Cheat code
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Cheat codes are codes that can be entered into a video game to change the game's behaviour. It is unknown when this practice started, but the codes were implemented and used by game developers to playtest certain aspects of their games; for example, a common use of a cheat code is to skip to a later level in a game. In moddable games, such cheat modes are often left in released titles specifically for modder use.
The practice became widespread, and now many games have cheat codes intentionally included as a form of Easter egg or unlockable reward. Video game magazines have had sections devoted to providing these codes since the late 1980s, and occasionally codebooks are produced which provide cheat codes for a large number of games. Today, many codes, for games old and new alike, are found online at websites such as GameFAQs.
The method of entering cheat codes varies; on video game consoles, which lack keyboards, the code is frequently a sequence of button presses. On computers such as the Amiga or PC, the code can be textual and entered using the keyboard, or more outlandish combinations of mouse, keyboard and controller may be required to activate the code. In modern games, the cheats are also often enabled through adding special settings in game configuration files.
While normal cheat codes are built into the game by the programmers, unoffical cheat codes can be created by manipulating the contents of memory address for a running game. On video game consoles this is done using a cheat cartridge. Users of some early home computers called these codes pokes, named after the command used to input them. Nowadays, cheating like this is considered by many to be "hacking."
Cheat codes are, by definition, considered cheating and most serious players do not use them. Sometimes, though, using cheat codes is necessary, particularly in case of bugs: If a serious game-stopping bug is encountered, a cheat code may be able to bypass it without the need to start the whole game over again from the beginning.
A funny thing to note about many cheats is that sometimes the buttons to be pressed acutally read a word. For example, a cheat for the Sega Saturn computer game Bug! is "B, A, B, Y, Down, Right, A, L, Down". This reads "BABYSEALS", if you take down for "south", and right for "east". Another example is the classic "A, B, right, A, C, A, down, A, B, right, A" - that is Abracadabra.
Famous cheat codes
- Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Start — The Konami Code. First used in Gradius, more prominently used in Contra, has later been copied by many other games. It is also the name of a song by The Ataris.
- A, B, A, C, A, B, B – The blood code that allowed full blood and fatalities in the Sega Genesis version of Mortal Kombat.
- IDDQD, IDKFA and IDSPISPOPD from Doom by id Software
- Up, Down, Left, Right, A+Start - The level select code for Sonic the Hedgehog.
- xyzzy – the magic word from Colossal Cave Adventure is often used as a cheat code.
- nethack -uwizard -D, which starts Nethack in "wizard mode". Plain -D command-line flag starts "discovery mode" which has fewer cheats.
- G-O-D - The cheat to activate God mode in the first 3 Commander Keen games.
- rosebud - Unlimited money on The Sims
- thereisnospoon - Based on the quote from 1999 movie The Matrix, this code is used in many games to activate bullet-time.
- MOTHERFUCKENKIWIBASTARD from the Commodore Amiga version of The New Zealand Story. Quite an unusual cheat code for such a cuddly-wuddly cutesy game, but it has been proven to work. In later versions the cheat code was changed to the more family-friendly FLUFFYKIWIS.de:Cheat