Nintendo didn't sue Galoob for the Game Genie, they merely got their product removed from store shelves by bullying the stores. Basically a sort of "If you carry this unlicensed product, we'll have to short your order on the latest hit games, because you know there's a chip shortage, right?" Galoob sued and said people had a right to play the game the way they wanted to, and won a $50 million judgement in their favor.
Pretty great summary honestly. I know Nintendo were huge bullies in the 80’s, but as I understood it they just sued everyone into the ground cause they could… didn’t know they had to get creative/take it to the streets to maintain their monopoly
That last code for the debug mode also lets you cycle between powerups mid-level with the select button, and if you hold a face button while doing it, it gives you the shoe in any level.
My mom to this day has SMB1 Game Genie codes memorized out of a book we bought on vacation one year. We used to ask her all the time for "stop on a dime" which removed the skidding/momentum and "infinite lives" which is self explanatory.
Man this brings back so many memories of my childhood. I had a Game Genie as a kid growing up and I would play Mario 3 with it and I would use the Skywalker code and Start and Stay as Hammer Brother which would lead to a glitch at the end of the game if you didn't hold up on the controller's d pad after you defeated Bowser the game would pause forever.
I too used these codes. I never realized until later the Skywalker is the reason I never got soft locked in world 6. I also never saw the credits because I would get the infinite pause, and my kid brain just assumed that was the end of the game.
From a legal perspective, Nintendo lost the case because the Game Genie DOES NOT actually permanently alter the actual code - that would have been an illegal creation of a derivative work. When somebody used a Game Genie, the original cartridge remains absolutely 100% intact, the Game Genie simply TEMPORARILY altered the code for a single game session (and the player is the one choosing how to alter it, not the Game Genie itself).
Wisher: "Eternal dragon, by your name, I summon you forth...Shenron!" Shenron: "Why have you summoned me? Tell me your wish now." Wisher: "Y-P-X-X-L-V-G-E" Shenron: "Your wish cannot be granted because the guardian of Earth created me. I cannot grant a wish that exceeds his power." Wisher: "Oh... okay. How about, A-E-U-G-N-S-S-L" Shenron: "Your wish has been granted."
@@jarrod752 Yeah, I can imagine a real life game genie being like a monkeys paw lol Wish for something, but the code ends up glitching life in some horrendous way.
1:23 i was today years old when i learned this, and i had this back in the day too.. Game genie was also available for sega, snes and gameboy, and probably some others too, not just the NES, but the NES one is arguably the most well known
Ah the simpler days, when we thought blowing into the cartridges was a way to clean them, and we thought cheat device codes worked as they did deliberately just like in-game cheat codes rather than editing some arbitrary memory address.
So you gotta remember the game genie was just an address location and a value to force it to be. Bouncing off an enemy is a different area in the code than standard jumping. You were effectively just setting Mario's jump speed to very high. Your holes in the ground and display stuff is just breaking the level renderer or possibly forcing a specific tile set.
Oh man. Game Genie was so cool. I had the GB and SNES versions. Unfortunately I never knew how it worked and just thought it that it was actual, built-in, secret codes, so I never had the fun of experimenting with and learning about hex-editing.
I remember renting that and using the book to input codes for Mario 3, it was super interesting. I loved trying it on the other games too. I had one for SNES as well it was fun to mess around.
Common misconception, Nintendo didn't sue over the game genie. Code Masters and Camerica pre-emptively filed suit to legitimize the product. This is also why Sega licensed it, they didn't want to waste time in court. If Nintendo sued the court case would have been called Nintendo of America, Inc. v. Lewis Galoob Toys, Inc. Plaintiff comes first in case names.
I used to use the same 3 codes: Infinite lives (SLXGLOVS), Skywalker (SXEZSKOZ) and start and stay as hammer Mario (XNKXGLIE). I never realized until much later the Skywalker was saving me from being soft locked in world 6 where tail is required. Also, whenever I beat Bowser while using these Game Genie codes, the door to peach would only open for a fraction of a second and then the game would pause forever.
Pretty sure the manual had a note that said you had to press and hold up on the door or something to avoid the softlock. I always the same with start and stay as hammer mario. Sometimes I did fire mario.
Just a heads-up, six letter codes tend to be unstable on games with mappers because the codes lack the compare byte and thus patches the location in every single ROM bank. The eight letter codes work around bankswitching by adding a compare value that the Game Genie verifies before sending the patched byte.
