Game Genie: The Video Game Game-Changer and the Epic Legal Battle With Nintendo That Shaped It

[@AlmostSomething]

I'm dying at the comments here, which generally fall into one of two comments: 1) HOLY CRAP IT'S PAUL RUDD! And yes! It absolutely is! I'd love to know how he contacted the devil to STILL look this young looking, but whatever. 2) The brute force comment at around 3:35. I think I can clarify that one. FIRST, I didn't make it up. It came from the Time Extension interview found here: www.timeextension.com/features/the-story-of-the-game-genie-the-cheat-device-nintendo-tried-and-failed-to-kill In it, you have this: "With Ted Carron handling the hardware and Andrew Graham programming the user interface, the last major hurdle was finding codes for existing games, to be included with the final product. Due to the versatile nature of Game Genie, which would allow codes for all NES games - past, present, and future - each code for each game would need to be manually discovered through trial and error, and any found codes were unlikely to work on other games. There was no one-size-fits-all, meaning Codemasters needed to bring in more people, so as to 'brute force' their way through the hexadecimal." Now, that being said, clearly they didn't Brute Force every possible code, and that's my fault - it didn't click when I made the video. Others have noted - more likely - that it was a combination of trial and error, but occurred via scanning the memory addresses that are being modified. Thanks to all who - correctly - noted the need for clarification here!

[@JabbaSlug]

great vid. thanks for the effort

[@mdnorman0001]

I fall in to category #1.

[@publiusvalerius8934]

Reverse engineering seems quite a bit more plausible anyway. Those are long codes!

[@PrivateOGITH]

now try to Find some Game Genie Codes for the 1ST Terminator Game on the Nintendo...

[@Takeshi357]

More sensible explanation is that they actually DID dump the ROMs and went through the memory addresses to find which controlled the lives, health, levels, etc. but due to the legal complications they faced, it's much easier to just say they brute forced it and Nintendo can't lynch them for that. Whereas dumping the ROMs would probably fall under _some_ form of copyright violation.

[@Mike__B]

Ahhh the good old days, where a judge ruled that if you buy a game it is YOUR property and you can do with it what you want.

[@mark_spit7839]

This is a very important point and needs to be sited in today’s courts.

[@TheeGlocktopus]

@@mark_spit7839 But how does this impact lesbian transgender paraplegic handicap nuns? That's what really matters.

[@Danakedgamer0523]

Different times then lol when u had a friend over to play to school them in two player games nowadays u know like in online gaming u are banned and shameful for cheating I had one for SNES

[@kregadeth5562]

We keep winning these cases I think we just have to get it back to court again

[@Adroit1911]

And that's why piracy is strong

[@ninjamatic5000]

Nintendo should thank galoob for making this fucking thing. There are games I only bought because they were in the game genie snes code book.

[@AlmostSomething]

That was my feeling!!

[@cuginkcain5430]

I agree. I too only bought games knowing what cheats I wanted to check out. Plus I only beat some games thanks to galoob... battletoads for example.

[@marcusbullock630]

its because nintendo had plans for game like pokemon well before 1995, and knew the game genie would let us unlock version exclusives for free or get more replay value out of an old game. they truly are demons.

[@sheilaolfieway1885]

ironic they tried to stop something that would make them more money....

[@sheilaolfieway1885]

@@marcusbullock630 yeah look at garrysmod for a modern example... Garry's mod had to remove almost any nintendo based content....

[@RamadaArtist]

The "Be Kind Please Rewind" sticker inside the plastic housing of a 1980s era solid state data storage solution is just extra levels of ironically satisfying.

[@mikey1196]

Embedded in that sticker is an EAS anti theft device. That particular game must have been a rental at like a Blockbuster Video or somewhere.

[@iamrobbb7503]

Agreed!😂

[@sammylane21]

Oh Game Genie... you're all but forgotten by '80's&'90's gamers. 🥺 We miss ya too Game Shark.

[@tankprohp]

Gameshark pro change the game, with that make your own code button

[@falconeshield]

I only know about game shark because of the virtua boy lol.

[@LuciferAlmighty]

Still have mine, lol.

[@Chokah]

There was the Pro Action Replay if my old memory hasn't failed me.

[@gigadrill0000]

Heheh some of fun times I had was using game genie and game shark.

[@MrEddieStone]

It actually had a dual purpose for me on the NES. Games that were really tough to load without extensive blowing, swabbing and even the partial full inserting trick, they would load up using the game genie.

[@allenbracey1855]

Same!

[@jspangler5003]

Yeah, that was a great "off-label" use, even if I wasn't modifying a game it was worth using once my NES started to have loading issues. Galoob should have advertised that as well.. "Tired of having to blow your games to get them going? Game Genie lets you skip the foreplay!" :D

[@lordkandar]

Same here. My NES was damaged and the pins wouldn't connect properly when the game was pressed down. The Game Genie was the perfect height to make contact. I had one game that didn't work with the Game Genie, so I used a taped stack of pennies to keep it at a working height.

[@rgl_motorsports]

The Game Genie actually caused the pins to spread. That's why it only connected with the Game Genie. I had to replace my pin set.

[@abelhernandez2381]

After awhile my nes would only work with the GG

[@Zenn3k]

I remember creating my own codes for Altered Beast on the Genesis, which I did because no matter how hard I searched, I couldn't find any! I managed through trial and error to find the codes needed to be any beast on any level. Wanna be the freeze bear on level 1? Yup. The flying dragon thing on any level? Yup. It was awesome, I mailed them into Game Informer and after 3 attempts at that, was finally published in the codes section of an issue (I don't remember which). Good times.

