Ken Griffey Jr.’s Winning Run: hidden SNES cheat codes found after 30 years allowing retro gamers to unlock 4 secret teams
Tucked away in the code of a classic Super Nintendo retro game, several cheat codes have been discovered for Ken Griffey Jr.’s Winning Run after nearly thirty years. The cheat codes in question allow players to unlock and play as four secret teams.
This discovery was made by TakuikaNinja, a contributor to the retro game preservation website The Cutting Room Floor.
The cheat codes were spotted by Rare Gamer on revealed X, where they stated, “Breaking News! After 30 years, the largest mystery in Ken Griffey Jr.’s Winning Run has been solved by a player named TakuikaNinja. Thanks to their efforts, everyone can now play as secret teams on the SNES, including the N64 secret team.”
For context, Ken Griffey Jr.’s Winning Run was released in 1996 by Rare and published by Nintendo. It was a popular baseball sim that featured MLB stars, including Ken Griffey Jr.
Retro fans and modders already knew about secret teams in the game’s source code, which they had discovered via data mining. These secret teams included the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, Arizona Diamondbacks, Team Nintendo, and Team Nintendo 64.
Players could only discover or go up against these teams by grinding through MLB seasons on hard mode and unlocking a secret cheat menu. However, unlocking the secret teams was a different story that retro enthusiasts couldn’t figure out until now.
TakuikaNinja’s discovery was quite simple. All you have to do is start a two-player or exhibition match, then head over to the team selection screen and hold down either the L or R shoulder button on the SNES controller.
To unlock the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, players need to input X, X, X, Select.
To unlock the Diamondbacks, input A, A, A, Select.
To unlock Team Nintendo, punch in B, B, B, Select.
To unlock Team Nintendo 64, press Y, Y, Y, then Select.
If done right, a confirmation sound effect plays, and that’s pretty much it. These inputs can also be performed for player two, but duplicate teams aren’t allowed.
The interesting part is that these secret teams, comprising the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and the Diamondbacks, didn’t join MLB as expansion teams until 1998. On the other hand, Team Nintendo comprises Nintendo of America executives like President Minoru Arakawa and Chairman Howard Lincoln.
However, the Nintendo 64 crew consists of Rare developers who worked on GoldenEye 007 and Banjo-Kazooie, including David Doak (Dr. Doak) and Chris Sutherland. For context, Dr. Doak was a reliever in Ken Griffey Jr.’s Winning Run but was actually an NPC in the upcoming GoldenEye 007, which was released in 1997 for the N64.
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