I've seen lots of documents (many from GGCCC) that explain how to make GG codes for NES, SNES, & GB. But I haven't seen too many for the Sega Genesis. So I thought I'd write one. Please don't pick it apart, I threw it together in about 10 minutes. Most of this information isn't in the Galoob code books.

I'm writing this to help people that want to make there own Game Genie codes for Sega Genesis, but don't know how. I know of several different ways to make new GG codes for the Genesis. The easiest way is to just modify existing Galoob codes. But since they explain that method in the GG code books, I won't go into that here.

The second easiest way to find new codes is to simply enter random letters (or numbers). While this method is fairly easy, it is nearly impossible to find a specific code this way. Another drawback to this method, is that it can take a very long time to find a code that does anything worthwhile.

I'm not going to go into every detail about how to make codes this way. Instead, I'm going to give you a few tips to help make the job a little easier.

First tip: ALWAYS write down the code you're entering before pressing the start button. (I found that it's best to try only one code at a time.) Then, if the code doesn't do anything, write down after the code that it doesn't do anything. (I just write a "0" after it.) If the code does do something, then write what it does after the code. Once you find a code that does something interesting, then it's usually a good idea to try to modify the code using the method's shown in the Galoob code book. If you write the codes down, then you won't try the same ones twice, plus you'll have an idea where to start from after you've quit for a few days/weeks/months.

Second tip: This second tip has to do with which letters or numbers you can and can't use in certain slots. All Genesis GG codes use 8 slots, and each slot uses a letter or number from the list on the GG code screen. The 8 slots are numbered like this: 1234-5678. (In the code book, they call them characters, but I prefer to call them slots.) There are 32 different letters and numbers that you can chose from. The 4th slot, and the 8th slot both have restrictions on which letters or numbers you can use. In the 4th slot, 95% of the time, you should use "A", or "T". Other ones you can use are: B,C,D,V,W,X. If you look in the code book, you will notice that there is a definite pattern with these letters, but I won't go into that now.

The restriction for the 8th slot is that you can only use letters or numbers from table 1 and table 3. In case you don't have a code book, I'll show you which letters and numbers are from tables 1 and 3. Table 1: AEJNTY26. Table 3: CGLRW048. In other words, if you don't see it listed here in table 1 or 3, don't use it in the 8th slot.

There are several other tips that I didn't include here, but most of these you will discover on your own as you go along.

While the above tips don't tell you which letters or numbers to use to make cool codes, they do tell you some ones not to use, which will make the job of finding new codes a little bit easier. Hope it helps.

Thanks, Tony Hedstrom t.hed@excite.com

P.S. The methods I use to make specific GG codes are a bit more involved than the method described above. Hopefully, at a later date, I will write and post something that explains how.