[@StrangeChickandPuppo]

Bravo for sharing them and getting them published! Highest score to you =)

[@analogalbacore7166]

Wild west days

[@lang-ed3bk]

Too bad you didn’t save that copy Cool story

[@warrenduree9417]

Nintendo's logic in their argument makes about as much sense as a record company suing a turntable manufacturer for including a speed adjustment switch that allows consumers to play their music at a different speed, thereby creating a "different version of the song" and thus a "derivative work of the original artist".

[@daytonasayswhat9333]

Enh, I mean I guess that’s an ok analogy.

[@MrChevelle83]

i though it was pretty good. the genie only altered the players experience and never did anything to the actual game. and i bet they made a lot more money selling games with this handy cool tool.

[@AndroidPoetry]

Agreed

[@danedeturk9708]

I remember using it on Excite Bike and I would fly off the top of the screen and come up the bottom and land on the track and I could fly through a track while only holding 2 buttons…which gave me the idea to tape down the buttons then come back the next day to see how many laps I did…I did it and my system was jacked after that. Good times!

[@JamesChatting]

That sounds cool

[@sidewayzmike]

Yeah, I remember doing that and Mario 1, level 1-1, jumping off the last pyramid, over the flag pole too lol

[@everalextx]

Excite Bike was prolly my fave NES game..... Good Times!

[@RyanWehr]

The code that made your bike NOT overheat was awesome

[@yogidemis8513]

I remember getting the game genie for Christmas when I was released. I was 10 years old and I think I was more stoked to put in random code on SMB and randomly change the game play into weird effects and discovered cool codes. My original Game Genie finally died about 6 months ago. I think I got my moneys worth.

[@RedfishCarolina]

Same here. Street Fighter 2 on the SNES could get really damned strange effects with random codes.

[@worsethanhitlerpt.2539]

I use the NES Game Genie to explore the secret World in METROID 10x faster without getting stuck really all I ever used it for

[@JeffgeigerGeiger]

So let me try and understand this one,,, you got out of prison when you were 10?

[@RG-si6dy]

Must have been hard times being released at just 10? What were you in for?

[@BradCorrupts]

Fun fact: The Game Genie that I got for my 10th birthday was the original inspiration for my ROM corrupting channel

[@s.ket.7187]

Paul Rudd playing NES at 31 seconds, he still hasn't aged.

[@delresearch5416]

Yea

[@fernwogteveril6935]

I thought that was him. Had to come to the comments to confirm.

[@hawk66100]

That’s not him. 😂

[@NewbombedTurk]

@@hawk66100You don’t know what Paul Rudd looks like do you?

[@jypsyjewels2854]

@@hawk66100 100% Paul Rudd. His first job, 1991-ish

[@stormykeep9213]

I remember my friend getting a Game Genie. We pulled out some of our old games that we hadn't played in months (or years maybe) to try the coded playthroughs. It really increased the replayability of games. Think today that if companies like id software were like Nintendo and guarded their games with an iron fist, nobody would be playing Doom. Instead, they did they opposite and released the source code publicly so people could mod them, and today (30 years later) Doom STILL has great replayability!

[@8alakai8]

nintendo is like apple fuck them

[@jimmydelaware4323]

Amen Brother! That was the 1st co-op game I ever played. John Carmack was a man ahead of his time.

[@breakupgoogle]

Yea mod support mafe so many great games uber legends.

[@russellmz]

iddqd

[@elementneon]

Yep. If Valve was like Nintendo we would not have had the Half-Life mod "Counter Strike" and if we did not have Counter-Strike we would not have Valorant (say thanks Riot Games!). Hell first person shooter games might look entirely different if it were not for a few reasonable companies.

[@griffincash661]

The game genie is how i learned to play mario world at age 3-4. I still remember my mom entering the codes from the book and I'd have infinite star power.

[@delresearch5416]

Poeisa

[@delresearch5416]

Still remember, it's the code that gives you a power up for hitting enemies. But I still know it

[@brandon9689]

Same here! The switch on the SNES Genie was clutch. You can't kill Bowser in his copter with infinite star power on. The koopas would just die when you tried to pick them up. But you could flip the switch to temporarily disable your cheats.

[@je5406]

Nice. Super Mario 3 was my first game 🫡

[@maxdecphoenix]

congrats on your mom giving you a participation trophy.

[@HattoriZero]

Legend has it Nintendo is still taking everyone to court till this day.

[@im50yearsold]

This is why I don't buy from them and explore,,,,, other means

[@Rogun987]

They are some of the worst. I refuse to buy anymore Nintendo products. Which sucks because I'm a Zelda fan

[@darqdail]

that's no legend

[@APunishedManNamed2]

@@Rogun987 Not like buying their games is worth it anyway given its all locked (legally) to their horrifically bad first-party platform lol

[@plexeti]

I recall troubleshooting my own codes for games that weren’t in the guide. I’d rent games and use the genie to beat them. Nice video man!

[@ImplosionTK]

Yeah wasn't that fun? I remember reading the manual to make your own codes, have to do some action in the game and repeat it or something and save the game and sometimes you'd get a code nobody else had for duping items or infinite life.. was such a fun time.