About twenty years ago I soldered a Game Genie directly to the 72 pin male connector on an NES motherboard. The NES wouldn't read games very well and it wasn't as easy to find third party replacement 72 pin connectors at the time. It worked every time after that, but since the motherboard wouldn't fit in the case with the GG hanging off of it I made a case out of cardboard and duck tape. You could smack it while it was on and it didn't glitch either. Unfortunately I ended up losing it while I was a couch-surfer for a few years lol 🤷♂
My parents refused to get us a Game Genie. They said it was cheating. In reality, they weren't going to throw money away on more crap for the kids. So instead of denying the request outright, instill some ethics in there.
As the discoverer of the debug mode code (in its original 6-letter format in the 1990s), I explain briefly on my channel (and on my old site) how I stumbled upon the code and how it became modified to the 8-letter code in 2001. The infinite lives code you use isn't really needed, since debug mode can already start you with 99 lives by pressing the A button 19 times on the title screen, just in case you decide on using some other 3rd code.
I once found a Game Genie code that let you grab any block in the stage to throw, and another that lets you create blocks from under you with a button combo.
Liked, commented, subscribed and set notifications for this channel. I knew you were a WR holder in a lot of Mario stuff, but I didn't realize you were also this entertaining dude. I have a lot of content to catch up on lol
Sí, el señor Mitch Poder de planta de fuego es muy bueno, más divertido que Poo, Larl o Geek, buenas vibras como Ryu, sólo el pequeño Kirbs me gusta más
As a kid, I used the infinite lives code, permanent Fire Mario, and an infinite jump code that is pretty close to a P-Wing. (It's similar to that skywalk code, but you fell normally. It just meant that Mario was always registered as being on the ground.)
They need to make speedruns for some of these codes. I'd love to see how they affect glitches, or what new glitches they might produce. But that would probably take another 35 years to figure out.
I remember my game genie not messing up any of the games. The NES, however lol The GGs card that goes into the NES is slightly bigger than a normal cartridge, so over time it stretches the NES' prongs to the point games wont load without the GG. So, after using the GG for so long, I had to use it with _every_ game just to play them, even if I didnt use any codes.
@@freedustinbecause that's all the cheat devices are doing anyways, and many emulator developers have already coded GameGenie/GameShark/etc functionality in. So yeah, you can use either method but they are the same thing. The only difference is if you use already made codes you don't have to waste time experimenting with values since someone already did the work.
That three wishes thing is 🤯 For us Dutchies a Game Genie sounds different, as a kid I always said Game Guh-nee. A genie (guh-nee) is a genious. So in the end it all worked out 😂
While now it's easy to get repair kits for your NES to fix this problem properly, "back in the day" my NES got to where it wouldn't even register a game pak was loaded *without* having it attached to a Game Genie because of the notorious bent pin issue 😜
I forgot all about the game genie. Gonna try and find a way to put it on my SNES emulator for my 5 year old just so he can have infinite lives in some of these games he's been trying to play
I see a Game Genie every time I open the drawer with my NES games. I have 2 for NES and one has a pouch with 5 books. It's actually awesome! When I was a kid I would use it to make finicky cartridges work... super familiar with Game Genie. I guess most of your audience is 12 year olds or something.
Just seeing video. You need to try this....plug in MULTIPLE GAME GENIES TOGETHER....Each one connected gives you 3 lines of code. Most we had to try was 4 and all 12 lines of code work....do your 1st 3 lines..press start..next game genie in chain will activate and so on until game starts....AND ALL CODES WILL WORK....just REMEMBER.....multi line codes all need to be put in same game genie screen before moving to next game genie screen or actual game
Nintendo didn't sue Galoob for the Game Genie, they merely got their product removed from store shelves by bullying the stores. Basically a sort of "If you carry this unlicensed product, we'll have to short your order on the latest hit games, because you know there's a chip shortage, right?" Galoob sued and said people had a right to play the game the way they wanted to, and won a $50 million judgement in their favor.
Nintendo did however sue the Canadian distributor, who also won their case.
Pretty great summary honestly. I know Nintendo were huge bullies in the 80’s, but as I understood it they just sued everyone into the ground cause they could… didn’t know they had to get creative/take it to the streets to maintain their monopoly
When it comes to Nintendo suits... don't forget the one universal brought about kong...
Galoobs free speech card
@@Helloyousilverdevil They're the same today. Nintendo easily holds the top 10 dumbest lawsuits of the last 20 years in the industry.
That last code for the debug mode also lets you cycle between powerups mid-level with the select button, and if you hold a face button while doing it, it gives you the shoe in any level.
My mom to this day has SMB1 Game Genie codes memorized out of a book we bought on vacation one year. We used to ask her all the time for "stop on a dime" which removed the skidding/momentum and "infinite lives" which is self explanatory.
