Category: Video Games

I know, it’s been a little bit since my last post. I have been going through some writer’s block, and just couldn’t get anything written that I was happy with. I have actually started a few different articles, but half way through I would run out of things to say. I guess it happens sometimes. But here I am now, sitting down watching Doom (2005) with my son, and I can’t help but think about how much I miss cheat codes in video games. If you have read any of my previous blog posts, you can probably guess my age range. The kids would say I have hit “unc status” these days, and I’m “chopped” or something. With that, I have grown up within some of the best times to experience video games.

My first console was an Atari 2600, and I played the hell out of that. I distinctly remember the rubber around the joystick being completely worn out. It was Christmas 1988 when I got my NES, along with Super Mario Bros. 2, and that’s when gaming changed me forever. Anyone who grew up during that time knows what I’m talking about. There really was a lot of magic behind it. Not just because it comes from our childhoods, but because it was something no one had ever seen or experienced before.

This era of gaming saw bangers like Mike Tyson’s Punch Out, Super Mario Bros. 3, Legend of Zelda, Metroid, and Ghosts ‘n Goblins. All of this was quickly followed up by the 16-bit era, giving us Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Streets of Rage, Gunstar Heroes, Street Fighter 2, and Golden Axe. The real heyday for me, however, was with the release of the PS1 and N64. There were countless titles between those two consoles that absolutely changed how gaming was done, and really set the standards for future console generations. Some of my favorites were Shadows of the Empire, Ocarina of Time, Resident Evil (1 & 2), Ace Combat, Metal Gear Solid, Twisted Metal, and so many more. Enough name dropping though, let’s talk about the thing that I set out to discuss. Cheat codes.

I have never been a “hardcore” gamer, so I never had any qualms about playing on easy mode or using cheats. I like to experience the games, and sometimes its way funner with cheats. Going back to the NES, one of my favorites to use was the Konami Code. Me and my cousin loved plowing through Contra a few times a year, but neither of us were particularly good at the game. That cheat was the only way we could make it through to the end. However, the big one going around the playground back then was the Justin Bailey code for metroid. You can imagine my surprise when I typed that in and started the game as Samus in her famous pink leotard. I think my absolute personal favorite was the code to Mike Tyson though. I could get to him on my own, but I could never beat him. So it was quite a delight to just type in a code and avoid the gauntlet of crazy characters, going straight to the man himself. Almost 40 years later though, and I have still never knocked that dude out. He will always be undefeated against me.

Once we moved past the 8-bit and 16-bit era, cheat codes seemed to have entered new realms of possibilities. Goldeneye 007 comes to mind. I will never forget when I discovered I had somehow activated “DK Mode” in that game, resulting in everyone having a massive head and arms. I begged my mom to take me to the store so I could browse the magazine section for anything I could find that would help me earn more of those cheat options. In doing so I discovered various cheat codes for Shadows of the Empire. I can’t tell you how many hours I logged on that game after finding out about the “_Wampa__Stompa” code. I even took pictures of my screen to send to various gaming magazines to ask questions about what was happening as I was boundary breaking various levels. One magazine actually responded, turns out I was just clipping through the map. This was all new to me though, so I had no idea what clipping even was. I just thought I had found some crazy amazing thing that no one had ever found before.

Looking beyond cheat codes that were programmed into the game, lets venture into the land of altering a game’s code. As a kid, I never had a Game Genie, though I knew of them. I think I had borrowed or rented the one for the NES at one point, but I don’t really remember being that into it. However, I was all about that Gameshark. I eventually got one for both my PS1 and my N64, the PS1 version getting the most use though. I specifically remember wanting to get it because a friend of mine told me that he had heard you could unlock almost the entire game in the Resident Evil 2 demo disc. Me and my mom searched all the usual stores for one, but they were kind of hard to find. It wasn’t until we went to an outlet mall in the middle of nowhere that I was able to find one on clearance at Kay-Bee Toys of all places.

I remember going to the computer lab at school and printing out pages upon pages of Gameshark codes, some being dozens of lines in length. Oh yeah, and about that Resident Evil 2 demo disc, it really worked. I found the Gameshark codes for it, and it opened up a ton of the game. Granted, it was super glitchy and there were no enemies past a certain point, but you could explore a huge chunk of the game’s locations. If you’re a Twisted Metal fan you will know how awesome Minion was in the first game. This huge, imposing armored vehicle that would hunt you down and relentlessly fire a barrage of weapons at you. Well, with Gameshark you could actually play as him. Teenage me’s mind was blown.

I could go on and on about all the different cheat codes I used to use, but the fact of the matter is that I miss those days. Especially now, where stuff that cheat codes used to offer is just a microtransaction. We are so used to that stuff now, but back then it was all brand new. Who would ever have thought that you could press a combination of buttons to get more lives? Or enter a random name into the password screen to start as a scantily clad main character? Then we could buy peripherals that could change the game’s coding to make it do things that it normally wouldn’t be able to do? Seriously, how amazing was that when it first came out? We were all sailing in uncharted waters back then, and that’s what made everything so magical. It really was something you had to experience, because you just can’t recreate that sense of wonder these days.

