How did YOU keep track of your cheats/codes back in the day?

[Compute]

While trying to get back to sleep I remembered once tasking myself with "organizing" my passwords, cheat codes, Game Genie, etc. Nowadays we have the Internet, which means we can just go to gamefags any time we want and find every code ever. I got sick of going through EVERY video game magazine I had, knowing I had a code for this or that, so here are a few schemes I used, "before the internet" :

Genesis
I *did* have access to a typewriter and index cards. To this day when I think of corrective ribbon I picture my code-card for Flashback with most of the characters corrected or entire sections moved (consistent formatting). These cards would have anything that would make a game not impossible. Level codes, Game Genie, whatever.

Playstation
Since I didn't own any Playstation games, it was necessary to come up with something else. A cheap alphabetical file folder worked perfect. I tasked myself with going through..um.. I think it was an EGM annual buying guide that happened to have damn near every useful-to-me Playstation cheat listed in the back section. Every game I liked or though I may enjoy more went into this file. This worked out perfect when I did have internet access, as I was able to just print from a website onto letter size paper.

PC
UHS, the Universal Hint System. A basic database system where you would download a decoder program, for which you would get files for specific games. This wasn't a patch program, just a hint database.

What have you used to keep track of your hints and codes?

[Atarileaf]

I think most people used their manuals. I'd say at least half the time I find used games with manuals in the wild, there are hand written passwords in them. I used to just use scraps of paper and throw them all in a box for later use. It certainly wasn't pretty but I hated writing in my manuals and I couldn't be bothered typing them up.

[starchildskiss78]

I used good old pen and paper myself. Whenever I would rent a game, my friend (or cousin) would stop by the CVS on the way home from the video rental store and check out their magazine section to see if any codes existed for the game we rented. We would always have some paper and a pen to write down the codes.

Now that we have the internet, it is just easier to look up the codes. I will still write down the codes I need on a piece of paper so I can shut down the computer or let my girlfriend have access to it. I was using the VG Rebirth website for a while to print out pages for each game with codes (mostly Game Genie or Game Shark) on the back of each page. I haven't done that in a while since it takes up ink pretty quickly!

[Collector_Gaming]

back in the old days before i had a computer and internet
i would write them down. Most famous game for me to do this was "PUNCH OUT!" which you'd scramble to write down the code after doc and mac did their lil work out run out by NYC
http://www.dailygame.net/images/misc/columns/lbonk/politics/LittleMacTraining.jpg

[Drixxel]

For awhile I maintained a notebook full of codes relevant to games I owned which I copied from Nintendo Power and GamePro and the like, but I was also always on the lookout for codebooks and other such video game strategy publications. I would usually just refer to those when I needed a hand. Passwords for progress usually went on assorted scraps of paper that I'd keep in a stack near the gaming TV.

[tpugmire]

I had 2 spiral notebooks, one for NES and one for SNES. Those were the only 2 systems I had as a kid. I wrote codes for all the games I owned, and the ones I frequently rented. I still have them around here somewhere...

[Push Upstairs]

I had a spiral notebook I wrote relevant Game Genie and game codes in.

[Ryaan1234]

http://i674.photobucket.com/albums/vv102/starman_vs_karn/S4024466.jpg
Like this.

That's not me btw... >_>

[kupomogli]

I've only written down passwords on sheets of paper and kept them in a box. Have never written down any codes.

[tom]

As a VCS player, you don't need any codes :-)

[Gentlegamer]

In the box for Castlevania II I found a folded sheet of notebook paper with my passwords from 20+ years ago.

[JohnnyBlaze]

I used game magazines. I'd get EGM, GamePro, and EGM2. I got my cheats from there, as well as Nintendo Power. It's still unreal that with the click of a mouse now, you can get cheats. It's made me lazy, lol.

[BeaglePuss]

While cleaning up some of my old things at my parents house, I stumbled across a pocket-sized notebook. It was filled mostly with scribbles/doodles, but about halfway through I found pay-dirt. Inside were dozens of Megaman 2/3 and Castlevania 3 passwords! It was so cool seeing them preserved just as they were when the games were in their heyday. I brought the notebook back to my condo, and if I get a chance I will snap off some nostalgia-engrossed pics.

[diskoboy]

As a VCS player, you don't need any codes :-)

This.

Or back in the NES days when I memorized a good bit of them. The only ones you couldn't memorize were the ones for Metroid and Kid Icarus - games that used those giant codes...

I can still recite the end code for Mike Tysons Punchout from memory, to this day (007 373 5963)

[Daria]

I clip out the cheat code and tuck it into the games case. I don't use too many cheats but games like golden sun or shining force had the codes for changing your character's names. I also had a notebook going for awhile that contained notes, maps, and passwords for Nes games.

[kainemaxwell]

Blank space in the manual. Also pen and papers folded up in the manual, game guide, or the Game Genie books.

