History Main / PasswordSave

* ''ScoobyDoo: ClassicCreepCapers'' used the various symbols seen in-game in various combinations. This is also in-universe as one code that Velma types in at the end of the first stage to get into the lab.

* ''TombsAndTreasure''. Finding out your password required the Ixmol Jewel.

* ''VideoGame/MetalGear'': The NES version of the original game has a twenty-five character alphanumeric password system that keeps track of Snake's rank and inventory, as well all the bosses that had been defeated and all the hostages that were saved (or killed for that matter), plus any special events the player may had triggered.

These have an advantage of being portable compared to traditional save files -- you can take that slip of paper pretty much anywhere (like a friend's house), and input the password to resume the game more or less right where you left off. On the other hand, you have to make ''absolutely'' sure you wrote down the password ''correctly'', because messing up a letter here or number there will probably render the entire thing (and whatever game progress it represents) unusable.

* ''8 Eyes'' displays a 10-letter password at the top of the screen during each end-of-level cutscene.

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. 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 'I' vs 'l' or '1' or 'O' vs '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.

* ''VideoGame/{{Nectaris}}'' makes level passwords easy by making them identical with the map names, each of which is six letters in length.

* ''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 ST/Amiga level generously expanded this, having a password for every other level. Most of these passwords are {{Shout Out}}s to ScienceFictionFilms.

** Mega Man based fan games, like {{Rosenkreuzstilette}} and VideoGame/RokkoChan, often use this as a nod to the older games.

* In ''VideoGame/TheAdventuresOfLomax'', after every level, you receive a code consisting of 8 symbols, which happen to be the classic Playstation symbols (and they're present ''even on PC''). These codes preserve information about the amount of lives and continues you have and which level you reached.
* ''VideoGame/{{Ys}} I&II'' uses battery-backed saves, but those can be converted into a password string to carry over to another system.

* ''LivePowerfulProBaseball'' has a password save for a character's stat, which can be used in a sequel to transfer the data between games. This include player's originally created and in-game secret characters. Each set of password is notoriously long ([[UpToEleven 100+ characters]]), but it's proven robust enough it survives even in the most recent generation of gaming.

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

* Password Time! ''Franchise/MyLittlePony: Crystal Princess: The Runaway Rainbow'' for the 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.

* The 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.

** Gameboy {{GaidenGame}}s 1 & 3 saved level progress only. As did the Game Gear one...
** Mega Man 2 & 3 and the 2nd Gameboy game saved the number of energy tanks as well as level progress. The tank number even served as a checksum in 2, while there were 5 different code sets in the 2nd Gameboy game, again based on energy tanks.

** The last 2 Gameboy games, along with ''VideoGame/MegaMan7'' saved all sorts of tanks, the amount of [[GlobalCurrency P-chips/Bolts]] on hand, and, in the case of 7, Rush Adapters. But none of these saved the number of lives you had.

* ''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 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/TheGoonies II''

* The home computer versions of the first ''Film/{{Ghostbusters}}'' game had a password system that allowed [[NewGamePlus starting a new game with the money accumulated at the end of the previous one]]. However the password was generated based on the ''name'' you chose. If you didn't spell the name ''exactly'' the same it would not work!

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. 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 'I' vs 'l' or 'O' vs '0'), 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.

* And ''VideoGame/EccoTheDolphin'' had them on the Sega UsefulNotes/MegaDrive[=/=]UsefulNotes/SegaGenesis.

* The first ''{{Populous}}''.

** ''Buster Busts Loose'' for the SNES has a password system consisting of three spaces for pictures of faces of the characters from the show. Unfortunately, the only mode that uses these passwords is "Children".

* ''VideoGame/TotalCarnage'', another rare ArcadeGame example, had level passwords that were four letters long.

* ''SolarJetman'', though it does store your score, extra lives, and a few other things.
* ''TheIncredibleMachine'', using a combination of password and optional score code.

* ''DrRobotniksMeanBeanMachine'' used the same coloured beans that are used in the game.

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.

* And ''VideoGame/EccoTheDolphin'' had them on the Sega MegaDrive[=/=]SegaGenesis.

* ''VideoGame/{{Nectaris}}'' makes level passwords easy by making them identical with the map names.

* ''LivePowerfulProBaseball'' has a password save for a character's stat, which can be used in a sequel to transfer the data between games. This include player's originally created and in-game secret characters. Each set of password is notoriously long (100+ characters), but it's proven robust enough it survives even in the most recent generation of gaming.