How do people discover cheat codes in games?
Cheat codes are programmed into some games by developers. As an example: Have you ever played International Super Star Soccer 64? Well this game had several codes that would unlock new teams, give the footballers giant heads and things like that. We are able to unlock these things by pressing a sequence of controller buttons at the "Press Start" screen.
But how are the cheat codes actually discovered by people who are not the game's developers? Do the developers leak them on purpose? Are they officially released? Or do 'hackers' find them while reverse engineering games?
Note that I'm not talking about Gameshark Codes - these directly edit memory addresses and thus aren't a 'cheat code' or sequence per se.
Maybe there is a secret society behind the uncovering of cheat codes and its leaking to us, merely humans?
Best Answer
Most cheat codes weren't discovered by the players per say. In the early days of gaming, the biggest source of cheat codes were actually from the gaming magazines as a way of enticing people to buy them.
For example:

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How did people find cheat codes in games?
Most cheat codes weren't discovered by the players per say. In the early days of gaming, the biggest source of cheat codes were actually from the gaming magazines as a way of enticing people to buy them.Where do cheat codes come from?
Cheat codes started when tech-savvy gamers in the early days of the home console market would modify the values of a game's code by overwriting its memory and adding in numerical values that altered the gameplay experience.Why do games put in cheat codes?
We've all entered cheat codes into games to unlock special modes, to obtain weapons, to give ourselves infinite ammo, or extra lives. The reason those cheat codes exist is that the developers knew their prospective players would want the option to play the game in those ways: to skip levels and open up options.Does every game have cheat codes?
Updated On March 26, 2022 by Ritwik Mitra: Cheat codes are a classic part of gaming that hasn't died out... even though the industry itself has tried its hardest to run this classic aspect of gaming to the ground. After all, most modern games don't feature cheats in any capacity, which is a shame.How To Code a Hack For ANY Game! C# - Game Hacking #1
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Answer 2
Cheat Codes basically whenever implemented in the code by the developer were never discovered until they either appear on a Cheat Code database like the
http://www.cheatbook.de
I remember using this as a child. It had a dedicated application for each year which would contain the cheat codes of the games for that year and the year before.
Also, Magazines were a big yet incomplete source, the only reason being so that people would buy gaming magazines.
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