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/vr/ - Retro Games

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2634759 No.2634759 [Reply] [Original]

Why don't cheat codes exist anymore? Nearly every retro game had them and at some point it all just stopped.

>> No.2634763

Publishers/developers realized they could sell them as DLC.

>> No.2634767

>>2634759
Because "Muh achievements" and "Muh trophies"

>> No.2634768

Cheats are for noobs.

>> No.2634778

>>2634768
The fun codes went away as well. Remember shit like wireframe mode? Big Head Mode?

There was also silly switches like What If mode in the PS1 Spiderman games.

>> No.2634783

Saves started to replace level select codes. Online multiplayer took away cheats, and now games take themselves very seriously, so apart from some series known for their codes (GTA), there is very few cheats codes like we used to know in retro games.

>> No.2634790

>>2634759

because games stopped being hard.

>> No.2634805

>>2634759
Cheat codes were originally made to help programmers debug their games. Once computers became powerful enough, external programs and emulators made the "cheat code" method of debugging obsolete. Then online gaming became a thing, and cheating in games became a fucking sin.

>> No.2634830

Man I was such a PS1 addict back in the day, I could sit around for hours reading those cheat code/walkthrough books. Even for games I never played.

>> No.2634840

I saw a "cheat" book at wally world the other day. I was curious since I didn't think they existed anymore so I checked it and it was literally just full of trophy an achievement lists.

what the fuck

>> No.2634846

What's your favorite cheat code /vr/? I'm partial to the Naboo Starfighter in Rogue Squadron. Not only did they include an easter egg for a movie that was still 6 months away, they kept it hidden until the movie's release.

>> No.2634973

>>2634846
Call me old fashioned, but the I am a loyal subject of Konami, King of cheat codes.

>> No.2635001

>>2634768
Shut up, a lot of cheats actually added to the fun of games.

Not to mention if you just wanted to chill with a game and not get constant game overs all the time.

I miss when developers loved developing their games so much they added neat little ways for players to fuck around with their games.

>> No.2635015

>>2634846
THPS moon physics. Those were always good for a laugh.

Also not exactly a cheat, but Richter mode in SOTN was a blast.

>> No.2635016

>>2634846
The one in sonic 1 (up,down,left,right start+A) where you could turn into and place items from the stage and noclip through stuff, flying all over the level as a robot fish or putting springboards everywhere

>> No.2635019

video game jews decided to sell you cheat codes and call it dlc

>> No.2635045

>>2634846

The entirety of Doom's set for nostalgia. THPS physics fuckery, SF EX2's unlock everything/everyone, Unreal's console commands to set up monster vs monster/deathmatch AI fights.

Especially the latter. I've enjoyed seeing everyone gang up on the queen and or the typical Titan vs Queen fight.

Also, not sure if Retro enough AVP2's codes are fun shit.

>Do the command to turn into the Alien Queen
>All the subsequent aliens in the level are friendly to you and will attack the other humans

>> No.2635057

>>2635016
I tried this code and it just brought me to the stupid level select screen.

>> No.2635076

>>2635057
You held A and then pressed start
You need to press Start and then hold A
iirc I did manage to do them both at the same time somehow, but I've forgotten how it works.

>> No.2635290

>>2634759
Cheat codes are fun and that's something not allowed in modern video games anymore.

>> No.2635295

>>2635076
Nope, still didn't work. As soon as I hit start it starts the game.

>> No.2635308

It was mainly the implementation of achievements that killed it, though they were gone the gen before that.

That being said, why don't games just do what GTA does? It asks you, "you can turn on cheats if you want, but just so you know, it's gonna disable achievements."

Although, nowadays PC has CheatEngine, which is the closest we'll get to the old game genie days.

>> No.2635341

>>2634830
I never had a NES as a kid but I sat there and read How to Win at Nintendo Games like they were a novel

>> No.2635346

>>2635308
I wonder why that is. An action replay or gameshark would have been awesome on the 360 and PS3. At least the Wii had that one loader that had cheats.

>> No.2635370

>>2634846
Speaking of keeping codes hidden, Fucking Goldeneye 64. They released the button codes pretty much at the end of the 64's life.

