6 ms·

Castlevania III Password Algorithm

168 points by kiyanwang 6y ago

vsavsa 6y ago
safsaf https://www-dev.medicine.uiowa.edu/sercc/sites/medicine.uiowa.edu.sercc/files/webform/bills-vs-dolphins-live-stream-tv.pdf https://www-dev.medicine.uiowa.edu/sercc/sites/medicine.uiow...
vsavsa 6y ago
gewg https://www-dev.medicine.uiowa.edu/sercc/sites/medicine.uiowa.edu.sercc/files/webform/bills-vs-dolphins-live-stream-tv.pdf https://www-dev.medicine.uiowa.edu/sercc/sites/medicine.uiow...
vsavsa 6y ago
sawgfewqgew https://www-dev.medicine.uiowa.edu/sercc/sites/medicine.uiowa.edu.sercc/files/webform/bills-vs-dolphins-live-stream-tv.pdf https://www-dev.medicine.uiowa.edu/sercc/sites/medicine.uiow...
- asdnoiad 6y ago
  @dang hope this gets to you, seems to be a scam site promoting the games
vsavsa 6y ago
wehgewhew https://www-dev.medicine.uiowa.edu/sercc/sites/medicine.uiowa.edu.sercc/files/webform/bills-vs-dolphins-live-stream-tv.pdf https://www-dev.medicine.uiowa.edu/sercc/sites/medicine.uiow...
tubbyjr 6y ago
fing awesome
scott_s 6y ago
As a kid, I was dumbfounded that passwords worked on NES games, and Castlevania III was my first introduction to the concept. I still remember staring at the screen not comprehending how putting in this combination of icons would get me my game back. I knew there’s no way they could manually create a password for every game state, but I also had no conception of discrete states, algorithms and hashing, so I literally could not conceive of how this thing in front of me worked. It is personally satisfying to finally get a complete understanding (even though I long ago understood it conceptually).
- worstenbrood 6y ago
  I had the same experience with wonderboy 3: the dragons trap on the sega master system. Especially because it was a platform rpg where you could have different combinations of armor, weapons and shields.
- bentcorner 6y ago
  Mega Man 2 had a similar password concept, but has less state to calculate: https://retromaggedon.com/index.php/mega-man-2-nes-passwords/ https://retromaggedon.com/index.php/mega-man-2-nes-passwords... I recall seeing codes in gaming magazines at the time, it was pretty neat being able to "send" this state over the mail.
- fullstop 6y ago
  Faxanadu passwords were the worst. Upper case, lower case, numbers, and some punctuation. It was, however, able to represent your inventory, location, money, etc. Pretty much a full state in ~24 characters, which I thought was very cool.. but 10-year old me didn't always write down the mantra correctly. You can read about this system here: http://www.the-interweb.com/serendipity/index.php?/archives/5-Faxanadu-mantras-Part-I.html http://www.the-interweb.com/serendipity/index.php?/archives/...
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  - dole 6y ago
    River City Ransom passwords were terrible as well. Lower, upper case, accents.
    - fullstop 6y ago
      At least those were in a grid. The Faxanadu ones were just one line without spaces.
  - elihu 6y ago
    41 year old me doesn't always write down the mantra correctly.
j1elo 6y ago
These old games password systems analysis are always so entertaining and interesting to see... just like a glimpse onto the limitations that were faced by 8-bit console gamedevs in the early days, and the very clever solutions they came up with. There's this Youtube creator called Bisqwit who has a complete series on cracking old videogame passwords: * Season 1: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzLzYGEbdY5nEFQsxzFanSDv_38Hz0w7B https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzLzYGEbdY5nEFQsxzFan... * Season 2: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzLzYGEbdY5mmad-FKPIlmYUzhKQKr4qy https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzLzYGEbdY5mmad-FKPIl...
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
_fs 6y ago
Name Description HELP ME Start and continue with 10 lives. AKAMA Start in Hard Mode alone. OKUDA Start in Normal Mode with Alucard. Ahh, back when games had cheat codes... nowadays, you’d have to pay $1.99 to unlock the extra difficulties and lives.
- Pfhreak 6y ago
  Now days it's more likely to be included in an accessibility menu. Games like Celeste, for instance, have options that might have historically been called "cheats".
- bdz 6y ago
  >back when games had cheat codes Quite a coincidence because of the only remaining secret of Nier: Automata (2017) was discovered today, an intentional cheat that lets you jump to the end of the game (the game needs multiple playthroughs to see all endings and reach the real one) https://twitter.com/manfightdragon/status/1345615588106780672 https://twitter.com/manfightdragon/status/134561558810678067... And it was confirmed by Yoko Taro as well (he previously said there is one thing left the players haven't uncovered yet) https://mobile.twitter.com/yokotaro/status/1345714490067746816 https://mobile.twitter.com/yokotaro/status/13457144900677468...
city41 6y ago
Castlevania 4's password system looks identical from the player's perspective. I wonder how similar the implementations are.
u801e 6y ago
The original NES Metroid game also had a password, but just used letters and numbers IIRC. I remember taking a password for one of the games I was playing and incrementing it to find more valid passwords. Most of them took me back to the beginning of the game without any upgrades, but some of them put me in significantly later stages of the game without any upgrades.
wesleyk 6y ago
Reminiscent of the Megaman / Megaman X games from my childhood. Megaman 2's algorithm is available as an example here: https://github.com/kpshek/mm2pwd https://github.com/kpshek/mm2pwd
TillE 6y ago
The best story of NES passwords is of course JUSTIN BAILEY, which just happens to function as a Metroid password with a valid checksum, starting you out with a suitless Samus sprite and a bunch of equipment.
vsavsa 6y ago
https://www-dev.medicine.uiowa.edu/sercc/sites/medicine.uiowa.edu.sercc/files/webform/bills-vs-dolphins-live-stream-tv.pdf https://www-dev.medicine.uiowa.edu/sercc/sites/medicine.uiow...

