How did Game Genie work?

[The Czech Republic 0]

What was the technical explanation as to how the Game Genie device made your games better? I know it had a thing for glitching as you were playing, and I think it actually ruined some of my cousin's NES games permanently, where the cartridge would develop a tolerance for Game Genie and wouldn't play without the Game Genie plugged in, even if no codes were entering. And then they would die. It was like heroin on an 8-bit technological level. I want a new drug, and that drug is Game Genie.

 

So maybe some of you guys, especially Mr. Brook River, can help me out on this.

[MrRant 0]

You are going to be here all day Thanksgiving asking questions aren't you?

[The Czech Republic 0]

You are going to be here all day Thanksgiving asking questions aren't you?

Looks like you're the one asking the questions now.

[Guest Waldo]

http://tuxnes.sourceforge.net/gamegenie.html

 

Google is your friend

[The Czech Republic 0]

http://tuxnes.sourceforge.net/gamegenie.html

 

Google is your friend

That page you supplied certainly isn't.

[AndrewTS 0]

In plain English, I believe it basically acts as a ROM patch, altering the internal lines of code that the game system reads, causing alterations in the gameplay.

 

Whatever happened to Galoob and the Game Genie anyway? It never went beyond 16-bit.

 

I think I remember something about the makers of the Action Replay (which did exist during the 16-bit days but was far, far less common) suing over the Galoob device.

[Slayer 0]

Whatever happened to Galoob and the Game Genie anyway? It never went beyond 16-bit.

After that, Game Shark essentially took over for the 32-bit systems and beyond

 

Same shit, different name

[AndrewTS 0]

Whatever happened to Galoob and the Game Genie anyway?  It never went beyond 16-bit.

After that, Game Shark essentially took over for the 32-bit systems and beyond

 

Same shit, different name

Well, I don't think it's the same company.

[fazzle 0]

I permanently fucked up a copy of Secret of Evermore with the Game Genie. Yes, even more than Squaresoft managed to do.

 

I was screwing around trying to create my own codes...and ended up killing the dog. I was unable to revive it, and the dog corpse would just drag along the floor behind me. I tried unplugging the Game Genie.....dog was still dead. I trying starting a new game....dog was still dead. And the best part? It was a rental! So I ended up screwing many many people. Hilarious.

[Damaramu 0]

That is fucking hilarious.

 

Umm...I used my friends Game Genie on Super Mario World a lot...but that was about it.

[dubq 0]

I ended up using my SNES Game Genie more as an adapter to play imports than for the actual "game cheat" thing. Just had to break off the little clips that stop imported games from going in, and voila. Of course, you could do that on your SNES.. but that voids the warranty, and doing that to the GG seemed like the lesser of two evils.

[The Czech Republic 0]

I permanently fucked up a copy of Secret of Evermore with the Game Genie. Yes, even more than Squaresoft managed to do.

 

And the best part? It was a rental! So I ended up screwing many many people. Hilarious.

Um, I doubt many many people rented Secret of Evermore. But on the other hand, maybe they did, and nobody bought Secret of Evermore. One way or the other it was dumb, and a crappy game.

[Guest TonyJaymzV1]

hey...i liked secret of evermore

[Slayer 0]

I too liked SoE, not sure why it gets shit upon as much as it does

[AndrewTS 0]

I too liked SoE, not sure why it gets shit upon as much as it does

It was made in America, had rather lame character designs, and wasn't really a traditional RPG?

[Ravenbomb 0]

I permanently fucked up a copy of Secret of Evermore with the Game Genie. Yes, even more than Squaresoft managed to do.

 

I was screwing around trying to create my own codes...and ended up killing the dog. I was unable to revive it, and the dog corpse would just drag along the floor behind me. I tried unplugging the Game Genie.....dog was still dead. I trying starting a new game....dog was still dead. And the best part? It was a rental! So I ended up screwing many many people. Hilarious.

there should be places to get codes made just for screwing up games in various bizzar ways

[yankovic fan 0]

Man, Game Genie made me mad.

 

First when we got the inverted 8-bit, the game genie didn't work.

 

Then when I bought Mortal Kombat for SNES, I got my game genie, and turns out the game genie I had was incompatible with most of my SNES games.

[Guest Mr. Brook River]

If that's how Game Genie worked, my Nintendo's computer codes must have been scrambled. I saved up all my money in like...2nd grade to go buy Game Genie from Funcoland fo $52, and all it did was cost me what could be accumlated to weeks of frustration. My Nintendo won't even read a game if the Genie isn't in the system working its magic. The screen simply flashes the dreaded black and white. I'm actually going to buy a refurbished system since you can get them for cheap now. And one rule: NO GAME GENIE!! I actually think the Gameshark is starting to have a similar effect on my Playstation. No more reprograming for me!

[Guest DVD Spree]

Basically, Game Genie and Game Shark are rip-offs of devices made by British company Datel, who manufacture the Action Replay hardware and have been making cheat devices ever since the 8-bit computer days (anyone remember inputting "pokes" on the C64?).

 

Datel have always been the industry standard in cheat devices, and recently purchased the rights to the Game Shark license. The last egenration of Game Shark hardware was produced by Datel, but has now been discontinued in favour of the Action Replay brand. Alas, much as I love them, Datel fucked me over and wouldn't give me a job.

[NoCalMike 0]

I would like to know how a Game Genie rom works. I have one but am not sure how it works.

[Highland 0]

I had to get my ps1 replaced thanks to a gameshark, so no more gs for me.

[Guest Sturgis]

Can't they make a cheat device that doesn't fry your system, I mean we live in an technological age where we can do shit like that now, and not have systems last 1 year before dying and you have to get a new one(You hear me Sony?).

[1234-5678 0]

It was funny how, even with a Game Genie it was 99% impossible to be Tyson in Punch out for Nintendo. I finally did it after like 100 tries, and all you got was a stupid newspaper saying "LITTLE MAC WINS!"

[Guest Skironox]

I remember Tyson when I was like 9. I spent 4 hours going through the game (passwords never worked on mine) and I get to Tyson and he kills me in one punch and it's game over. Never have I been more discouraged. One day when I was 14 I dodged like hell and finally got to the point where he can't kill you in one shot, and still died. Worst finish ever.

[NoCalMike 0]

me and my friends could beat Tyson pretty easily with the game genie. Just make sure you enter, "take even less damage" It would take three of his 1st round punches to even make a smidge come off your health meter.

[Guest Danny Dubya v 2.0]

Game Genie... ruining games and systems? That's news to me. I've used it for about a decade on my NES and the thing's unphased.

 

I'm very very annoyed at myself for not writing down that code in SMB1 that got ones and zeros to show up all over the screen. I don't think any Mario site had it either. On the SNES with Super Mario All-stars, I used an all-levels code on the first All-Stars that was actually meant for the game that had SMWorld included on it, and ended up with garbled screens of former levels as new ones.

 

The only code I discovered for SMB was PPPPPP - changes around the music.

[The Bad Guy 0]

The Game Genie shouldn't be able to permanently change anything, since it only temporarily changes a few addresses in the game to different values. I've had a game genie since the days of the NES and have never had any problem with it.