Game Genie
The
Game Genie is a series of
cheat cartridges designed by
Codemasters and sold by
Camerica and
Galoob for the
Nintendo Entertainment System,
Super Nintendo Entertainment System,
Game Boy,
Mega Drive/Genesis, and
Sega Game Gear that modifies game data, allowing the player to cheat, manipulate various aspects of
games, and sometimes view unused content and functions. Although there are currently no Game Genie products on the market, most video game
console emulators feature Game Genie support. The
Action Replay and
GameShark "game enhancers" are similar devices.
The Game Genie attaches to the end of a
cartridge and is then inserted into the cartridge port of the
console for which it was designed. The loading mechanism of the NES makes the use of the NES Game Genie awkward, as game cartridges for the NES are inserted into the console, then depressed down into the console. The addition of the Game Genie causes the cartridge to protrude from the console when fully inserted, making the depression impossible. Therefore, the Game Genie was designed in such a way that it did not need to be depressed in order to start the game. However, this design made it very difficult to insert into a newer top-loading NES. An adaptor was made to deal with the problem, but few were requested; today they are hard to find since the stock is liquidated.
Upon starting the console, the player may enter a series of characters referred to as a "
code" or several such series that reference addresses in the
ROM of the cartridge. Each code contains an
integer value that is read by the system in place of the data actually present on the cartridge.
|
The Game Genie screen on the NES. |
Because they patch the program code of a game, Game Genie codes are sometimes referred to as
patch codes. These codes can have a variety of effects. The most popular codes give the player some form of invulnerability, infinite ammunition, level skipping, or other modifications that allow the player to be more powerful than intended by the
developers. In rare cases, codes even unlock hidden game features that developers had scrapped and rendered unreachable in normal play. Nonetheless, inputting a random code is as effective as using
PEEK and POKE operations randomly. The results can yield a useful code, but will most likely result in anything from a mundane or highly unnoticeable change to
freezing the game and possibly corrupting saved data. The Game Genie was usually sold with a small booklet of discovered codes for use with the system. However, these booklets would eventually become inadequate as new codes were discovered and new games were released that were not covered. To address this, an update system was implemented, where subscribers would receive quarterly booklet updates for a fee. In addition Galoob also ran ads in certain gaming publications (such as
Gamepro) that featured codes for newer games. Today, these codes and many others discovered by players can be found for free online.
It should be noted that the Game Genie would not work with Super Nintendo games that contain a performance enhancing chip (e.g.
Super FX and
S-DD1 chip) such as
Star Fox,
Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island,
Street Fighter Alpha 2 and
Doom. These game cartridges contain additional pins that insert into the slots located left and right of the main center slot. Cartridge adapters made before the release of Star Fox (the first game to need the expansion slots) like the Game Genie did not have a connection to these previously unused slots, so cartridges that contain an additional processor (and thus need to be connected to those slots to do
I/O with the system) could not be plugged into these devices. However, some games with these extra contacts worked perfectly regardless, most notably
Mega Man X2 and
Mega Man X3.
The introduction of the original NES Game Genie was met by fierce opposition from
Nintendo. Nintendo
sued Galoob in the case
Lewis Galoob Toys, Inc. v. Nintendo of America, Inc., claiming that the Game Genie created derivative works in violation of
copyright law. Sales of the Game Genie initially stopped in the U.S., but not in Canada. In many
gaming magazines of the time, Camerica placed Game Genie ads saying "Thank You Canada!" However, after the courts found that use of the Game Genie did not result in a derivative work, Nintendo could do nothing to stop the Game Genie from being sold in the U.S.
Sega, on the other hand, fully endorsed the product with their official seal of approval.
*
Game Genie Code Creators Club*
Game Genie and other Game Enhancers Code Archive*
GSCentral (Has a large collection of Game Genie codes)*
The official Game Genie website (Archived copy from archive.org)*
CheatZILLA.com, one of the oldest collections of Game Genie codes on the internet.*
Technical explanation of how Game Genie and its codes work.
