Gather Around...

And there was a cheat-code to unlock them all immediately, in case you got the game to play with your friends. That way you could skip grinding the single player campaign to unlock characters for multiplayer.

I really miss cheat codes. It was a special kind of fun to explore all the cheats, clip through everything, be invincible. I hate it when developers force a certain experience on me. I bought it, I should be allowed to play however I want.
Or if you were like me and just wanted to see what would happen when you turned on every cheat at once, including games that don’t have them using GameShark.
I didn’t understand how it worked at first and was worried the GameShark was going to brick my PlayStation one day because it made some of my games crash.
- Wow, GameShark. Core memory unlocked. Thank you for this

But grandpa, how did you earn a sense of pride and accomplishment if you didn’t throw real money to the business men for every little thing you do?!

Back in my day we unlocked characters by pressing a series of buttons in a specific order and at the right moment

Back in my day, we unlocked characters by meeting a specific list of obscure criteria, which are only possible at random times, during gameplay that are only ever hinted at through a cryptic set of clues hidden throughout the game.
Up, up, down, down........

I paid sixty bucks for Cammy, Fei-Long, T-Hawk and Chun-Li.

That was after paying every time I lost and paying-to-win in a whole bunch of games.

Man, you don't want to know how much cash a single four player playthrough of TMNT could cost.

“hey everybody, an old man is talking!”

Original tagline of C-Span

It felt rewarding.

Was just playing Sonic Triple Trouble 16bit and unlocked Knuckles at the end, which not only allows you to play with him but the levels/story line is unique. Pleasant surprise!

...so i dusted off the ol' PS2 and played me some LEGO Star Wars...

maybe the community name should be ttrpgmemes

I think most people probably aren't looking at the community name. Confused me too.

I just remembered that a couple games i played as a kid didn't have save system so they just gave codes that needed to be entered the next time to go back there in the game XD

madden ultimate team takes this to another level by having you pay and also grind at the same time and then a year later your progress gets reset

But how is this an RPG meme? Surely you actually did pay, for new character supplements etc.

"We picked princess to float two and a half screens. Then we would defeat birdo, and play a slot machine which we called a one-arm bandit on account of the crank being made from the old fake arms they gave civil war amputeeeees."

Medieval II: Total War didn't try to sell you Poland as DLC.