Sxiopo was infinite lives. Still remember personally
Man this brings back so many memories of my childhood. I had a Game Genie as a kid growing up and I would play Mario 3 with it and I would use the Skywalker code and Start and Stay as Hammer Brother which would lead to a glitch at the end of the game if you didn't hold up on the controller's d pad after you defeated Bowser the game would pause forever.
I too used these codes. I never realized until later the Skywalker is the reason I never got soft locked in world 6. I also never saw the credits because I would get the infinite pause, and my kid brain just assumed that was the end of the game.
From a legal perspective, Nintendo lost the case because the Game Genie DOES NOT actually permanently alter the actual code - that would have been an illegal creation of a derivative work.
When somebody used a Game Genie, the original cartridge remains absolutely 100% intact, the Game Genie simply TEMPORARILY altered the code for a single game session (and the player is the one choosing how to alter it, not the Game Genie itself).
Fun fact: You could use two Game Genies at once and get six codes going. Three won't work.
@mxloukaplayz9487plug one into the other, they physically stack like Sonic and Knuckles cartridges only horizontally.
@@nthgth Imagine not using the power of Blast Processing to power the dual Game Genies
Damn that's interesting. I loved my Game Genies for NES and SNES
Imagine getting a real life genie but you have to format your wish as a game genie code
That is almost the premise of the Laundry Files.
Wisher: "Eternal dragon, by your name, I summon you forth...Shenron!"
Shenron: "Why have you summoned me? Tell me your wish now."
Wisher: "Y-P-X-X-L-V-G-E"
Shenron: "Your wish cannot be granted because the guardian of Earth created me. I cannot grant a wish that exceeds his power."
Wisher: "Oh... okay. How about, A-E-U-G-N-S-S-L"
Shenron: "Your wish has been granted."
@@sheltongolden4394 Now I'm immortal. But after testing it out, I'm recovering in the hospital from the injuries. Be specific about what you wish for.
@@jarrod752
Yeah, I can imagine a real life game genie being like a monkeys paw lol Wish for something, but the code ends up glitching life in some horrendous way.
Considering the things game genie codes end up doing 99.9% of the time that's actually really terrifying
I thought I was on top of the world when I first got my game genie, and then for SNES you could do 5 codes instead of 3. The nostalgia!
How do u switch back and forth from one SNES code to another
I never had the SNES one!
"Because the Genie grants you three wishes"
... dammit I never knew that either, hahaha
i found that out when i was 9 or 10 lol
1:23 i was today years old when i learned this, and i had this back in the day too..
Game genie was also available for sega, snes and gameboy, and probably some others too, not just the NES, but the NES one is arguably the most well known
Ah the simpler days, when we thought blowing into the cartridges was a way to clean them, and we thought cheat device codes worked as they did deliberately just like in-game cheat codes rather than editing some arbitrary memory address.
So you gotta remember the game genie was just an address location and a value to force it to be. Bouncing off an enemy is a different area in the code than standard jumping. You were effectively just setting Mario's jump speed to very high. Your holes in the ground and display stuff is just breaking the level renderer or possibly forcing a specific tile set.
Hey Mitch, you should try off screen wand grab with the high jump code!
0:04 when i looked at the shelf it sits on?
Oh man. Game Genie was so cool. I had the GB and SNES versions. Unfortunately I never knew how it worked and just thought it that it was actual, built-in, secret codes, so I never had the fun of experimenting with and learning about hex-editing.
Now if only you could find a code to give Mario a black suit and a cigarette to go with that skywalk code.
rom hack
DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT
SO glad to see so much love for SMB3. Thanks for all the content I've been binging the last few days
I remember renting that and using the book to input codes for Mario 3, it was super interesting. I loved trying it on the other games too. I had one for SNES as well it was fun to mess around.
Common misconception, Nintendo didn't sue over the game genie. Code Masters and Camerica pre-emptively filed suit to legitimize the product. This is also why Sega licensed it, they didn't want to waste time in court. If Nintendo sued the court case would have been called Nintendo of America, Inc. v. Lewis Galoob Toys, Inc. Plaintiff comes first in case names.
I used to use the same 3 codes: Infinite lives (SLXGLOVS), Skywalker (SXEZSKOZ) and start and stay as hammer Mario (XNKXGLIE). I never realized until much later the Skywalker was saving me from being soft locked in world 6 where tail is required. Also, whenever I beat Bowser while using these Game Genie codes, the door to peach would only open for a fraction of a second and then the game would pause forever.
Pretty sure the manual had a note that said you had to press and hold up on the door or something to avoid the softlock.
I always the same with start and stay as hammer mario. Sometimes I did fire mario.
