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[BruceWayne]

Does the game company give the game and all its secrets to the guide company or do they only get the game and they have to figure all the secrets out?

If the game company has to give them all the necessary secrets and easter eggs information, why don't the company just make their own and bypass the middle men?

 

[ManaByte]

Depends on the company and the game.

Most don't give anything though.

 

[BruceWayne]

If they don't give anything, how do they unlock all those secrets?

Do they reverse engineer and hack the code to see what's unlockable or do they literally comb through everything?
Must be a hell of a thing to do for RPG games that have YES/NO questions that affects the ending.

 

[ManaByte]

If they don't give anything, how do they unlock all those secrets?

Do they reverse engineer and hack the code to see what's unlockable or do they literally comb through everything?
Must be a hell of a thing to do for RPG games that have YES/NO questions that affects the ending.

Codes are different than strategy guides. Secrets are usually found though.

I know the GameShark guys have these cool ultra hacked consoles that they use to tear apart the games to find the cheats.

 

[ChrisReid]

I think the guides that the original poster was talking about are the "official guides" that Prima/Brady/etc make. Again, it depends a lot. Nintendo makes their own official guides, and also licenses out occasionally. As the guides generally come out a couple days before the game (and take a couple months to make), they're clearly being made with the help of the developers (hence "official" guide). Back in the 90s you'd see unauthorized guides that were mostly pretty crappy. In one of the last Halo 2 Bungie updates, the community relations guy tours the office where they made the game. Most of it is deserted, except for a few people that include the designated Prima author taking notes with a developer and putting the finishing touches on the guide.

 

[Teddman]

Sometimes "Developer's notes" are sent to the writer or guide publisher. Depending on how thorough they are, it can really help speed up the process.