The Five Most Badass Retro Game Cheat Codes

[Areala]

My brother strikes again with this witty look at five cheat codes that changed the face of gaming forever, and the way he looks at number 5 and its result is absolutely mind-blowing when you consider it the way he does. An entire company reversing course because of a cheat code? Yup.

http://retrogamingmagazine.com/2016/02/03/five-most-badasss-retro-game-cheat-codes/

Give it a read and see if you agree with his choices.

*huggles*
Areala

[Sean697]

Ah good old Abacab.

[pmo1985]

Ah good old Abacab.

*Computer screen turns red* GET OVER HERE!!!!!!!

[Leathco]

I liked how the konami code worked with ultra games as well. I never knew til I got older that they were the same company.

[KHANV1CT]

I immediately thought of the Konami code even before clicking the post. Blood code was a good one too. I remember wanting a Genesis JUST FOR THAT because my friend could play MK in all its bloody glory and I was stuck with the lame SNES version with barely any blood.

[twiztor]

i legitimately did not know that Street Fighter code. never even heard such a thing existed. the rest, of course, are codes that helped shape my gaming life. hell, my next tattoo will probably end up being the Konami code on my leg (to compliment my NES controller/Zelda shield design)

another awesome article. pass on my gratitude.

[miketheratguy]

Always have to go with the Konami code, which my friends and I grew up calling the Contra code. Insert cheap plug for my retro video game podcast The Contra Code! Try it today!

Seriously though, that was probably the first experience that I ever had with a video game "code". I couldn't believe that something as simple as an arbitrary series of button presses turned games like Contra and Life Force from intriguing titles that I couldn't survive for ten minutes into exciting memory-making machines that my friends and I conquered over and over and over again.

I immediately thought of the Konami code even before clicking the post. Blood code was a good one too. I remember wanting a Genesis JUST FOR THAT because my friend could play MK in all its bloody glory and I was stuck with the lame SNES version with barely any blood.

I'll never forget the first time that I played the SNES version of Mortal Kombat. I'd somehow missed the reviews and had no idea that the game wouldn't contain blood or gorier fatalities (committing murder was okay as long as the victim didn't bleed). I'd never dealt with such obvious video game censorship before. So I'm standing there at the video store hangout with a few of the other local kids, waiting for the game to come in. It does, and the store proprietor says that it's going to take him a little while to process and sticker the new games but that in the meantime he can boot up the store's SNES and let us play. I was the most familiar with the game so I was elected to play it and show everyone the cool "death moves", and I excitedly obliged. It took all of three or four minutes for the atmosphere of the room to turn from giddy exuberance to abject confusion. It took only a few minutes more for the inevitable anger, frustration, and crowd of kids exiting with Genesis copies of the game. Except for me, because I didn't have a Genesis then. :(

So I feel your pain. In fact, I don't know if you followed it this closely, but there was a time when people were so pathetically desperate to somehow restore blood to the SNES MK that EGM magazine printed a user-submitted Game Genie code that turned the game's little pixels of grey sweat into little pixels of red "blood". It was stupid and it was half-assed and you can bet that I ran out to rent the game and use the code immediately.

[Areala]

So I feel your pain. In fact, I don't know if you followed it this closely, but there was a time when people were so pathetically desperate to somehow restore blood to the SNES MK that EGM magazine printed a user-submitted Game Genie code that turned the game's little pixels of grey sweat into little pixels of red "blood". It was stupid and it was half-assed and you can bet that I ran out to rent the game and use the code immediately.

I can't remember which magazine it was, but a month or two after the MK home release I remember reading an editorial where they asked readers to stop deluging their office with letters about the blood code for the Super Nintendo version because they'd have already spilled the beans on it if it was a thing.

Also: BDB4-DD07. I was that kid too...

*huggles*

Areala

[miketheratguy]

I can't remember which magazine it was, but a month or two after the MK home release I remember reading an editorial where they asked readers to stop deluging their office with letters about the blood code for the Super Nintendo version because they'd have already spilled the beans on it if it was a thing.

Also: BDB4-DD07. I was that kid too...

*huggles*

Areala

Lol that sounds like something that EGM would have said but then again I'm sure it was a sentiment that the staff of roughly every video game magazine shared.

Wow, was that the actual code? If you knew that without having to look it up then I'm really impressed. Man, I would have loved you when we were kids. Granted, my love would have gone unrequited, but I think I would have to have loved you all the same.

