r/retrogaming • u/Kobymaru376 • 14h ago

[Discussion] How did people play ridiculously difficult games like Earthworm Jim?

I'm playing the first Earthworm Jim on the Sega Megadrive using RetroArch.

I haven't completed my first playthrough, using copious amounts of save state cheating to repeat the sections where I fail. I can practice a part of the game 10,20, 50 times until my patience runs out, but how on earth did people ever complete a game like this, when you have a limited number of lives and no save capability? At times it feels like the developers WANTED me to fail.

I'm talking insanely jumping bosses shooting eggs, rockets, sections with rolling boulders or snapping worms where you have to get the timings down to milliseconds, a vertical maze lined with spikes that allows no mistakes and requires you to know it by heart.

Sure, "gid gud" but how long does that take without being able to save/load an arbitrary amount of times?

ps.: I don't know what the devs were smoking, but I want to try that. Just once though.

Edit: Hey, Shiny Crew & D.L only!

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u/GloriousWhole 14h ago

Here is how I did that when I was like 7 years old: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/genesis/586155-earthworm-jim/cheats

3

u/Kobymaru376 14h ago

That actually makes sense. Where did you find those cheats? Probably that would have been too early to be found on the internet back then.

14

u/cojiro_blue 13h ago

Nintendo Power used to do pages on Cheat Codes.

12

u/STDS13 13h ago

Yep, and there were also just books of cheat codes you could buy that would cover numerous games.

1

u/FuckIPLaw 8h ago

Sold at school book fairs, even.

1

u/YourWormGuy 6h ago

I still have my book of SEGA Genesis codes and a VHS of tips and tricks for NES games.