History Main / PasswordSave

* ''VideoGame/BlueSphere'': In addition to the password system letting you save your progress through the "full" version of the game, beating the stage given by a non-''VideoGame/Sonic1'' or ''VideoGame/SonicClassics3In1''

* ''VideoGame/ChipsChallenge'' gave you a four-character password every level.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Metroid}}'' for the NES, the "Justin Bailey" password became famous for the amount of [[WildMassGuessing speculation]] over its supposed meaning. In the earlier versions, you could also use [[https://youtu.be/x3UyVylP7AI ENGAGE RIDLEY MOTHER FUCKER]], which crashes the game in newer ports. The original Japanese version of ''Metroid'' had on-disk saving, being a Famicom Disk System game. It also had one example of the other kind of password in NARPAS SWORD, which enters a type of debug mode (all items, invincibility, unlimited ammo) yet when decrypted in a [[https://www.truepeacein.space/ password generator]] just gives piddling random item pickups. ''VideoGame/KidIcarus'', also originally a Famicom Disk System game, used the same password system.

A classic of oldie video games, this is the method of saving your progress in a game without being required to actually ''store'' it on the console or game cartridge: Encode it as a string of letters, numbers, or other symbols and have the player write it down on a nearby piece of paper. This was typically done because older consoles like the [[UsefulNotes/NintendoEntertainmentSystem NES]] did not have internal storage and only saved data on individual game cartridges, but doing so required including battery backups that would increase the cost of production.

Improvements to technology as of the early 2000s have made the use of passwords completely unnecessary. Consoles had fully transitioned to memory cards for universal storage by that point and would later switch to internal hard drives, while most UsefulNotes/GameBoyAdvance games had the capacity to save game data without battery backups. If a modern game provides you with a password, [[{{Retraux}} it's almost certainly done as a throwback to a bygone era]].

* UsefulNotes/AppleII game ''Diamond Mine'' gives a password for every five staged, but not if you lost too many diamonds.
* ''VideoGame/AstroMarineCorps'' was originally a double-load cassette-tape game, and therefore provided the player with a password to enter the second side after beating the eighth level. The UsefulNotes/AtariST and UsefulNotes/{{Amiga}} versions generously expanded the password system to provide one for every other level. Most of these passwords are {{Shout Out}}s to famous ScienceFictionFilms.

* And ''VideoGame/EccoTheDolphin'' had them on the UsefulNotes/SegaGenesis.

* The UsefulNotes/GameBoy port of ''VideoGame/AdventureIsland III'' used passwords to keep track of how far you are in the game. Inputting a correct one would always result in starting with two of each item that can be held in inventory.

* Password Time! ''Franchise/MyLittlePony: Crystal Princess: The Runaway Rainbow'' for the UsefulNotes/GameBoyAdvance always reminds its target audience of young girls to write down its simple 9-character passwords on a piece of paper before the start of each new chapter.
* ''VideoGame/{{Nectaris}}'' makes level passwords easy by making them identical with the map names, each of which is six letters in length. The names/passwords for maps 17-32 were originally those of maps 1-16 spelled backwards, though the American UsefulNotes/TurboGrafx16 release gave these completely different names (a few of which are GratuitousJapanese, bizarrely enough).

* ''FlightOfTheFalcon'', a ''Franchise/StarWars'' arcade game for the UsefulNotes/GameBoyAdvance. Without the password, you started in ''Film/ANewHope'' every time. With a password, you could start in either ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'' or ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi''.

* Both the [[UsefulNotes/SuperNintendoEntertainmentSystem SNES]] and [[UsefulNotes/SegaGenesis Genesis]] versions of ''[[VideoGame/RocketKnightAdventures Sparkster]]'' have these, but they're very different. The SNES version has twelve boxes, and the Genesis version has eight. In the SNES version, the password is shown on the continue screen, and in order to input the password, [[PlayableMenu you play as Sparkster]] and hit the boxes with his sword. In the Genesis version, the password isn't shown on the continue screen until you choose not to continue the game, and in order to input the password, you have to select the correct cards and colors.

* ''War of the Dead'' on the UsefulNotes/PCEngine had passwords that were 54 characters long and mixed [[UsefulNotes/JapaneseWritingSystem hiragana, katakana and romaji]] to get 7 bits out of each character. The developers apologized for this cumbersome password system.

* In ''VideoGame/TheAdventuresOfLomax'', after every level, you receive a code consisting of 8 symbols, which happen to be the classic UsefulNotes/PlayStation symbols (and, since the publisher was previously acquired by Sony, they're present ''even on PC''). These codes preserve information about the amount of lives and continues you have, and which level you reached.

* In the UsefulNotes/GameBoy port of ''VideoGame/MilonsSecretCastle'', The password feature was added.
* ''[[VideoGame/GanbareGoemon Legend of the Mystical Ninja]]'' for the UsefulNotes/SuperNES had a short password for levels, and a long password for returning to a current game with all your items (sorta like a save state).

