什么是“Game Genie”作弊裝置，它是如何工作的？

First released in 1991, the Game Genie let players enter special codes that made video games easier or unlocked other functions. Nintendo didn't like it, but many gamers loved it. Here's what made it special.
Game Genie 于 1991 年首次發布，允許玩家輸入特殊代碼，使視頻游戲更輕松或解鎖其他功能。任天堂不喜歡它，但許多游戲玩家喜歡它。這就是它的特別之處。

Genie in a Bottle 瓶中精靈

Game Genie is the brand name for a series of video game enhancement devices developed by Codemasters and sold by Galoob in the U.S. The first Game Genie model worked with the 8-bit Nintendo Entertainment System and launched in the summer of 1991 for about $50. Game Genie devices for the Super NES, Game Boy, Sega Genesis, and Game Gear followed.
Game Genie 是由 Codemasters 開發并由 Galoob 在美國銷售的一系列視頻游戲增強設備的品牌名稱。第一款 Game Genie 型號與 8 位任天堂娛樂系統配合使用，于 1991 年夏天推出，售價約 50 美元。隨后是 Super NES、Game Boy、Sega Genesis 和 Game Gear 的 Game Genie 設備。

Galoob

Like a genie of legend, the Game Genie made your wishes come true. To use one, you first plugged a game cartridge into the Game Genie unit and then plugged both devices into your console. Upon powering up, you saw a screen where you could enter a series of alphanumeric codes. These codes injected data between the game cartridge and the system, changing how the game worked and effectively reprogramming it on the fly in a minor way.
就像傳說中的精靈一樣，Game Genie 讓您的愿望成真。要使用一個，您首先將游戲卡帶插入 Game Genie 單元，然后將兩個設備都插入控制臺。通電后，您會看到一個屏幕，您可以在其中輸入一系列字母數字代碼。這些代碼在游戲卡帶和系統之間注入數據，改變了游戲的運作方式，并以微小的方式有效地對其進行動態重新編程。

Galoob

Using those codes, you could add amazing new features to games (such as invincibility or the ability to fly), or simply make them easier to play. Each Game Genie model shipped with a booklet full of codes for popular games, and Galoob published updates over time in magazine ads and on paper fliers that were free to take at retail stores.
使用這些代碼，您可以為游戲添加令人驚嘆的新功能（例如無敵或飛行能力），或者只是讓它們更容易玩。每個 Game Genie 模型都附帶一本裝滿流行游戲代碼的小冊子，Galoob 在雜志廣告和紙質傳單上發布了隨著時間的推移的更新，這些傳單可以在零售店免費購買。

Galoob

The Gift That Kept on Giving
不斷給予的禮物

Video games were fairly expensive in 1991, with the average NES game retailing for around $30-$50 in the U.S., which is about $60-100 today when adjusted for inflation. Many gamers only bought (or received) a few games a year. If you spent that kind of money on a very difficult game, it often felt like a ripoff if you couldn't play through most of it.
電子游戲在 1991 年相當昂貴，美國 NES 游戲的平均零售價約為 30-50 美元，如果經通貨膨脹調整，今天的零售價約為 60-100 美元。許多游戲玩家一年只購買（或收到）幾款游戲。如果你把那種錢花在一個非常困難的游戲上，如果你不能玩完大部分游戲，通常會感覺像是敲詐。

At the time, most new games were very difficult (by modern standards), with many borrowing the gameplay philosophy of arcade games designed to extract endless quarters. Players who didn't want to sink endless time into mastering a game often relied on cheat codes to access later levels that they might not get to see otherwise.
當時，大多數新游戲都非常困難（按照現代標準），許多游戲借用了街機游戲的游戲理念，旨在提取無盡的四分之一。不想花費無休止的時間來掌握游戲的玩家通常依靠作弊碼來訪問他們可能無法看到的更高級別。

In that environment, Game Genie felt like an unlimited fountain of cheat codes in a box. Using the Game Genie, you could give your in-game character the power to get past tougher parts of a game or simply warp automatically to later stages. This gave your older games new value, making them fun to play---even if you had previously completed them without cheating. It was like a gift that kept on giving.
在那種環境中，Game Genie 感覺就像一個盒子里無限的作弊碼噴泉。使用 Game Genie，您可以賦予游戲內角色通過游戲中較難部分的能力，或者簡單地自動傳送到后期階段。這為您的舊游戲賦予了新的價值，使它們玩起來很有趣---即使您之前在沒有作弊的情況下完成了它們。這就像一份不斷給予的禮物。

But the Game Genie wasn't seen as a gift by everyone. Just like today, there was a group of players who played competitively for high scores, and some of them looked down upon the Game Genie as a cheating device. Nintendo may have feared as much, too, since it ran contests in Nintendo Power magazine based on player-submitted high scores.
但 Game Genie 并不是每個人都認為是禮物。就像今天一樣，有一群玩家為了高分而競爭性游戲，他們中的一些人看不起 Game Genie 作為作弊工具。任天堂可能也同樣擔心，因為它根據玩家提交的高分在 Nintendo Power 雜志上舉辦比賽。