[@InflatableConan]

That shiny gold label on the Genesis Game Genie sure does take me back. Made playing Sonic & Knuckles an absolute blast. No pun intended.

[@HotGarbageMan]

This was my single greatest Christmas gift as a child. Literally and figuratively a game changer.

[@Fooney1]

Yea I was too young to get far in most games at the time I got mine. It was way more fun that just sucking.

[@GimmeTOKYO]

Same! Christmas of '91, I was surprised with a Sega Genesis v2 coupled with Sonic 2, Sonic Spinball, Kid Chameleon, and a Game Genie. The Game Genie was the only way my dumbass as a kid could beat Kid Chameleon LMAO

[@HotGarbageMan]

@GimmeTOKYO game genie is probably the only way to beat sonic spinball as well.

[@AndroidPoetry]

I was just saying this to my girlfriend. This is the one present I remember being inconsolably excited for. I saw it through a shopping bag, I knew I was getting, waiting weeks was like torture LOL I loved it, by the way, totally lived up to my hype.

[@elementneon]

Nicely done. Well said.

[@sepplee5812]

3:50 I have no proof of this, but it's 99% likely that they used a memory scanner to see where the code changes when, for example, you lose a life. Instead of 3 lives, you can then make it 99 in this part. Or you can simply change the part 'Life -1' to 'Life -0' and become immortal…

[@billyjbryant]

I'm pretty sure that is accurate but I imagine they were also brute forcing codes too to see what worked as suggested in the video. Likely a mix of both

[@WolfA4]

You are correct, there's no way a group of humans is going to sit and brute force a code of 8 characters (or more) made up of 10 digits and 6 or more letters. A code like the one shown at 3:36 would have like 30 million possible combinations for that game alone and there were games with longer codes.

[@klausstock8020]

They simply read out the ROM on the cartridge. Now, reverse engineering is of questionable legality, so very few people will admit that they do that. I didn't own a NES, but I owned a C64, and the CPU is (mostly) opcode compatible with the one in the NES (which is an "unlicensed implementation" of the 6502, with BCD opcodes missing to possibly avoid a lawsuit). Anyway, the procedure is much the same. If you have a game where you start with three lives, you look for the byte sequence $A9 $03 in the code. You will find several matches. Try each occurrence, one after the other, by replacing the $A9 $03 with $A9 $63 (that's what the Game Genie codes do; substitute one byte in the ROM with another byte). If one occurrence gives you 99 lives when you start the game, bingo. You might also check the opcode after the $A9 $03. If it's $65 or $8D, you know that it's followed by a memory address. Search the code for a $C6 or $CE followed the address you found. Try replacing the $C6 or $CE with $A9. If the game then no longer counts down the lives when the game character dies, bingo. You just replaced a DECrement opcode with a LoaD-Accumulator from RAM ($A5 or $AD) opcode, which will trick a following BNE or BEQ ($D0, branch if not equal or $F0, branch if equal; in this special case it is implied that the comparison is done against 0). Some "disassembly": $A9 $03 => LDA #$03 ;Load "3" into the accumulator $85 $xx => STA $xx ;Store the accumulator at RAM address $00xx ... $C6 $xx => DEC $xx ;Decrement the content of RAM address $xx Above code is typical if the number of lives is stored in the first 256 bytes of RAM, below code if the number of lives is stored elsewhere: $A9 $03 => LDA #$03 ;Load "3" into the accumulator $8D $xx $xx => STA $xxxx ;Store the accumulator at RAM address $xxxx ... $CE $xx $xx => DEC $xxxx ;Decrement the content of RAM address $xxxx, sets the Z flag when 0 is reached $F0 $yy => BEQ $yy ; branch to the "game over" code if Z is set

[@NYHeeb]

The fact they physcially went through every game and every combonation is insane. Straight grinding much respect

[@delresearch5416]

They dumped roms from rentals.

[@BdR76]

Except it's not true. Brute forcing a 32kb or 64kb or even 128kb game and manually checking for results, if any, is completely unworkable. They most likely used custom made debugging tools and memory scanners to specifically search for memory addresses of live counters, current level nr, inventory stats etc.

[@ath85]

@@BdR76 I had a Game Shark Pro for PS1 and it had a system to make your own codes by exploring possibilities, so I'd imagine that they had a similar system too. It was so freaking fun doing so too! It's too bad nothing like this exists for current gen (that I know of).

[@data_abort]

​@@BdR76the codes aren't nonsense.. Emus know how to implement them.

[@electroplank587]

​@@BdR76 exactly, i did not believe for a second they smashed codes in blindly because that's not bow software works. they probably did painstakingly debug each game though to find out which memory addresses they had to change.

[@Rytar]

0:37 Ant-Man was also a pro gamer in his youth.

[@Ophidicus]

I still use GG/Pro Action Replay/Game Shark to this day on all my consoles that had them, I'm old school and that's probably why I don't have anything newer than a PS3. newer gamers will never understand why we love them so much but it's so enjoyable to pop in a game and screw around with it.

[@jdarokhajiit9153]

Back in the day it was an indescribable feeling of figuring out the codes yourself after so many attempts that either flat out didnt work or borked the game

[@MrCalverino]

bro me too, now everyone is running back to retro gaming driving up the prices

[@madero-jb5ri]

I never got to play my Nintendo with the game Gennie. My old Nintendo is somewhere at my parents' house, gathering dust, and it's probably haunted by now.

