Highlights
- Discovering cheat codes in an old game manual is like finding a time capsule from gaming's past.
- Nostalgia hits hard for gamers who remember printing out cheats and walkthroughs for games.
- Valve's impact on the gaming industry has been immense, but some players miss the old school cheat code days.
A gamer has found something of a time capsule in a Half-Life PS2 game box in the form of a cheat sheet. The list dates back to a time in gaming history when players relied on the internet to find built-in cheats for titles, long before controversial game microtransactions came into the picture.
Half-Life, Valve's first game, was first released on PC and came to the PS2 a couple years later. While the PC has been the system of choice for Valve, especially with its Steam game distribution platform, the title performed fairly well on PS2, and likely helped to pave the way for future console launches like that of The Orange Box.
Half-Life: Best Weapons, Ranked
Once you grab these weapons, clearing out Black Mesa and Xen will be a whole lot fairer and more gratifying.
Half-Life launched way back in 1999, and a gamer going by the name of sworedmagic checked the box of a PS2 copy they recently acquired. Inside the manual was a print-out taken from a cheat website with a list of cheats for Half-Life. Things like invisibility, invincibility, and unlimited ammo are fairly common examples, though Half-Life also featured more unique cheat codes, like Alien mode, Xen gravity, and Slow motion. The nostalgic print-out includes a banner ad from the cheat website, and a list of popular game releases from the era available for sale in another banner ad from Amazon.
Those who were gaming during this era have been struck with overwhelming nostalgia looking at the printout. Several have shared their stories of printing out cheats and walkthroughs for all kinds of games and keeping physical copies of them. Others discussed their favorite go-to sites for cheats and walkthroughs. Although the date isn't printed on the cheat list, judging from the games advertised on it this was printed out no earlier than 2002, a year after Half-Life released for the PlayStation 2. The cheat code list is in surprisingly good condition given its age.
Where Gaming Went From Here
Valve went on to become a major powerhouse in the game industry, releasing smash hits like Half-Life 2, Portal, and Left 4 Dead, among others. Those who now get their games downloaded in mere minutes from services like Steam may be baffled by the idea of using a printout for cheats, but accessing the internet at all was a much more complicated a process when this sheet was created.
Since then, the way games work has changed, for better or worse. Many games now have microtransactions or special editions with the equivalent of cheats, rather than pre-programmed codes to use for free. Cosmetics are often walled behind real-world purchases when they used to be inherently unlockable, and any questions a fan may have is just a quick search away on a phone or tablet. Accessing games and getting help for them has become much easier in modern times, but some gamers still miss the days when relying on a print-out, strategy guide, or word of mouth were the best ways to get answers and progress.
