If you thought the retro gaming scene had no more surprises left up its sleeves, then think again. The SNES might not be in production anymore, its games no longer dropping off the production line and into crisp cardboard boxes, but there has been a new discovery from a game that released three decades ago that has remained hidden until now.
The game - Ken Griffey Jr’s Winning Run. It released for the SNES back in 1996 and has had a secret hiding away inside it as though it were waiting in a time capsule to be released on a momentous occasion. Now, everyone can play as one of four hidden teams in the game without beating specific seasons.
Breaking News! After 30 years, the largest mystery in Ken Griffey Jr’s Winning Run has been solved by a player named TakuikaNinja.
— Rare Gamer (@Rare_Gamer) March 1, 2026
Thanks to their efforts, everyone can now play as the secret teams on SNES, including the secret N64 team!
PLAY HARD! pic.twitter.com/i65EVgM3C3
According to player and assumedly Ken Griffey Jr fan TakuikaNinja, players can input one of four codes to unlock different secret teams:
- Arizona Diamondbacks: A, A, A, Select
- Nintendo: B, B, B, Select
- Nintendo 64: Y, Y, Y Select
- Tampa Bay Devil Rays: X, X, X, Select.
To enter codes, players need to set up either an Exhibition or a 2 Player match. On the match settings screen where you can see the team logos, players need to hold either of the SNES controllers' shoulder buttons and enter their chosen code from the list above. After a sound to notify that the cheat has worked, the logo on the screen should fade and become the hidden team's logo. Do the same for Player Two if they wish to have a secret team too (but not the same as yours, that's foul play and not allowed), and then get gaming!
I honestly would like to know how TakuikaNinja came up with these results and how long it took them to figure this out. Were they just messing around with combinations until something stuck? Did they do some digging around in the ROM and come across some instructions? Whatever way they discovered these cheats, TakuikaNinja has undoubtedly breathed new life into a SNES sports classic.
As explained by Rare Gamer, the secret Nintendo team had players named after Nintendo Staff, and the N64 team was made up of staff members from Rare. I love that this secret is doing the rounds 30 years after the devs signed off on this game, and in a weird way, it feels like a chapter has finally been closed. That is, until someone finds even more cheats or discovers a way to mod Banjo-Kazooie into it or something, then I'll have another bunch of articles to write!