>> No.2635372

>>2635001
For early games, the cheats were more for the devs to fuck around in the game.

>> No.2635373 [DELETED] 

>>2635346
There were cheating devices for the PS2 and XB, the problem is that newer games are hundreds of megabytes now. You can't enter in random codes and expect anything interesting to happen. The other issue is online multiplayer.

>> No.2635374

>>2635346
>I wonder why that is. An action replay or gameshark would have been awesome on the 360 and PS3
Online multiplayer killed cheating devices for good.

>> No.2635386

>>2634767
This, unfortunately. Still, GTA IV had cheat codes, and it would disable certain achievements whenever you used them. Why couldn't more games do this?

>> No.2635392

>>2635374

Pretty much this. Using cheats in a game with multiplayer is, well, cheating.

>> No.2635394

Online and achievements aren't really an excuse. They could easily make the cheats un-useable in multiplayer and they could make it so that anything they do after using a cheat doesn't count for achievements. A friend of mine did it for a DN3D mod, so if he can do for Duke Nukem 3D, any programmer can do it for any game they make.

I think the main reason is that they take themselves too seriously and there are too many people involved in the making of a game, a big head cheat would "ruin" a cinematic and the voice actor could easily say he didn't sign to be mocked on.

That and nowadays devs want 100% full control of a game. Everything the player can do has to be everything they thought of, every little detail. No cheats means less things to control, less things to check, and fewer chances of glitches and unexpected things to happen.

>> No.2635396

>>2635346
Have you TRIED playing an online game with hackers?

>> No.2635407

>>2635392
Have you never played an online game prior to these couple of generations?

Duke Nukem 3D has cheats. You just can't use them online. I'm sure it's the same for Doom, too.

Online isn't an excuse for the lack of cheats, plus people who really want to cheat will cheat anyway (aimbot, ability to see through walls, etc). Even worldwide "professional" contests have their share of cheaters.

>> No.2635414

>>2635016
thats just the level select, it's up,c,down,c,right,c,left,c a+start

>> No.2635421

Conked' Bad Fur Day had some fun ones. It let you use just about every character in the game in the multiplayer.

>> No.2635532

Impulse101
Noclip
R2 R2 L1 R2 LDRU LDRU
Thatsnomoon
B W B B B A

>> No.2635549

>>2635308

Serious Sam 3 also did this with their console commands.

Most games should just really let them do it that way.


Also, there is no cow level.

>> No.2635583

>>2634759
There's no such thing as cheats. Those codes you entered into your old games were just debug commands left in the game.

As time went on and development practices changed, it became easier to test games without such commands being hard-coded into the game.

>> No.2635731

>>2635295
Oh wait I fucked up, I just searched it.
Its Up, C, Down, C, Left C, Right, C then hold A and press start.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJrvvsuIIk4

>> No.2635750

I always found it strange the Playstation versions of the CnC games had cheats that weren't in the PC originals.

Any other games do this?

>> No.2635757

>>2635308
Saint's Row does this, you can turn on cheats and fuck about all you want but you can't save them or earn trophys when you do.

But honestly, it's fun enough to fuck around in Saint's Row even without cheats.

>> No.2635775

>>2635583
Stop trying to be clever, mate. We all know how cheats started but they obviously grew from there to being a recognised part of game culture, plenty of games had cheats which were nothing to do with debugging.

>> No.2635796
File: 53 KB, 500x513, nu blya.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
2635796

>>2634846
give all

>> No.2635806

Interesting code info?

Power overwhelming in Starcraft for invulnerability just sets enemy damage to 0. This is noticeable when you do a FFA vs multiple computers because they cant hurt each other

>> No.2637053

>>2635806

Doing this breaks AI stuff in-game like in Brood War where Kerrigan sends a bunch of lurkers to execute Aldanis, or when Zeratul tries to destroy the Stasis Prison it does nothing.

>> No.2637065
File: 60 KB, 1280x720, D-Frag! - 10v2 [5E58CC79].mkv_snapshot_09.28_[2014.09.15_20.46.08].jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
2637065

>Go to gamefaqs
>look under cheats
>it's an achievement list

>> No.2637081

>>2635757

Saints Row has cheats?

