remember when we used to rush to the videogame stores on the weekends to pick up magaizines with the cheates for the latest games, or ask kids in school who might know it.. like the cheat in sonic 2 when you go to the music options and play sounds 19, 65, 9, 17, didnt that feel cool getting all those levels XD
i really miss the cheats in games, they made things more interesting, and you wont stop playing a game you didnt like or found hard, you'd just cheat through it. looking for the cheats was part of the fun too. now magazines dont help with that. i also remember the last walkthrough book i got was for final fantasy 8, just so i can collect all the cards, getting laguna's card was the hardest but was so fun.
who else misses cheats? up down down triangle X down right left 
they were always a blast. espacially the cheasts that changed the character's clothes or appearance.
Not going to lie. I miss being able to own my friends by preforming hidden wresting moves on 'WWF War Zone!' or unlocking cliches and hidden rooms in the original 'WWF SmackDown!' series.
[sigh] Dems was the days.
I miss the zanyness that cheats could bring. Such as low gravity mode in racing games, or that rally game (the original Colin Macrae?) with the car made of green jelly that wobbled when you went over a jump. Some of the greatest times me and my friend had on old games was playing two player with these daft cheats on.
Gaming has become far too serious nowadays. It's all about action and intensity, all about spectacle and adrenaline, and in all this most games nowadays have forgotten the basic, bottom line element that all games need to survive - fun. Some games make a valiant effort at it, like CodeMasters game Race Driver GRID with it's 'repulsor field' bonus code (which amplifies any small scrape your car makes with AI drivers hundreds of times over), but these are a poor cry compared to some of the classics and few and far between. I'd happily take a game with a graphical and speed downgrade if they put some of these elements back in. That's not to say intense games aren't good in their own way, but there's only so much intensity you can take before needing a break from the action to recover.
I think of all the games I've played of late, the only one that's really managed to capture that good old-fashioned 'fun' element anything like games of the past is Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket Powered Battle Cars, published by Psyonix (think football [soccer] but in cars that can jump, summersault, and even fly!).