There are probably quite a few people out there, especially in the gaming world, that scoff when they hear the name Tiger Electronics. “You mean those lame LCD games that make annoying beeping sounds?” Yes, I know the games were rudimentary. There wasn’t much to them other than flashy bezel art and the licensed IP’s they displayed, but I think many forget about just how popular these once were. Everyone knows that the Nintendo Gameboy changed the landscape when it came to handheld gaming. There were also more expensive options like the Atari Lynx, or the Sega Game Gear, but not everyone could afford those. For the price of a Gameboy and maybe a game or two, you would have been able to purchase probably ten Tiger Electronics handhelds. Which of those options do you think is more appealing to an unsuspecting family member, or a kid who just got themselves a crisp $20 bill for their birthday from a grandparent? Even more appealing were the huge license deals that Tiger landed such as X-Men, Sonic the Hedgehog, Ninja Gaiden, Castlevania, Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, and more. There really was something for everyone. 

I have fond memories of my Tiger handhelds, and I actually really enjoyed playing them. I kind of still do, to be honest. There is just something about them that captivates me. I’m a sucker for artwork from old toys and videogames, and I will say that these delivered on that end. They packed a lot into those small bezels. The games themselves were as basic as it gets, but I always got hooked on them. I’ve actually sunk some serious hours into a few, even beating a couple. The music and sound effects, though sometimes ear piercing, really bring me back. There is just something very nostalgic about the simplicity of these. Every time I turn one on and hear those familiar bleeps and bloops, and see the black splotches moving around the screen, I am instantly taken back to a time in my life when I could be completely enthralled with just about anything. 

Like a lot of kids “back in the day” that owned a Tiger handheld, I used to carry at least one with me almost everywhere I went. They fit nicely in a pocket, or a backpack, or the cup holder in the back seat of my mom’s wood paneled minivan. Sometimes I would bring them to school with me and sneak them out on the playground, or if I felt really daring I would shut off the sound and put in a few minutes of playtime during quiet reading. There was a group of kids I used to hang out with after school when I was in 3rd or 4th grade, and we would all sit at the outdoor lunch tables and play our handhelds. Sometimes we would trade them (if our parents said it was OK), or we would lend them out and hope that we would eventually get them back. It’s actually a fun little memory I have, almost like it was ripped straight out of a Tiger commercial. Outside of the playground, it was the car rides, jet flights, and boring shopping trips where these really shined. I remember shopping with my mom and hiding inside the circular clothes racks while playing one. She could always find me by listening for the louds beeping sounds. I also flew a lot to see family on the opposite coast when I was a kid, and was usually able to pick up a new one just before a flight. I don’t remember what my go-to game was, but I know I put in a lot of time with X-Men. I also played the hell out of the Konami branded Ninja Turtles and Star Trek games as well. They were easy to fire up and sustained my attention. Since all the stages were pretty much the same, it really didn’t matter if I had to shut it off and start over at a later time. 

I didn’t get a Gameboy until I was almost a teenager, but I did have an Atari Lynx and a Game Gear growing up. I will admit, those were much better than any Tiger handheld that was available. However, unless you had an AC adapter, or an adapter for the car, they were pretty much useless on the go. Both the Lynx and Game Gear took six batteries each, and would barely last long enough to get through a few stages in whatever game you were playing. Not to mention that they were both pretty bulky, and cumbersome to carry around. They were also kind of delicate too. You definitely didn’t want to drop them. I remember taking a road trip once, and being pumped to bring my Game Gear. I think I just got the X-Men game, and I really wanted to see if I could beat it. I made it maybe an hour into the game and the batteries died. I was devastated, but I did have my trusty Tiger handheld to fall back on. Two AA batteries in that thing, and you could play for weeks without any issue. 

Of course, as time went on Tiger added more bells and whistles. They started to talk, and add real sound effects. There was a barcode feature on some of them, where you slide cards through a built-in reader and they do…something? I could never really figure it out, but I did like the barcode cards they came with. Then there were the hologram handhelds, with a little light on them that lit up holographic screens. I think some even came with little light guns you could fire. And let’s not forget about the R-Zone. Oh man did I want one of them when it came out. 12 year old me was a real sucker for those commercials. Unfortunately, I was never able to get one as a kid, but I did pick it up later in life and it’s actually pretty cool. I still play it from time to time, but I think that’s a blog post for another day. For me, the gimmicks weren’t all that appealing. I mean, how much can you really squeeze out of those types of games? Plus, it was the simple grab and go nature of them that was the big appeal. Adding a bunch of features didn’t really make them any more fun, though I guess they had to keep things fresh from a marketing standpoint. 

