Video games can be frustrating. Really frustrating. I'll never forget the time that, disputing the call made against my attempt to steal 2nd base in Super Bases Loaded 2, I threw the cartridge clear across the room (in my defense, I think I was nine). Anyway, they sometimes seemed designed to be impossible, thus making you play again and again - this is particularly prevalent in arcade games.
For video games, this could be really problematic - you get three or four levels into a game, no sweat, but then BAM, you get stuck on one section and can never break through. Fortunately for kids like me, Nintendo developed a product that allowed you to enter cheat-codes into a game that came with a specified cheat (infinite weapons, lives, continues, etc). So, off of
Pocket Trivia: 80s Trivia - What was the name of the Nintendo product that allowed you to enter cheat codes for any game? Was it:
- Game Destroyer
- Game Shark
- Game Wizard
- Game Genie
The answer to this one is the Game Genie. Here's how it worked: you'd plug in your game to the Game Genie, then plus that into the NES. This menu would come up (I always wondered why they selected the letters that they did...seemed sorta random, though I'm sure there was a programming reason), and you would plug in the codes you wanted (up to three in the NES, and all from a guide book that came with the game). Over five million of these units were sold worldwide.
I still remember that it was only thanks to the Game Genie that I finally beat Super Mario Brothers three (though the code I entered had a bug and froze just as I beat Bowser...I think it was the code that always gave you the Hammer Suit).
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