The Joy of Cheat Codes

• Monday March 20, 2006 in: Video Game Consoles Tag(s):

  GAME cheat codes have become a sort of cottage industry among geeks and hardcore gamers in the millennium.

  Through magazines, booklets and online services these codes more than aided one gamer caught in a pinch.

  But it wasn't that long ago when joystick wielding and game-pad clutching gamers had to end their games through sheer gut instinct alone.

  These cheat codes had its origins in those game tips and maps featured in those video gaming magazines in the late 80s to early 90s specifically in the Atari 2600 video game Adventure.

  From then on it was only a matter of time before the video games in such platform favorites as Nintendo would introduce cheats in old standby game favorites as Metroid or Contra.

  Techniques like the "Up, Up, Down, Down" punched into game pads allow gamers to either enter a swimsuit clad heroine in Metroid or enables the characters to jump higher, punch stronger and otherwise do fancy tricks that never fail to delight gamers old and new alike.

  The game cheat codes come in the form of either passwords such as the "god mode" found in PC fare like the WarCraft series and the Sims series.

  For platforms like Nintendo, the cheats consists of pressing those game pad buttons with the direction keys and the letter keys. The same holds true for the Sony Playstation and the Sega platforms though with more complex combinations.

  And for personal computer or PC games, the cheats usually consist of sometimes outlandish word phrases or those using direct movie quotes; like StarCraft's "Show Me the Money" that enables the users to gain unlimited money and resources.

  "Grand Theft Auto" has some of the more outrageous game word cheats and one of the most controversial; the "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas" has this "hot coffee" cheat in which the game character named Carl gets to make out with his Caucasian nurse girlfriend.

  Congressional inquiries and public criticism aside, the proliferation of game cheat codes shows that game developers are getting a "feel" (pardon the pun) of the interest of gamers to make their playing experience easier and more enjoyable.