Crazy Octopus Codes

[Leanne Wittlin]

Ifyou grew up gaming in the '90s, the Game Genie line of cheat-enabling accessories will always have a certain mysticism to it. As long as you knew the correct string of letters and numbers to punch in, these peripherals let you hack into your cartridges and fiddle with the game's parameters, which gave youngsters a kind of godlike power to bend virtual reality to their will. Most of the codes have obvious benefits: invincibility, infinite lives, the ability to use items indefinitely. But some Game Genie codes are just... bizarre.

It's understandable that there'd be codes to make a given game more difficult for all the hardcore challenge-seekers, maybe by making the enemies take more hits to kill. Others seem needless, like a cheat for instant restarts in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde on NES (which you shouldn't be playing in the first place). But then there are the Game Genie codes that seem flat-out absurd, no matter how you slice 'em. I've scoured through the listings on GameGenie.com in search of the most peculiar-sounding cheats I could find, and I was not disappointed. Take a look at these laughably inexplicable cheat codes, and as a bonus, please enjoy the nostalgia bomb that's sure to detonate when you see all these 8- and 16-bit games again.

These orange piranhas might not look like much, but rest assured, they are absolutely annihilating Greendog's flesh with their razor-sharp teeth. The lanky 'surfer dude' has no mouth (or any facial features, for that matter), but he must scream.

Look at the murderous glint in this eight-armed predator's eye. Though I hate Ecco for being the most kid-friendly protagonist of any brutally sadistic game ever, even I wouldn't wish this kind of end on the poor dolphin. To cross this octopus' tentacles is to know death itself.

Lucas Sullivan is the former US Managing Editor of GamesRadar+. Lucas spent seven years working for GR, starting as an Associate Editor in 2012 before climbing the ranks. He left us in 2019 to pursue a career path on the other side of the fence, joining 2K Games as a Global Content Manager. Lucas doesn't get to write about games like Borderlands and Mafia anymore, but he does get to help make and market them. "}), " -0-10/js/authorBio.js"); } else console.error('%c FTE ','background: #9306F9; color: #ffffff','no lazy slice hydration function available'); Lucas SullivanSocial Links NavigationLucas Sullivan is the former US Managing Editor of GamesRadar+. Lucas spent seven years working for GR, starting as an Associate Editor in 2012 before climbing the ranks. He left us in 2019 to pursue a career path on the other side of the fence, joining 2K Games as a Global Content Manager. Lucas doesn't get to write about games like Borderlands and Mafia anymore, but he does get to help make and market them.

I just started work on a project that has been previously maintained by a buddy of mine (consultant who's been with us for 3+ years) to add some features. I got into the code, and the quality was really quite poor. Whether it was on the UI frontend or the services backend, the code simply wasn't indented, there were hundreds of lines commented out for no apparent reason, documentation was basically non-existent, coding standards weren't applied consistently (e.g. mixing camelCase and under_scored_variables), variable names were unintelligible, datatype choices were wrong, etc. etc.

I'm very much a non-confrontational person, so I don't want to attack my coworker, but I also don't just wanto to go to my boss and complain about his performance. What are the kinds of things I could say to politely mention that the code is poorly structured?

I want to clarify that while I understand there is an element of "Everyone else's code sucks" to all programmers, when I see something like this (names are chosen on purpose and some details left out/changed in this example):

I think it's objectively fair to say that this is not a good idea. Furthermore, I'm not dealing with a newbie here (I'm only coding 3 years now). He's got maybe 20 years of experience on me. The advice you guys have given so far is great; just wanna make sure that we're not talking about a "fine line" here.

Tell him you've never seen X programmed that way before, and ask him why he codes it that way. Show him the way you code it, and tell why you do it that way (best practices, better performance, less chance of errors, easier for other programmers to read/maintain, etc).

This is the exact same answer I gave for the question How to tell your boss that his programming style is really bad?. I originally voted to close this question as a duplicate, however enough people thought it was different enough to warrent re-opening it. My answer is still the same though, regardless of if you're talking to a boss or a co-worker.

