A wise man once said,"Don't go to the fly,let the fly come to the frog."

(Whatever the hell that meant. Although I do think it might have had something to do with the Game Genie.)

First released by Camerica, and later Galoob, this is the truly the father of cheat devices as we know of them today. The inventive concept was easy. Players became stuck in games, so cheating became necessary. Shit. We wouldn't be Americans if we didn't cheat every so often, right? Wait. Don't answer that.

Included with the enhancer is a 100 page or so book full of codes.

Set-up is easy. Attach the bottom of the selected game into the Game Genie and then to the NES. When you start the system up, the GG code input screen appears. Three rows to add in codes.

Besides the usual "infinite lives" tricks, some codes are actually very unique and add quite a bit of altering to the game than what you would expect. Game tweaks! For Super Mario Bros., how about screwing around with the colors in levels? Make underwater castles, melt some enemies, put squid on land, and finally battle that whiny princess.

Once you're finished inputting the codes, pressing start begins the cart and runs the selected codes.

Galoob went on and made genies for the Gameboy, Game Gear, Genesis, and SNES. Then the company went belly up and stopped producing the popular accessory. They still have the site gamegenie.com up for a resource.

Needless to say, the Game Genie got the job done and became extremely popular. This is definitely a must-own for anyone who calls themselves an NES freak. Long live the Game Genie!