History Main / InexplicablyPreservedDungeonMeat

* In the ''VideoGame/DuckTales'' game for NES, Scrooge can find cakes and cones of ice cream hidden throughout Transylvania, Amazon Ruins, and the Moon.

Not only do video game heroes have little problem eating food they find lying around on the floor for much longer than the five-second rule allows, but even if that roast chicken had to have been sitting there for hundreds of years in someplace ''very'' unsanitary, it's still as fresh as if it just came out of the oven.

* In the opening of ''Sir, You Are Being Hunted'', the Narrator explicitly tells the player finding food powerups to "Don't look at it TOO closely.." as the robot patrols have exterminated the human inhabitants some time ago and the food has probably spoiled.

* Discussed by the WebVideo/AngryVideoGameNerd, who tries whipping walls and a candle like Simon Belmont of ''Franchise/{{Castlevania}}'' fame. RealityEnsues and his carpets catch fire.

* The ''VideoGame/{{Pikmin}}'' series takes place on Earth 250 million years in the future (as confirmed by ''3'') and has a suspicious lack of humans, but some of the treasures in ''2'' include various foodstuffs that still look perfectly fine, despite the conditions that they can be found in, from just lying around both above ground and underground, to being buried, even ''in the stomach of various creatures'' (and apparently ''taste'' perfectly fine, too, since the crew keep sneaking bites of them.)
** ''3'' doesn't get that much of a pass, either. Some fruits can be found attached to vines and such, but others can be found eaten by animals, partially buried within the earth, and sitting in caves for God knows how long. Sure, this can be excused partially because the crew wants the seeds and juice rather than the actual fruit itself, but you'd think the juice and seeds of an orange that's been submerged within a river would be at least a little spoiled...

-->'''Palutena''': [...]Though, I have seen him eat some questionable things off the ground...

* Given how dark and violent ''WesternAnimation/Castlevania2017'' is, one might not expect to see much in the way of Easter eggs and references, but the series did an incredible job respecting the lore of the characters. The Belmont Library alone has an incredible amount of Easter eggs pertaining to the monsters of the series. Lo and behold, in the final battle against Dracula, there are a few frames of animation where he and Alucard burst through a wall, [[http://images.nintendolife.com/875a91b28768f/castlevania-chicken2.original.jpg whereupon one can see a barely-concealed, well-preserved bit of wall-chicken.]]

[[quoteright:350:[[VideoGame/CastlevaniaI https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/castlevaniaturkey.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:"[[VideoGame/CastlevaniaIISimonsQuest What a horrible place to hide a chicken.]]"]]

-->-- '''Mel''', ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 4}}'', while talking to the [[{{Irony}} Sole Survivor]]

[[folder:Beat Em Up]]

[[folder:Hack And Slash]]

[[folder:Third Person Shooter]]

* The ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' series always has tons of pre-war food (even in the first game, the [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt Great War]] happened almost 100 years ago ) that's still perfectly edible, including the inexplicably popular Nuka-Cola. ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'' and ''[[VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas New Vegas]]'' work to subvert this somewhat, as eating pre-war food will still boost the player's health, but also inflict them with minor doses of radiation (and explicitly irradiated food that deals even more radiation when eaten can be found.) Lampshaded during "The Big Dig" quest in ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 4}}'' when you run across one of the Port-A-Diners that has an inexplicably well-preserved piece of 200-year-old pie in it.

* In ''[[VideoGame/StreetsOfRage Streets of Rage 2]]'', you can find whole roasted chicken by smashing arcade cabinets, wooden crates, and trashcans. It may not be sanitary, or make any sense, but you take what you can get when you're being ganged up on.

* Similar to the ''VideoGame/StreetsOfRage'' example, plates of meat can be found in ''VideoGame/FinalFight'' by smashing open steel drums, phone booths and even found in the wreckage of falling chandeliers.
* In the ''[[ComicBook/XenozoicTales Cadillac & Dinosaurs]]'' arcade game, you not only find pieces of meat inside steel drums, armor suits and wooden barrels but also salads, cakes and even sushi and boiled lobsters.

