[oliverkeers13]

Equinox wrote:

but could the code be from an ARG?, just spec

It could in theory, but it is very unlikely. Most ARGs don't have a place to enter a code, even if they did, they wouldn't be a cheat, as ARGs are not games as such (as in you can't get 10 lives or whatever)

[Equinox]

but could the code be from an ARG?, just spec

[oliverkeers13]

Re: KJIC

[QBKooky]

Re: KJIC

[Equinox]

KJIC

[Leeravitz]

Oh, I did have another thought. Given the obsession with card games (namely, poker) round Perplex City way, could it have anything to do with a famous gambling simulation or something like that? I mean, obviously, K= King, J = Jack and...er...yes...everything breaks down at that point, I guess. Just a wayward thought...

[Leeravitz]

While I'm hardly assuming that our latest speculations are anything other than total guesses, I don't quite follow the logic that states only an encased code represents something that was originally typed. I agree that the presence of the red highlighting (or whatever it was on the card) must have been included in order to represent something, but it might actually be little more than a design feature to draw your attention to the fact that the code comprised complete words rather than random strings of letters. After all, any Spectrum cheat worth its salt (i.e. code 10) had to be typed in physically. So, code 10 at least is clearly keyboard - specific, and yet appears to be unencased. I felt a few of the other codes also incorporated bits and pieces that couldn't have been inputted simply by pressing the requisite keypads, and only code 1 and code 3, I think, had any obvious 'encasing' going on.

Which is not to say that any theory thus far put forward about the mysterious KJIC is correct...but, after all, if it isn't keyboard specific in some respect, than how do we explain it as a viable code at all?? When non - keyboard systems tend to reduce your input to A, B, X, Y, specific colour codings or directional inputs etc., what's left? This is also the reason, I guess, why we were suggesting it might be an arcade game, although even that seems pretty unlikely...

[oliverkeers13]

It isn't a keyboard code. Notice that the

Quote:

fund fund fund

cheat is encased in red. This was typed in. Hence, as this isn't encased, it isn't a typed code.

[Kalt]

Just a quick note--Apple IIe games in America (Think Quick, and other games of which I don't remember the titles) generally used I as up, J as left, K as right, and M as down. I'm having a tough time remembering any other controls, though.

[BrianEnigma]

invfish wrote:

Kalt wrote: Perhaps KJIC could be from a text game such as Zork or Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy? It could be from the day's of bbs's. I remember the days of "The legend of the Red Dragon"...

Don't forget that some games, older than or on par with BBSs, used keyboard keys, too. Games such as Nethack (an old ASCII dungeon crawl for Unix systems) used the home keys for direction on terminals that did not have arrow keys:

Code:

y  k  u  \ | /    h- . -l   / | \    b  j  n

Others used similar keys, like JKIM for left, right, up, and down respectively. Still others (a bit latter on) used AZ for forward/backward and something else on the right hand for left/right.

Still, I can't think of any cheats for Nethack (other than a command-line flag). Possibly some of the other dungeon crawls (Rogue, Hack, etc) or terminal games had cheats?

[Leeravitz]

As I said before about the peculiarity of 'I', it's not at all obvious what it might stand for. The one thing that rings a bell with me (because I was a particularly avid adventure gamer in my youth) is that, in some keyboard controlled stuff, I seem to recollect that 'I' would (logically) call up an 'Inventory' or sometimes 'Items' or even 'Information'. While I wholeheartedly agree that a) most platformers wouldn't bother with such controls and b) most adventure games of note have no notable cheat codes that I know of, I think it's still possible that there may have been cross - over type games on the market, that combined platforming or omni - directional controlling with calling up inventories of one sort or another. My memory is very hazy, but there were certainly early PC games with this kind of set up (Mech Warrior, simulators of one sort or another, things like that).

The other thing that may not be of any help to anyone, but I'll note anyway is where the corresponding keys are placed on a QWERTY keyboard: the noticeable thing about JKI is that they form a cluster, only C is far removed from them.

This doesn't suggest much to me, but it *could* perhaps indicate a game within which those buttons were important as controls (I guess we've estimated that already) because they are within easy reach of one another when you're playing at speed. What I remember about Spectrum games, for instance, is the way you always had 'Q' and 'A' as up/down, 'O' and 'P' as left/right, in the days before good joysticks and arrow keys, and, naturally, the programmers went with controls that were pretty easy to access, without paying too much attention to what your fingers were doing.

