OK, here's a snapshot of a game I played, There's this cheat you can use to skip any level, but what happens when you use the cheat right when you lose your last life, but before the gameover screen shows up? Simple: The game tries to skip to a level and the loss of life counter command, but doesn't read the data program that tell the game to show the gameover screen. Therefore, you get to lives -1, now everytime you lose a life, the counter will go down as usual, but further through the negative lives, because of that, you can't get a game over anymore. Here in the picture you see I've passed Green Hill Zone, (either skipped to the next level, or beat the boss to get here, I don't remember.) and reached Chemical Plant Zone, with having lost lives so many times. (man I S.U.C.K. at green hill zone in that game!) I have -3 lives in the picture.