Mild Pepper Games

Game Nostalgia: The Praying Gamer (Game Genie for Christians)

Wisdom Tree Games, most known for their Bible Adventures series on Nintendo and PC, also came out with a "Game Genie" for Christians. It's called the Praying Gamer and it provides all the cheat codes for popular games of the 80's.

Here's the catch.

By popping the cheat code cartridge you are greeted to a screen asking for you to lift up your game concerns to the Lord. The Praying Gamer urged players to "Name it and Slay it." After a couple minutes of pouring your heart out to the Lord for good health, great wealth, and unlimited level skips you are transported to the game.

The philosophy was shaky. While Game Genie focused on codes that unlocked cheats for games, The Praying Gamer relied on the idea that a loving and wealthy God would increase your gaming inheritance.

Wisdom Tree recalls getting lots of angry calls from gamers telling them that the cheat codes don't work. Reps were trained to ask customers, "Did you really believe?" or "Was there enough faith for God to move?"

One pastor from Oak hills Baptist Assembly said, "I declared unlimited ammo and thirty lives over my Contra game. I tithed three lives and one spread gun out of faith. Since that day, I have not been found wanting in Contra."

The Praying Gamer was discontinued after the marketing reps mistakenly insisted that gamers pray from the desires of their hearts. That ended horribly.

"I have never seen so many returns to the store after gamers found out that God would not grant their instant fatalities in Mortal Kombat or nude code in Tomb Raider," the retired manager of KB Toys, Alfred Branson, said.

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