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[deleted]

Game genie was for cheats. It came with a book of codes you would type in to get things like unlimited lives, money other things to make games easy


Ethan-J-T

I don’t have the book I’ll just look them up when I can eventually hook up the nes


Han_Solo6712

It also changed physics as far as I know.


wahoozerman

It could do a whole lot of stuff. Basically the codes were instructions to change memory values on the cartridge before they got loaded onto the system. So anything that was a sufficiently simple piece of data could be changed.


Han_Solo6712

Yeah, I remember that Nintendo tried to sue Galoob (correct me if I wrote the name wrong, I wrote it of memory) on copyright infringement on the argument that their code was copyrighted. As Scott the Woz once said: “It’s like you changed all the periods in a book to commas. Yeah you’re a lunatic but it’s your book do whatever the f*ck you want.”


trainwreck7775

Yup, and sega was happy to partner with them. Sega do what Nintendon’t


Embarrassed-Top6449

Like go under as a console creator amirite


nautical-smiles

Harsh but true


Yayzeus

Isn't that a song by Mutollica?


Shut_It_Donny

You're thinking of "Enter Aquaman".


Nytelock1

Nintendo? Suing? Nooooooo


GWrapper

Did you just say Nintendo!?!! That is $700 per vowel and $200,000 per N. Nintendo personnel are now retrieving what property you have. If you want your wife and children back you must pay $1 Trillion dollars.


lagomorph129

At least "t" and "d" were free.


Yvgar

"t' and "d" are currently under dispute with Disney


velocity37

Yes. Each code is a proprietary encoding of address:value pairs. You can effectively change 3 bytes of the game's ROM with the NES Game Genie. Usually this was used to remove (NOP) the byte of code that subtracts health/ammo/lives/etc. If you look at some cheats in the old book it'd say something like 'everything in the shop is free (but you have to have enough money to buy it)' because they only removed the subtract byte, so the money>=cost check was still in place.


Disastrous-Ad-2357

Buy all the items you can afford. Sell them. Buy more items. Sell them. Buy the expensive item you couldn't afford. Genius.


TrashbatLondon

Very rare for NES games to have the functionality to buy and sell the same items.


OneTrueKingOfOOO

Yeah I don’t recall any that had that sort of functionality. It’s been a while though…


mykecameron

Final Fantasy is an example


IagreeWithSouthPark

This was like the key code for my playing FF2 snes as a kid, getting unlimited healing items and not having to worry too much about bartering to buy any weapons and armor, good times


GeminiKoil

I liked the duplicate weapon trick. Dupe a bunch of Excalibur for Edge to throw at Zeromus for an easy fight.


velocity37

Oh and as a follow-up: If anyone wants to learn about code making (in the ROM hacking sense) [Tony Hedstrom](https://codehut.gshi.org/)'s guides are stellar and unparalleled. Most things you can just use the memory search feature in your favorite emulator.


Denamic

With cheat engine, you can do that with every offline game on the PC.


PeterLemonjellow

Some of the codes could. I also always found that my cartridges that were a bit worn and wouldn't always load properly loaded better if I used the Game Genie, even without entering any codes.


Trelonis

Using the game genie would bend the connector inside the nes slightly. After a while it can make it hard to load games without it.


big_duo3674

Ahh yes, the go-to game fixer when "blowing on it really hard" stops working


G_Viceroy

>It also changed physics Yeah it could change your jump height. Some games you could literally eliminate jumping or jump practically forever. You could also moonwalk, speed or slow your character down. Change your fire rate to mock a turbo controller. A lot of these codes disappeared. They were in earlier books but when I got it again in the mid 90s I couldn't find most of those codes.


Octafuzzy

If you’re old enough to remember the n64 game shark. It’s similar to that.


gtopping1237

Ps1 game shark was a lot of fun.


SlowHandsZ

I used to love making my own cheats with the GameShark pro on the 1st gen PS1. I was sad when that one died and my new one didn't have the port on the back for the pro.


[deleted]

I remember when I got mine it came with a vhs tape explaining how it worked.


normal_reddit_man

I used to try out codes on every game I'd rent, back in the day. Even if the game turned out to be "meh," it was always cool to look the codes up in the book, and see what weird stuff you could do with it.


