Not a stupid question at all my friend. At one time, I also pondered this great question. What ARE those little numbers and letters. Just as Lyndon said, probably much better then I, they are a code to input into a small system that you attach to your playstation ( if it's the older version) or use a CD to download the codes into the game. I'm not quite sure exactly how they work, but I'n not quite ready to tear mine into tiny pieces and reconfigure it hehe. I still have yet to understand why my gameshark always seems to put in the wrong code hehe. Every time, I slip up and the code freezes the game. Hehe, maybe I'm just a clutz! Well anyways, I hope this helped! :grin1: