Game Cheat Codes

Game Cheat Codes

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What are Game Cheat Codes?

Cheat codes are codes that can be entered into a video game to change the game's behavior. The practice of cheat codes and secrets in a video game was started in the Atari 2600 game Adventure. Afterwards 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 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. There even used to be entire magazines dedicated to cheat codes for new games covering the top consoles of the day.

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, unofficial 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.

Sometimes cheat codes will actually spell a word when the buttons are pressed. For example, a code for the Sega Saturn 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" which spells Abracadabra.