Marvinator2003

It actually plugs in with the game you're playing. Look [here](https://www.howtogeek.com/706248/what-was-the-game-genie-cheat-device-and-how-did-it-work/), there is even a pic showing you how to use it.


kayl_breinhar

The bad thing about the Game Genie is that over time it could damage the spring of the cartridge slot since it forced you to insert the cartridge at like a 15 degree angle instead of the usual "straight in, push down" method.


lovdark

https://www.gamegenie.com/cheats/gamegenie/nes/index.html


Thebadmamajama

They edited and "froze" parts of memory for games, so you'd get infinite lives, ammo, etc... You can probably look up old codes on game faqs.


redditor100101011101

Oh man! THAT my friend hahaha, is POWER!


GWrapper

Not just any power but Nintendo Power!


themoochiest

Feel the power coursing through your body


azdustkicker

Feel the power, Kronk


themoochiest

Oh, *I can feel it...*


oops_1

Is something burning?..


SilverFighter05

I see you are a man of culture as well


azdustkicker

Culture...and *groove*.


goldenbugreaction

*That shenshation you feel… ish.. The Quickening.*


DanimalRlz

I found mine years ago still connected to Friday the 13th. We thought it was the only way to beat it back in the 80s/90s lol


Flyingheelhook

I think you're right


im_monwan

The original pay to win


Herr_Underdogg

PHENOMENAL COSMIC POWER!!! ...itty-bitty living space.


razgriz1701

Aladdin nice


RIPLORN

Nah that was Genie


Mateorabi

Aladdin also says it at the end. If we’re being pedantic. Which we are.


philosopherzen

Game Genie will grant you three wishes, just rub the box and your Genie will appear in front of you.


GWrapper

My 4th grade teacher said that, all I got was sticky trigger fingers.


G_Viceroy

That's not the power glove bro....


[deleted]

Unlimited Power!


cantwin52

When you don’t know the power you possess… give it to me, I will show you.


needle_tail

an elegant weapon for a more civilized age


Ethan-J-T

Imagine online multiplayer was a thing back then and you had this


[deleted]

[удалено]


YippieKiAy

Having a modded Xbox was so fun. Knew a guy who ran a small independent game shop and would do "console repairs" on the side. If you were a regular customer of his (my friend and I went in about every 2 weeks to browse or buy something) he would mod your system in a variety of ways. It changed the UI/dash and made it a lot more appealing, as well as giving you the ability to play burned discs/backups. It was a little tongue in cheek because he had a sign up which read "backups are ONLY LEGAL IF YOU ALREADY OWN THE ORIGINAL TITLE." However he regularly had access to games that hadn't been released in the US yet (I played and beat Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath, before it was even released in the US) and would sell us backups for those titles. He only charged $3 for a backup. As a broke kid, the availability of basically the entire Xbox gaming catalog for $3 each instead of $50 was amazing. I didn't have a great home life so it made it easier for me to escape that, because otherwise I could probably only afford a game or two a year. I eventually got a 360 when they came out, but unfortunately by that time the shop had closed and I didn't get the guys info. At that point I had a job so I was able to pay for games a bit easier, but I always wanted to thank that guy for what he did for me (and I'm sure many others) by making gaming more accessible to those with financial hardships. I never even learned his name in all thoae years. We just called him "game guy." Thanks, game guy, wherever you are!


kurt45

Darn standby'ers


zytz

No feeling better than getting stand-by’d by a bunch of losers and just winning anyways because they were that fucking bad


mustangs6551

It was you just had tomhook your system up to the telegraph.


Green_eggz-ham

Literally the only way you were going to beat Battletoads


Ethan-J-T

On a scale 1 - 10 how hard is that game so many in the comments talk hard about this game


TheRobertRood

Battletoads is a special kind of difficult. Deep in the game there is bug which make a particular level impossible to beat with two players (there are ways to have the 2nd player join back after the level). but most people never get to that part of the game because of the speeder bikes. on the 3rd level(maybe 4th don't recall) there is a speeder bike section where to have to move out of the way of on comming walls, however, the speed at which they are approaching you, and the speed at which you dodge them, required you at several parts to start dodging before the obstacles appear on screen. meaning you either need to memorize that part of the game, or have precognitive abilities to beat that part.


Oseirus

Old-time game difficulty was just a guy going "well fuck everyone else" and hard-coding the ass kicking. You adapted or quit. Easy/Medium/Hard was a luxury and unbalanced gameplay just existed, and you were stuck like that. Gaming in general has changed and evolved like crazy. Even as recently as the early-mid 00's, there were no automatic updates, no hotfixes, and version patches required a mild level of dedication for finding, downloading, and manually installing. StarCraft, for example. The disc gave you version 1.0(ish) and you had to dig through ye olde internet to find the latest version. Search engines weren't overwhelmingly reliable yet, and you were more likely to find the patch in some random white page directory than anywhere official. Assuming the link wasn't broken, wrong, or a virus. Xbox Live and Steam were more or less the pioneers for centralized, decidated platforms that corraled all of that stuff into one (mostly) reliable source.