* ''VideoGame/RiverCityRansom'' for the NES had 33-character passwords, mixing uppercase letters, lowercase letters and numbers to store stats, skills, money, inventory and bosses defeated. The UsefulNotes/GameBoyAdvance remake made passwords unnecessary, though a bug would create a new save file instead of overwriting the previous one, making the game unplayably slow if you didn't erase them often.

* ''[[VideoGame/YsIAncientYsVanishedOmen Ys I]] & [[VideoGame/YsIIAncientYsVanishedTheFinalChapter II]]'' for the ''UsefulNotes/TurboGrafx16''uses battery-backed saves, but those can be converted into a password string to carry over to another system. The passwords were ridiculous, requiring sixty character strings of numbers, letters, and punctuation marks.

* ''VideoGame/MonsterHunterPC'' have it's save-points depicted as passwords. Key in "draculasucks" allows you to fight Dracula on the spot, though with only three lives.

* So did ''Asterix and Obelix'', same console.

* ''VideoGame/Rayman'' GBC had passwords that specified which level you were on, and the number of cages destroyed in each level. The Playstation version allowed choosing between memory card or passwords.

Many of the more complicated password systems are case-sensitive and also use numbers and symbols. The reason is that 26 lowercase letters, 26 uppercase letters, 10 numerals, and 2 other symbols add up to 64 (two to the sixth power), which means that 6 bits of raw data can be encoded in each symbol. Without lowercase, 32-symbol alphabets (consonants, digits, and a couple symbols) provided 5 bits per symbol. (Japanese games could also use the [[UsefulNotes/JapaneseWritingSystem hiragana and katakana syllabaries]], each of which provides 45 symbols.) Though this extra encoding can cause problems in and of itself - depending on the font used in the game, some characters could easily get mistaken for others (Like capital i 'I' vs lowercase L 'l' or the digit '1' or uppercase o 'O' vs the digit '0' - some games avoided this by simply removing characters that can be mistaken for others from the keyboard to prevent confusion), and some players might simply not have good handwriting, resulting in an otherwise accurately recorded password being incorrectly typed when the game is started up again several days later due to a misreading. As games went on it actually became mandatory to remove vowels to prevent kids from entering in vulgarities, as some of these vulgarities ''were valid passwords'' that would get shared around the schoolyard, like ''VideoGame/MetalGear's'' infamous, hilariously on-the-nose, and hand-to-God genuinely coincidental FUCKME code that started you at the final boss of ''VideoGame/MetalGear'' with no weapons or items. [[https://i.imgur.com/KFb2w4Z.png Compare the American and Japanese versions (left) and European versions (right) of Metal Gear's title screen.]]

** The 2017 remake uses the now-classic "three save files", but is ''also'' fully compatible with the old-school password system.[[note]]It can't save the new version of the Charm Stones into a password, but importing a game with 99 "old" Charm Stones ''does'' unlock the secret doors.[[/note]] You could start a game on the Switch version, continue it on a real Master System, and finish it on the PC version.

* ''[[Creator/ElectronicArts FIFA International Soccer]]'' for the SNES

* "Game state" passwords: A lot more complicated than level passwords, these record essentially all the information that a SavePoint would: What items you've acquired, your character stats, key event flags, and so on. Enter the password and you can pick up from (almost ''literally'') the exact moment you left off, or at least some [[BroadStrokes decent approximation]]. The length of the password will depend on how much information is being "saved", so a "game state" password that records a lot of things will require a longer password. Also, to discourage players from attempting to cheat the system by inventing their own passwords, the password may incorporate a "checksum", a small combination of symbols whose only function is to verify that the rest of the password is (or at least ''looks'') legitimate. Not that this stopped ''anyone'' from cracking them, and just about every popular game from that era (''VideoGame/{{Metroid}}'', ''VideoGame/MetalGear (NES)'', every ''VideoGame/MegaManClassic'', etc) has had its password formula cracked: this even led to "impossible" passwords that you wouldn't be able to get in the game proper, like starting with all weapons or abilities but no game progress, starting with much more health or ammo than would ever be possible, or even game-specific things like starting ''VideoGame/MegaMan7'' with access to all 8 robot masters.[[note]]Try it right now! The code's 8735-2587-4486-8362.[[/note]]\\

* ''VideoGame/{{Lemmings}}''

* ''VideoGame/{{Repton}}'' and ''Repton 3''. Their absence on ''Repton 2'' is the main reason ''2'' is considered the hardest game of the series: you can only complete it in one sitting.

* ''VideoGame/TintinInTibet'' by the same studio, was even stingier on passwords: It was still several levels between passwords, with the first one only appearing after level 5.