168 points by kiyanwang 6y ago

safsaf https://www-dev.medicine.uiowa.edu/sercc/sites/medicine.uiowa.edu.sercc/files/webform/bills-vs-dolphins-live-stream-tv.pdf https://www-dev.medicine.uiowa.edu/sercc/sites/medicine.uiow...

vsavsa 6y ago

gewg https://www-dev.medicine.uiowa.edu/sercc/sites/medicine.uiowa.edu.sercc/files/webform/bills-vs-dolphins-live-stream-tv.pdf https://www-dev.medicine.uiowa.edu/sercc/sites/medicine.uiow...

vsavsa 6y ago

sawgfewqgew https://www-dev.medicine.uiowa.edu/sercc/sites/medicine.uiowa.edu.sercc/files/webform/bills-vs-dolphins-live-stream-tv.pdf https://www-dev.medicine.uiowa.edu/sercc/sites/medicine.uiow...

asdnoiad 6y ago
@dang hope this gets to you, seems to be a scam site promoting the games

vsavsa 6y ago

wehgewhew https://www-dev.medicine.uiowa.edu/sercc/sites/medicine.uiowa.edu.sercc/files/webform/bills-vs-dolphins-live-stream-tv.pdf https://www-dev.medicine.uiowa.edu/sercc/sites/medicine.uiow...

tubbyjr 6y ago

fing awesome

scott_s 6y ago

As a kid, I was dumbfounded that passwords worked on NES games, and Castlevania III was my first introduction to the concept. I still remember staring at the screen not comprehending how putting in this combination of icons would get me my game back. I knew there’s no way they could manually create a password for every game state, but I also had no conception of discrete states, algorithms and hashing, so I literally could not conceive of how this thing in front of me worked. It is personally satisfying to finally get a complete understanding (even though I long ago understood it conceptually).