[@jax597]

​@@MrCalverinoI literally spent around $2000.00 last year on all my old favorites! Collection is now complete with alot of the manuals. SNES and N64 I'm talking about. ,👍🌍☮️

[@jax597]

​@@madero-jb5riit still probably works though too!! They made quality products back in the good ole days! 👍

[@RichardBuckman]

It’s so silly of Nintendo to attack the Game Genie. It made Nintendo infinitely more fun every time it started to get boring.

[@AlmostSomething]

SERIOUSLY.

[@mchenrynick]

Sounds so much like Atari vs Activision back in the day. Activision games breathed a second life into the Atari 2600's lifecycle.

[@marcusbullock630]

You just pointed it out and didnt notice it yourself- the reason they got mad was because it was interfering with their evil greedy planned obsolescence, its hard to sell you a new game when you're still having fun with the old one and using fun quirky codes. nintendo originated from a small musty casino in the 1800s. they are not your friends.

[@delresearch5416]

Helped in mega man on the disappearing blocks

[@brettkihlmire573]

Got me through POW and Castlevania when i was a little dude. Still have it in my collection.

[@cabbitkisser2620]

i had the game genie for the nes - snes & the Sega genesis back then. it sure came in handy on the hard to beat games.

[@denniswoycheshen]

Did it add replay value? I don't understand why nes had such a hard on for this stuff.

[@Skorpio420]

​@denniswoycheshen To me it did. I still use a form of one when I emulate Ring King for the NES on my computer to beat the snot out of the computer opponents. It's also my stress reliever.

[@denniswoycheshen]

@@Skorpio420 right!!!? They could have embraced it as a solution to shitty games, but instead got all greedy and offended.

[@SoulDelSol]

Invincibility or unlimited lives were always options to just play for fun

[@ericburton1244]

@@denniswoycheshenonly for people not good enough to beat the games already, and for people that rented a lot of games instead of buying them. I didn’t know many people who had the game genie back in the day. And the people that had it didn’t even use it much, honestly.

[@zerocool1ist]

Even today man i can recall just how rad it was when the genie came out.

[@TyphinHoofbun]

As a kid, I always thought they picked the name "Game Genie" because you could only put in three codes (at least on the NES version), which meant you basically got three wishes. No clue if that's the case or not, but it's amusing to me to think it might be. The codes themselves are obfuscated hexadecimal, there are explanations out there that'll show how to encode/decode them. The channel Displaced Gamers likes to go through old games, spot bugs or otherwise annoying issues, and create Game Genie codes that could fix them. Sometimes they do it for other things that catch their fancy, like one that delves into Mega Man 4's charge shot works and how it can be altered. It's a fascinating look into how both the Game Genie worked, as well as NES programming in general.

[@TyphinHoofbun]

@WiseAcres-e4o Oh yeah, I remember that. I had the Parallel Port Gameshark on PS1, it was so awesome. I'd already had a major interest in computers and programming, but none of the schools I went to offered programming courses until college. So I still hadn't had any sort of training. (And the fledgling internet wasn't helpful, because I had no idea where to look or how to ask. Google didn't exist yet, other search engines were nowhere near as powerful as Google became.) I had specifically gotten one of the older PS1s in order to have the RCA jacks instead of having the proprietary cable, so I was lucky to still have the port, too. One of my fondest memories about it was messing around with the stats in Megaman Legends. If you crank up Rapid too much and get too many shots on the screen, the game will crash when it can no longer spawn a bullet. Gives you a whole crash screen and exception and stack dump. ^_^

[@Primatron]

Look at the state of gaming now, every console is pushing towards digital downloads only killing the resale game market, zero backwards compatibility across the same console so if you want to play an old PS2 game on your PS5 you're out of luck unless they port it and make you buy it again. Mobile gaming is riddled with micro transactions and a pay to win model. Game Genie was a underdog who won against the corporate greed. True heroes of gaming.

[@KairuHakubi]

I mean game genie was also a corporation trying to make money. It was a victory against tyranny, nothing more.

[@SeanJohn127]

I play og xbox, xbox 360,and xbox one games on my series x on their original cd's 🤷‍♂️

[@albundy7794]

@@SeanJohn127 Many, many games don't work.

[@JohnSmith-ef8nr]

The Series x has the best backwards compatability of any console. It can play nearly every call of duty. I many use mine to play GTA 4

[@cryangallegos]

Most of what I play these days is easily over 10 years old. Also F*** Nintendo and its lawyers. 100% ethical to pirate their games.

[@niradz]

What a cool video. I remember this as a kid and had no idea the behind the scenes scuffle

[@v12tommy]

Oh man, my cousins and I spent many hours playing Super Mario World and Donkey Kong Country on SNES with Game Genies. I can still vividly remember the sound it made typing in the codes.

[@SoulDelSol]

Kinda a dwoy dwoy dwoy. ?

[@johnwilburn]

Good job with this video. You’re a good narrator, too. I can see this channel going places.

[@londonoverground]

Why is Tucker Carlson voicing this?

[@alan.mcswank]

😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

[@dmmurphy8902]

😅😅😅😅

[@litigioussociety4249]

This is what happens to your voice, if you listen to too much Tucker.

[@daytonasayswhat9333]

Why do people think it’s funny to say on the Internet that people look like other people or sound like other people?

[@litigioussociety4249]

@@daytonasayswhat9333 Because it's funny to think of Tucker posting this video.

