Cheat Codes

How do you feel about them?

My gaming "career" started when I was about 6 or 7, and the earliest game I can remember was seeing my brother play Sonic the Hedgehog 2 on Sega GENESIS. It was love at first sight. I remember wishing for the chance to race my brother while playing as Tails, to get the Chaos Emeralds and race against Super Sonic. Getting the 7 Chaos Emeralds was my then-equivalent of a 25+ killstreak.

Fast-forward a few years, I used to "borrow" my brother's memory cards and use his save data. Eventually he caught me and I had to figure out how to cheat on my own. Enter the internet, and printing FAQ after FAQ on how to find all 101 Dalmations in Kingdom Hearts. So many ink cartridges...

I remember the little "cheat code books" that existed for PS 1 and PS 2, Xbox, and Gamecube games. I remember being jealous at a friend who somehow had a party of Lvl99 Pokemon in Pokemon Ruby, and who didn't tell me that he'd used an Action Replay for it. The game had been out for about a week, maybe two. He clearly didn't have a life if my Starter was only Level 25 and some change.

Nowadays, codes, tricks, and rumors hardly matter. Achievements, trophies, game mods, tiers, DLC, that's where the metagame is.

Very few games I know of still use cheat codes, cheat devices practically don't exist beyond trainers for PC games, they're outdated now that most gamers probably know how to mod a thing or two, or have some experience with an emulator. I still think "Game Genie" was the perfect metaphor for modifying/altering a game. It's a shame that brand died.

I miss them. I'm pleased to see that studios like Rockstar haven't utterly abandoned the concept. Saints Row sort of expanded on it by giving you in-game cheat codes that could be unlocked, but you'd have to farm in order to get them.

It's not all about cheat codes being used the moment the going gets tough, contrary to popular belief. Plenty of times I'd beaten a game and it was just fun to go back through and wail on everything that gave me such grief. God of War 3, for instance, grants you items at the end of the story that function as cheat codes. I went back through that game tortured the hell out of this one enemy, the Satyr, who during the main game loves to gank the shit out of you. Man did I go back through the game and torture those damn Satyrs.

On the other hand, there were those stupid cheat codes. Like giving everybody large heads, or making every car explode, or float into the air, or giving you that item that served no practical purpose. Gamesharks and Action Replays are referred to as, from what I understand, "soft mods", and they frequently crashed my games.

edited 5th Dec '13 12:03:47 PM by FOFD

Depends. Ever since I beat Contra and Super C sans the extra lives codes (no small feat for the former) and refused to use triple shot holy water for Castlevania 1, I'll usually see to it I don't use cheats at all anymore. Back when i was 14 or younger I would unrepentantly.

I miss them a lot. I remember what a blast it was to play San Andreas by summoning a flying ATV while dual-firing SMG's, and such. Does GTAV have any?

I think my use of them hurt me severely as a gamer.

The first thing I did upon gaining access to the internet, in the early 2000s, was looking these up. Even before then I had.been getting them from magazines. Where they really started hurting was in the fact that I would play cheated games to screw around, constantly and continuously. I wouldn't even bother playing the games I had legitimately. It wasn't until almost the adult years that I shook off most of my issues and finally accomplished anything meaningful at all in video games.

Between a gaming youth full of stupidity and devoid of achievements and effortless, almost toy-playing teenage years, I grew up without having developed much in the way of game playing skill whatsoever, and I now constantly berate myself for it.

In the end, cheat codes are all about the one who employs them. And it turns out, I spoiled myself indiscriminately, robbing myself of the oh-so-important skill development.

edited 5th Dec '13 11:22:37 AM by AngelG55th

You'll learn.

I really don't care if you use them or not. Just not online.

If playing with someone else, just make sure it's agreed upon.

I suck at a lot of games, so I tend to use them. I'd rather beat the game either way. I don't feel anything special either way. But hey, to each their own, of course.

Back in my early gaming days I was all about them. Now they just sap the fun out it for me. Maybe worthwhile if I just want to goof around a bit.

I don't care if you use them or not, just don't be egotistical about it. I've seen this more with PC console commands than with console cheat codes, but it's a problem regardless of what platform you're using. If you God Moded your way through the game, I don't really want to hear your opinion on how challenging the game is; you didn't play it. I've heard way too much of this.

"Shooters, fighting games, etc. are all fake difficulty. There's no challenge in it, just boring, reflex-driven physical exertion. I give myself infinite health and super kill weapons and sometimes skip entire sequences because it's all so easy that a pea-brained monkey could do it. Games need to start having REAL challenges and HARD gameplay, because anyone can beat games like Mass Effect 1/2/3 on Insanity difficulty. It's just pushing buttons until everything dies."

If you have infinite life and super cheat spells/weapons and skip anything that's too hard, yes, it is just pushing buttons until everything dies, but the actual game itself is much different.

I feel the same way about mods. I've seen people complain about how Oblivion is a terrible game because the Dire Wraiths are totally unbalanced and the developers NEVER should have programmed an enemy like that into the game; I have no idea what a Dire Wraith is, but if they're so unbalanced that the developers never should have programmed them, then that's probably why they didn't. There is no such thing as a Dire Wraith in Oblivion. You modded that in.

Basically, my stance is this: if you want to cheat and mod and console command your way around the game, that's your prerogative. That's fine. But if you're not playing the game as it was meant to be played, you forfeit the right to turn around and bitch that the way you're playing it is awful.

edited 5th Dec '13 11:57:10 AM by TobiasDrake

Does anybody actually say that?

So does this mean I have no right to look back on my past and consider my decisions over having fun to have been really stupid overall?

Still, I'd like to add that I ultimately hate myself for destroying all challenge in whatever game I played for a long time, leaving me with undeveloped skills and empty, meaningless gaming experiences.

Yes.

No, just that you shouldn't complain that the games you cheated in were not challenging or difficult when the reason they weren't challenging or difficult is because you cheated in them. Which you haven't, so good on you.

edited 5th Dec '13 2:39:46 PM by TobiasDrake

Oh good, I thought this would be another one of those 'cheating in games, right or wrong' debates.

What matters is that I have fun. In my own copy of the game, not in yours. And also I agree with 'not in online' sentiment. I don't want to screw other people over for my own fun.

I've got to say, sometimes cheat codes can be very... cathartic.

Example: any time you've ever used God Mode to walk up to something very slowly and casually and beat it down with your bare hands. I will admit, I did end up using the [[Video Game/Goldeneye Golden PP 7 and godmode]] more than once but this was in my unskilled youth where my cousin had to put the cheat codes in for me because I couldn't do it myself.

the first cheat code i memorized was in Hot Wheels: World Race for the PS 2. to unlock Kurt Wylde's spy version of the Sling Shot, highlight the standard version and press square square square triangle circle x.

The first cheat code I memorized ages ago was when I was with the kids of my mom's friend. The oldest had a Sega Genesis with Sonic 1, and loved to use the classic level-select code. He told it to me, and I never forgot it.