Sega Gear: Galoob's Game Genie

[Melf]

Every gamer has had a game that simply took him to task. Mind-bending difficulty, a nasty boss - all of them were enough to make a person rip out his hair. Thank goodness for Galoob's Game Genie! A neat little game enhancer that had limited converter cart abilities in addition to thousands of codes for hundreds of games, its functionality is only equalled by its versatility. Fourteen years after its release, gamers are still coming up with new codes. How's that for staying power? We have a review of this excellent little peripheral in the latest installment (http://www.sega-16.com/forum/../Sega%20Gear-%20Game%20Genie.htm) of Sega Gear, so head on over and check it out.

[Kikoskia]

Gotta love the Game Genie. We had one for our NES when I was young and I even have one for my Game Boy. Very handy little piece of hardware. Of course, the Game Boy one was ridiculously large; sticking it on a Game Boy Pocket was just stupid. :p

[Chris Marsh]

Has anybody had a problem where no games work with the Game Genie (I have a Genesis 2)? On Thunder Force II for example, I get a ROM error message. Has anybody else had this problem with any game?

[Joe Redifer]

I've never seen that problem at all.

[Joe Redifer]

I was thinking, and I dont think the Game Genie blocks the save feature. I was able to play through Monster World IV and Rockman Megaworld, both of which save, just fine. And I had to use a Game Genie to play them, since they are region-locked imports. Then again I have a launch-day Genesis, which makes my Genesis the best one in the world. Maybe that is it?

[Melf]

Hmm, that's interesting. Could be that the pre-lockout Gennys didn't have that problem? If we could confirm this, we could add it to the Lockout article. That's an important detail. I can try it with my model 2 Genny but don't have a model 1 for testing.

[Joe Redifer]

Actually now that I think about it my friend who has a post-lockout Genesis and a CDX was able to play through his copy of Monster World IV with a Game Genie and reported no problems. I also remember playing Pulseman on his Genesis 3 using the Game Genie to beat the regional lockout.

I would try it on a Phantasy Star game to test, but I am super-scared of it erasing a save file. Call me paranoid even though I shouldn't be.

[Flash1087]

When I was a kid, I abstained from using these because I thought it made me cooler to know I wasn't using any cheat devices.

Nevermind that everyone else beat everything before I did.

[Mendicant]

When I was a kid, I abstained from using these because I thought it made me cooler to know I wasn't using any cheat devices.

...sigh... me too. I ended up buying a game shark because Strider 2 wouldn't run on a chipped Playstation. I started using the game shark to cheat when my work schedule left little time for things like manually leveling up in Final Fantasy Tactics.

[Genesis Knight]

I bought a Game Genie Gold a while back, but I find that I hardly ever use it. I suppose that could be due to the fact that I don't own any imports, but in general the only times I've ever needed it were those horribly difficult Strike games.

And I've got a question. Everybody says that you can't save your game with a Game Genie, but I just did it with Wonderboy in Monster World (the only RPG I felt like I could risk ruining the game save on). Is the GG Gold special, did I get lucky, or what?

[Joe Redifer]

There are different versions? Can you tell if you have a black or gold version just by looking at the Game Genie cart itself? I don't have the original box or anything and I bought it as cart-only. If I have a gold version, there may just be a difference between gold and black since mine seems to allow saving.

[Genesis Knight]

The gold one is colored, well...gold. And it says "Game Genie Gold" on the front in big letters. =) What's really strange is that I can't find a picture of it anywhere... Is it possible that I own something rare?

Does anyone else have this sort of Game Genie?

EDIT: I checked, and it does NOT say "Game Genie Gold" on the label. However, it does have the gold background instead of black. Check out the Acc. and Periph. Guide at Sega-16 for a picture. (page 2)

[Chris Marsh]

I am actually able to get my Game Genie to work with Battletoads for Genesis. I find it strange that it won't work with certain games.

[Joe Redifer]

My Game Genie must be the black one, and it allows saves.

[Genesis Knight]

But mine allows saves, too. What gives?

[Joe Redifer]

Maybe other people's Game Genie's are retarded? :)