Later model VCRs had a thing where they kept a list of shortcuts for time/channel/length. The eight (ten?) digit code, you’d just plug that into the VCR and you didn’t have to program all the details.
It was a standard system for setting up a VCR to record your selected program, because every VCR was different. I believe you connected the VCR to a phone line and it would dial out to get new codes? It was sort of like DNS (really like a distributed HOSTS file), but for media recording instead of websites.
Ask either guard: "If I asked the other guard which door led to the castle, what would they say?" The answer is always the door that leads to instant death; enter the other door.
Don't you besmirch the Sauce of Destiny.