[@SoulDelSol]

Game genie was so much fun. I remember using codes for giant Mario and for moon walking mario that could walk/float all over screen

[@NuggestNugget]

Nintendo got scammed, I only paid $20 for the Game Genie

[@gametalk3149]

lol

[@Mikewee777]

😂 Haha

[@johneygd]

Nintendo got scammed by the authority be allowing gamers to temperatury alter their games🤣

[@charlescampisijr.8065]

lmao

[@phillipsilva1069]

😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

[@davidprodigy5833]

Great stuff, awesome memories. My favorite use of the game genie was using it in Street Fighter 2 Turbo. Shoryuken in the air was so much fun !💥

[@ebisudance5059]

The concept of breaking the rules for a game was an eye opener for me. Made games and life way more fun XD

[@Freefall347]

Some years back I got a Pro Action Replay for the Sega Genesis. That seems like it may have been essentially the Game Genie 2; it had a built in code finder that was, honestly, pretty freaking awesome. Also necessary, since there weren't many codes for it floating around (I mean, it was a pretty obscure device). I came up with a whole slew of codes for basically every game I had; the RPGs like Phantasy Star and Shining Force were especially fun. With a bit of creativity you could figure out item modifier codes to get endgame equipment or deleted items whenever you wanted, or even character modifier codes to play as villains, get secret characters, or keep using characters that "died" in the game. Really amazing device, considering it came out in the 16-Bit era.

[@Ghalion666]

I liked trying to make my own codes with the thing, and even got some pretty cool and interesting ones. For example I discovered a code for Final Fantasy where the world map suddenly had a vertical glitch/land thing that went all the way across the world, which was located in such a way so that you could go from Pravoca to the Crescent lake and Gaia areas, bypassing the need to to get the TNT and blow up that land area for the boat first. Which was pretty cool because I was like 7 years old and doing the marsh cave was a daunting task and having access to stuff from crescent lake was crazy.

[@ntw_official]

Wanted one so bad. Remember seeing GameGenie cheat codes in the back of gaming mags and reading with awe at some of the cheats you could do..

[@JamesChatting]

Yeah, it was big business for the gaming mags

[@motov8-garage832]

Man seeing this takes me back to my childhood in the 90s. Great memories, on a side note thinking about it now "Game Genie" was a fantastic name for it.

[@wschnabel1987]

Had both gameshark, and codebreaker on ps2. USB was still new at the time but if you had one you could use that to store game saves on. I remember one of them had a way to compress the game save to a zip file, then back up to a flash drive. I also know that with codebreaker, you could down load the cheats to a thumb drive and pop it into the ps2 and use them from that as well.

[@FNHot]

Canadian, had the original game genie for the NES and Genesis. It made us want to play MORE games, not less. We had no way of knowing if a game was good or not other than magazines that often were too generous or even lied about how good games were, so when you rented or bought one, it was a crap shoot. Not with game Genie though, we could MAKE it fun. Bayou Billy is an AMAZING NES game, with Game Genie. It taught me that more often than not, video games are fun, but video games plus cheats are AMAZING.

[@Something9008]

What codes did you use on Bayou Billy? Infinite lives?

[@FNHot]

@@Something9008 Infinite lives, infinite energy, 1 hit kills.

[@gustavgnoettgen]

0:14 The door is bulging, and all those books (and boxes?) fly horizontally - pretty cool ideas.

[@vxl2320]

I'm guessing they had a staged hallway that was actually vertical and the camera at the end facing up. So, when the door opened, they dropped games (Nintendo game boxes/cartridges) and it gives the illusion of games "flying down the hallway" And that door was thin rubber material made to look like a door.

[@mchenrynick]

It's hard to imagine Galoob finding codes by random, rather than reading the game's ROM with an assembler program. That must've took forever.

[@DataToTheZero]

I wonder if that wasn't the official statement to prevent companies from suing based on reverse engineering claims. That being said official game genie codes were pretty well tested (I can't remember any problems with codes I used), so I think they hired a lot of people to play test the codes. I think they used a system to track modified memory address which would basically be a super game genie that could save memory snapshots. Possible on another computer. Start game, take memory snapshot before being hit by enemy. take one after. Then play a bit more and repeat. Then compare the snapshots for common changes. Pretty soon you will have a short list of addresses that get decremented when the player loses life. Test what fixing the value of those addresses does. Repeat and repeat.

[@Cubik303]

@DataToTheZero is correct. They were absolutely not randomly “discovering” cheat codes because that is mathematically impossible (or at least highly improbable). They were reverse engineering the games and crafting the codes (which were just encoded memory addresses).

[@BobCassidy]

That sounds insane. How do they get the codes in the first place? It couldn't be just trial and error? ​@@DataToTheZero

[@techman8817]

@@DataToTheZeroI believe it modified specific values of machine code ROM as they were passed through the game genie. But yeah they probably had dev tools to find those addresses.

[@mchenrynick]

@@DataToTheZero It was great though when the common user could do this on Playstation 1 games with the GameShark. Unfortunately, doesn't exist for the NES.

[@Great_White_Great_White]

My uncle used to use the Game Genie to make Tetris HARDER, which I remember as a kid seeming like an utterly mad thing to do, because all I ever used it for was to make games easier. I was never a patient kid by any stretch of the imagination, so spending numerous attempts t beat a boss or a level of a game was always really frustrating to me.

[@MrFraiche]

Your uncle was a true gamer.

