I Loved You Game Genie

Game Genies were addons for various gaming systems that allowed you to modify game data, behavior, and of course cheat. It was a fantastic and often court contested addon that added legs to some of the most boring games. You would plug your cartridge into the Genie and then plug it into your system. Then you could enter “codes” that would modify the game’s behavior.

The Game Genie came with a booklet with some of these codes, but you quickly ran through them and were forced to experiment or buy booklets with new codes. This was the pre-internet era so I had to look for magazine advertisements, play around, and exchange them with other console owners. Eventually, I had a notebook full of working codes.

Like most kids, I couldn’t do my homework, but when it came to the Game Genie I was like a scientist trying to crack the Enigma code. Another problem I had was specific to the NES. Getting the game in and working could be a problem because the system was front loading.

Now on to the goodies.

I love this print ad from 1991. It dangles the promise of allowing your game character to MOONWALK. Moonwalk baby! You have not lived until you seen Mario moonwalk his way to King Koopa.

There are many Game Genie Commercials out there but some of my favorites are:

Sega Boys of the World Unite!

Low Budget Commercial for Sega (with Lightning Effects and Gravely Voiced Announcer)

If you search YouTube you can find dozens of gameplay videos to see some of the GG’s effects. Most of them are lame, but if you owned a Game Genie they might bring a spark of happiness to your cold dead soul.