{"id":431,"date":"2013-01-15T11:00:46","date_gmt":"2013-01-15T11:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/randomhoohaas.flyingomelette.com\/blog\/?p=431"},"modified":"2013-01-15T11:17:59","modified_gmt":"2013-01-15T11:17:59","slug":"onm-remembered-79","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/randomhoohaas.flyingomelette.com\/blog\/?p=431","title":{"rendered":"ONM Remembered – #79"},"content":{"rendered":"

“A SIMPLE CALL AND YOU’VE GOT THE CHEAT!”<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nfrom Official Nintendo Magazine issue 89 (February 2000)<\/p>\n

Although this scan is from a Nintendo mag, these Cheats Unlimited ads showed up in Official UK PlayStation Magazine, GamesMaster and just about every other game-related paper product at the time. Back in the day when if you wanted a walkthrough or a cheat, you had to actually telephone people! Or buy books! Or hear it from word of mouth!!!!<\/b><\/i><\/p>\n

I miss cheat codes. When was the last time a big-name title offered you an honest-to-goodness level select? Or the ability to give everyone massive noggins? I never thought I’d see the day when cheat codes disappeared, but I can’t remember the last time I could get unlimited ammo just by pausing and punching in an obtuse button combination! Never mind “messing with your intricate game design,” I think it’s really upsetting. I miss cheat codes.
\nI suppose their disappearance has to do with how games no longer treat themselves as plinky-plonk challenges, but as experiences<\/b>. You’re not just shooting these dudes in the face for something to do, you’re shooting them in the face to EMBRACE THIS RICH NARRATIVE<\/b>. I suppose daft ol’ cheats would spoil the atmos’. You’d never catch a film giving you the chance to debug mode into them and screw around with important events. I tell you, Bridge to Terebithia<\/i> would be a different film if you could just lock that girl in her room for a couple of hours. It’d be for her own good, man, there are better ways to cram a coming-of-age story down our throats!<\/p>\n

Also, man, I love how everything had to have a mascot back then. The Cheatmaster and the Cheatmistress!<\/b><\/i> I’m trying to remember if I considered these characters ‘cool’ when I saw them in the mags years and years ago. They just seem tailor-made to try and appeal to little dorks of the nineties – the sunglasses, the trench coat, the shirt with his name emblazoned it. These two totally did trench coats and spandex before The Matrix<\/i> made it cool.
\nThe Cheatmistress doesn’t exactly have much of a design, though. Tank top, spy pants and a nerf gun. Easiest cosplay ever. I’m disappointed her name isn’t printed on the gun, though. Also, jeez, I never noticed how freaky her face is before. It’s like her eyes and her lips are in a desperate battle to consume her entire head. I bet underneath his glasses the Cheatmaster has the same ludicrous faux-anime eyes.<\/p>\n

Food for thought: <\/b>With mascots this bodacious, do you think kids were too embarrassed to phone up? I mean, you wouldn’t want a cool dude like that to know you were stuck on level 3 of Pocahantas<\/i>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“A SIMPLE CALL AND YOU’VE GOT THE CHEAT!” from Official Nintendo Magazine issue 89 (February 2000)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[33,37],"class_list":["post-431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-onm-remembered","tag-ad","tag-onm"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/randomhoohaas.flyingomelette.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/randomhoohaas.flyingomelette.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/randomhoohaas.flyingomelette.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/randomhoohaas.flyingomelette.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/randomhoohaas.flyingomelette.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=431"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/randomhoohaas.flyingomelette.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/randomhoohaas.flyingomelette.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/randomhoohaas.flyingomelette.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/randomhoohaas.flyingomelette.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}