[@Firesealb99]

Seeing those game genie books hit me with a ton of nostalgia

[@deskpilot1856]

We would rent the games with the longest list of Game Genie codes. We never went to the video rental store without looking at the list first.

[@trailingupwards]

I could not beat most of the mega man games without game genie.

[@maxdecphoenix]

my mom wouldn't buy a game if it wasn't in the game genie book.

[@TheLastRockNRollerAlive]

This might be off/on topic depending on how you look at it. When I was growing up, there were two types of kids in gaming, the competitive kid who loved a challenge or the kid who tried to figure out a way to cheat or cut corners. The competitive kids kept it clean in the spirit of gaming, a show of skill through practice, which developed a mentality as an adult. Then the kid who loved to cheat or cut corners most likely turned into a hacker and developed that mentality as an adult. I’ll give you one title, but there’s many. What comes to mind for me is Maple Story. I was born in 1992, that game is when I saw the two types of kids divided.

[@BPMa14n]

Beautiful it allowed you to enjoy games in a different way, that's why I went for PC because you can mod games and custom make it to your enjoyment

[@dameriandark1485]

I loved coming up with my own cheat codes for this. Brings back many fond memories of me and my siblings trying to modify original codes to make better ones.

[@NYHeeb]

Bought one at Funcoland Some games u could not beat without it. Old school is the best

[@testosteroneinc.3800]

Battle Toads! 😂

[@olivierpelletier9643]

Just watching this video gave me nostalgic goosebumps. Game Genie ....wow. Time passes so friggen fast when you stop and think about it for a few minutes.

[@chessplayercharlesv]

The Canadian judge was actually just, great judge.

[@ryanlemley4866]

I almost forgot about this. Thanks for the walk down memory lane.

[@DEFkon001]

I never had a Game Genie, but I did have something not mentioned in the video called the "Pro Action Replay" that allowed users to make their own codes by way of a hacking program that was built into the unit. I never could imagine having to rely on other people finding codes when it was so easy with the Pro Action Replay. It was more complicated than the game genie and I think it cost more so I could see how it might have been less successful.

[@jchowe07]

TIL. Codemasters existed well before TOCA and Operation Flashpoint...fascinating video! As a Canadian, I remember the Game Genie being a staple for any NES and SNES owners back in the day. Very cool stuff!

[@NDR008]

They most definitely didn't randomly input codes. But more likely found the read/write memory addresses necessary.

[@justinprince2171]

Thank you for this! Just unlocked a whole load of great memories that were stuffed away for no good reason

[@JakuYT]

Game Genie still lives on in a way with “Crowd Control”. It’s basically just Twitch viewers enabling and disabling codes on a streamers game!

[@reel_images]

Awesome video, love Paul Rudd in the commercial. Amazing short but fact filled video.

[@allenbythesea]

I programmed the SNES game genie. Was a great time back then!

[@benm1414]

Noice

[@DixieDaydreamer]

Back in the mid to late 1980s we had Romantic Robot Multiface II cartridge for the Amstrad CPC. Multiface II cart could pause running games, poke about in the innards of a running game, search for lives, points, cash, etc and even dump the entire game from memory to storage as a saved checkpoint at any moment, the saves needed to have the MF2 inserted so you couldn't use it to pirate for non MF2! The best part was that I was learning Z80 assembler at the time and the cart allowed me see exacty how games worked in assembly language as they were running.

[@Baneslayer]

every NES owner needed a game genie... I still have mine. NES and Genesis version.

[@Thickercarton]

These guys were Goats of the time. I can’t believe they had to randomly put in codes to see what works. I wish all games had the ability to modify the game to each persons liking

[@jimrustle3321]

Battletoads: I'm done. Me, w Game Genie: We're done when I say we're done.

[@Something9008]

The NES and SNES Game Genies really extended the lifespan of my game library. It was fun to explore the strange glitchy worlds the codes could create and try to create your own - in effect a safe way to 'mod' your game. (Although you could sometimes trigger copy protection which could erase battery saves.) People were trading codes in the early 90s on the old Prodigy bulletin boards ... the most interesting codes were often on these forums & FAQ files.

[@RoundSparrow]

@0:22 there were mods on Personal Computers just like today, it was ROM carts that typically were not mod-able for people unless they were dumped to other media. People did hack and edit C64, Apple II, Sinclair Spectrum, etc. Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy was famous for mods, Jet Set Willy had to be modded to fix major bugs...

[@Reggie2000]

1994 Colonization for DOS, told you how to mod their game in the text files. Pretty cool.

[@SkiBumMSP]

I remember using the hex editor in PC Tools to look at the dungeon maps in Ultima III and then modifying them to add more treasures and remove traps. Took a bit of experimentation to figure out what value represented what object on the map. Some were fairly obvious, such as were the walls are. Could not really remove monsters as those would randomly pop up.

[@Reggie2000]

@SkiBumMSP That's what I Ioved about colonization. The programmers left notes on what the values represented, and that meant you could change almost everything easily. What you started with, how fast the economy changed, what the default names were. Programmers back in the early days were sometimes able to be cool like that.

[@SkiBumMSP]

@@Reggie2000 I've never played Colonization, but that is cool that they actually left documentation behind like that. Being a software engineer myself, I can appreciate what they did there. Seems those early game programmers were much cooler than what we have today, as many of those games where written/developed by very small teams, if not a single person. Not like today with the so-called "AAA" games with budgets in the millions and teams of hundreds.

