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Finding Cheat Codes For A Living

Posted by timothy on from the innate-not-inmate dept.

selan writes: "The Baltimore Sun has an article about the guys from GameShark who spend their time digging up cheat codes. 'For hours on end, hackers here squint over thousands of lines of numeric coding that translate to great feats of accomplishment on a video game.'" Good work, if you can get it.

14 of 287 comments (clear)

  1. Doing this for money? by Violet+Null · · Score: 5, Funny

    Why don't they simply press up-down-up-down-left-right-A-B and get themselves infinite cash?

  2. Why? by Bilestoad · · Score: 5, Funny

    when you play Tiger Woods Golf, you get a hole in one every time

    Tiger Woods game: $40

    Gameshark: $60

    Realizing that you spent $100 to watch a golf game play itself: Priceless.

    1. Re:Why? by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 2, Funny
      Gamers are all about winning.

      The hole-in-one every time is gamer heaven. Boring, you say? Hah. You can win every time. And that, my friends, is what computer gaming is really all about.

      --
      Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
    2. Re:Why? by shag_and_scooby_too · · Score: 2, Funny

      Computer: $1000 Internet connection:$40 Slashdot: $free (and well worth it) Listening to whiners: Priceless

  3. People do this? by LewK2 · · Score: 5, Funny

    I remember, as a young lad, wondering how anyone ever came up with the cheats that were published monthly in my favorite ZX Spectrum (and later Commodore Amiga) magazine. I just assumed that somewhere, someone would get the infomation out of the programmers by sleeping with the despectacled geeks. Oh, how innocent I was when I was younger...

    1. Re:People do this? by radja · · Score: 5, Funny

      indeed... very innocent..

      No way a geek gets laid that easy ;)

      //rdj

      --

      No one can understand the truth until he drinks of coffee's frothy goodness.
      --Sheikh Abd-Al-Kadir, 1587
    2. Re:People do this? by Transient0 · · Score: 3, Funny

      interesting. i had a NES and the standard infinite lives procedure was very similar:

      (1) Find the lives display on the screen
      (2) Draw the infinity symbol on a piece of paper
      (3) Moisten the bit of paper and stick it over the place found in step (1)

      --
      lysergically yours
  4. Silly Me by ackthpt · · Score: 5, Funny
    I used to buy games to play and have fun.

    Now you:

    Buy the game

    Buy the strategy guide

    Get all the cheat codes

    Get bored because it's no fun anymore

    Repeat cycle

    To each their own...

    --

    A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
  5. Apologies to Dogbert by Mike+Schiraldi · · Score: 5, Funny

    So let me get this straight.. You're reading a book ... about using a device ... to automatically play ... a computer simulation ... of an activity that can't exactly be called a sport?

    That's about as close as you can get to being an inorganic life form.

    --

    --
    Mod up a post Rob doesn't like and you'll never mod again

  6. One question... by Tazzy531 · · Score: 1, Funny

    One question that I might ask is...when these guys go home, do they play more video games?

    --


    _______________________________
    "I'm not Conceited...I'm just a realist..."
  7. This Cheat works on any game on any system! by TechnoLust · · Score: 1, Funny

    It's a little difficult though...
    First, move through the game without dying more than the amount of initial lives you have.
    Second, defeat the end boss.
    Victory!

    --
    "Da ist ein Technölüst in mein Unterpanten!"
  8. Sleeping with? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny
    As for sleeping with despectacled geeks, I sadly conformed to the stereotypes, and wasn't much interested in that sort of thing at the time. Of course, things have changed somewhat since then :-)
    What? Now you do sleep with despectacled geeks? ;P~~~
  9. You're all wimps! by hawk · · Score: 2, Funny
    extra hardware, debuggers, programs, etc.


    In the only game that matters, it's easy. Just type "X", and you're in explore mode and can go on forever (but can't get a high score or ascend).


    hawk

  10. Hacking? by exceed · · Score: 3, Funny

    I find it kind of amusing that this articles constantly mentions the programmers "hacking into the game system" as if they are gaining unauthorized access to some machine on the Internet. When will the press use this term correctly?

    --

    void women (int money, time_t time);