That’s right. The “forbidden memories” cheat codes were never meant for us. They were digital skeleton keys, left in by programmers too sleep-deprived to clean up their work. And for two decades, those accidental incantations turned a brutally unfair card game into a power fantasy.

Just don’t use the Red-Eyes Black Dragon code on a full moon. They say your save file never wakes up.

For the uninitiated, Yu-Gi-Oh! Forbidden Memories (1999) was the original console adaptation of Kazuki Takahashi’s manga-turned-trading-card-frenzy. Released for the PlayStation, it was famously, almost sadistically, difficult. You couldn’t buy booster packs; you won cards through grueling random drops. The final boss, Heishin 2nd, opened with three 2500+ ATK monsters before you’d drawn your sixth card. Victory required either divine luck or... something else.