[Areala]

Lol that sounds like something that EGM would have said but then again I'm sure it was a sentiment that the staff of roughly every video game magazine shared.

Wow, was that the actual code? If you knew that without having to look it up then I'm really impressed. Man, I would have loved you when we were kids. Granted, my love would have gone unrequited, but I think I would have to have loved you all the same.

I'm 99% positive it was EGM, since they had "Trickman" Terry who often plead readers to send him codes for X or stop asking about cheats for Y (or send money to pay another speeding ticket), and it seems like the sort of thing they'd relegate to his little sidebar instead of dedicating an entire "Insert Coin" editorial from Ed or Steve.

Yeah, that's the actual code (or one of them at any rate, I'm sure it's not the only one, and might not even be the best one for all I know). You could hack that one to get all sorts of weird colors by changing around the first two digits, so it was amusing to make everybody bleed purple, or turn them all into green-blooded Vulcans as my brother and I found out through what I'm sure was hours of quality research time.

I memorized several of the more useful Genie codes for the different games we played. DF30-076E, for example, was a code for Final Fantasy II that gave you a ton of rare items and experience after every fight and was pretty much a requirement if you ever wanted to get the rare drop from a PinkPuff so you could turn it in to the tail collector and get the Adamant Armor.

3E2C-AF6F was a 'jump any time' code for Super Mario World, and we used that to hunt for secret areas the strategy guide missed (apparently we thought Nintendo might have been withholding information in their own guide or something...I don't know, we were dumb kids...)

You might think you'd have loved me at that age, but remember: this was a time before gaming was considered at all cool or mainstream, so me being at all into it was pretty much a death sentence on my popularity at school in the 1980s and 90s. Being around me was toxic for the rest of your social scene, so...I had very few friends growing up. Between video games, D&D, and Magic: The Gathering I did a fabulous job of ensuring I was never once invited to sit at the cool tables in the lunch room.

*huggles*

Areala

[miketheratguy]

I memorized several of the more useful Genie codes for the different games we played. DF30-076E, for example, was a code for Final Fantasy II that gave you a ton of rare items and experience after every fight and was pretty much a requirement if you ever wanted to get the rare drop from a PinkPuff so you could turn it in to the tail collector and get the Adamant Armor.

You might think you'd have loved me at that age, but remember: this was a time before gaming was considered at all cool or mainstream, so me being at all into it was pretty much a death sentence on my popularity at school in the 1980s and 90s. Being around me was toxic for the rest of your social scene, so...I had very few friends growing up. Between video games, D&D, and Magic: The Gathering I did a fabulous job of ensuring I was never once invited to sit at the cool tables in the lunch room.

*huggles*

Areala

Ha, that's crazy! I memorized some of the Game Genie codes for Final Fantasy II as well! To this day I remember that 8267-OD62 gave you infinite magic. I don't know why I remember that one over the infinite health code but I'm guessing that I probably used the former more than the latter because it didn't take all the challenge out of the game. Plus if I recall correctly the health code was two lines (though I could be wrong).

That second paragraph describes me exactly (well, minus the D&D and Magic details). I was always a geek, always heavily into gaming and socially awkward. Painfully shy as well, so by 7th and 8th grade I only had a few close friends (though I suspect that this was due to having GAD more than anything) and just kind of quietly kept to my games while everyone else went on to play sports and go to parties. The fact that you were the same would have made it more likely that you would have stood out to me. Hell, the mere fact that you played Final Fantasy II would have guaranteed that I'd make a pass at you.

[Areala]

You probably don't remember the Infinite HP code because it applied to enemies as well as your party, so you'd have to sit there, turn the Genie off when it was your turn to attack, then flip it back on when someone attacked you, etc... At least that's the way the one we had worked, so yeah, Infinite MP was a far superior option in that case (Cure4 for EVERYBODY!!)

*huggles*

Areala

[miketheratguy]

You probably don't remember the Infinite HP code because it applied to enemies as well as your party, so you'd have to sit there, turn the Genie off when it was your turn to attack, then flip it back on when someone attacked you, etc... At least that's the way the one we had worked, so yeah, Infinite MP was a far superior option in that case (Cure4 for EVERYBODY!!)

*huggles*

Areala

Really? Wow, I don't remember that. That would explain it though. Useless!!!

Cure 4 for EVERYBODY, and Bahamut and White for everybody ELSE!!!!

