Why password saves are still awesome...

[backguard]

After a long bout of playing Metal Gear on my DS (yes via emulation) --- it hit me you can take your password and continue your game on your NES!

Seriously --- it is cool to be able to play a game on the go and then to come home and pick up right where you left off on a bigger screen!

[miaandjohnrule]

If you manage to write it down correctly and then enter it correctly. That was always my problem.

[cyberfluxor]

These saving options are nice for certain types of games, sometimes it can be annoying though. For example, a game that you have 20 lives and on level 9, enter the pass and now you have 3 lives and level 9 with no upgrades.

One thing I'd be interested in is if an 8-character hex code were requested and computed into some fractals and unpacked into some game state. This way there could be lots of codes that give unwanted effects but some that would make you a God. Unfortunately older game systems would have long load times.

[c0ldb33r]

Yeah thats why I like password saves as well. Want to play punchout on the wii VC then continue it on your NES with the NES advantage? No problem. Want to play Mega Man 3 on xbox's mega man collection then continue on the nes? no problem.

Actually, I don't have any physical mega man carts or punchout but still, its a great idea :)

[Cinder6]

Well, Metal Gear's password system isn't bad. Metroid's, however, is. So are countless other games. One of the most annoying, though, is Faxanadu's: it's a whole long string of crap, with no spacing :)

I agree, though, passwords do have some cool advantages.

[Sudo]

I've always hated passwords, and still do even with the slight advantages they may have such as the one you mentioned. Save states > passwords. ;)

[SpyHunter]

Wih password saves, you don't have to worry about batteries dying and losing everything.

[Zing]

The best thing about passwords is being able to find them online and cheat. :p

Even better are the ones that everyone had memorized (007 373 5963, JUSTIN BAILEY, etc).

[Trevelyan]

I'm quite fond of them, but then I totally agree with the AVGN. They can go a bit to far...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-6WakV0kWM 1:16

[LucidDefender]

Some games do passwords right, like Rescue passwords on Shiren the Wanderer for DS, if you don't want to use WFC. The passwords do not contain any characters that are remotely similar to any other ones. Some games have both O and 0 in passwords, which is ridiculous.

[Porksta]

I always like old Game Boy games that used passwords. I could just look in the manual where there was a screenshot of the password screen and usually there was a password put in that I could just copy.

[Cloud121]

Wih password saves, you don't have to worry about batteries dying and losing everything.
Seconded.

[Wraith Storm]

One thing that I really liked about the Turbo Grafx was that lots of games allowed you to save to the system battery backup or use a password.

So when my Turbo Duo broke I wrote down my password for Ys I and II and once I got my hands on another Duo, I typed in the password and then saved my game to the Duo's battery backup. So I started my game where I left off, and don't have to type the password in again.

Speaking of typing in passwords, OMFG!!!! Ys I and II has the most pain in the @$$ password system. It has too many characters and is WAY to long. But I guess that's the price you pay to retain all your stats, items, etc.

Here it is. This is my game save at the end of Ys I. Adol is on the 25th floor of Darm Tower.

1e1QJ/UQ9XMKK/KLdf??3
3VbOe/#?E7*BB/VM3M3M3
cm2N2/N2N2N2N/2N2N1O1
Oyq

And yes, its case sensitive.

[Wraith Storm]

Come to think of it... It would be kind of cool to start a password thread.

Not necessarily for cheating purposes, but it would be interesting if people would post a little story along with their password. Like about their experiance with the game or how they thought the boss was impossible, but then found his weak spot and beat him. Then they hop on here and tell us about it and post the password for the same level so we can try it out.

I think it would be really neat!
What do you all think?

[guitargary75]

The one for river city ransom sucks.

[James8BitStar]

If you manage to write it down correctly and then enter it correctly. That was always my problem.

Sometimes its just that the game is borked. I had instances where I PHOTOGRAPHED the password screen so there would be NO MISTAKE, but somehow, there was still a mistake.

[Porksta]

You know what was a pain in the ass? Transferring your Golden Sun data into Golden Sun II. Now THAT was a bitch.

[Cinder6]

Another neat thing is making up your own passwords. You can do some cool stuff with that.