worstenbrood 6y ago
I had the same experience with wonderboy 3: the dragons trap on the sega master system. Especially because it was a platform rpg where you could have different combinations of armor, weapons and shields.
bentcorner 6y ago
Mega Man 2 had a similar password concept, but has less state to calculate: https://retromaggedon.com/index.php/mega-man-2-nes-passwords/ https://retromaggedon.com/index.php/mega-man-2-nes-passwords... I recall seeing codes in gaming magazines at the time, it was pretty neat being able to "send" this state over the mail.
fullstop 6y ago
Faxanadu passwords were the worst. Upper case, lower case, numbers, and some punctuation. It was, however, able to represent your inventory, location, money, etc. Pretty much a full state in ~24 characters, which I thought was very cool.. but 10-year old me didn't always write down the mantra correctly. You can read about this system here: http://www.the-interweb.com/serendipity/index.php?/archives/5-Faxanadu-mantras-Part-I.html http://www.the-interweb.com/serendipity/index.php?/archives/...
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- dole 6y ago
  River City Ransom passwords were terrible as well. Lower, upper case, accents.
  - fullstop 6y ago
    At least those were in a grid. The Faxanadu ones were just one line without spaces.
- elihu 6y ago
  41 year old me doesn't always write down the mantra correctly.

j1elo 6y ago

These old games password systems analysis are always so entertaining and interesting to see... just like a glimpse onto the limitations that were faced by 8-bit console gamedevs in the early days, and the very clever solutions they came up with. There's this Youtube creator called Bisqwit who has a complete series on cracking old videogame passwords: * Season 1: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzLzYGEbdY5nEFQsxzFanSDv_38Hz0w7B https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzLzYGEbdY5nEFQsxzFan... * Season 2: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzLzYGEbdY5mmad-FKPIlmYUzhKQKr4qy https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzLzYGEbdY5mmad-FKPIl...

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

_fs 6y ago

Name Description HELP ME Start and continue with 10 lives. AKAMA Start in Hard Mode alone. OKUDA Start in Normal Mode with Alucard. Ahh, back when games had cheat codes... nowadays, you’d have to pay $1.99 to unlock the extra difficulties and lives.

Pfhreak 6y ago
Now days it's more likely to be included in an accessibility menu. Games like Celeste, for instance, have options that might have historically been called "cheats".
bdz 6y ago
>back when games had cheat codes Quite a coincidence because of the only remaining secret of Nier: Automata (2017) was discovered today, an intentional cheat that lets you jump to the end of the game (the game needs multiple playthroughs to see all endings and reach the real one) https://twitter.com/manfightdragon/status/1345615588106780672 https://twitter.com/manfightdragon/status/134561558810678067... And it was confirmed by Yoko Taro as well (he previously said there is one thing left the players haven't uncovered yet) https://mobile.twitter.com/yokotaro/status/1345714490067746816 https://mobile.twitter.com/yokotaro/status/13457144900677468...

city41 6y ago

Castlevania 4's password system looks identical from the player's perspective. I wonder how similar the implementations are.

u801e 6y ago

The original NES Metroid game also had a password, but just used letters and numbers IIRC. I remember taking a password for one of the games I was playing and incrementing it to find more valid passwords. Most of them took me back to the beginning of the game without any upgrades, but some of them put me in significantly later stages of the game without any upgrades.

wesleyk 6y ago

Reminiscent of the Megaman / Megaman X games from my childhood. Megaman 2's algorithm is available as an example here: https://github.com/kpshek/mm2pwd https://github.com/kpshek/mm2pwd

TillE 6y ago

The best story of NES passwords is of course JUSTIN BAILEY, which just happens to function as a Metroid password with a valid checksum, starting you out with a suitless Samus sprite and a bunch of equipment.

vsavsa 6y ago

https://www-dev.medicine.uiowa.edu/sercc/sites/medicine.uiowa.edu.sercc/files/webform/bills-vs-dolphins-live-stream-tv.pdf https://www-dev.medicine.uiowa.edu/sercc/sites/medicine.uiow...