In Castlevania III, you run across these helper characters that you can take along on your journey to put the beatdown on Dracula. The thing is, though, that you have to choose the correct path, and they're pretty deep into the game.

But you can bypass all of that.

When you start the game, at the Name Entry screen, if you put in this name.

You can start with Grant as your partner

If you put in this one

You start out with Sypha

And if you put in this one

You start out with Alucard

Of course, this keeps you from getting lots of free lives, so you'll have to decide whether or not the trade-off is worth it to you.

It should probably come as no surprise by now that I like video game music. Especially from games that have good music, like Castlevania III.

You probably recognize the title screen if you've ever played this game:

But, hold down A and B while you press Start and:

Ta da!

You use Up and Down to choose your song, B to play it, and A to stop it. Perfect for making your own mix CD.

Which we'll have to talk about another day.