How were cheat codes discovered back in the day?

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whataboutbob?

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Ive got a question ive always wondered and have never really been sure of the answer. How are/were cheat codes discovered for games? I just dont believe that someone really sat at the Contra title screen and figured out the Capcom code through sheer trial and error, or most cheat codes for that matter. Anybody have any insight, especially for the pre-internet days?

 
Game magazines typically had special cheat code sections (don't know if there's any that still do), which included contributions from both staff and readers. The "try everything" mentality that gives us GameFAQs guides nowadays was undoubtedly alive and well back then in such sections.

Aside from that, there were cheats in printed game guides, which were probably also written with such an approach in mind.
 
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If I had to guess, I would say developers/publishers would send memos to gaming mags, and they'd print them.  Strikes me as a tactful way to get some publicity.  I'm guessing this happened more often than not.

 
The very first Easter Eggs (Atari 2600 era) were put in by programmers and not publicized because they feared losing their jobs. These were found by trial and error. Later, they were put in intentionally and leaked to get more publicity and interest in the games. The actual cheat codes that aided game play started as developers' means to bug test games (making them easier to complete with special helpful codes), and then these were given to magazine reviewers also sometimes so they could get deeper in games for review purposes. It's unclear whether the magazines leaked these out on their own to give themselves a scoop or with the blessing of the game companies, but eventually it became a tool to prolong interest in a game.

 
Gaming magazines/strat guides were it unless you figured one out on your own.  I remember what a big deal it was when whatever magazine (Tips & Tricks IIRC?) first published the Goldeneye codes years after the game came out.  I miss the days of getting drugstore ice cream cones for a quarter and looking through all of the game mags for news/cheats.

Discovering GameFAQs in the late 90s was incredible.

 
Magazines and friends with magazines.  Nintendo Power, Gamepro, EGM, Tips & Tricks, Swat.  Had subscriptions to most of them.

I did buy a bookmark from some guy at an arcade fir $5that was a full MK2 move list.  Had to laminate that thing when it started to fall apart.

 
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You could also call a 1-900 number back in the day for video game tips/tricks.  I can only imagine how expensive those phone bills would be after having to explain to an operator which part of Zelda you're stuck at.

 
I never discovered a code on my own, just from friends, magazines, and code books back in the day.  The old Tips & Tricks code books were such fun to pour over.

Then you have Game Genies / Game Sharks and the like, but that's something else entirely.

 
gunnm said:
Nintendo power!

How were mortal kombat fatalities figured out?
Click to expand...
I remember selling printouts of all mortal kombat 2 and 3 fatalities during middle school. A friend of mine found em somewhere and I would make copies and sell them at 2 bucks a pop.

 
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^---- EDIT: LMAO, I didn't read the rest of the thread, I saw your post after I posted, good stuff!

gunnm said:
Nintendo power!

How were mortal kombat fatalities figured out?
Click to expand...
I remember these being leaked on the internet, I used to make my MK 2 and 3 arcade money that way. I used to have print outs of the fatalities and would charge $5.

I think back in the NES days there used to be a hotline you could call for .99 cents a minute and you could get codes and cheats.

 
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Bus rides to and from school.  I remember associating certain buses with the "Contra Guy," "Tyson Guy," "Zelda Guy," "Mario Guy," so on. 

And those dudes wore those titles as an honor.  I remember the Mario Guy getting in a fight with a kid who got SMB3 before the Mario Guy did, and the kid started blabbing about the flutes.  The panic in the Mario Guy's face was real, that title was all he had.  So he threw down on the kid, shit got real.  That's some gangsta shit right there.

It's all on the heels of the arcades, when certain people would be associated with certain cabinets.  I'm fuckin old.

 
Yeah, a lot of codes were debug codes to test stuff in later levels without spending the time getting to said level. Having tested video games at various points in my life, debug saves tons of time. One of the bugs I was testing a few years back only occurred after 6 hours of play. I would set up the bug on 6 different PCs at spaced intervals so I could catch the bug a few times before I left for the day.  Now most debug stuff I removed from the final version of the game.

 
I kid you not there is still a cheat code book at a local Wa;-Mart here mixed in with the strategy guides. Sure it has a nice layer of dust on it by now lol.

 
You can ruin your gaming experience in a split second now, google the game your playing and expect to see a spoiler. And all of those easter eggs now? On the internet the first day of said games release.

 
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That clip reminded me of The Club Mario show I used to watch back in the 90's. All it did was take the Mario Bros. cartoon, edit out the live action sitcom segments and add in these asshole kids talking about video games & xtreme sports or something else. I haven't thought about this show in years. Talk about the perfect representation of the 90's:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEwIyV-4uRI

 
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Word of mouth was pretty much how I found out about everything until I got my first copy of Nintendo Power.

I still remember hearing about the Justin Bailey code for the first time. Oddly enough it was from my friend Justin. 

 
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