The Game Genie is a series of cheat systems designed by Codemasters and sold by Camerica and Galoob for the Nintendo Entertainment System, Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Game Boy, Mega Drive/Genesis, and Sega Game Gear that modifies game data, allowing the player to cheat, manipulate various aspects of games, and sometimes view unused content and functions. It is known as the first example of consumer-friendly "game enhancement" by means of (temporarily) directly altering the binary code of a game. Although there are currently no Game Genie products on the market, over 5 million units have been sold worldwide, and most video game console emulators feature Game Genie support.

Emulators that have Game Genie support also allow a near unlimited amount of codes to be entered whereas the actual products have a much smaller limit that usually tops between 3 and 6 codes. The Action Replay, Code Breaker, and GameShark are similar hacking devices, some acting as a spiritual successor on later generation consoles, although they were created by entirely different companies. The Game Genie attaches to the end of a cartridge and is then inserted into the cartridge port of the console for which it was designed.

The loading mechanism of the NES makes the use of the NES Game Genie awkward, as game cartridges for the NES are inserted into the console, then depressed down into the console. The addition of the Game Genie causes the cartridge to protrude from the console when fully inserted, making the depression impossible. Therefore, the Game Genie was designed in such a way that it did not need to be depressed in order to start the game.

This design put even more stress on the ZIF socket than standard game insertion, bending pins and eventually causing units to be unplayable without the Game Genie present. The design of the Game Genie also made it very difficult to insert into a newer top-loading NES. An adaptor was made to deal with the problem, but few were requested; today they are hard to find since the stock was liquidated.

Similar to 0 things you like: