Ananova:

A US man has been credited with the ultimate nerd wedding proposal after hacking into his girlfriend's favourite video game.

Bernie Peng, 26, of New Jersey, reprogrammed Bejeweled so a ring and a proposal popped up when Tammy Li, 27, reached a certain score.

Mr Peng, who works as a programmer of financial software, said he spent about a month reprogramming the game.

"I thought it was pretty cool, in a nerdy way," he told the Star-Ledger.

He presented the game to a surprised Li, who played until she hit the score that triggered a digital pink sapphire ring to drop down with Peng's proposal.

"He set a pretty low score," said Li, who is now sporting an identical pink sapphire engagement ring. "He had all his bases covered."

The story was picked up by video gaming sites and spread across the internet until the manufacturer eventually heard about it.

Instead of being angry that Peng had hacked into their game, company officials were so impressed they offered to pay for part of the wedding.

"Most video game companies would frown on people manipulating their games," said Garth Chouteau, a spokesman for Seattle company PopCap.

"But it won him a woman," Chouteau said. "As a bunch of geeks we have to say, 'Bernie, hats off to you.'"