The Most Famous Cheat Codes in Gaming History (and What They Did)

Before patches, achievements and online play, cheat codes were part of gaming culture. They were swapped in playgrounds, printed in magazines and hidden by developers who needed shortcuts to test their own games. Some became famous enough to show up in films, T-shirts and other games. Here are the ones everyone remembers, and what they actually did.

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The Konami Code

Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A. Konami developer Kazuhisa Hashimoto added it to the home version of Gradius (1986) because he found the game too hard to test: it gave the player's ship every power-up. It became famous with Contra on the NES, where it gives 30 lives. It has since been hidden in dozens of games and even on websites as an easter egg.

IDDQD and IDKFA (Doom)

In Doom (1993) you type these during play. IDDQD turns on god mode, and IDKFA gives all weapons, full ammo and every key. The "ID" stands for id Software, the studio that made the game. Doom II added IDCLIP to walk through walls.

rosebud and motherlode (The Sims)

In the original The Sims (2000), rosebud in the cheat console gave 1,000 Simoleons, a nod to the film Citizen Kane. Later games added kaching (1,000) and motherlode (50,000). In The Sims 4, open the console with Ctrl+Shift+C on PC or Cmd+Shift+C on Mac.

show me the money and power overwhelming (StarCraft)

In Blizzard's StarCraft (1998) you press Enter and type the cheat as a chat message. show me the money gives 10,000 minerals and gas, power overwhelming makes your units invincible, and black sheep wall reveals the map. there is no cow level wins the mission instantly, a joke about a rumour from Diablo. Warcraft III followed with whosyourdaddy and greedisgood.

how do you turn this on (Age of Empires II)

Typed into the chat box in Age of Empires II, it spawns a fast modern sports car armed with a gun, in a game set in the Middle Ages. It is still one of the most loved jokes in strategy games.

ABACABB (Mortal Kombat)

The Sega Genesis version of Mortal Kombat (1992) shipped without blood. Entering A, B, A, C, A, B, B on the code screen turned it back on, and the code became legendary in the arguments about violent games at the time.

HESOYAM and the GTA codes

Rockstar's GTA games turned cheats into a whole menu of chaos. HESOYAM in GTA San Andreas gives full health, full armour and $250,000, and is still typed by players today. Vice City had PANZER for a tank, and GTA IV and GTA 5 moved cheats onto the in-game phone. See GTA San Andreas cheats for PC and GTA 5 cheat phone numbers.

Console commands: sv_cheats, tgm and friends

PC games moved from typed words to developer consoles. In Half-Life and other Source games, sv_cheats 1 unlocks cheats and impulse 101 gives all weapons. In Skyrim, open the console with the ~ key and type tgm for god mode or tcl to fly through walls. These are the same kind of shortcuts developers use during testing.

Why did cheat codes disappear?

• Achievements and trophies made cheating feel like it devalued progress, so many games dropped codes or disable achievements when you use them. See do cheats disable achievements.
• Online play made cheating unfair to other players.
• Paid unlocks replaced some of what cheats used to give for free.

Single-player cheats are still around, though, and they are still the easiest way to replay a game just for fun. For how codes are entered on each platform, see how to enter cheat codes on PC, PlayStation and Xbox.

How Cheatly helps

• 3,300+ single-player cheats across 84 games, all stored on your iPhone or iPad.
• Shown the way your platform enters them: PlayStation and Xbox button chips, copyable PC console text, and in-game phone numbers.
• Search by name or by effect, such as "wanted" or "helicopter", and filter by category.
• Favourites for the codes you use every session.
• Read aloud, so you can enter long combos with the controller in your hands.
• Works offline, with no account and no sign-up.

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