I’m thinking you and your money will soon be parted, Stinkpalm. Some folks is just plain good at some things.
There’s a guy (or maybe several) out there that can crash an old PacMan arcade game, by reaching level 256 (or 257, I’d think) and forcing the machine to try and work outside of what it understands.
Watch a “trick” pool/billards player sometime. They pull off stunts you just know are physically impossible, yet they’ll repeat it in front of you several times, to prove there’s no actual trickery involved. They really can make a cueball hop over two other balls to sink the third one into a pocket. Me, I can’t sink more than three in a row on a good night.
FTR, I also once made it all the way through the old NES Contra without losing a life, in the days before I knew what U,U,D,D,L,L,R,R,A,B,B,A meant.
Or whatever it was. I think I’ve got the A+B buttons wrong.
Did the same with Golden Axe 2, too, for the Sega Genesis, repeatedly. Comes from having a fair bit of free time, and no cash to spring for rentals or new games.
OTOH, I could never get all the way through Warcraft 2 without cheating my ass off.
Are we talking about one GAME, meaning 3 lives + earned extra lives or are we talking about one LIFE meaning you never got hit by a bullet or fell off a ledge or eaten by an alien? The former I can believe, but the later is something I would have to see to believe because the snow level alone will eat your anus for breakfast.
I wish you guys lived mear me so we could test this out.
I’ve got a GBA and a cheat device. When there’s a boss that I get stuck on, and I’ve tried my damndest for five or six times, I turn on a cheat code. Infinate attacks, usually, or maybe invicibility. I beat it, and turn off the cheats. I’ve done this for the latest Metroid game and Castlevania: Circle of the Moon. I don’t see it as taking the challenge out of the game. I still try to play the game honestly. When I can’t, then I cheat.
I agree that some games are played for the story. For me, that tends to be RPGs. I’m a bit iffy about cheats on them-- part of the experiance is leveling up and finding stuff, and putting in a cheat mode takes some of the fun out of it. However, its about options. Give people a God mode option. They’ll play it, get tired of it, and want the challenge.
Quicksaves are okay. Sure, they can be unbalancing, but there’s times when you’ll quicksave and be stuck in an impossible situation… so you have to go back to the normal save points. Fair enough.
And I believe BM, as I had a friend who would have 27-28 lives left at the end of the game after using the 30-life code. He’d probably have done better if he wasn’t always eating chips or what have you while playing.
And upon further reflection, I have no qualms about there being a god mode in every game, but it had better be damn hard to find (without going to GameFAQs or google or something).
Because I’d much rather pass a game without cheating, but I don’t resist temptation very well, so a god mode toggle in, say, the options menu would probably get turned on quite often. However, I’m also quite lazy, so if I have to go look up the god mode, I probably wouldn’t. (Hell, I’m playing through Vice City without even looking up the locations of hidden packages.)
Seriously, though, as long as it’s a code and not an options toggle (sounds like this is what the OP wants, if I’m wrong, never mind), it sounds reasonable to me. I mean you should have to do some work, right?
Really. It’s possible. Tain’t easy, but it can be done.
As for testing it out, I haven’t played the game in something like 8 or 9 years, at least. I’m willing to put money on my not repeating the trick on the first try.
As far as in game save states, the original Aliens vs Predator, after a patch was released, at least, allowed you a certain number of saves per level. These were not overwriteable*, so you had to ration yourself. And the higher level of difficulty you played, the fewer saves there were, IIRC. Also, finishing the “basic levels” at the highest difficulty level was the only way to unlock all of the “bonus levels” for that character. Don’t know if the second game follows this format, and until we can afford a better 3D card (or an entire computer, more likely) I don’t care all that much one way or the other.
Some folks were unhappy, but it was a nifty compromise, I thought.
*[sub]At least, not from within the game. Never tried mucking about with deleting files manually, by way of a file manager.[/sub]
The 2nd one allows saves and quicksaves pretty much anywhere you want, and I don’t think there are any bonus levels, as the plot is pretty well tied together by the levels there(and you have to play all the levels for each character/race to see the entire plot).
Hey guys, I’m not calling you liars, I am saying that maybe you remember being better at that game than you actually were. That’s what happens with old age, your memory goes POOPOO!
I think games should have a cheat mode somewhere, but it shouldn’t be easily accessible. That makes it too tempting to use it as soon as things get tough, and results in a lot of people’s gameplay experience being ruined.
And sure, nobody’s being forced to use an easily accessible god-mode, but nobody is being forced to use overpowered weapons that are unbalanced and ruin the game. That doesn’t mean that they’re a good thing or should be included.
I’m surprised that one’s opinion regarding game cheats apparently reflects so strongly one’s character and integrity. It’s just not that big of a deal.
I rarely use cheats, especially the first time through a game, but I don’t think using or not using cheats suggests a person’s important qualities or lack thereof.
As for limited saves, they can add to a game’s difficulty, but it’s boring as hell to have to go through some bits over and over because you have trouble getting past one part.
And I’m all for cheats to get past jumping puzzles. I hate jumping puzzles.
I can think of something useful. Right now I’m playing Jedi Knight 2, which has one really annoying flaw. A lot of it takes place in dimly lit areas and the only source of illumination are nightvision goggles. Unfortunatly, those require batteries, and those batteries run out really quickly. Now imagine trying to jump over pits in low/no light areas with no source of illumination.
I would not begrudge anyone who wanted to cheat for more batteries.
Re: Jedi Knight 2
(And I’m jealous. Can’t play this one without a hardware upgrade, either. Poop.)
It does seem like some games are designed with the player cheating in mind. If the difficulty ramps up way too quickly, you damn near need to cheat to get through the thing.
I’m all for a challenge, but give me half a chance to make it “honestly.”
[sub]Indeed, it also seems like some folks take the whole thing way too seriously. But that’s true of, well, pretty much everything. We’ve all got our passionate topics.[/sub]
I think it’s funny that you are so resistant to the idea that someone could beat Contra on one life. And yes, that is one life, not one continue, etc. If I recall correctly you would end the game with 6 or 7 lives, but I haven’t played the game since I was about 15.
I think you should dig the game up and give it another try. It really wasn’t that hard, I beat the game without cheat codes within a couple of hours of renting it, and it wasn’t long after that I had memorized the levels and could get through them all without getting hit. Seriously, if you can’t avoid getting hit with little round bullets that go about 30 MPH with the ability to jump 20 feet in the air or drop prone instantly, you aren’t that good at video games. Lord knows I’m not (currently struggling with Hitman 2).