[[folder:First Person Shooter]]

* In the ''VideoGame/DuckTales'' game for NES, Scrooge can find cakes and cones of ice cream hidden throughout Transylvania, Amazon Ruins and the Moon.

[[folder:Real Time Strategy]]

* ''VideoGame/DungeonsOfDredmor'' lets the player find steak, aged steak, fresh steak and grilled steak, either lying on the floor, dropped by a monster, or conveniently stashed in a mini fridge or grill. Not to mention the fruits, sandwiches and the wide variety of cheeses available. Oh, and don't forget the danish.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Nethack}}'', corpses left by the majority of enemies are initially edible, but they decay and become poisonous to eat after a while. Fruits and vegetables, however, don't decay at all, and can be still found just lying on the floor waiting to be picked up and eaten with zero repercussions.

* The ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' series always has tons of pre-war food (even in the first game, the [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt Great War]] happened almost 100 years ago ) that's still perfectly edible, including the inexplicably popular Nuka-Cola. ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'' and ''[[VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas New Vegas]]'' work to subvert this somewhat, as eating pre-war food will still boost the player's health, but also inflict them with minor doses of radiation (and explicitly irradiated food that deals even more radiation when eaten can be found.) Lampshaded during "The Big Dig" quest in ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 4}}'' when you run across one of the Port-A-Diners that has an inexplicably well preserved piece of 200-year old pie in it.

* ''Film/PressStart'': While scouring Count Vile's lair, Zack is injured and in need of healing, so Lin-ku offers him some chicken he finds in the dungeon. It's cold, slimy and tastes nasty, but it does the trick.

* In ''Webcomic/ManlyGuysDoingManlyThings'', the Commander has to inform his men that eating food off the floor or out of trash cans will NOT heal you, and reminding [[VideoGame/FinalFight Cody]] that he had to get his stomach pumped for hours after his adventure.

* In ''VideoGame/Minecraft'' it is not unusual to find chests in the bottom of abandoned mineshafts and dungeons containing several loaves of bread and apples that can be eaten right away.

* In ''Webcomic/AwkwardZombie'', when [[http://awkwardzombie.com/index.php?page=0&comic=052818 fresh bread]] is found in a chest in a sewer they question where it came from, to which it shows a baker hiding in the shadows.

* In ''VideoGame/OdinSphere'', both killing enemies and clearing out stages will yield treasure chests that sometimes contain minor food items like milk and hot cross buns. Once the player gets to the Netherworld, however, they quickly find that the only food items that get dropped are old and withered.

Not only do video game heroes have little problem fueling their HyperactiveMetabolism with food they find lying around on the floor, but even if that roast chicken had to have been sitting there for hundreds of years in someplace ''very'' unsanitary, it's still as fresh as if it just came out of the oven.

Not only do video game heroes have little problem eating food they find lying around on the floor for much longer than the five-second rule allows, but even if that roast chicken had to have been sitting there for hundreds of years in someplace ''very'' unsanitary, it's still as fresh as if it just came out of the oven.

* Used throughout the ''Franchise/{{Castlevania}}'' series. The games up to & including ''[[VideoGame/CastlevaniaSymphonyOfTheNight Symphony of the Night]]'' typically allowed the player to break open walls to reveal different kinds of meat. Games after ''Symphony'' had food items just sitting on the floor out in the open or dropped by monsters, including cartons of milk that should've gone bad even faster than the meat.

* In ''VideoGame/OdinSphere'', both killing enemies and clearing out stages will yield treasure chests that sometimes contain minor food items like milk and hot cross buns. With some of these areas it makes sense, like when you're fighting in the capital of Titania or Ragnanival, or on the Valentian battlegrounds where there's tons of soldiers running around everywhere, but then there's also the monster-infested Elrit Forest and the Volkenan Lava Pit where it's less likely to stay fresh. Once the player gets to the Netherworld, however, they quickly find that the only food items that get dropped are old and withered.
* ''VideoGame/DungeonSiege'' knows what's what: meat is a club-type weapon.

