Genesis Game Genie Switch Question

[Rick Dangerous]

How does the switch work? I know the idea is so that you can turn off the codes to progress in a game, but does the game genie work for starters with it up or down, or does it have to start in the up position? When is the green light supposed to come on?

 

Thanks for any tips. Played Outrun the other night and it worked great and then played Streets of Rage and my infinite continues didn't work at all so trying to figure this out.

Edited February 5, 2015 by travistouchdown

[Torr]

Green Light means the Game Genie is ON and codes are active

I can't say for sure, but I'd think you should have it turned ON during game boot-up. That's just my logical reasoning, I have no proof backing that claim.

 

Regarding the switch, as you mentioned it can be handy if you have "painted yourself into a corner" and have to die, but have invicibility or something similar enabled, it helps you get yourself unstuck.

However, if I'm not mistaken, some games will glitch/freeze/etc if you switch the Game Genie off during play. I can't confirm this at the moment but I seem to remember reading that as a warning regarding certain games/codes in gaming magazines back in the day that would print Game Genie codes.

Or even worse, if your pin connectors aren't the best, that is loose/dirty/etc, then the little nudge you give the cart when flipping the switch can be enough to break contact and freeze your game. This one I KNOW from experience.

 

In the case of Streets of Rage, I know many of Sega's own titles had multiple revisions with each requiring different Game Genie codes to get the same effect. Not sure if this is one of those cases, but it could be.

I doubt they were discouraging use of the Game Genie since they endorsed it, I'd say it's more along the lines of a little tweak of code here and there to fix issues/bugs with later releases affected how the Genie could interact the data it was trying to affect.

 

I always wondered why some games needed a Master Code. Why only some? and for those that did, why need it at all?

Edited February 5, 2015 by Torr

[Chilly Willy]

Games that change values in the rom normally require a master code that kills the checksum check. Most Genesis carts do a checksum to start (since it was part of Sega's sample init code) and show a red screen when the checksum fails. GG codes that change values from the rom make it fail the checksum. Also, a game might use the same ram location for different things at different times. For example, a location may be part of a decode buffer before for the intro animation, and then become the number of lives during the game itself. In those cases, you use the switch to keep the cheat off while the game starts, then while the game is running, you turn on the cheat.

Edited February 6, 2015 by Chilly Willy

[Rick Dangerous]

So is up on, or does the Game Genie remain on from boot and turn off when you flick the switch (no matter which position it starts in.)

[Rick Dangerous]

Okay, switch up, and its on, and the green light will be on.

 

Flip it down, light comes off, and codes shut off

 

Mystery solved