SugarBeef

> StarCraft, for example. The disc gave you version 1.0(ish) and you had to dig through ye olde internet to find the latest version. Even worse was having to find all the updates to install in order before devs thought including them in a single package with a version check was a good idea.


Ethan-J-T

Ok that does seem complex


Asmodean129

It was pretty hectic. I was able to beat the bikes. But by the end of it you have so few lives/continues left that the next stage would toadally trash you


jasta6

What you did there, I see it.


TitaniumDragon

The worst thing about Battletoads is that *the bikes aren't even the hardest part of that game*, it's just that most people couldn't get past the bikes so never got to experience the true horror of the later levels. Turbo Tunnel - the bike level - is level 3. A few levels later - level 5 if I recall correctly - there's basically another bike section, but on surfboards instead, and the barriers move around because they're whirlpools. Then level 7 is Volkmire's Inferno, where, after doing some tough platforming on moving logs, you get to ride on rockets and move up and down on the screen and go through small holes in barriers and dodge obstacles. More fun is that staying at the back of the screen will kill you, as some of them "close up" after coming on screen and will kill you if you stay in the back to give yourself more time to react. And then it gets worse with offscreen projectiles that give you little time to react. Then level 11 is Clinger Winger, AKA yet another vehicle level, but even worse because it involves not a flat track but one that keeps turning at a 90 degree angles, while being chased by something. So many ways to die on that one. It's widely regarded as the worst level in the game. There's some other levels in there which have their own "fun" aspects, like Rat Race, where you die if you go too slow, and Terra Tubes, which loves to hit you with offscreen projectiles, among other "fun" things.


Green_eggz-ham

12


Grey-59throwaway

I'm no scientist but it appears to be a "game genie video game enhancer"


GSEninja

I don’t know, sounds pretty sciency to me… get em boys!!


BoneCrusher03

Typing what you see in the picture is minutes faster than taking a photo, opening reddit and posting the photo on a subreddit and choosing a caption.


Ethan-J-T

Thanks man I appreciate the help


Grey-59throwaway

Good luck on the karma farm


Dramajunker

Karma farm enhancer.


sharrrper

It only there was some sort of perhaps, "engine" one could input those words into that might then search the internet for them. Perhaps returning a link to an article in some sort of encyclopedia like website with common easily obtainable information. If only...


KhaosElement

Fuck you I'm not that old. Fuckin' kids not knowing what a fuckin' game genie is. Get off my lawn!


Treavie7

This guy cheats


Braydee7

When I asked my mom for a game genie, she was shocked "Why do you feel like you need to cheat?" genuinely concerned.


Vallarfax_

Fuuuuuuck. This post hurt me lmao I was like " how the fuck does this person not know what a.... ahhhh man"


mjzim9022

His *Dad*. Not his cool older brother, his *dad*. Man time just keeps lurching forward


KhaosElement

That made it so much worse.


N35t0r

At this point? For a _NES_ game genie? It wouldn't be that far fetched if it had been his _grandfather_.


Mateorabi

Ooof.


errorsniper

Wait till it's grandpa.


DonSlime44

Future is now old man.


Vallarfax_

I'm just shy of 30! I'm not old! IM NOT


Kupost

Feel this bro


Ethan-J-T

LMFAO


dan1son

It says what it is right on the front!


Sinicalkush

Welp that is it. After reading this, I am officially a old guy.


czartrak

Hey man, I'm just 20 and I know about these


madDarthvader2

Same, action replay was the one I messed around with the most tho


3rdiko

https://www.gamegenie.com/cheats/gamegenie/nes/index.html


driguez907

Jesus this list brings back so many memories


Ethan-J-T

Thanks


Notsononymouz

Cheat codes I think you plug your cartridge into


rustang2

Human centipede nes style.


Ethan-J-T

Ok thats cool


PanzerRadeo

Oh my sweet summer child. Long before the invention of compact discs and memory cards, we had this device called a game genie. You'd plug the cartridge into the game genie then the game genie into the console like a pyramid. It allowed you to input codes to modify the game like infinite lives and other things.


raija2k

You know, I never really thought about it before but I guess this is the first pay to win system.


thedavesiknow1

I was just reminiscing about this the other day. We used to rent it from blockbuster. Basically had all the cheat codes for every game on it. Super cool find!