Being strictly 'crypotographic' about the approach, if you like, you might then hypothesise that 'J', 'K' and 'I' had important movement control functions (maybe the letters don't strictly correspond, and 'J' is down, say', while 'I' is left and 'K' is right). 'C', which is further away, and on what I would tend to consider the 'control line' might be something less continuously utilised like a 'fire' function (on most Spectrum games, this would be 'N' or 'M', I think, which are interestingly in the same line - space bar which is just below would also be utilised to do things like 'fire' or 'pause' not irregularly). This could mean that a letter like 'U' completed the movement cluster. In truth, the actual cluster is rather clumsy if looked at as a four - character group; as three (JKI) it might be feasible. In fact, from a purely ergonomic point of view (!), I'd have to say that having 'J' and 'K' as left - right controls and 'I' and 'C' as jump/crouch would be the most sensible combo I can think of. As I've said before, that pattern puts my fingers in mind of the original PC versions of Prince of Persia, (for which if someone can put me out of my misery and remind what the controls were, I'd be very grateful:)).

Of course, this is all complete speculation. What we are tending to assume, for a start, is that there is a direct correlation between controls used in the game proper and an inputted cheat code. That seems to me the application of sensible logic; after all, it's reasonable to assume that a game which possessed the cheat code 'KJIC' actually utilised the control characters , 'K', J' 'I' and 'C', to a significant degree. But I guess we a) have no idea if these were the only significant characters utilised in - game and b) whether these characters do meaningfully correspond to functions. It's true to say that, by the time the PC boom started in the early 90's, programmers had started to come up with interfaces that were more user friendly than they had been, and doing something like having 'U' for 'Up' and 'D' for 'down' was hardly unheard of. Back in the 80's, no such logic prevailed, as far as I can recall, although most games did work by defaults (so, as I've said, 95% of all Spectrum games went with 'O' and 'P' as left - right).

I'm not sure if that helps anyone at all...

[Mikeyj]

Inventory?

Doesn't really fit this style of game though...

[hamatoyoshi]

invfish wrote:

It could be from the day's of bbs's. I remember the days of "The legend of the Red Dragon" and entering the forest and then typing Jennie (if you were in high spirits) and it would return Jennie Garth is a? and you had to type what she though she was. Dependant on your response you would recieve gems, money, charm, extra forest fight, etc etc.

This is the one option I haven't explored yet...

Within BBS'ing, I could only think it would be LoRD or Tradewars as the only two games of note on a wide scale. Barren Realms Elite (BRE) perhaps.

Maybe it's because I've been going through it over and over again in my head, but KJIC sounds so familiar to me.

I've thought through basically every video game I've ever played, particularly the great ones (and there are a surprising number, at least 75), and I can't come up with this code. I've even gone through top 100+ lists on lots of game sites and thought about every game and can't track it down.

Here are my general thoughts:

I have a gut feeling this is more likely to be PC based. PC game cheats tend to be less publicized than console cheats. Really I can only think of Maxis games (the Sim City/Sims crew) and maybe some text adventures as having any notable cheats that a lot of people might know. I had considered Sierra (King's Quest/Leisure Suit Larry/Space Quest) and Lucasarts, but most of their games didn't feature any cheats.

I could go through all the notable PC games I've ever played, but it would be a long list, but here's what I can come up with off the top of my head (by no means a comprehensive list of what I can think of): Karateka, the Wing Commander series, Syndicate, Relentless: Twinsen's Adventure, Zak McKracken, a number of real-time strategies (RTS), Star Control, and X-Com.

A good place to look for ideas might be at the Abandonware site Home of the Underdogs.

If it is a console cheat, it's likely that whatever it's entered in likely has to be 4 characters. The name field in the original Final Fantasy comes to mind, but I know there weren't cheats for that. Using 4 characters in longer password fields like in Metroid or River City Ransom are unlikely.

As the arcade front goes, the name entry idea is a good one, but like someone noted, most older arcade name entries are 3 characters. The only games I can think of which use name cheats are Midway games (NBA Jam, NFL Blitz, Gauntlet Legends, Mortal Kombat). Those all use 3 characters.

That did bring me to another idea though. EA makes a series of "Street" games (e.g. NBA Street) which use 4 symbol cheat codes; however, of the street games I've played, I only remembering them using symbols such as basketballs, microphones, and backboards.

I also like the arcade fighting game "kick, jump, i?, crouch" idea, but I can't think of what fighting or platform game (two most likely uses of described controls) uses buttons for jumping and crouching. Any games that would use jump and crouch buttons rather than the traditional up and down on the joystick would either have a two-direction joystick (left and right), and I've never seen a two-direction game with 4-buttons. Another option is games like Golden Axe/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Arcade/Final Fight with four directions of movement and a jump button. I know the Neo-Geo uses 4 buttons (generally known as A, B, C, and D or by their colors), but I can't place a Neo-Geo game with that control set. Any sensible ideas on what the "I" might stand for?

[invfish]

Kalt wrote:

Perhaps KJIC could be from a text game such as Zork or Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy?

It could be from the day's of bbs's. I remember the days of "The legend of the Red Dragon" and entering the forest and then typing Jennie (if you were in high spirits) and it would return Jennie Garth is a? and you had to type what she though she was. Dependant on your response you would recieve gems, money, charm, extra forest fight, etc etc.

[hamatoyoshi]

Just some offtopic links...