Cheated by cheat codes

[Maresia]

Have you ever found a cheat code on a web site, a gaming magazine, or maybe heard from a friend that didn't work?
I don't think this is as common anymore but way back when it was really easy to fall victim of misinformation. Even somewhat reliable sources would be tricked too and just post the same false info on their site or magazine.

To start, I have a mini story of mine that haunts me to this day and that from time to time I try to investigate again to find where it started of if someone else fell for the same trick.
Supposedly, there is a cheat to unlock a debug menu on the original Crash Bandicoot on the PS1 (Actually there is one, but is only accessible by hacking)
This is from IGN

They even have 2 different versions of the same cheat

Also there is this mag that I had back then with the same cheat. I used to have another one with the same cheat but I lost the mag and can't find it anywhere on the archive yet.

I can't count the times I have tried the same cheat over and over again believing that I was doing something wrong. Maybe I wasn't fast enough, maybe I pressed X too many times, maybe I'm not timing my buttons correctly at the Naughty Dog logo.

Anyway, I want to hear your stories too!

 

[psvitaforever]

To this day, one thing haunts me: when I bought the cd with the cheats for the ps2 and I inserted it in the console, something went wrong and the saves on my memory card were deleted
Worst thing, I was almost done with Suikoden 5 so... well... I watched a video on YT to fill the hole on the ending.

 

[Clippy]

It's actually more common than one would think these days. Obscure 90s PC games have a lot of fake or incorrect cheat codes floating on the Internet, even on reputable sites like GameFAQs. It's just that nobody plays those games so it goes unnoticed.

 

[TotzOnGaming]

I remember some on GameFAQs that didn't work. On some Magazines too and most times, they're in on it.

 

[What's His Face]

Years ago, Die Hard Game Fan Magazine released a code for Street Fighter EX plus a (PS1) that let you select Hokuto with different armour & wielding a Shinto priestess flail. It didn't work. I was the first to figure-out the real code (I guess the button prompts changed between the review copy and the final print), and I happily submitted my code to the major site-of-the-day.

It got reported as non-functional by another user and taken down.

This started a bit of a row between me and the other user until I finally left in disgust. I had the working code, so if they didn't want to use it then screw them. Two weeks later I checked the site for another game, and discovered that the same user resubmitted my exact code as his own. I pointed it out to the site runner, who told me to get lost and stop accusing his brother. Well, the words were a bit more vulgar, but you get the idea.

Then GameFAQs rose in popularity and the site folded as millions of others did.

 

[Maresia]

It's actually more common than one would think these days. Obscure 90s PC games have a lot of fake or incorrect cheat codes floating on the Internet, even on reputable sites like GameFAQs. It's just that nobody plays those games so it goes unnoticed.

I was thinking about recent games, well those barely had codes anyway. But you can easily fact check on newer games.
I would imagine that for lesser known old games there is going to be a lot more misinformation that has never been checked.

Years ago, Die Hard Game Fan Magazine released a code for Street Fighter EX plus a (PS1) that let you select Hokuto with different armour & wielding a Shinto priestess flail. It didn't work. I was the first to figure-out the real code (I guess the button prompts changed between the review copy and the final print), and I happily submitted my code to the major site-of-the-day.

It got reported as non-functional by another user and taken down.

This started a bit of a row between me and the other user until I finally left in disgust. I had the working code, so if they didn't want to use it then screw them. Two weeks later I checked the site for another game, and discovered that the same user resubmitted my exact code as his own. I pointed it out to the site runner, who told me to get lost and stop accusing his brother. Well, the words were a bit more vulgar, but you get the idea.

Then GameFAQs rose in popularity and the site folded as millions of others did.

Wow, that's awesome! I didn't have internet access on the earlier internet days, so I have missed all sorts of stories like yours. It's really cool that you were able to figure out the real code, at least in your case the cheat was real lol.
That's another interesting thing that I think I've seen before. Cheat codes change between regions or versions or previews. So sometimes I wonder if those false codes are just random people posting bullshit or the code did actually work on a different version.

 

[ciro64]

Once I used a gameshark code for Banjo-Kazooie. I don't remember what it was intended to do, but instead it shrunk Banjo, moved him to the corner of sandcastle's walls and made him spin in perpetuity.

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

Yes, actually... Every single website I visited back in the day had wrong cheats for Army Men: World War -- Land, Sea, Air.

My guess is that they just copied each other and no-one gave a damn about testing them.

 

[Graw]

Yes, actually... Every single website I visited back in the day had wrong cheats for Army Men: World War -- Land, Sea, Air.

My guess is that they just copied each other and no-one gave a damn about testing them.

Yup. I remember cheatplanet and gamefaqs used to be horrible for that. Almost every game had at least one fake cheat.

 

[bubbyrude]

To this day, one thing haunts me: when I bought the cd with the cheats for the ps2 and I inserted it in the console, something went wrong and the saves on my memory card were deleted
Worst thing, I was almost done with Suikoden 5 so... well... I watched a video on YT to fill the hole on the ending.

some of those back then would come with a card intended to go in slot 1 so that could be the reason, supposing you got it secondhand

 

[What's His Face]

That's another interesting thing that I think I've seen before. Cheat codes change between regions or versions or previews. So sometimes I wonder if those false codes are just random people posting bullshit or the code did actually work on a different version.

Pretty much. I also recall a released code in PSM to play as the Bosses in Guilty Gear, which didn't work on the retail disc. From what I understand it DID work on the review copy, which was based on the 99% complete US release, but the button-input code was locked before final print. I imagine a LOT of these codes are like this. Code works in preview/foreign copies, then is changed/removed at release. Then customers can call the company hot line directly (for $5.99/min) for info on the REAL cheat.

Things like this happened all the time. Heck, even key features got changed. the Nintendo Power article on Wolverine: Adamantium Rage on SNES stated that picking-up a Wolverine Head icon would give you an extra life. Which WAS true for the review copy. But for the final release? Extra lives were removed entirely, and the icon just refilled your health.