Hammerspace

The oldest use of hammerspace in games is probably the bag of holding of the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, a magical item able to hold far more than normally possible, its contents actually being held in a pocket dimension or part of the Astral Plane. An early computer example of the concept is the 1984 Infocom text adventure The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which contained a "Thing your Aunt gave you which you don't know what it is" as a humorous variant of the bag of holding concept (and which proved critical to finishing the game itself).

The theory of hammerspace can also be applied to many other video games, as game mechanics often defy those of the real world: for instance, a character might be able to carry a sword larger than themselves without any sign of it before use, and most video game characters can carry an implausible number of tools or other objects. This is particularly visible in traditional adventure games and RPGs, such as The Legend of Zelda. In New Super Mario Bros. Wii, the player has endless space to put their items. In many Super Mario games, the Hammer Bros. are capable of throwing an infinite supply of hammers from hammerspace. Early first-person shooter games tend to have the player character carry an entire arsenal of weapons (with full ammunition) without any visible drawback such as loss of pace or fatigue. In the Grand Theft Auto game series, players are capable of holding an arsenal of weaponry and multiple items and equipment in hammerspace. This capability has more a significant appearance in Grand Theft Auto V, where the characters are able to carry multiple pistols, SMGs, LMGs, assault rifles, carbines, shotguns, sniper and marksman rifles, melee weaponry, throwables, rocket and grenade launchers, and a minigun all at once on themselves, all of them previously invisible. In Fallout, the NPCs and player use hammerspaces where they take weapons out of nowhere.

Many comical adventures make gags on space in item inventories. In Space Quest series III and VI, protagonist Roger Wilco crams a full-sized ladder into his pocket. In Simon the Sorcerer, Simon similarly obtains a ladder at one point, which he stores in his hat. In The Secret of Monkey Island, as a recurring gag, Guybrush Threepwood usually barely fits an oversized item in his clothes, from a six-foot-long cotton swab to a huge figurehead, or even a monkey (which is shown moving underneath his coat). At one point early in The Curse of Monkey Island, he makes a "yikes" face after sheathing a bread knife down his pants. A similar concept is evident in Sonic the Hedgehog, most notably with Amy Rose, who actually materializes hammers from hammerspace.

In some non-humorous cases, hammerspace may be recognized as a seemingly normal in-universe phenomenon. Characters from the Kingdom Hearts series are capable of materializing weapons from thin air and making them disappear again, notably in the case of main character Sora and his Keyblade, though it's implied that they are stored as magic in the wielders' hearts.

Although there are numerous examples from the genre, hammerspace usage is not just limited to adventure games. In The Sims 2,The Sims 3 and The Sims 4, the Sims make extensive use of hammerspace, regularly pulling items out of their back pockets which could not possibly fit there. Examples include rakes, hairdryers, watering cans and bags of flour.

Similarly, in the sandbox game Minecraft, a player character can carry thousands of tonnes of material such as gold in the character's inventory without encumbrance, as if an empty inventory were the same as a full one. In reality, even one block of most materials in Minecraft would weigh hundreds or thousands of kilograms, and the player can carry up to a little under 64,000 blocks in their inventory. Since some blocks can be converted into multiple blocks of another type, it is possible to carry enough material to build an entire city in one's inventory invisibly.

Hammerspace is also used frequently in fighting games. In the Super Smash Bros. games, Princess Peach is said to pull a Toad out of hammerspace for a blocking move. In the Punch-Out!! series many characters can pull out objects from hammerspace.

• Bill Smith, a character on The Red Green Show (played by series co-creator Rick Green), regularly employs hammerspace in the "Adventures With Bill" segments. Bill is often seen pulling large objects—hammers, saws, bicycles, weightlifting equipment, camping equipment, sports gear, and the like—out of his trousers.
• In the British sci-fi series Doctor Who many objects are shown to be "bigger on the inside", most notably the TARDIS, although the Doctor has also stated that pockets on their clothes are similar due to Time Lord technology.
• An example of hammerspace working in reverse is Odo, the chief of security from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Odo is frequently seen shapeshifting into much smaller objects, such as birds, drinking glasses, small animals, etc, but with no corresponding increase in mass. What actually happens to Odo's extra mass is never revealed.

• The character of Harpo Marx is often seen retrieving large numbers of items from his seemingly bottomless coat pockets.[3]
• Curly Howard of the Three Stooges similarly would have tools or other objects in the lining of his jacket, as in, for example, In the Sweet Pie and Pie.
• The title character of the All That sketch Baggin' Saggin' Barry spends the entirety of his sketches pulling whatever item is required at the moment, regardless of its size, from his baggy pants.
• The character of Jerry Steiner in the TV show Parker Lewis Can't Lose possessed the same capacity, often using it to feed Larry Kubiac with raw fish he pulls out of his infinite pockets.
• In Pirates! Band of Misfits, the Pirate Captain is known to stash various items inside his beard, including an umbrella, an alarm clock and his pet dodo, Polly.
• In The Mask film, Jim Carrey's character The Mask produces numerous items from pockets during a fight scene for comic effect.
• Mary Poppins's carpetbag easily holds a floor lamp, a hat stand, and other such outlandish items, and their removal from the bag is used for comic effect, and to establish her as a somewhat magical entity.
• In Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Ramona Flowers pulls a hammer from hammerspace to fight.
• Within the Potterverse, magical examples akin to hammerspace include the Niffler, a creature prominently featured in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016), which can store excessive amounts of loot in its pouch; and Hermione Granger's small handbag, which contains vast quantities of items that she can retrieve on demand.
• In Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, Jack Horner carries around a magical bag that stores an excessive amount of tools and weapons,
• In Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Miguel O'Hara mentions hammerspace explicitly when he observes the renaissance universe Vulture pulling a spare set of wings from seemingly nowhere.