Why Did Video Games Have Cheat Codes?
And why don’t they anymore?
Many people who played video games in their youth probably remember mashing in a complex string of commands in order to unlock cheat codes. The commands had to be timed just right and done in a specific order but if you managed to input them correctly, you would unlock unlimited lives, unlimited ammo, super speed, and other game-breaking advantages. These were fun distractions that kids used to cheat their way through games.
The sequences would look something like this:
A, A, X, Y, B, UP, UP, DOWN
A successful cheat code would open up a new options menu or coincide with a satisfying sound that granted new powers or extra lives.
Today, cheating is severely frowned upon in gaming. Using hacks, aimbots, glitches or exploits will get you banned from online games and criticized. Cheating in modern games has become so prevalent and maligned that a ring of cheat makers was busted by police earlier this year. What happened?
Why did video games use to have cheat codes?
A relic of the pre-internet era
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