I think the code book called it "bowser's time trap"
BEWARE THE TIME TRAP OF BOWZER(TM)!
2:50 "we're gonna get p speed here, blast ass, let's go!" 😆
The "You better be a Pro" code is basically super probably level from geometry dash but in Mario Bros 3
Just a heads-up, six letter codes tend to be unstable on games with mappers because the codes lack the compare byte and thus patches the location in every single ROM bank.
The eight letter codes work around bankswitching by adding a compare value that the Game Genie verifies before sending the patched byte.
Gaming Historian TH-cam channel has a super cool video about the history of Game Genie
About twenty years ago I soldered a Game Genie directly to the 72 pin male connector on an NES motherboard. The NES wouldn't read games very well and it wasn't as easy to find third party replacement 72 pin connectors at the time. It worked every time after that, but since the motherboard wouldn't fit in the case with the GG hanging off of it I made a case out of cardboard and duck tape. You could smack it while it was on and it didn't glitch either. Unfortunately I ended up losing it while I was a couch-surfer for a few years lol 🤷♂
moon jump is really crazy you go from the beginning of the level almost to the end of the level in 1 jump
That web page looks straight outta 1999 like the ones I used to find when looking for N64 Gameshark codes back then
oh man, that old game genie menu, brings back memories.
My parents refused to get us a Game Genie. They said it was cheating. In reality, they weren't going to throw money away on more crap for the kids.
So instead of denying the request outright, instill some ethics in there.
As the discoverer of the debug mode code (in its original 6-letter format in the 1990s), I explain briefly on my channel (and on my old site) how I stumbled upon the code and how it became modified to the 8-letter code in 2001. The infinite lives code you use isn't really needed, since debug mode can already start you with 99 lives by pressing the A button 19 times on the title screen, just in case you decide on using some other 3rd code.
It's always cute watching yungins playing around w the Game Genie as if it's some foreign thing lol. Did all of this when I was a young kid.
@2:34; I guess Mario can be called Jumpman, again.
shit man, you are playing directly with my childhood right here. I've been a cheat code baby since the very beginning.
We used to mess around even with the code entry screen as kids. The last time I saw it was yesterday, when I opened my Nintendo gaming drawer 👀
Multi-Jumps were our jam
Very Nice Kris Sounds Like A Blast :)
I once found a Game Genie code that let you grab any block in the stage to throw, and another that lets you create blocks from under you with a button combo.
Liked, commented, subscribed and set notifications for this channel. I knew you were a WR holder in a lot of Mario stuff, but I didn't realize you were also this entertaining dude. I have a lot of content to catch up on lol
Sí, el señor Mitch Poder de planta de fuego es muy bueno, más divertido que Poo, Larl o Geek, buenas vibras como Ryu, sólo el pequeño Kirbs me gusta más
Oh the nostalgia seeing that font and the spinny icon on the code entry page
As a kid, I used the infinite lives code, permanent Fire Mario, and an infinite jump code that is pretty close to a P-Wing. (It's similar to that skywalk code, but you fell normally. It just meant that Mario was always registered as being on the ground.)
Thirty years without ever thinking about why you could enter three codes
OMG. You said skywalk and i instantly remembered the code from 30 years ago. Amazing
11:01 Looks like Spreedrunner Mario learned some tricks from Melee Fox
I beat SM3 with skywalk and "start and stay as hammer mario" countless times as a kid.
They need to make speedruns for some of these codes. I'd love to see how they affect glitches, or what new glitches they might produce. But that would probably take another 35 years to figure out.
I remember my game genie not messing up any of the games. The NES, however lol The GGs card that goes into the NES is slightly bigger than a normal cartridge, so over time it stretches the NES' prongs to the point games wont load without the GG. So, after using the GG for so long, I had to use it with _every_ game just to play them, even if I didnt use any codes.
3 game genie codes at a time where now the emulators give you hundreds of codes to play around with
It's an emulator, why bother with weird codes when you can just manipulate the RAM directly?
@@freedustin easier unless you are a pro gamer like Mitch that knows coding
@@freedustinbecause that's all the cheat devices are doing anyways, and many emulator developers have already coded GameGenie/GameShark/etc functionality in. So yeah, you can use either method but they are the same thing. The only difference is if you use already made codes you don't have to waste time experimenting with values since someone already did the work.
"Nintendo lost the lawsuit."
I was there, Gandalf...
This thing was the holy grail for those of us that didn't live in a major city back then.
I remember having the game genie for NES and Game Boy when it was brand new! 😊 My dad and I made so many weird and funny codes. I loved it!
