The Rise and Fall of the Cheat Code 178
An anonymous reader writes A new feature published this week takes a deep-dive look at
the history of the cheat code and its various manifestations over the years, from manual 'pokes' on cassettes to pass phrases with their own dedicated menus — as well as their rise from simple debug tool in the early days of bedroom development to a marketing tactic when game magazines dominated in the 1990s, followed by dedicated strategy guides. Today's era of online play has all but done away with them, but the need for a level playing field isn't the only reason for their decline: as one veteran coder points out, why give away cheats for free when you can charge for them as in-app purchases? "Bigger publishers have now realized you can actually sell these things to players as DLC. Want that special gun? Think you can unlock it with a cheat code? Nope! You've got to give us some money first!"
First (Score:5, Funny)
Mark of times (Score:5, Funny)
Re:First (Score:0, Funny)
... Hey, macarena!
Re:DLC? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Mark of times (Score:4, Funny)
Pay to stop playing, of course.