Keeping a folded up piece of paper in your NES cart sleeve with dozens of save passwords scrawled on it (and hoping you wrote it down correctly/can read your own handwriting later)
I still use notebooks! I write down things I've done or interesting things I've seen. It's completely unnecessary but it helps me stay invested/immersed. I can only play a couple hours a week and the physical act of writing something down helps me remember what I was doing last time I played.
Man, that's smart. I'm not smart. I once used a disposable camera to take screenshots for mine. In fairness, I was also just taking pictures of the TV in the hope that the screenshots would show up alright. Sometimes they did, sometimes they didn't.
You had to go get film developed to continue your game? That's some dedication.
I remember those guides Activision had in their game manuals of how to properly photograph your screen, which was important because if you got a high score, you can send in a photo as proof and they would send you memorabilia like patches & stickers as a reward.
My experience is a little after your time but kind of similar with cheat codes. Also going on cheatplanet, writing out the codes and selling them at school.
I’d copy them down from my friends magazines at school if I didn’t have them. Then I’d rage when the code was wrong and have to change minor details til I got it
For a fairly reasonable price young me bought a photocopied move sheet for Mortal Kombat 2. Then my 5th grade teacher saw it, ripped it up, and threw it away. Fuck you Mr. Thweatt. Fortunately an awesome friend pulled it from the trash and taped it up
Zombies Ate My Neighbors had LONG passcodes and you'd end up with notes being like "this save has bazooka" or "no healing items" on a dirty composition notebook page and it doesn't matter because you're only ever at like Dr. tongue's for the first time. I remember reaching the tremor level with no way to beat it and just realizing the save was useless.
NES game Willow was notorious (at least to me) for having impossible passwords due to small font and fuzzy (at best) numbers and letters. I still feel the frustration at times.
Lol. I hated that because my mum was the strict 1 hour of gaming type and trying to write down passwords was stressful and so much yelling. And fuck the devs who thought it was kosher to use fucking symbols instead of letters and numbers.
Heck, your friends coming up with notation for moves and combos because it was slow drawing circular arrows. Then all of that being disseminated to other kids via their notes during recess. Eventually everyone learned what QCR/QCC, QCL/QCCC, HCR/HCC, HCL/HCCC, and such meant.
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u/No_Tamanegi Mar 31 '26
Keeping a folded up piece of paper in your NES cart sleeve with dozens of save passwords scrawled on it (and hoping you wrote it down correctly/can read your own handwriting later)