[@jasondoe6079]

We never bought any guide we just typed random codes in and often had awesome results!

[@LethalBubbles]

back when he had a justice system willing to hold corporations accountable

[@SithLordAnakin]

If something happened to that Code Book you were ASSED out unless someone else had the Game Genie

[@jeremypilot1015]

I have a huge question, if a judge ruled that I own the game how are people like Activision and Sony getting away with claiming that owing the game is not a real thing and that owning really means renting from them?

[@user-zu5do6ri6r]

You signed the agreement forfeiting ownership when the game starts.

[@JeffGrandinetti]

Laws are neither objective nor permanent, they are just some rules that people thought would make things better for them at the time. At any given moment there are all kinds of contradictions between different levels of law and what that means in practice, and it's not clear which side has a more valid argument in each specific situation. That's what lawyers argue about and judges rule on. Also 'getting away with' something doesn't make it legal, for you and me or for multinational corporations. Much of the current confusion comes from applying laws that were written long before modern computer technology even existed, so it's complicated. Have you ever watched a congressional hearing about anything to do with the internet? They are embarrassingly out of touch. If you want to learn more about advocating for consumer rights when it comes to computers, I recommend checking out the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

[@wraynephew6838]

You may own the game but do you own the intellectual property of the software code to that game? That I believe was a problem that the Judge at the time did not have a fully understanding of

[@WorldwideWyatt]

If you don’t own the physical copy you don’t own the game. Plain and simple.

[@oldemonteef]

conservatives allow companies to own your ass, that’s how.

[@digitalmagicAR]

I remember reading about the Game Genie for the NES before it came out. The magazine talked of significant mods it would allow, but when the product was released it's capabilities were diminished. Due partly to this, I never bought one. Nonetheless, what a great little device allowing you to "cheat". Great video. didn't realize that many versions were made afterward

[@zacharythomas8617]

Ah, the Golden Age of Gaming..

[@turtlekappa7141]

This was a step back into my childhood. Nice video

[@therollingcreeper1]

And now, game genies/gamesharks are included with emulators, and can even do things to access unused content in games.

[@falconeshield]

Now? It was a thing since 2004

[@Njinx_]

​@@falconeshieldand it's still a thing now

[@APunishedManNamed2]

@@falconeshield in 2004 the average CPU was single core & PS2 emulation wasn't even a **thought** yet.

[@benm1414]

5:07 Dang,those forearm veins 😲 💪

[@aamechanic8154]

Was that a young Paul Rudd I saw in the game genie commercial? That guy never ages. Lol

[@mytvchannellock]

No

[@Jack_Stafford]

Yes it was, he was on a number of commercials during that time frame any confirmed the specific commercial on a recent talk show.

[@JustinLesamiz]

That meme is getting so tired. He looks completely different now than he did then. He's aged well for sure, but it's very noticeable between then and now, especially if you see him in a candid photo outside of a movie set. He looks much older.

[@1stTimeVenture]

I REMEMBER THIS. i was playing TMNT or teenage mutant ninja turtles with my game genie, and i decided to try typing in random codes. and one worked. ALL THE ENEMYS WERE GONE...or so i thought...ALL THE ENEMIES WERE INVISIBLE, and i could not even make it out of the first sewer because i was getting killed by enemies i couldn't see.

[@macxgeek]

Didn’t Code Masters make Micro Machines for Nintendo as an unauthorized game?

[@Dogeathotdog1]

Yes

[@andre-le-bone-aparte]

Just found your channel. Excellent Content - another sub for you sir!

[@rkelly0114ify]

I can't believe it's 2024 and there are still people who call him Mary-o.

[@owomushi_vr]

I puke everytime I hear it

[@SpecialAccess77]

It's a dialect thing. It isn't limited to the character named Mario. Anyone with that name is called Mary-o in some dialects of English. Similarly, most dialects of English have the pronunciation of Giovanni "Geo Vonny" when it's actually pronounced as "Jo Vonny" in Italian.

[@iambicpentakill971]

What, you've never heard him say, "It'sa me MARY-o"

[@iambicpentakill971]

@@SpecialAccess77 Sure, but that only works for a name in general. We are talking about one specific person/character. E.g. The name Walter could be pronounced with a W sound or V sound at the beginning, but if you are talking about a specific person named Walter, one of those ways would be wrong. Wouldn't it be weird to you if someone talking about Breaking Bad kept saying Valter Vhite?

[@SpecialAccess77]

@@iambicpentakill971 I may have not been clear in what I was saying. I will give an example. This is how it works in most English dialects. The spelling in the [ ] reflects the sounds spoken. Person A and Person B speak different dialects. Person A: "Hi. I'm [Mar ee oh]." Person B: "Nice to meet you [Mary-oh]. I'm [Gee oh vah nee]." Person A: "Nice to meet you, too, [Jo vah nee]. I have an uncle back in Italy with your name." What's going on is they each consider their pronunciation to represent the exact same name. This is what happens most often. Your Walter example is different. Even though the names are spelled the same, people will consider [Vall ter] and [Wall ter] to be two different names, one English and one German, and will pronounce them similarly as the person who holds that name, assuming they are aware of how that person pronounces it. I don't make the rules, and I don't agree with them completely. I'm simply explaining how it is.