[kitsunebi]

The only codes that I can recite off the top of my head are:

1) the Konami code (I also called it the Contra code for a long time, since I didn't own any other games it worked on at the time)

2) ABBA - continue code for Ikari Warriors and its sequel

3) JUSTIN BAILEY

[miketheratguy]

The only codes that I can recite off the top of my head are:

1) the Konami code (I also called it the Contra code for a long time, since I didn't own any other games it worked on at the time)

2) ABBA - continue code for Ikari Warriors and its sequel

3) JUSTIN BAILEY

I remember both of those for sure, since Ikari and Metroid were favorites when I was a kid. I was actually going to ask if anyone was familiar with the mysterious "Justin Bailey" so it's nice to see that someone else is. Also good to know that I wasn't the only kid calling it the "Contra code".

[Areala]

007-373-5963.

If you do not know what this does, we cannot be friends. Ever.

Also, the Metroid code is actually "JUSTIN BAILEY ------ ------" if you want to be specific. But that starts you off in Norfair with 255 missiles, all the energy tanks, Kraid and Ridley dead, and the bridge to Tourian made by shooting their statues already extended. Grab the Ice Beam and you've got the game finished in 10 minutes. Where's the fun in playing as suitless Samus for so short a period of time?

Want to be a real badass? Try "000000 000020 000000 000020". That plunks you down right at the beginning, like you'd just turned the game on, with Samus in her leotard and no power-ups so you can actually enjoy the game again. You're welcome.

*huggles*
Areala

[pablumatic]

I remember Zanac having crazy cheat codes.

The North American version's debug mode required you to have a Zapper plugged in, and then you had to very gently eject the game until it got to the right state. I don't remember the exact combination for it now, but it was the weirdest.

Zanac also has a level select where you need to press reset on the NES 13 times. Somehow the game can count reset presses.

[Areala]

Zanac also has a level select where you need to press reset on the NES 13 times. Somehow the game can count reset presses.

This isn't as difficult to program as it might seem. Hitting the reset button performs a "soft" reset, as opposed to the "hard" reset of turning the power off and back on again. The "soft" reset only clears out some memory registers, so it would be a simple matter to program the game to 'count' how many times the cartridge booted, and store that information in part of the memory which isn't cleared when you hit Reset. Once that number reaches 13, kick in the cheat mode for the stage select.

*huggles*

Areala

[kitsunebi]

007-373-5963.

If you do not know what this does, we cannot be friends. Ever.

Also, the Metroid code is actually "JUSTIN BAILEY ------ ------" if you want to be specific. But that starts you off in Norfair with 255 missiles, all the energy tanks, Kraid and Ridley dead, and the bridge to Tourian made by shooting their statues already extended. Grab the Ice Beam and you've got the game finished in 10 minutes. Where's the fun in playing as suitless Samus for so short a period of time?

Want to be a real badass? Try "000000 000020 000000 000020". That plunks you down right at the beginning, like you'd just turned the game on, with Samus in her leotard and no power-ups so you can actually enjoy the game again. You're welcome.

Well, to be fair, I never said I used the Justin Bailey code. Just that I could remember it off the top of my head.

A lot of codes I used were too complicated for me to recall after not having used them for decades. For instance, while I instantly recognized that Mike Tyson code, I wouldn't have been able to recite it from memory (even though I probably could have as a child).

I don't think I ever knew about that 2nd Metroid code though, or I definitely would have tried playing the game that way.

[KHANV1CT]

So I feel your pain. In fact, I don't know if you followed it this closely, but there was a time when people were so pathetically desperate to somehow restore blood to the SNES MK that EGM magazine printed a user-submitted Game Genie code that turned the game's little pixels of grey sweat into little pixels of red "blood". It was stupid and it was half-assed and you can bet that I ran out to rent the game and use the code immediately.

Nah I didn't follow it that closely, I do remember trying all kinds of attempts to adapt the code over to SNES(hmm, no C button but I could try X or Y!). Plus I never had a Genie for SNES anyway.

[miketheratguy]

007-373-5963.

Oh yeah. That was about as ubiquitous as the Konami code when I was a kid. I mean how could it not be? Punch-Out was a bitch!

And it seemed that every savvy Nintendo player on the playground knew of the Justin Bailey code, but none of us ever knew who he was or what was his significance. It didn't take long for apocryphal tales to spring up about how Justin Bailey was this one kid's cousin or how this other kid knew him and that he was an expert Metroid player or helped design the game, etc. I never really looked into it but my understanding is that Metroid's password algorithm was flexible enough to give you results with all kinds of passwords, and that "Justin Bailey" was just one example.

