Bronze Pal
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→From a Joke to Reality
=From a Joke to Reality=
[[Image:Quest-cows-early.jpg|thumb|300px|First look at Cows, April Fools, 1999.]]There were player-created rumors/jokes about a Secret Cow Level in Diablo I, based on the cows in the pasture in Tristram, that would moo, or cause your character to say something amusing, if you clicked the bovines long enough. There was is no secret level or anything related to the cows other than an Easter Egg style joke in Diablo I: Hellfire, and Blizzard repeatedly denied its existence in both serious and humorous ways, such as the Starcraft cheat code "there is no cow level." However, but the D2 Diablo II team obviously got their apparently drew upon the rumor for inspiration from that, and worked the whole level into Diablo II.
The first hint of a secret cow level came on April 1, 1999, over a year before Diablo II was released, when [[:Image:Quest-cows-early.jpg|this screenshot]] was released. It was taken as simply an April Fools' Joke at the time, but the joke was clearly on us, as things turned out. The cow level in the final game does not take place in the Act One caves, nor are any of the cows brown in coloration, so clearly there were some changes made during development.