In this edition, we’re examining Beavis and Butt-head, the 1994 adaptation of the MTV series for Genesis by Radical Entertainment.
Data miners have looked through this game and found various unused elements – text, animations, music. They’ve compared the visuals in prerelease screenshots to the final game. They’ve noted the title’s unusual use of the Genesis sound hardware. But I think they missed something – a hidden cheat code.
Details are below…
My perception in the 90s was that the Sega Genesis was supposed to be your older brother’s console. It didn’t matter whether you had an older brother, or were an older brother; Sega’s marketing always implied that Genesis was just slightly cooler than you were.
Sega did try to appeal to younger siblings, however. The company’s Sega Club imprint published several titles for little kids, some of which purported to be at least slightly educational.
Scholastic’s The Magic School Bus: Space Exploration Game was one of these Sega Club games. It’s a collection of mini-games focused on space, and is inspired by the 1990 book The Magic School Bus Lost in the Solar System.
Why examine a 30 year old edutainment game? It caught my eye because (a) I had the original The Magic School Bus space book when I was a kid, and my parents would never read it to me because it was too long; and (b) it was developed by Novotrade, and I’ve found interesting things in a few Novotrade games in recent years.
Below are details on how this game’s password system works, and notes on how to use a previously-unpublished cheat code to bypass it altogether.
Some game cartridges from the 16-bit era shipped with backup chips. These allowed players save their progress. But they were expensive relative to a software-only alternative, session passwords.
In addition to being cheaper, session passwords could be shared. Players eagerly subscribed to game magazines that printed them. And in the 90s, having a notebook full of Sega Genesis codes was a good way to increase your status on the playground.