Cheat codes?

DDNI · 07 August 2012, 17:45

Back in the day, everyone wanted to find and mess about with cheat codes.

Were these a marketing strategy to reduce the longevity of a game and hasten your next purchase?

OR

Were they a valuable addition from innovative coders?

Discuss?

Retro-Nerd · 07 August 2012, 17:50

The programmers added cheats, so they could test their complete code anytime.

s2325 · 07 August 2012, 17:51

I always thought they were to test games by developers.

DDNI · 07 August 2012, 23:02

hmmm not convinced...

Leffmann · 08 August 2012, 00:58

I always thought of cheat codes as easter eggs appropriated for games. I don't think there were any marketing decisions behind them.

Some of them could have started out as debugging features, but then they would of course have been bound to a single key and not a type-in code.

XimeR · 08 August 2012, 01:55

I always thought they were for magazine reviewers to get deep into the game... They always seemed to print screenshots quickly that may have taken the average player weeks to achieve.

Codetapper · 08 August 2012, 04:03

John Croudy answered this about the cheats in St Dragon:

Quote:

There are an insane number of cheats in St Dragon. Were they all added for debugging?

No, they were all easter eggs which were supposed to be leaked to magazines over time to renew interest in the game. I think one magazine published the whole lot in one go so that didn't work out.

I agree with this. In fact when I read solutions in magazines to some games I had never played, the games often sounded incredible! Often the game turned out to be a bit of a dud but the solutions made them sound incredibly open ended and exciting!

eg. Fly the magic carpet into the desert, search the rocks for the snake, take the amulet, kneel down before the Medusa. Time walking across the chasm to avoid the rocks etc...

s2325 · 09 August 2012, 20:09

Throughout the life of many gaming systems cheating has been a simple way to unlock things you’re not suppose to see yet, and sometime things you were never suppose to see at all. Cheating comes in the form of a special code entered through the controller at a certain place within the game or through cheat devices such as the Game Genie, Game Shark or the Action Replay. Whatever your chosen method, if you cheated at a game, you had way more fun than you did simply following the rules.

It is said that codes were originally used by the developers to test the game fully, without having to play all the way through. As time went on cheat codes seemingly turned into more of a bonus for the players, rather than a tool for the developers. Websites started popping up all over the internet to database these cheat codes, but as systems became out dated most sites dumped the older systems in favor of the new ones, making finding cheat codes for vintage games somewhat of a task.
http://www.thevintagegamers.com/page/3/

07 August 2012, 17:45	#1
DDNI Targ Explorer Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Northern Ireland Posts: 5,431	Cheat codes? Back in the day, everyone wanted to find and mess about with cheat codes. Were these a marketing strategy to reduce the longevity of a game and hasten your next purchase? OR Were they a valuable addition from innovative coders? Discuss?

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07 August 2012, 17:50	#2
Retro-Nerd Missile Command Champion Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Germany Age: 52 Posts: 12,438	The programmers added cheats, so they could test their complete code anytime.

07 August 2012, 17:51	#3
s2325 Zone Friend Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Gargore Age: 43 Posts: 17,789	I always thought they were to test games by developers.

07 August 2012, 23:02	#4
DDNI Targ Explorer Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Northern Ireland Posts: 5,431	hmmm not convinced...

08 August 2012, 00:58	#5
Leffmann Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Sweden Posts: 2,269	I always thought of cheat codes as easter eggs appropriated for games. I don't think there were any marketing decisions behind them. Some of them could have started out as debugging features, but then they would of course have been bound to a single key and not a type-in code.

08 August 2012, 01:55	#6
XimeR Registered User Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Warrington, UK Age: 47 Posts: 116	I always thought they were for magazine reviewers to get deep into the game... They always seemed to print screenshots quickly that may have taken the average player weeks to achieve.

09 August 2012, 20:09	#8
s2325 Zone Friend Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Gargore Age: 43 Posts: 17,789	Throughout the life of many gaming systems cheating has been a simple way to unlock things you’re not suppose to see yet, and sometime things you were never suppose to see at all. Cheating comes in the form of a special code entered through the controller at a certain place within the game or through cheat devices such as the Game Genie, Game Shark or the Action Replay. Whatever your chosen method, if you cheated at a game, you had way more fun than you did simply following the rules. It is said that codes were originally used by the developers to test the game fully, without having to play all the way through. As time went on cheat codes seemingly turned into more of a bonus for the players, rather than a tool for the developers. Websites started popping up all over the internet to database these cheat codes, but as systems became out dated most sites dumped the older systems in favor of the new ones, making finding cheat codes for vintage games somewhat of a task. http://www.thevintagegamers.com/page/3/

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