Tiger Electronics holds its place in time. I’m willing to bet everyone that reads this blog post, all three of you, probably had at least one Tiger branded product as a kid. Whether it was a handheld game, an electronic organizer, or even a Furby, Tiger products were usually found in just about every household in the 90’s. Whoever was in charge of the licensing and marketing departments back then deserved every penny that they earned. For what they were and what they offered, the value was definitely there. The nostalgia for these has even sparked a re-release over the last few years, seeing major titles like Sonic the Hedgehog, Spider-Man, Power Rangers, and Transformers make their way back to store shelves. I may have even picked a few of those up, just for old times sake. If you have the means, you should grab yourself few of these and give them a try. They are pretty affordable on the secondary market, and there are enough licensed titles out there that you would be hard pressed not to find something that interests you. Who knows, you may just have a lot of fun with it. And if you dont, you will at the least have a cool piece of gaming history to display on your shelf. 

LJN has earned itself a legendary bad rap, but there are some decent games out there that bare that iconic rainbow logo. I stand by my claim that Friday the 13th is a good game once you figure out the controls. A Nightmare on Elm Street is also a solid platformer, with some interesting mechanics. It’s also one of the only games on the NES that I have played with 4-players. Major League Baseball, Gotcha, The Punisher, and Alien 3 are all LJN games that I really don’t think are that bad. Of course, if the title of this blog post doesn’t give it away, Wolverine is one of my favorites. 

When I was a kid, I lived in a small town in Northern California. I think I talked about it a little bit in my post about Kay-Bee Toys. On the weekends, after cartoons were over, I would mow a few lawns around the neighborhood, collect my earnings and head out for the day with my friends. If we weren’t hitting the local flea market, we were at the Circle-K stocking up on candy. After that, we would head next door to Bat Boy, the local card shop, to buy a few packs of Marvel Universe cards. And right next to them was the ultimate stop, a rental store that only had video games. That’s right, a whole store with just about every video game you could ever want, all for rent. 

That place was so much fun. The owner always had random junk he would talk us kids into buying. I still have this cheep-o Street Fighter 2 Guile watch he sold me on, which I still love to this day. And I’ll never forget the time he hyped up the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde NES game to all of us, like it was the most amazing thing ever. Man, that was a bummer of a weekend. I remember there was this fake nickel that nailed into the floor that I would always try to pick up when I went there, and the owner would always chuckle. Amidst all the video games I rented, and all random nonsense I had purchased there, the one thing that I have always cherished were the memories attached to the copy of Wolverine I picked up from that place. The box even has the sun fading from where it sat on the shelf all those years ago. 

Back then I was a big marvel fan, and was all-in when it came to the X-Men. I’m not sure what it was about them, but I was always captivated by the costumes. Especially the Jim Lee era. I probably have ten binders full of various Marvel card sets, and half a dozen boxes of X-Men and Wolverine comic books. Then there were the toys, and well, I still have all of those too. Wolverine is obviously my favorite character, with his brown and tan John Byrne suit being my favorite iteration. So when the Wolverine game hit the shelves in 1991, I was immediately drawn to it. 

I must have rented that game dozens of times. I mean, I got to play as my favorite X-Men character! The music, the platforming, the level design. I loved all of it. And I am well aware that the game is a bit goofy. Wolverine takes crazy damage, can only use his claws for a limited amount of time, the enemies are generic, etc. The game really called to me though. It hit at just the right time, gave me what I wanted, and captivated my little mind. Like I said, LJN gets a bad rap, but I really do think this game is actually pretty solid. 

The bad part about rental stores is sometimes things just aren’t available. You can imagine how I felt after wrapping up my Saturday routine, biking all the way down to the game store, only to find the game that I really wanted was already checked out. So that’s when I started pestering the owner to let me buy the game from him. Every time I went there I would ask about it. Every time the owner would say no. Back then I just thought he was being a jerk, but I get it now. He needed to make money on his investment. And he was making a lot of money off me. 

Nearly four years went by, but I was persistent. Even though I probably spent enough money renting that game to buy multiple copies, I wanted the game from that store. That was the one I had invested so much time into. We had history together, and it needed to be mine. The summer after 6th grade we were moving, and that move was going to take me 700 miles away. I knew my time was limited, so I started using the move as an excuse for why I should be able to buy the game. Think about it, I’m not going to be there anymore to rent it. I’m probably that game’s biggest customer. It’s just going to sit there and collect dust now, so just let me buy it already. 

Well, it worked. After all those years, the owner let me spend my hard earned money on it one last time. And you know what, I have no regrets. 35 years later, I am still playing that game. It still sits proudly on my shelf, and I still love looking at Wolverine in all his brown and tan glory. Albeit, a little sun faded. The nostalgia, the memories, that’s what it’s all about for me. I love that I still have so many things in my life that have followed me through the decades. 

So, whatever happened to that little game shop? It seems to be lost to time. Unfortunately, I can’t even remember the name of it now. About  20 years ago I took a drive up to that little town, but the building was gone. I have searched the internet for years looking for anything I can about it, but there is literally nothing. I found a single post on Facebook talking about the card shop that was next door, but that’s about it. No pictures, no details, nothing. Just a fading memory from the pre-internet days. What a magical time those days were.