The Konami code, cheats for Sims, glitches for Skyrim, etc. How did these get found out by their gaming communities?
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A lot of trial and error I’d imagine. Cheat codes, though, are probably revealed by the developers themselves.
As kids in the 70’s/80’s we learned tricks for coin op arcade games. Pre phones/pre internet these tricks were widely known and shared. I can still remember some. In Space Invaders if you fired 27 shots without hitting anything the ufo would appear and you scored 300. Each ufo from then on would be 300.
In Galaga if you let the last eagle thing roll through the screen a set number of times on level 1 and then shot it the aliens would not fire at you for the rest of the game.
There was one for space chaser where you could lock at 45 degrees in a corner and the chasers would go right through you.
In Donkey Kong you could complete levels by a precise jump off the screen.
All shared by word of mouth or watching people play for hours.
Here’s one that’s dated, but relevant. Does anyone remember the Pizza Hut PS1 demo discs? It came in a paper sleeve that was light blue with purple accent stripes. I remember it having Metal Gear Solid, Crash Bandicoot 3, and Tomb Raider 3 demos amongst others. I was playing Tomb Raider 3 and you start out in a jail cell of some sort. I couldn’t find a way out which ended in me randomly pushing all the controller buttons causing Lara and the camera to look like motion blur in a Michael Bay movie. This was done for at most 10 seconds. I stopped when I heard the swimming sound effect. Looking at the screen, I saw that Lara was floating in air. Her color palate had taken on a blue tint. I then was able to control her as she freely swam through the room. From what I remember, she could still take damage and the swimming stopped once you drew your weapons. I’d like to think that this was caused from the coding of the game and not just the demo. Who knows…
Overwhelmingly, this info was simply published in gaming magazines of the time. There was a huge secondary market for printed video game info and player’s guides that basically told you all of these things. Often times, the games themselves were packaged with guides that straight up told you the secrets.
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