"Console wars" have occurred across all generations of console gaming, but typically the most well known use of this phrase is from the 16-bit era of gaming. TVTropes calls this the 'classic battle.'
During this time, Sega and Nintendo both aggressively marketed their systems, with many Sega ads directly attacking Nintendo, trying to paint the SNES as an inferior system for casuals and kids. This was generally unheard of at the time - Japanese companies found it inappropriate to do competitive advertising prior to this campaign.
In the autumn of 1990, Kalinske took over as CEO of Sega of America, and instantly began work on consolidating the new philosophy: that the Genesis was the machine that kids graduated to when they found the NES too limiting. “The starting point,” says Kalinske, “was that Nintendo was clearly the preference of the child gamer. To me, it seemed logical to really hammer the older audience, and to do that with more aggressive marketing, and with sports, strategy and role-playing games that appealed to teenagers and college-age males.”
At the time, I remember kids arguing about which system was superior, and you had to be able to defend the one you had, even though buying a console as a kid was basically impossible. You had whatever your parents had/could afford/were willing to buy you :)
Generally speaking, though, "console wars" occur every generation. Each console vendor wants you to buy into their walled garden and purchase their software exclusively. They take steps to keep certain games only available for their platforms, and they use aggressive marketing to make their console seem like the most desirable one.
Technically, there have been console wars as soon as the first Pong clone appeared. However, the SNES/Genesis era really defined the term, and the advent of the internet made these types of arguments far more prevalent.
There are multiple ways a cheat can be found for a game.
The developer can send the information to a website or magazine for "exclusive rights" to some cheats and tricks - this was largely used in the 90s;
The game can be datamined, and as such, getting the secrets in the code revealed by the dataminers;
They can be found randomly, as you said on your question, a player can try combinations until something works.
There's no way we can guess how it worked for the specific situation of GTA, but we can try to have an idea from those possibilities.
Best Answer
So I fell down a rabbit hole..
I was able to find a couple of vague references to the game, online. It exists. The main reason you're having trouble finding it is because the series was renamed "Let's Ride" for the North American market. In Europe, it is known by localised translations for "Horse & Pony". The series has had multiple developers since DICE.
I have found a credible source that "Horse & Pony II" was actually titled "Häst & Ponny: Ridskolan (Riding School)"; however, I am personally convinced that the title Refraction Games worked on was actually "Häst & Ponny : Varsågod Och Rid! (Hurry And Ride!)"
According to an archived version of the original Refraction web page,
I also found an interim report, published by DICE in mid 2000. In this report, they list "Horse and Pony IITM" as a game launched in 1998 for the PC. It is also listed as having sold 200, 000 copies. Earlier in the document, they talk about a game that is (at the time) being developed; "Legacy of Rosemond Hill". In particular, they say "The game will be launched as a PC version in the autumn in Europe by Pan Interactive". This is important.
At this point, I can't find any more references to "Horse and Pony II". But hang on, evidence suggests that this was a popular game in Sweden. I'm not overly familiar with video gaming in Sweden, but wouldn't they call it "Häst & Ponny"? That's the Swedish translation of "Horse and Pony".
After very little digging, I found a portfolio page for the lead game art producer for both "Horse and Pony 1 & 2". They further confirm that the games were developed under Pan Vision, who were Pan Interactive before 2001 source. This is where things get a little complicated - the box art does not say 'Horse and Pony 1' or 'Horse and Pony 2'. Instead, the box art reads "Häst & Ponny: Min Första Ponny" and "Häst & Ponny: Ridskolan", which translate to "Horse and Pony: My First Pony" and "Horse and Pony: Riding School", respectively. Due to the clear graphical improvements, "Horse and Pony: Riding School" is the newer title, and would be "Horse & Pony 2".
After following a link provided on the above mentioned page, I found a channel on YouTube that shows off "Horse and Pony: Riding School". However, I also found a video for a game titled "Häst & Ponny : Varsågod Och Rid!", or "Horse and Pony: Hurry and Ride!". This is where things get a little more complicated. The description in the video suggests that this could be the game you are looking for:
This game was released in 1998, and brought to the North American market in 1999. This supports the original information I found on Refraction Game's original website. Furthermore, looking at the three videos, it mostly uses 2D or static 3D graphics. In fact, the only non-static 3D graphic appears to be the player character, when performing in competitions. This appears to be the component Refraction Games contributed to the title.
According to the description in the above mentioned YouTube video, the "Horse and Pony" franchise was also known as "Let's Ride!". This lead me to the "Let's Ride' page on Moby Games. While the early games do not appear to be listed, we do see a listing for "Let's Ride! The Rosemond Hill Collection". Following the link, it confirms to include "The Legacy of Rosemond Hill", the other horse riding game that was directly attributed to Refraction.
Eventually, this lead me to a page on the "Pferd & Pony series". Pferd is horse, in German. This page lists over twenty titles, across PC and Nintendo platforms. The last entry is dated 2017, and is a 3 in 1 compilation of three previous titles. It is clear that neither Refraction Games nor DICE had any input in any of the other games, including the two additional games that make up "Let's Ride! The Rosemond Hill Collection". The only thing that is common between the three titles is that Pan Interactive published them - however, they are also credited for conception of the series.
If you would allow me to speculate further, I interpret that Pan Interactive / Pan Vision outsourced the development of "The Legacy of Rosemond Hill" to DICE, after Refraction Games contributed to their earlier title. They continued to produce more titles in the series, which has come to be known under the series name of 'Horse & Pony' in Europe, and "Let's Ride!" in English-speaking countries.
It appears that we have a more credible source referencing "Horse & Pony 2" as the "Riding School" title, but I am more convinced that it was actually the "Hurry and Ride!" title that Refraction Games worked on.