* Played with in ''VideoGame/FableII'', where you'll find food even in dumps like Wraithmarsh, but the quality will be much lower.

[[folder:MMORPG]]
* In ''Videogame/TheElderScrollsOnline'' your character will usually eat prepared food, but even ignoring the fact that this food never spoils, the ingredients used to make it are usually found inside random boxes and barrels or sometimes laying on top of tables or hanging from walls for no reason, as the Provisioner skill line depends on materials only found this way. There's little reason to trust food made from poultry found hanging inside of a damp, earthen floor dungeon, but your character will only actually get sick [[CutsceneIncompetence during quests]].
* The presence of food in the apocalypse is explained in ''VideoGame/NexusClash'' by the fact that most of it is canned or preserved, or is fresh fruit that continues to grow in orchards. The only exception is Chunks of Salted Meat, but the fact that they're found in [[FireAndBrimstoneHell Stygia]] offers one very [[ImAHumanitarian easy explanation]].
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* In ''VideoGame/ShovelKnight'', edible carrots and roast chickens can be found in such places like UnderTheSea or in lava-filled underground ruins. The chicken gets a little pass for being under a lid, but carrots are found in lumps of dirt.
** Well, [[Main/FridgeBrilliance where else do you expect to find carrots growing?]]

* ''VideoGame/PixelDungeon'' downplays what food is found on dungeon levels. Rations of Food are commonly found, but it's established that these rations contain non-perishables. The presence of Pasties lying on the dungeon floor has no excuse, however.
* ''VideoGame/DungeonCrawl'' Has the player traversing a massive, sprawling, labyrinth, where loaves of bread, meat rations, pizzas, chokos, and various other foods are randomly strewn about the dungeon floors, however the only food type that can actually go bad are meats harvested from enemy corpses, [[ImAHumanitarian not a problem if you're a ghoul though]].
* In ''VideoGame/{{Nethack}}'', corpses left by the majority of enemies are initially edible (and immediately so, as you don't need to cook them), but they decay and become poisonous to eat after a while (eventually [[EverythingFades disappearing from the game]]). Fruits and vegetables, however, don't decay at all, and can be still found just lying on the floor waiting to be picked up and eaten with zero repercussions.
* ''VideoGame/{{Necropolis}}'' has different quality food from rotten food, which might make you sick to iron rations which don't.

[[folder:Simulation Game]]
* In ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress'', food left around will decay and spoil, but it will be preserved almost indefinitely if put in a food stockpile -- it can still go bad, but takes years. In adventure mode, food you find will be perfectly edible.
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[[folder:Western RPG]]
* The ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' series always has tons of pre-war food (even in the first game, the [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt Great War]] happened almost 100 years ago ) that's still perfectly edible, including the inexplicably popular Nuka-Cola. ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'' and ''[[VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas New Vegas]]'' work to subvert this somewhat, as eating pre-war food will still boost the player's health, but also inflict them with minor doses of radiation (and explicitly irradiated food that deals even more radiation when eaten can be found.) Lampshaded during "The Big Dig" quest in ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 4}}'' when you run across one of the Port-A-Diners that has an inexplicably well preserved piece of 200-year old pie in it.
-->'''Mel:''' Yeah...I wouldn't touch that pie. I don't trust anything that looks that perfectly preserved after 200 years.
* You can find food, drinks, and potions in ancient crypts in the various ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'' games, some of which have been explicitly sealed for years with nothing but withered (and occasionally ambulatory) corpses for company. Even those with no bandit presence to explain away the presence of food will still have consumables in them. Feel free to scarf down the half-dozen decades-old potatoes you find if you're low on health, your character won't know the difference. Though ''you'' might have sympathetic indigestion.
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[[folder:Wide Open Sandbox]]
* A typical world in ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'' has many abandoned dungeons, strongholds and mines where you can find chests containing food like bread, wheat, carrots, potatoes, melon seeds or pumpkin seeds, all fresh and edible (or in case of seeds, plantable).
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* In the [[Webcomic/MSPaintAdventures MSPA]] [[InteractiveComic Fan Adventure]] ''The White Depths'', the 8000-year-old "archaeological site" is actually an ancient spaceship, whose fridges work by actually ''stopping time inside them'' when closed. They preserve everything completely, including live crewmembers.