Saints Row NEEDS cheats?

>> No.2637087
File: 134 KB, 498x477, everything.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
2637087

>>2637053

It lets you actually see Lothar's portrait in WC2 the 3 seconds he's alive at the start of the mission though

>the mission actually can't end unless he dies
>if you put in invulnerability, now you have to kill him yourself
>mfw

>> No.2637121

>>2635374
These games DO have offline modes too though. It makes sense that cheating online wouldn't work, but cheating offline should be fine.

>> No.2637157

>>2637065
My favorite:

>having trouble on Battletoads GB
>check online for cheats (slower speed/infinite continues)
>find one, and only one cheat code
>"Press A+B for a harder game!"
>FML

>> No.2637534

>>2635370
And only reluctantly, because that gameshark hacker found where they were stored in memory...

>> No.2637586
File: 41 KB, 379x365, Metzen.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
2637586

>>2637087
>Lothar has to die in the mission so you can stick to the canon!
>Lothar's death was retconned 10 years later anyway to make the Horde look more noble

>> No.2637601

>>2635386
Because that takes effort and doesn't result in any real profit.

In all seriousness, the thread could have ended with the first response.
>>2634763

>> No.2637607

>>2637065
>revisit an old favorite and look up cheat codes for fun
>change color/size of character, infinite power up time, unlock all abilities, etc
>have some fun playing through game for the umpteenth time

>look up cheat codes to spice of a second playthrough of fairly recent game
>lists only outline achievements and unlockable content
>no cheat codes at all

What happened?

>> No.2637610

>>2637607
I miss the DK mode.

>> No.2637619

>>2637610
DK Mode and Paintball Mode really breathed some new life into GoldenEye after the first few playthroughs. God damn, I laughed every time I saw Natalya dragging her knuckles around.

>> No.2637650

>>2637586
I gave up on Blizzard stuff when I was watching one of teh Blizzcon streams and head Metzen say "You guys want to see Illidan back?" and he was met with resounding applause.

He's canonically died twice already.

I cancelled my wow sub literally 5 minutes after watching that. Uninstalled everything and sold my account to a friend.

Absolutely fucking disgraceful, and he no doubt makes shitloads of money.

>> No.2637659

As much fun as I had with cheat codes when I was a kid, when I think about making a game now, I probably wouldn't add cheat codes into it. I wouldn't see the point.

Because of the internet, it'd be impossible to keep the cheats a secret for any time at all, so might as well make it something the player has to unlock through skillful gameplay. Something like a DK mode would be a nice and fun reward, I think. On the other hand I wouldn't want to add in cheat codes like invulnerability that ruin the challenge; if the player can't beat my game without cheats then he needs to learn.

>> No.2637712

iddqd and idkfa

>> No.2637742

>>2637650
>He's canonically died twice already.

Wait I only count once, unless you mean at the end of FT where he was technically still alive.

>> No.2638859

>>2637586
Did someone hit Metzen in the head with a brick? What happened to all the intrigue, interesting stories and complex characters? Why is everything he does fucking retarded now? He didn't use to be a drooling retard.

Starcraft 2 shits on all the good writing of Starcraft + Broodwar, DURR KERRIGAN IS GUD NOW CUZ POWER OF LURVE, Raynor doesn't care that she's killed more people than a hundred Hitlers and Stalins, including close friends of his!
Who the fuck thinks this wretched tripe is good?

And the fucking art direction, everything is overdesigned and huge like in WoW now, needs even bigger pauldrons and more shit, fuck the old design philosophies and styles which actually looked cool!

>> No.2639056

>>2634805
/thread

>> No.2639226

>>2634846
dncashman

>> No.2639232

HOSPITAL ADMINISTRATOR IS CHEATING!

>> No.2639431

>>2639056
>threading your own post
>a post which makes an argument which was refuted consistently throughout the thread as 'No, not always.'

Some cheats are debug tools left in as a bonus, other times cheats were deliberately added as a feature, some games have a mix of both.

Some games had you put in a button sequence or type in a phrase to turn on a cheat, others would award you with cheat codes for beating levels within certain times and conditions, and those cheats unlocked being now available to you at your leisure.

