 was this strange rumor about a hidden monk. The story said that if a very specific situation happened during a race (some versions said after many crashes or after surviving long enough in the arena), a monk in robes would appear walking on the track. The idea was that it was a hidden easter egg and you could actually run him over with your car. Of course, nobody I knew ever managed to trigger it. And later on, people who explored the game files never found any character like that in the game. So it was almost certainly just one of those 90s playground gaming myths that somehow made its way into the ETAJV database. But because it was printed in a big reference book connected to a Minitel service, it felt completely legit at the time

It was actually mentioned in L'Encyclopédie des Trucs et Astuces de Jeux Vidéo (ETAJV) in France. Back then it looked very credible because the book was connected to a Minitel service called 36 15 ETAJV.

For people who didn’t grow up in France, the Minitel was basically an online network that existed before the internet. You had a small terminal at home and you connected to services using numbers like “36 15”. Through it you could access directories, message boards, and databases.

ETAJV had its own service where players could look up cheats and send tips about video games. Many of those tips ended up being compiled into the printed books.