[@MrBrianPoole]

Man, we LOVED our game genies. I think it may be a part of why I'm a game dev today. I think part of this video may have some incorrect info. I remember hearing from one person who worked on generating codes. I believe they had tools to watch for certain value changes. So it wasn't brute force, but they did spend their entire summer vacation on generating them.

[@gblargg]

2:25 To be fair, Nintendo enforced this quality program to avoid another video game crash.

[@Mike__B]

... and make a lot of money. While Nintendo themselves do/did make a great number of games other consoles took their same business model and rake in the money, you make a console that you don't make that much profit from (if any at all) but those licenses were you're getting $5 a game (or whatever the number was) from every single game sold you didn't even have to put any effort into making, yeah that's how you become a giant in the industry.

[@beefmaster7]

First video I've watched on this channel and I love it.

[@JohnSmith-nj4zq]

Nintendo was ahead of it's times. They believed that selling the game to you doesn't mean you own it. This is exactly what gaming companies are doing or trying to do today.

[@holzmann8443]

I have a Gameboy Game Shark (not mentioned in the list). It loaded in like a normal cart, and the game cart was loaded upsidedown against the back of the console. The gameboy color, with its curvy back, would bend the cartridge outwards away from the system and put stress on the game shark, which was fortunately just a little bit flexible. I recall quite enjoying making my own codes with it.

[@scgilmore87]

00:37 Paul Rudd has hardly aged a bit lol

[@AlmostSomething]

Dude made a deal with the devil or something!

[@falconeshield]

​@@AlmostSomethingOr he's got really good genes. It can't always be the fallen guy!

[@JoeMeats]

:39 Is that Paul Rudd? 😂

[@darreng8256]

Zero chance the "brute forcing" of codes is actually true. There's 4.294 BILLION possible combinations, and then they'd still have to play through at least part of the game to see if anything was different. They'd still be working on their first game today if that's actually what they did

[@KingJames-go8pq]

Wrong...

[@FlatEarthSovereign]

We used to make our own codes up and it worked around 20% of the time.

[@benselander1482]

Maybe among the 4.294 possible combinations, there are a lot of codes that do the same thing.

[@FlatEarthSovereign]

@@benselander1482 yea. No. We made shit up all the time and got different results.

[@darreng8256]

@@KingJames-go8pq Not sure why you're bragging about your inability to do math, but go ahead and embarrass yourself all you want

[@rastazrealities]

Loved my Game Genie.

[@TURBOTRISTO]

Tucker Carlson ai voice?

[@Pneuma3301]

😂

[@AnimeFridays]

The Game Genie story of the creators would make such a cool movie or tv show

[@Chaos_God_of_Fate]

Any time Nintendo loses a legal battle I clap, just like I did now. Nintendo is garbage. They were good in the 80s-90s, now they're up there with EA/Ubisoft as the absolute worst garbage game Developers that exist. I look forward to Nintendo selling off and not existing anymore, they've screwed up too hard to own their own 'rights' to their company. What's even more ironic, they've been doing this stuff for a very long time, since I respected them- I know now that I was a child and never should have. Nintendo is a terrible company- full stop, no exceptions and they've always been this way.

[@sidneyvandykeii3169]

Drama Queen.

[@Mikewee777]

I agree. Nintendo peaked at game design when they monopolized the card game industry .

[@MrIzzy11B]

0:38 is that Ant-man

[@JesúsYOración]

Yes, he is like 60 years old, playing a 30 year old 😢

[@lebojay]

Sure looks like Paul Rudd

[@captainawf2341]

"Harry Potter and the Very Transgendered Witch" made me chuckle

[@AlmostSomething]

LOL. Thank you.

[@falconeshield]

Whatever pisses JK Rowling off is good for humanity. Hell I heard she's going to court.

[@themonsterunderyourbed9408]

​​@@falconeshield Found the woketard. You shouldn't be happy when someone's freedom of speech is violated. It will happen to you when you go against the narrative.

[@PeterMoore-q5k]

One correction. The codes aren't 100% brute forced. That would be impossible. There is trial and error to it though. You basically use a memory scanner to try to reverse engineer where certain variables are held, like # of lives. When your life count changes you scan again to find the new number. And again until you've found one consistent memory address for that variable. That's the first part of the code. Then the second part is the forced value, usually FF (255). Now you have a cheat code.

[@theunstoppabledriver6978]

Game Genie WAS AWESOME

[@samgoldsberry3029]

I enjoyed watching this video. Great research and delivery!

[@7t2z28]

Resident Evil on PS1 has some interesting items hidden in it. I brute forced the Game Shark codes out of boredom once and found some cool and a bunch of useless items. There is a pickaxe that you can't equip, but it will take inventory space. There is a reload canister for the flame thrower that doesn't work. There are dum-dum rounds for the magnum that may or may not be a little more powerful. I can't recall what else. I just noticed a couple of the codes published for putting items in your inventory were sequential, so I went through and did another few hundred numbers until nothing happened. Fun stuff.

[@83jbbentley]

Ahh, yes. The Super Mario Bros 3 “Sky Walker” code add that with invunerable Sledgehammer bro suit and it was doomsday.

[@FerroEquus-262]

I used to spend hours a day playing NES games with the Game Genie, for us kids of the 1980s that thing was a miracle of technology. Later owned the GameShark for the N64 and PS2 before making the great migration to PC and haven't looked back.

[@dsuess]

The Game Genie helped spark my interest in engineering, thank you :) 8yr old me: "How does this work? Why does this work?!"