What if instead of approaching him personally, you approach the team and in a completely neutral way propose on "team" coming up with a coding standard/guidelines as a way for different team members to work more efficiently with each other's code.

Peer code reviews also help in this area. Coding standards don't have much benefit if no one ever looks at the code. But peer code reviews have many other benefits, primary one knowledge transfer, so you should push to introduce them in either case.

Your co-worker is probably not the root cause of the problem in your company. The reason that poor quality code gets into production is the lack of automatically measurable coding standards in your company. In this case, sunlight is the best medicine.

You should talk to your technical lead about implementing automated source code quality metrics in your group. The system should run at least weekly, e-mail everyone on the team a file-by-file list of coding standard violations, and send an executive summary to your boss. The summary should contain the number of violations per project.

...the code simply wasn't indented, there were hundreds of lines commented out for no apparent reason, documentation was basically non-existent, coding standards weren't applied consistently (e.g. mixing camelCase and under_scored_variables), variable names were unintelligible, datatype choices were wrong...

12. Specifications are for the weak and timid!

11. This machine is a piece of GAGH! I need dual Pentium processors if I am to do battle with this code!

10. You cannot really appreciate Dilbert unless you've read it in the original Klingon.

9. Indentation?! - I will show you how to indent when I indent your skull!

8. What is this talk of 'release'? Klingons do not make software 'releases.' Our software 'escapes,' leaving a bloody trail of designers and quality assurance people in its wake.

7. Klingon function calls do not have 'parameters' - they have 'arguments' - and they ALWAYS WIN THEM.

6. Debugging? Klingons do not debug. Our software does not coddle the weak.

5. I have challenged the entire quality assurance team to a Bat-Leth contest. They will not concern us again.

4. A TRUE Klingon Warrior does not comment his code!

3. By filing this PTR you have challenged the honor of my family. Prepare to die!

2. You question the worthiness of my code? I should kill you where you stand!

1. Our users will know fear and cower before our software! Ship it! Ship it and let them flee like the dogs they are!

Third, maybe his code really does suck but is it your job to badmouth previous developers? Unless you have built up a reputation that commands respect around the company I suspect if you do whine about the other person's code it is you that will end up looking bad and not your friend. The time for giving people grief about their code is when code reviews are held. At least then it is part of your job responsibilities.

I recommend that if you don't like his code then fix it to your liking. Then the next developer will come along and complain about your code and probably change it back to be more like what your friend did.

Get some background about what was going on within the company and the team when this project was written. Ask this dev for some feedback on how he thought the project went. Has his style changed? If given the opportunity, what would he do differently?

I'll admit it, I am sometimes that guy. When I am, I will have my reasons, usually time constraint, death-march projects, instructions such as "now, not perfect" etc. Very rarely, it's because of a bad day. I am happy to get asked about any issues, it gives me a chance to become a better developer. Provided a) You are reasonable about what will be changed (ain't that badly broke, agree to don't fix), and b) your not a nut job dictator who believes your way is the only way.

To approach me about it, do not ask "Why". Why is a fighting word, a challenge, and is ultimately destructive. If you find yourself using Why too much, change it to I. "Why did you call this x" becomes, "I would have used index, it's more descriptive than x."

The best way is to state what you would have done, or would have preferred. Explain that what you are seeing does not met certain standards, and that you would like to see it improved. My guess is that 99% of the time, the response will be "so would I, but........"

If you believe that the mess the code is in will have a severe detrimental effect on your performance while working on it, be sure to save a backup of the original code somewhere so that you can prove that it was a mess when it was delivered to you. So, if your employer confronts you later about your poor performance, you can cover your ass.

If your colleague, with 20+ years of programming behind him, is really, really open-minded, you can just go talk to him and point out specific examples, tell him why they looked wrong to you and discuss alternatives. Because he's really, really open-minded and keen to learn, he'll listen, a discussion will ensue, and he'll understand your points and you'll both live happily ever after.

In my experience, though, the colleague is most likely programming like that because he just doesn't care about style. It could be because he's really in the wrong job, or it could be because, in 20+ years of programming, he never found a reason to worry about it - maybe his code just works and he moves on.

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