History
The original idea for CheatCodes.com was conceived in 1996, when the domain name was initially registered and a simple home page with a small amount of video game content was put in place. [1] At the time, site co-founder Steve Jenkins envisioned a more interactive video game cheat site that would allow visitors to customize their view of the content based on the specific games they owned. Jenkins was busy with other projects at the time, including managing WinFiles, a software download site he had started in 1995. After selling WinFiles to CNET in 1999, [2] Steve saw that the need for a "filtered" view of this type of content was still unmet, and decided to turn his primary focus to CheatCodes.com. [1]
In October 2000, Jenkins was joined by programmer Steve Cook and brother Harlyn Jenkins (who had worked with his brother managing content on WinFiles), and began to build the database infrastructure required to provide extended functionality for the site." [3]
The site was re-launched as a database-driven content site on August 5, 2001. The re-launch was covered in InfoWorld by contributing editor Brian Livingston, who wrote "A new e-business site will launch today with more than 198,000 subscribers already registered via e-mail. The story of how this was accomplished tells a lot about viral marketing on the Web. [4]
By 2002, CheatCodes.com' strategy of providing fresh content to a niche audience was paying off, and they were growing quickly. [5] To handle the extra bandwidth required, they moved hosts from their provider in Albuquerque, New Mexico to Digital Forest just outside Seattle, Washington.
In early 2005, Digital Forest informed their customers that they were expanding to a new and improved hosting facility, about 30 miles from their old facility, requiring another server move. [6]
On November 8, 2006, CheatCodes.com launched a major update of the site and termed it "Version 2." In addition to functionality updates, the site was completely re-designed to be XHTML compliant, and made full use of Cascading Style Sheets.
On September 23, 2008, the company registered United States Trademark #3,503,531 for the term "cheat code." [7]
The Konami Code, also commonly referred to as the Contra Code and sometimes the 30 Lives code, is a cheat code that appears in many Konami video games, as well as some non-Konami games. In the original code, the player has to press the following sequence of buttons on the game controller to enable a cheat or other effects:
The Wii is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America and in December 2006 for most other regions of the world. It is Nintendo's fifth major home game console, following the GameCube and is a seventh-generation console alongside Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3.
Action Replay is the brand name of a cheating device created by Datel. The Action Replay is available for many gaming systems including the Nintendo DS, Nintendo DSi, Nintendo 3DS, PlayStation Portable, PlayStation 2, GameCube, Game Boy Advance, and the Xbox. The name is derived from the first devices’ signature ability to pause the execution of the software and save the computer's state to disk or tape for future “replay”. The ability to manipulate the contents of memory in this paused state permitted the cheat functions for which the brand is now better known.
Voice chat is telecommunication via voice over IP (VoIP) technologies—especially when those technologies are used as intercoms among players in multiplayer online games. The VoIP functionality can be built into some games, be a system-wide communication system, or a third-party chat software.
Homebrew, when applied to video games, refers to software produced by hobbyists for proprietary video game consoles which are not intended to be user-programmable. The official documentation is often only available to licensed developers, and these systems may use storage formats that make distribution difficult, such as ROM cartridges or encrypted CD-ROMs. Many consoles have hardware restrictions to prevent unauthorized development.
Joystiq was a video gaming blog founded in June 2004 as part of the Weblogs, Inc. family of weblogs, now owned by AOL. It was AOL's primary video game blog, with sister blogs dealing with MMORPG gaming in general and the popular MMORPG World of Warcraft in particular.
The Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection is a defunct online multiplayer gaming service run by Nintendo to provide free online play in compatible Nintendo DS and Wii games. The service included the company's Wii Shop Channel and DSi Shop game download services. It also ran features for the Wii and Nintendo DS systems.
The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox series. It competed with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles. It was officially unveiled on MTV on May 12, 2005, with detailed launch and game information announced later that month at the 2005 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3).
Uno is a video game based on the card game of the same name. It has been released for a number of platforms. The Xbox 360 version by Carbonated Games and Microsoft Game Studios was released on May 9, 2006, as a digital download via Xbox Live Arcade. A version for iPhone OS and iPod devices was released in 2008 by Gameloft. Gameloft released the PlayStation 3 version on October 1, 2009, and also released a version for WiiWare, Nintendo DSi via DSiWare, and PlayStation Portable. An updated version developed by Ubisoft Chengdu and published by Ubisoft was released for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in August 2016, Microsoft Windows in December 2016 and for the Nintendo Switch in November 2017.