Still, I like wondering about stuff like this. Who was the first person to have tried out that code, and how did it become so famous?

This isn't as difficult to program as it might seem. Hitting the reset button performs a "soft" reset, as opposed to the "hard" reset of turning the power off and back on again. The "soft" reset only clears out some memory registers, so it would be a simple matter to program the game to 'count' how many times the cartridge booted, and store that information in part of the memory which isn't cleared when you hit Reset. Once that number reaches 13, kick in the cheat mode for the stage select.

*huggles*

Areala

There was an X-Men game for the Sega Genesis that required you to hit the reset button in order to progress to the final stage (or some such thing). It was a neat trick similar to the kind of stuff that you'd go on to find in the first Metal Gear Solid.

The problem? The Sega Nomad didn't HAVE a reset button so if you planned on playing the game in portable fashion, as I did, you found out the hard way that you were shit out of luck.

Nah I didn't follow it that closely, I do remember trying all kinds of attempts to adapt the code over to SNES(hmm, no C button but I could try X or Y!). Plus I never had a Genie for SNES anyway.

You didn't have a SNES Game Genie? Aw man, you missed a whole lot of cheatin' fun. Though none of that really came from Mortal Kombat, I don't remember there being any particularly great codes for that one.

[Areala]

And it seemed that every savvy Nintendo player on the playground knew of the Justin Bailey code, but none of us ever knew who he was or what was his significance. It didn't take long for apocryphal tales to spring up about how Justin Bailey was this one kid's cousin or how this other kid knew him and that he was an expert Metroid player or helped design the game, etc. I never really looked into it but my understanding is that Metroid's password algorithm was flexible enough to give you results with all kinds of passwords, and that "Justin Bailey" was just one example.

Yeah, the Justin Bailey code is a fluke, one that just happens to work. People have been playing with the password system for years and finding all sorts of weird word combos that perform odd functions. One that shouldn't work but does because it bypasses the checksum routine and gives a result anyway (infinite energy and infinite missiles), is NARPAS SWORD0 000000 000000. This is something that must have been deliberately programmed into the game by someone, and it had to have been done during the conversion to the US release since the Famicom version saved to disk and didn't use a password system, but nobody has any idea who did it or when. There are several different theories, but no definitive answers.

Also, screw that "reset the password" puzzle from X-Men on the Genesis. Not only did you have to press the reset button, but you had to make sure you only tapped it. If you pushed it all the way in, you got a hard reset and started the game over. Awesome idea, but poorly executed. The Model 3 Genesis, released near the end of the system's life, also has no reset button, so forget finishing it on that as well.

*huggles*

Areala

[miketheratguy]

Also, screw that "reset the password" puzzle from X-Men on the Genesis. Not only did you have to press the reset button, but you had to make sure you only tapped it. If you pushed it all the way in, you got a hard reset and started the game over. Awesome idea, but poorly executed. The Model 3 Genesis, released near the end of the system's life, also has no reset button, so forget finishing it on that as well.

Lol I didn't know that it had to be just a light tap on the reset button. What needless frustration that must have caused countless kids. Come to think of it I don't think that Sega's CD-X has a reset button either. Or if it does I've forgotten since I packed mine away quite some time ago.

Everyone remember Nintendo's reminders to hold the reset button while switching off the system so that data would be saved in games like Zelda and Ultima? I have to admit, it's little bits of tactile nostalgia like that that make me miss playing on the actual consoles.

[KHANV1CT]

I had a Genie for the Genesis.

[RobertDuncan]

With emulators built in cheats the possibilities are endless heck you can even play or use cheats on Japanese games/consoles. Mame another favorite with cheats that let you unlock characters you never knew where hidden like anita from darkstalkers in marvels fighting game. The only thing I hate are people who complain to game companies about cheats being in games I mean jesus people it's optional ya know but nope it's like if the cheats are there they become add and have to use it than complain...come to think about it that's why dlc,amiiboss,free to play are taking off no wonder game companies study game psychology course$. Take pokemon shuffle for example boy oh boy that game if you have the money you basically win it's like valet parking your basically paying some guy for the rights to using cheats smh that's not even mentioning the prices on items on their store jesus $80 bucks for virtual gems it's like buying 3-2 games yet nintendo still can't get money to pony up for 3rd party support or better specs? I know one thing this current generation of game developers are actually dinning on lobster with a side of caviar.