>> No.2639556

>>2635394

Not quite as easy as that. The problem these days is that everything is scrutinized to such a degree that you can't really do cheats because they might crash the game or tank the framerate that QA has to step in and say "No".

Lets say for example, the developers of Watch Dogs included a Big Head mode for fun. But it made the framerate even worse. Then you would have people screaming about the framerate

Thing is, Big Head mode in N64 games actually made framerate's significantly worse. It was a common debug tactic to fill the screen with more polygons and check textures had baked properly. N64 games had bad framerates but big head mode only made it worse despite being funny. With modern games, you would have to build in big head mode. Get it QA'd. Pass it trhough cert. And no one uses it anyway. So it's time wasted on a joke.

That's why you typically don't get cheats unless there's a way to mess with the game (GTA's Pedestrian Riot cheat for example)

>>2639431

Also have to remember that debug these days is supplied by 1st party and with 3rd party engines/teams while developers had to make their own specifically for the game (Unless it shared an engine) back then. You always got the same cheats in Acclaim games because they all used the same engine.

>> No.2639662

>>2639556
Wolfenstein 09 had a pumpkinhead mode cheat, Saints Row has lots of bizarre cheats.

>> No.2639668

>>2634759
No difficulty = no need for cheating

>> No.2639708

>>2639662

They built them in specifically. Saint's Row in particular had inflated heads for the inflation gun and drug trip parts.

Its the sad thing about cheats that they have to specifically build them in and it takes time on most of them these days.

>> No.2641905

>>2635583
There's also a lot of cheats that were put in as easter eggs. Though those kind of lsoe their point as well when you can just check online to find them.

There are still some games that have "cheats", though. All Elder Scrolls games (except the MMO for obvious reasons) have the command console, which lets you turn on godmode, redo you character's race and appearance, spawn items, teleport yourself and do other things that fit the definition of cheat codes to a t.

>> No.2641914

>>2637081
Now they just let you spend millions of bucks in in-game currency to activate "legal" cheats that don't lock off achievements.

We're talking infinite ammo and (almost)god mode here.

>> No.2641921

>Why don't cheat codes exist anymore?

The explanation itself is not retro, and it all goes down to the most successful game from a saga known for its cheat codes (how ironic could that be?)

>> No.2642194

>>2641905
>Console codes
You know, now that you mention it, I noticed the decline of traditional cheat codes coincide with the increase in games that use consoles and by extension console codes.

It almost seems like the devs are just to lazy to code them anymore.

>> No.2642273

>>2634759
from the thumbnail I thought it was Sonic with massive thighs and long as fuck legs for a minute

>> No.2642725

>>2635407
filtered

>> No.2642975

>>2639556
>With modern games, you would have to build in big head mode. Get it QA'd. Pass it trhough cert. And no one uses it anyway. So it's time wasted on a joke.
>And no one uses it anyway.

This is a dumb argument. 100% of your players aren't even going to see 100% of the normal content anyway. Adding in extra cheat codes to add replayability to a game that your hardcore fans play the shit out of isn't something to scoff at.

I think the real reason is the rise of online multiplayer. Once that exploded devs stopped focusing as much time to single player since multiplayer is what keeps your players on the game longer, potentially making you more money.

>> No.2642995
File: 181 KB, 480x360, tumblr_inline_n7dobiMm0J1rkzfxs.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
2642995

>>2634846
left up right down square triangle circle

Gotta go fast

>> No.2644376

>>2642194
Well why put in secret codes when a console does the same thing.

It's cheats, debugging and options in one prompt, it's handier like that.

>> No.2645030

>>2641921
Which game would that be? Now I'm honestly curious.

>> No.2647115

>>2644376
Because you don't have the console commands on home consoles...?

>> No.2650496

>>2645030

GTA San Andreas.

Rockstar put a script inside the game so that when you used a certain cheat or too many cheats, the game becomes unpassable on single-player story mode. A lot of cheaters fell into the trap and hundreds of posts in forums were made and they all encountered the same error in the story mode.

This was in retaliation for people using cheats to complete missions in story mode back when GTA3 and VC were a thing.