[[folder:Action Adventure]]
* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'' averts this for the most part, as Link will normally only find food in logical locations such as buying it from merchants, foraging in the wild, or raiding bokoblin camps. However, it gets played completely straight in [[VeryDefiniteFinalDungeon Hyrule Castle]], where the dining room has perfectly edible food on the tables despite the place having not only been abandoned for a century, but infested with monsters and [[MeatMoss Malice]].
* Parodied in ''VideoGame/StarTropics 2''. The protagonist uses TNT to blast a hole in a mine, searching for a gold nugget. Upon finding it, he realizes it's a chicken nugget (keep in mind this was in a cave that was completely sealed off before the TNT blast). The protagonist then eats the chicken nugget and says it's delicious!
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* Used throughout the ''Franchise/{{Castlevania}}'' series. The games up to & including ''[[VideoGame/CastlevaniaSymphonyOfTheNight Symphony of the Night]]'' typically allowed the player to break open walls to reveal different kinds of meat. Games after ''Symphony'' had food items just sitting on the floor out in the open or dropped by monsters, including cartons of milk that should've gone bad even faster than the meat. However, it also zigzagged this trope by including spoiled food items as well. While monsters dropping food items makes a kind of sense, even monsters have to eat, why Dracula would keep food lying around makes no sense at all. Some games also include vendors you can buy food from among other items, making this trope less ridiculous.

So you're wandering around in a dark, dank dungeon hundreds of feet underground, and abandoned for years save for hordes of monsters. You've taken quite a beating and desperately need something to eat to kickstart your HyperactiveMetabolism. Suddenly, you spot a treasure chest out of the corner of your eye. You open up the treasure chest to find...

...a perfectly edible roast chicken.

A fairly common video game trope, especially in older video games. Not only do video game heroes have little problem eating food they find lying around on the floor for much longer than the five-second rule allows, but even if that roast chicken had to have been sitting there for hundreds of years in someplace ''very'' unsanitary, it's still as fresh as if it just came out of the oven.

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[[folder: Beat Em Up ]]

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[[folder: First Person Shooter ]]

[[folder: Hack And Slash ]]

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[[folder: Real Time Strategy ]]

[[folder: Roguelike ]]

[[folder: Simulation Game ]]

[[folder: Survival Horror ]]

[[folder: Western RPG ]]

[[folder: Wide Open Sandbox ]]

[[folder: Other Media ]]

* The ''VideoGame/{{Pikmin}}'' series takes place on Earth 250 million years in the future (as confirmed by ''3'') and has a suspicious lack of humans, but some of the treasures in ''2'' include various foodstuffs that still look perfectly fine (and apparently ''taste'' perfectly fine, too, since the crew keep sneaking bites of them.)

* All 3 classic Creator/{{Konami}} ''Franchise/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles'' BeatEmUps[[note]] ([[VideoGame/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesTheArcadeGame the original]], ''[[VideoGame/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesTheManhattanProject The Manhattan Project]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesTurtlesInTime Turtles in Time]]'')[[/note]] have perfectly good pizza lying on the sidewalk, or down in the sewer, and even Shredder keeps some lying around the Technodrome.

* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'' averts this for the most part, as Link will normally only find food in logical locations such as buying it from merchants, foraging in the wild, or raiding bokoblin camps. However, it gets played completely straigt in [[VeryDefiniteFinalDungeon Hyrule Castle]], where the dining room has perfetly edible food on the tables despite the place having not only been abandoned for a century, but infested with monsters and [[MeatMoss Malice]].

* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'' averts this for the most part, as Link will normally only find food in logical locations such as buying it from merchants, foraging in the wild, or raiding bokoblin camps. However, it gets played completely straignt in [[VeryDefiniteFinalDungeon Hyrule Castle]], where the dining room has perfetly edible food on the tables despite the place having not only been abandoned for a century, but infested with monsters and [[MeatMoss Malice]].