Cheating in video games has changed dramatically over time, and there are stigmas about it now that simply didn’t exist two decades ago. I can’t really fault the change, either.

Cheating nowadays is synonymous with losers ruining multiplayer games. Developers even occasionally try to cash in on the idea, selling progress when you used to be able to punch in a code for the same thing. Cheat codes are mostly extinct nowadays, but some have become gaming legends.

If you don’t know your Konami Code from your IDDQD, here are some of the most iconic cheats of all time.

I’m limiting the list to a single cheat per franchise, so we don’t just have a list of Doom codes!

10 Ikari Warriors

ABBA

Ikari Warriors is an obnoxiously unfair vertical-scrolling shooter on the NES. You can play with a friend and take on a literal army, including gun-toting soldiers and tanks.

Thanks to the sadistic difficulty, you will die a lot in Ikari Warriors, and there’s no avoiding it. Fortunately, you can respawn by tapping ‘A,B,B,A’ and can repeat the input as many times as necessary.

The code is instantly memorable, which is funny because the level skip code is a horrific string of 30 inputs you must rapidly enter before the rolling demo plays on the main menu.

The Angry Video Game Nerd popularized this one somewhat for a newer generation with a superb episode on the game. Even if you’ve never played Ikari Warriors, you at least know how to stay alive.

9 Turok 2: Seeds of Evil

BEWAREOBLIVIONISATHAND

Turok was a heavy hitter in the shooter genre once upon a time, even if it’s fallen out of relevance nowadays. For the uninitiated, Turok is a first-person shooter full of bizarre but creative weapons and creepy reptilian enemies.

Like many games from the 90s, Turok 2 has plenty of cheats, including the standard stuff, like unlimited ammo and lives. Turok makes the list because the developers included a code where you can enable EVERY cheat simultaneously!

If you enter ‘BEWAREOBLIVIONISATHAND’ on the N64 version or ‘OBLIVIONISOUTTHERE’ on PC, you will unlock every code and utterly break the game.

This epic cheat lets you curate your experience without memorizing and entering multiple commands.

8 Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

Full Health, Armor, and $250,000

It may not have a fancy name, but many cheats for San Andreas became muscle memory for players who just wanted to screw around without repercussions. It’s also arguably one of the best games on the PS2.

The code for Full Health, Armor, and $250,000 gave players access to anything they wanted without completely breaking the game. The code is different depending on what version you’re playing, but on the PS2, the command is ‘R1, R2, L1, X, Left, Down, Right, Up, Left, Down, Right, Up.’

It sounds like a horrible cheat to memorize, but players back in the 2000s used it so often that they remember the hand motion instead of the individual buttons.

7 Pokemon Red and Blue

Missingno

The enigmatic ‘Missingno’ in Pokémon is unique as it’s less of a code and more of a sequence of actions you must perform. Still, it functions like a cheat and anyone who tells you they played the original games without using it is lying to you.

The most common way to trigger a Missingno encounter is to follow these steps:

• Watch the Old Man’s Demonstration on how to catch Pokémon in Viridian City.
• Fly to Cinnabar Island.
• Use Surf along the island’s east coast and move up and down until Missingno appears.

At this point, a bizarre mess of broken sprites will appear as a random encounter called ‘Missingno.’ Run from the battle, and whichever item you have in your 6th slot will be duplicated multiple times.

You can use this trick to get infinite Master Balls and Rare Candies. Just keep in mind not to catch Missingno, as it can ruin your precious saved data. Besides, shiny Pokémon are cooler!

6 The Sims

Motherlode

The Sims games are iconic titles where creative players can craft jaw-dropping mansions and fashion wonderful lives for their residents. But if there’s one burden that always presents itself while you’re playing architect, it’s money.

Fortunately, Maxis programmed an eloquent cheat code to make your financial woes disappear. If you punch ‘motherlode’ into the cheat console (CTRL + Shift + C), 50,000 Simoleons casually enter your wallet. Remember that you need to enable cheats first by typing ‘testingcheats true’ into the console.

There are dozens of codes available for The Sims, including ‘Rosebud’ and ‘Money X,’ where you can just replace the ‘X’ with how many Simoleons you want. Still, every Sims specialist knows Motherlode, hence its inclusion on the list.

5 Sonic the Hedgehog

Level Select

The original Sonic the Hedgehog is a masterpiece, but what if you just want to vibe in Starlight Zone without beating all the stages before it?

In a similar command to the Konami Code, which we will get to later, the stage select code for Sonic the Hedgehog is memorable and easy to input. At the main menu, where Sonic appears and starts wagging his finger, press Up, Down, Left, and Right. The sound of a ring being collected will play, and you can enter the level select screen by pressing A+Start simultaneously.

I honestly used the Sonic 2 level select code more often for another shot at Metal Sonic, but the cheat uses the sound test menu and is nowhere near as memorable.

4 StarCraft

thereisnocowlevel

The ‘thereisnocowlevel’ code may not be the most influential on the list, but it certainly has the best backstory!

Before players made up unforgettable ‘fake’ cheats like the naked Lara Croft code or how to find Mew in Pokémon Red and Blue, a rumor spread about a mythical level in Diablo. This area was supposedly full of cows, although no footage of it exists, and all methods of getting there were wildly inconsistent nonsense.

Still, we all love a good story, and so did the makers of Diablo and StarCraft, Blizzard. If you use the code ‘thereisnocowlevel’ in StarCraft, it skips the level you’re playing. The best part of this tale is that there is actually a cow level in Diablo 2!

3 Mortal Kombat

ABACABB

Mortal Kombat was a beloved fighting game back in the 90s. It is known for its gore, violence, and fantastic gameplay. Naturally, players were hungry to take that experience from the arcade to the home consoles but were disappointed to find something missing.

Blood is nonexistent on the SNES version of MK and is replaced with ‘sweat,’ which is far worse, in my opinion. The Genesis/Mega Drive version had the same absence of blood, although you could turn it back on.

If you press ‘A, B, A, C, A, B, B’ on the storyline screen, it restores blood and brings the home version a little closer to the arcades.

2 Doom

IDDQD

Doom should need no introduction as it’s one of the most influential first-person shooters of all time, and developers are still trying to recapture its magic in the boomer shooter subgenre.

Many Doom cheats could have made the list, but IDDQD is arguably the most popular. If you punch the command into the console, Doom Guy’s eyes glaze over in gold. While in this state, you are completely unkillable in a form commonly known as ‘god mode.’

Another legendary code for Doom is ‘idspispopd,’ which removes clipping so you can casually stroll through the scenery, including walls and locked doors.

1 Contra

Konami Code/Contra Code

The Konami code is legendary for its inclusion in several Konami games, although it’s most well-known thanks to Contra on the NES. The input is simply ‘Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A.’

It’s a long string but easy to remember, and its most recognizable effect is giving Contra players 30 extra lives. You definitely need them in a game that difficult!

Konami noticed how iconic their code became and even used it or similar variations in other titles. Funnily enough, players could technically use the code in Gradius before Contra, and it gave pilots in the space shooter a huge power boost.