Questions about Cheat Codes

[inlayterms]

As most of you are aware, a lot of games have "cheat codes" that allow different "perks" such as invincibility, unlimited ammo, one-shot kills, etc.

I know a lot of gamers are against cheats but, notwithstanding whether or not they are fair, I was wondering "how do cheat codes come to be?" Specifically, are they incorporated into the programming by the developers? Are they leaked to the public by the developers or are gamers left to "decode" the cheats? Or are they simply "accidental" results of the programming?

While I don't have any answer to these questions, I speculate that, sometimes, cheats are incorporated into the programming by the developers after the game has been completed in order to make the game more "playable", especially on higher difficulty levels.

Take Dead Space, for example. One of the available cheats allows you to refill the statis meter when the game is paused. I think that the cheat was put in because, on the impossible difficulty level, the game would be, well, impossible to beat and the developers had to put the cheat in there to make the game playable, rather than going through the extra process of putting more statis tanks in the game.

Does anyone have any knowledge, or thoughts, they can add?

[inlayterms]

Seriously, doesn't anyone know how cheat codes come about? Or is this topic taboo? I'm genuinely curious to know.

[un4gvn94538]

google/wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheatin...es#Cheat_codes

tells the earliest known cheat code

for old school games i think theyre fun AFTER you beat a game.

[inlayterms]

Originally Posted by un4gvn94538

google/wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheatin...es#Cheat_codes

tells the earliest known cheat code

for old school games i think theyre fun AFTER you beat a game.

Thanks for the link, it was very informative.

[dk3dknight]

I agree cheat codes are great for after game fun, or when no longer care about campaign progress and simply want to blow some steam off.

[un4gvn94538]

Originally Posted by dk3dknight

I agree cheat codes are great for after game fun, or when no longer care about campaign progress and simply want to blow some steam off.

yes very. i just thought of this. since sony or m$ dont officially support third party paraphernalia, they should come out with thier own official cheat codes discs (or whatever). they could ensure that it couldnt be used online or to get trophies/acheivments. the most fun i had with cheats was with perfect dark.

[dk3dknight]

Originally Posted by un4gvn94538

yes very. i just thought of this. since sony or m$ dont officially support third party paraphernalia, they should come out with thier own official cheat codes discs (or whatever). they could ensure that it couldnt be used online or to get trophies/acheivments. the most fun i had with cheats was with perfect dark.

In red faction guerrilla the super toughness combined with the super hammer lets you play baseball with cars, apcs, and tanks and is a great way to blow off steam.

And for humor when me and my uncle played merc2 coop, we had already beaten the game several times and were sitting in a harbor exchanging nuclear missiles at each other.. Now that is fun.. We put the codes for filling our oil and buying multiple nuclear bunker busters and just unleashing them at each other...