"I think there is some truth to [the idea that Nintendo feared] it would de-value the games if you could cheat to the ending easily," says Frank Cifaldi, Founder and Co-Director of the Video Game History Foundation.
“我認為 [任天堂擔心] 如果你能輕易地欺騙到結局，它會使游戲貶值，這是有一定道理的，”視頻游戲歷史基金會創始人兼聯合主任 Frank Cifaldi 說。

But in-game cheating wasn't the only controversy surrounding the Game Genie. The product itself felt like a cheat to Nintendo, which sought legal remedy in court.
但游戲中的作弊并不是圍繞 Game Genie 的唯一爭議。該產品本身感覺就像是對任天堂的欺騙，任天堂在法庭上尋求法律補救。

Trouble With Nintendo
任天堂的麻煩

Galoob originally intended to launch the Game Genie in the summer of 1990, but Nintendo got wind of it first and took Galoob to court on copyright infringement charges, claiming that the Game Genie made unauthorized derivative works of its games.
Galoob 最初打算在 1990 年夏天推出 Game Genie，但任天堂首先得到了風聲，并以侵犯版權的指控將 Galoob 告上法庭，聲稱 Game Genie 制作了其游戲的未經授權的衍生作品。

Perhaps more irritating for Nintendo was the fact that the Game Genie was an unlicensed device, unapproved by Nintendo, and Galoob intended to do an end-run around Nintendo's strict NES licensing scheme.
也許更讓任天堂惱火的是，Game Genie 是一款未經許可的設備，未經任天堂批準，而 Galoob 打算繞過任天堂嚴格的 NES 許可計劃進行最終運行。

Galoob

Nintendo managed to get a court order to stop Galoob from marketing the Game Genie for about a year, until a U.S. district court in San Francisco issued a ruling in Galoob's favor. (It ruled that in fact, the Game Genie did not create derivative works.) The NES Game Genie finally entered the market in the summer of 1991, and it sold well enough to inspire similar products for other consoles such as the Super NES, Genesis, Game Boy, and Game Gear. The Game Genie never became a licensed device for Nintendo consoles, but it did gain approval from Sega for its consoles.
任天堂設法獲得了一項法院命令，阻止 Galoob 在大約一年內營銷 Game Genie，直到舊金山的美國地方法院做出了對 Galoob 有利的裁決。（它裁定，事實上，Game Genie 并沒有創造衍生作品。NES Game Genie 終于在 1991 年夏天進入市場，它的銷量足以激發 Super NES、Genesis、Game Boy 和 Game Gear 等其他游戲機的類似產品。Game Genie 從未成為任天堂游戲機的許可設備，但它確實獲得了世嘉對其游戲機的批準。

Codes Galore 代碼豐富

Some of the best fun you could have with a Game Genie back in the day was in trying to come up with your own codes for your games. If you were persistent enough, you could find ways to modify your games in bizarre and amusing new ways---such as making Mario "ice skate" everywhere or use a fire flower while still staying small in Super Mario Bros.
過去，使用 Game Genie 可以獲得的一些最大樂趣是嘗試為您的游戲想出自己的代碼。如果你足夠堅持，你可以找到以奇異而有趣的新方式修改游戲的方法---例如讓馬里奧到處都是“溜冰鞋”或使用火花，同時在超級馬里奧兄弟中仍然保持小規模。

Benj Edwards / Vintagecomputing.com

In the mid-to-late 1990s, players began sharing their own homebrew game codes online, and even today you can still find websites like GameGenie.com that list thousands of Game Genie codes.
在 1990 年代中后期，玩家開始在線分享他們自己的自制游戲代碼，即使在今天，您仍然可以找到像 GameGenie.com 這樣列出數千個 Game Genie 代碼的網站。

Ultimately, Galoob never released Game Genies for consoles past the 16-bit era, but in later years, devices like the Pro Action Replay and the GameShark picked up where the Game Genie left off, allowing players with newer consoles to keep squeezing new life out of their existing games.
最終，Galoob 從未為 16 位時代的游戲機發布 Game Genies，但在后來的幾年里，Pro Action Replay 和 GameShark 等設備從 Game Genie 停止的地方開始，允許擁有較新游戲機的玩家不斷從他們現有的游戲中榨取新的生命。

Today, most games are much easier and more forgiving than they were back in the Game Genie era, so the need for cheat codes isn't quite as pressing. But the Game Genie paved the way in putting more power into players' hands.
今天，大多數游戲都比 Game Genie 時代更容易、更寬容，因此對作弊碼的需求并不那么迫切。但 Game Genie 為將更多權力交到玩家手中鋪平了道路。