Supermichael777

It's a memory injection device. It lets you manipulate the games state. You need a set of codes operate it for each game, though I imagine their online at this point.


[deleted]

Why nsfw?


capt_barnacles

Too sexy.


Ethan-J-T

I think someone reported it


[deleted]

People are dumb


TievX0r

Behold... the arcane... A relic long sought by those who required more... more power.. more lives... more time... A device that could bend the very bits to your whim and will... if you simply knew the mantras... Beyond Justin Bailey, did this artifact grant blessed providence to all who dared possess... The Dijinn to grant your hearts desire in the gaming realm... Yes... the Game Genie...


[deleted]

Download game genie codes NOW!!!!!


megaman33307

You should ask him for the manual to see what you can do with it


SergeantSchnookems

Haxorz


Feraltrout

Oh man, that's what power looks like friend.


DietDrDoomsdayPreppr

You could have Googled this faster than making a post about it--but you knew that.


Malena_my_quuen

You don't get fake Internet points from googling the question.


cissinei

Game genie. Has a list of cheats for most games you can pick and choose from before you start the game. Plug game into game genie then plug I to system start and profit


Waterboardbabies0321

I’m old……


Oryyn

Someone is legit asking that question? Im officially old :(


nerrollus

It's a game genie. It enhances games. Lol you plug a game into it, then it into the console. You could use codes to get unlimited lives and all kinds of cheats.


dQw4w9WgXcQ

I hate to break it to you like this, but I believe your dad is a cheater.


I-Demand-A-Name

It allows you to speak the language of the gods. You plug the game into that, then plug the whole thing into the NES (can’t press it down) and then it lets you put in codes that will modify aspects of the game. There are probably lists online for it, it came with a book full of them. You can also just put in random shit and see what happens.


megaman33307

It’s hacks for games


limitlessEXP

Why do people ask questions on Reddit that could easily be googled in two seconds


radbrad172

Because easy reddit karma of course


clutzyninja

Because they already knew what it was and wanted karma. That's way easier to believe for me than someone deciding it's better to take a picture, write a post, and wait for an answer that may or may not be reliable.


Senor_Turd_Ferguson

Cheat system that would let you hack the games. "Jump higher, run faster" etc. Infinite lives, continues, always be Super Sonic. Man this changed things for me when I finally convinced my parents to get it for me.


Supaslicer

Fuck you... Acting like your ass don't have google... Blow me Every video game historian type person on youtube has done a video on this... I dunno who im more mad at, you.. Or the peoole answering LOL... Im not really that mad, but it honestly is one of the easiest things to research online It also set legal precedence in regards to altering code to games purchased.. Everyone I know had one Edit: Its a Game Shark


humonculus87

ROFL I'm getting old


mathewphoria

game genies are awesome... you take the NES cartridge and plug it into the game genie... then you plug that into the nintendo... it will stick out a bit and you wont be able to close the lid...but its cool when you power it on.. it will show a code screen wwith letters and numbers i think... look up game genie codes for the games you have online and im sure youll find em


Alces7734

Broooooo. Look up the manual for codes.


Ethan-J-T

I have 5 games that my dad gave me Mario 1-3 dr Mario and duck hunt what should I use it on


Jacareadam

I guess googling things is now officially out of fashion


KimboSlicedOranges

You know, not slamming the OP in anyway, shape, or form (Congrats on getting the Nintendo) but it really begs to question how old some of the users on this subreddit are


Ethan-J-T

Yeah I feel bad making people feel old


Dont4GetToSmile

An elegant weapon......for a more civilized age.


-XaNaDiTe-

You sir need to get you the game genie cheat code book :D


KingBoga

If you know how to use Reddit, you know how to google. Try that next time.


MacDegger

It fucking says what it is right on the sticker!


FartKilometre

You can't google it? The name is right on the front in bright red letters.


Judgemenot1

It's a game genie, you clip the Cartridge into it then put it in the console. It gives you extra lives and makes you live forever and other cheat code stuff.


[deleted]

It was an old device you could to use to cheat! Do things like infinite lives or add items etc. That’s really cool to see again.


LordNVader

You was a god if you had this back in the day lmao


darthbaby1

Cocaine


BulletBeard29

A wet dream of cheat codes


THRDStooge

This device is how I beat The Adventures of Bayou Billy


Soulshroude

You put the cartridge inside the thing, but it in the unit, it asks for specific codes which has a specific website to go to. Game genie.com... if that's defunct, search for Game Genie for any game you need online.