[Buapo]

I can still recite the end code for Mike Tysons Punchout from memory, to this day (007 373 5963)

nthgthdgdcrtdtrk - that's the "god code" for Turok: Dinosaur Hunter on N64... from memory as well. Haha.

But when I was really young, I didn't really use codes. Many impossible games "stayed impossible" until many years later.

It wasn't until I got an SNES, and a Nintendo Power subscription that I started using them. I would write them down on a piece of scrap paper, then lose them, of course.

[Daria]

nthgthdgdcrtdtrk - that's the "god code" for Turok: Dinosaur Hunter on N64... from memory as well. Haha.

But when I was really young, I didn't really use codes. Many impossible games "stayed impossible" until many years later.

It wasn't until I got an SNES, and a Nintendo Power subscription that I started using them. I would write them down on a piece of scrap paper, then lose them, of course.

Up Down Left Right Hold A Start - Sonic

[JohnnyBlaze]

The ones I know by heart are:

The Konami Code (Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Start)

The Doom codes:

IDKFA - All keys, guns, and ammo
IDDQD - God Mode
IDCLIP - Walk through walls
IDMYPOS - Coordinates
IDCHOPPERS - Chainsaw

I played Doom often enough as a kid to remember them. I'll never forget HOW I learned them. Back before Columbine, in 1995, our school had a social worker who would take all the boys in my class to "Boys Group". He'd take us to his office and he had all these PC's with Doom, Doom 2, Wolfenstein 3D, The Simpsons, 4D Boxing, Rebel Assault, just to name a few. Anyway, he had the Doom codes written on the chalkboard in his office. It was AWESOME!

[retroman]

i would write them down on whatever was around, and try to keep them with the game..

[Xtincthed]

i had a small Timon & Pumba notebook which i used to write down the codes :D

the tattoo is awesome _0_

[bangtango]

I used to put all of my codes into those really tiny pocket sized spiral notebooks with pages about as big as a wallet sized photo (3" x 5" or 4" x 6").

I never liked the idea of writing cheat codes or passwords into the back of a game manual. As if.

Before using the notebook system, I used to just write all my codes into the back (empty) pages of my "Ultimate Unauthorized Nintendo Strategies" books I used to have. However, after losing the books a few times, having the pages fall out as the books became worn or forgetting which edition I had the code in (since there were 3-4 in the series), I gave up that idea.

[p_b]

Notebook. One page per game, codes, passwords and highscores on the same page.

Was quite useful, as other people could use it as well when they were playing at my place, and the highscores gave some extra competition.

So think of my notebook as a predecessor of Xbox Live Friends highscore lists :D

[pseudonym]

U, U, D, D, L, R, L, R, B, A, Start - Contra
U, A, B, Start - Solomon's Key
IDCLIP, IDKFA - Doom/Doom 2

I was deep into Chip's Challenge on the PC at one point and I have a notebook full of hand-drawn maps and notes about most of the levels in the game.

[diskoboy]

For games like Ultima 1 and 2, and Phantasy Star, it was all about graph paper... They were perfect for mapping the pseudo-3-D dungeon crawlers of the day.

There weren't any cheat codes to memorize, but without graph paper maps, finding your way out of multi-leveled dungeons would've been a nightmare.

[Daria]

For games like Ultima 1 and 2, and Phantasy Star, it was all about graph paper... They were perfect for mapping the pseudo-3-D dungeon crawlers of the day.

There weren't any cheat codes to memorize, but without graph paper maps, finding your way out of multi-leveled dungeons would've been a nightmare.

I was (am still) stubborn. I never draw maps, just blindly thrash around the dungeon till I get where I'm going.

[kupomogli]

For games like Ultima 1 and 2, and Phantasy Star, it was all about graph paper


I was (am still) stubborn. I never draw maps, just blindly thrash around the dungeon till I get where I'm going.

I've beaten Phantasy Star without making any sort of maps.

[Steve W]

I never sullied an instruction manual with codes and stuff. I usually wrote everything down on a piece of paper that I kept folded up with the manual. I don't know offhand where it is, but I've got the full map for Midnight Mutants on the Atari 7800 drawn on it (including the underground tunnels, lots of trial and error for that) with assorted high scores and the corresponding dates also scribbled on it.

For a while back in the early '90s, I was typing cheat codes into my TI-99/4A computer and printing a compendium out for all my games. That became a bit of a pain after a while, and by the late '90s the internet had matured enough to where I could find all these things without having to search through storage boxes of old magazines for a single Lynx or TurboGrafx-16 code.

[matacoz]

Memorized.

Circle Square Circle Square Circle Circle Triangle Square.

The first Crash bandicoot, unlocks the first island.

[todesengel]

Before I got into collecting I used the little note pages in the manuals. Other than that I would put a little piece of paper in the case/box with the game.