Why Did Video Games Have Cheat Codes?

And why don’t they anymore?

Photo by Slava Pluzhnov on Unsplash

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…