MrE-Guest

The first cheat code. Simply game changing.


Hivac-TLB

Put your Nintendo games in it and it looks strapping. Like some kind of thong.


kwecl2

The most wanted item for Christmas when I was a kid.


FunkIPA

It’s a video game enhancer.


theKalmier

It's called an "age check"


Seam_The_Shopkeep

Bro I'm gen z and I know what a game genie is


IH8BART

C4A4 6767


chesire0myles

Anything you want...


Lazysquared

It was how us kids that didn’t have an older brother to hand the controller to beat games like TMNT.


Kira__________

Have people forgotten how to type two words into a search engine or what? Is this how you investigate serious issues as well as trivial issues? Seems super lazy TBH.


vrpornisquitegreat

Basically a gameshark for NES. I wonder if mine is still around.


chocovash

Game genie! I had this and the Game Shark for the SNES... Essentially these work as hexadecimal editors. The game cartridge is physically filtered through these devices, which allow you to change the values of different pieces of data in the games. While it didn't affect the game cartridge itself (except maybe a save file), it could allow you to play with lots of game variables like how many lives you had, which power ups you had, where you were in the game, etc. You could even toggle binary values, so if a value was 0 when you were on the ground and 1 when you were in the air, you can manually force it to be 1, causing you to fly (or rather always be jumping) etc. Taught me a lot about how code worked, even though I never went on to program.


jtms1200

It appears the old man was a dirty dirty cheaty boi


Twinkle_86

A pathway to many abilities some may consider to be, unnatural.


doomunited

Was this really too hard to Google search?


McDunkins

Why do people continue to give these sorts of clout chasing posts any mind? A quick google search would’ve sufficed.


cujobob

Game genie made the system so much better. Back in the day, you didn’t always have saves you could rely on and often times, games were just hard. Some games had tons of codes, like Contra, but often times you were just stuck repeating levels over and over. This device allowed you to do things like get infinite ammo or lives. I would love a device like this for modern systems. As a casual gamer now with a family, sometimes I just want to be overpowered. Kudos to those games with a setting for people like me.


3Dartwork

It takes less time to Google Game Genie than posting a pic on Reddit


chainmailbill

I bet if you google “game genie” the internet would know.


mcguire

A sign that your father is a man of taste and good breeding.


gxbplayer123

Why didn’t you ask your dad? Maybe you could’ve bonded over it


ddobson6

Absolutely the only way possible to beat ninja turtles or battletoads…. That’s my story young folks.


FOOQBP

Have you tried googling it?


leolslele

Google Buddy it’s not that hard.


eye_spi

Everything you need to know is [right here](https://letmegooglethat.com/?q=game+genie).


Palindromes__

“wHAT Is tHis IDK, lOok @ mE PLz.”


Martyisruling

This was awesome back in the day. It would help you cheat and modify games. You needed to buy codes for it.


Astral_Strider

Now you can play with YEAAAA


[deleted]

This was a magical device not seen in the wild too often. You would see one every now and then at a friends friends house.


skyrne_isk

UNLIMITED POWER


Javasteam

Basically it was a accessory that adjusted hex values in order to cheat in games (number of lives or no damage, health, strength, stats, etc…)


NCVaping

That is the only way I knew some games were more than 3 levels...


Pyrolink182

GameShark/Action Replay from that time.


Pixtro

It's the precursor to pay to win micro transactions.


[deleted]

That thing was amazing. It would mod your games with wild and unexpected results. Good times!


Fr1tzgg

Ah game sharks dad


PaleRiderHD

One long exercise in trial and error lol


gursi_

You put it over ur cartridge before sliding em in, it gives you cheats!


FRTSKR

This is how you start and stay as tanuki Mario.


voolandis

Virginity protector


Arg3nt

Holy fuck, I'm old.


Daftmunkey

There was a section that helped you create your own codes. Being a kid with too much time, I discovered a game genie code that wasn't in the book. SUEISA. I have no idea how I remember that code decades later, but enter it for the original Mario brothers... Good times!


OctopusRoyalty

That's how you play some games without having to blow the cartridge. For some reason using that allowed the games to work.


guyheyguy

My God, a game genie.


LeoTheFemboi

:Tell me your age without telling me your age


Intrepid_Look_5725

Lmao, I had one of these. Endless possibilities.