The 2000s was the fourth decade of the video game industry. It was a decade that was primarily dominated by Sony, Nintendo, newcomer Microsoft, and their respective systems. Sega, being Nintendo's main rival in the 1980s and 1990s, left the console market in 2002 in favor of returning to third-party development, as they once were. Overall the decade saw the last of the low resolution three-dimensional polygons of the 1990s with the emergence of high definition games, and often focused on developing immersive and interactive environments, implementing realistic physics, and improving artificial intelligence. The sixth and seventh generation of video game consoles went on sale, including the Dreamcast, PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS and PlayStation Portable. Notable games released in the 2000s included Half-Life 2, Wii Sports, Grand Theft Auto III, BioShock, The Sims, Metroid Prime, Burnout 3: Takedown,Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2, Resident Evil 4, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, Shadow of the Colossus,Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, LittleBigPlanet, The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind,World of Warcraft, Final Fantasy X, Perfect Dark, God of War, Left 4 Dead, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Counter-Strike, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time,Diablo II, Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion,Super Smash Bros. Melee, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Gears of War, Max Payne, Pokémon Diamond and Pearl,Super Mario Galaxy, Halo: Combat Evolved, Tony Hawk´s Pro Skater 3, Guitar Hero, Devil May Cry, Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy, Ratchet & Clank, Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus,Hitman: Blood Money, Grand Theft Auto IV, Halo 2, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, Fallout 3, Super Mario Sunshine, Rock Band, Beyond Good & Evil,Portal, Ico, Jet Set Radio, Silent Hill 2, Psychonauts, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves,Halo 3, and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.
The seventh generation of home video game consoles began on November 22, 2005, with the release of Microsoft's Xbox 360 home console. This was followed by the release of Sony's PlayStation 3 on November 17, 2006, and Nintendo's Wii on November 19, 2006. Each new console introduced new technologies. The Xbox 360 offered games rendered natively at high-definition video (HD) resolutions, the PlayStation 3 offered HD movie playback via a built-in 3D Blu-ray Disc player, and the Wii focused on integrating controllers with movement sensors as well as joysticks. Some Wii controllers could be moved about to control in-game actions, which enabled players to simulate real-world actions through movement during gameplay. By this generation, video game consoles had become an important part of the global IT infrastructure; it is estimated that video game consoles represented 25% of the world's general-purpose computational power in 2007.
The Wii system software is a discontinued set of updatable firmware versions and a software frontend on the Wii home video game console. Updates, which could be downloaded over the Internet or read from a game disc, allowed Nintendo to add additional features and software, as well as to patch security vulnerabilities used by users to load homebrew software. When a new update became available, Nintendo sent a message to the Wii Message Board of Internet-connected systems notifying them of the available update.
Hasbro Family Game Night is a series of video games that adapt board games manufactured by Hasbro.
A video game console emulator is a type of emulator that allows a computing device to emulate a video game console's hardware and play its games on the emulating platform. More often than not, emulators carry additional features that surpass limitations of the original hardware, such as broader controller compatibility, timescale control, easier access to memory modifications, and unlocking of gameplay features. Emulators are also a useful tool in the development process of homebrew demos and the creation of new games for older, discontinued, or rare consoles.
Platform exclusivity refers to the status of a video game being developed for and released only on certain platforms. Most commonly, it refers to only being released on a specific video game console or through a specific vendor's platforms—either permanently, or for a definite period of time.
The 2010s was the fifth decade in the industry's history. The decade was notable for producing the first truly "3D" games and consoles, introducing cloud gaming and virtual reality to consumers, and the rising influence of tablet-based and mobile casual games, including a boom in freemium titles. The industry remained heavily dominated by the actions of Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft. The eighth generation of video game consoles was released, including the Wii U, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo 3DS, and PlayStation Vita. Notable games released in the decade included Minecraft, Fortnite, PUBG: Battlegrounds,Grand Theft Auto V, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, The Last of Us, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, Red Dead Redemption, Marvel's Spider-Man, Dark Souls, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Batman: Arkham City, BioShock Infinite, Dishonored, Halo: Reach,Mass Effect 2, Disco Elysium, Undertale, Overwatch, Super Mario Odyssey, Red Dead Redemption 2, L.A. Noire,Bloodborne, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, Far Cry 3, Destiny, StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, The Walking Dead, Persona 5,Dragon Age: Inquisition, Portal 2, Diablo III, Horizon Zero Dawn, Journey, Shovel Knight, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, XCOM: Enemy Unknown, Super Mario Galaxy 2, Wolfenstein: The New Order, Death Stranding, Titanfall 2, Xenoblade Chronicles,Cuphead, and God of War.
The hacking of consumer electronics is an common practice that users perform to customize and modify their devices beyond what is typically possible. This activity has a long history, dating from the days of early computer, programming, and electronics hobbyists.
The Nintendo eShop is a digital distribution service for the Nintendo Switch, and formerly available via the Nintendo Network for the Wii U and Nintendo 3DS. The Nintendo eShop was first launched in June 2011 on the Nintendo 3DS via a system update that added the functionality to the HOME Menu. It is the successor to both the Wii Shop Channel and DSi Shop. Unlike on the Nintendo 3DS, the eShop was made available on the launch date of the Wii U, although a system update is required in order to access it. It is also a multitasking application, which means it is easily accessible even when a game is already running in the background through the system software, though this feature is exclusive to the Wii U and the Nintendo Switch. The Nintendo eShop features downloadable games, demos, applications, streaming videos, consumer rating feedback, and other information on upcoming game releases.
Online console gaming involves connecting a console to a network over the Internet for services. Through this connection, it provides users the ability to play games with other users online, in addition to other online services.
The Wii U operating system is the official firmware version and system software for the Nintendo's Wii U home video game console. Nintendo maintains the Wii U's systemwide features and applications by offering system software updates via the Internet. Updates are optional to each console owner, but may be required in order to retain interoperability with Nintendo's online services. Each update is cumulative, including all changes from previous updates.