1:23
What's the game Genies excuse on the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis for 5 codes?
Lol
3:46 but... but... the 1-UP above the pipe!!!
That three wishes thing is 🤯 For us Dutchies a Game Genie sounds different, as a kid I always said Game Guh-nee. A genie (guh-nee) is a genious. So in the end it all worked out 😂
Haha that's awesomely appropriate for this device
5:29 wow you should do a video of trying to beat the game (any%) like this where you cant see whats going on
wow im 41 and i'm just realized that too! 3 codes =genie 3 wishes lmao!
Thanks ALOT for the codes at the end to practice!!!!
I remember using this for the 2nd Top Gun game and Mission: Impossible. lol
You should to do "You better be a pro %" runs. I'd totally sub for that.
Or "You better be a pro [Warpless] %"
Some kids fought over Sega/Nintendo. REAL 90s kids fought over Game Genie/ Game Shark...
"I got a hole right here." -- MitchFlowerPower 2022
Were you inspired to do this after watching some Gruz Game Genie videos?
1:41
Someone doesn't have the game inserted in properly
The Skywalk code never made it all glitchy looking.
07:08 battle mode code exists on smb3!?
This video was so much fun Mitch, thanks
I read the article and seems like galoob sued Nintendo first with a preemptive strike to make sure Nintendo can't sue them later
That super jump looked so much fun.
My favorite was always OSEZZE. Pure unstable chaos
While now it's easy to get repair kits for your NES to fix this problem properly, "back in the day" my NES got to where it wouldn't even register a game pak was loaded *without* having it attached to a Game Genie because of the notorious bent pin issue 😜
I use to love messing with game genie codes to glitch games out, but sadly they don't work on toploaders, which my only working NES is.
1:55 austin powers
"WHAT IS THIS GARBLE OF MESS?!"
The whole sequence from 8:28 had me 💀
Is there any type of like silly but official speed running categories for using genie codes for these games
oh my god. i really want to see a full on chaos mode mod for this. just randomly adding and removing these mods on its own.
Mitch I love that you used Pokemon pinball in the background ❤🎉
The better be a pro was pretty crazy. I wouldnt mind watching a video of you playing the entire game like that.
yea, definitely
I forgot all about the game genie. Gonna try and find a way to put it on my SNES emulator for my 5 year old just so he can have infinite lives in some of these games he's been trying to play
Yeah gotta do the same so he can at least have infinite lives. He's not too great at it yet and I'm apparently rusty as heck too 😅
Yeah gotta do the same so he can at least have infinite lives. He's not too great at it yet and I'm apparently rusty as heck too 😅
Oh wow i love it!!! I am gonna try some out later
I knew those codes 16:08
This was fun! It felt like a Gruz video
Mitch: I didn’t get an item! It lied to me!
Me: You tore up the guy’s house and you still expect him to give you something?
Nintendo lost the case against Galoob because the code manipulation isn't permanent.
I remember Game Genie was the only way my friend and I could beat Turtles 2,
Where the music sounded weird I wonder if it’s because you killed one of the babies then the mom right after so it played almost sequentially
Why hasn't anyone ever questioned why the cat suit PowerUp is a leaf?
You can put more then one in to use more codes.
i had the game genie man i loved that damn thing. it was so fkn needed because alot of the games we had was just un fkn fair lol
I remember when I had to use magazines for codes for my GG
I see a Game Genie every time I open the drawer with my NES games. I have 2 for NES and one has a pouch with 5 books. It's actually awesome!
When I was a kid I would use it to make finicky cartridges work... super familiar with Game Genie. I guess most of your audience is 12 year olds or something.
Just seeing video. You need to try this....plug in MULTIPLE GAME GENIES TOGETHER....Each one connected gives you 3 lines of code. Most we had to try was 4 and all 12 lines of code work....do your 1st 3 lines..press start..next game genie in chain will activate and so on until game starts....AND ALL CODES WILL WORK....just REMEMBER.....multi line codes all need to be put in same game genie screen before moving to next game genie screen or actual game
I also had a Game Genie for my Game Boy!
13:26
Whats the website you got the codes from? It looks super cool, can you link it pls?
I'd have to get the ole toaster nes out to try this. The toploader game genie adaptors are super expensive.
Emulators tend to support Game Genie codes, but if you really want it on original hardware, yeah, it's rough.
I still have my game genie and the manual that came with it!
Hammer bro be doing speedrun strats
Which code unlocks the Milli Vanilli level?
Do the codes do something different with Left vs Right Bros?
request game genie speedrun for fun!
You didn't comment on Bowser's Time Trap?
Sky Walker was an awesome code
Ah, good memories...