Cheat codes have become something of a relic in modern gaming, very often placed either as an afterthought or as some kind of acknowledgement or throwback to the game's history.

In most cases, they were put in by the designers when they needed to access a certain level for testing or debugging and were left in the game merely out of ease. Some, of course, were hidden in-jokes that the designers left for players to find - and others were just plain weird.

Whether they were a help or hindrance, some cheats have stayed in people's minds for years. Here's some of our favourites.

 

10. TURNING THE REFEREE INTO A DOG IN INTERNATIONAL SUPER STAR SOCCER DELUXE

The method: At the start screen, press Up, Up, Down,Down,Left,Right,Left,Right,B,A and start. It must be done in the second controller.

The result: Heckin' good doggo referee, fren. 12 / 10, would play football with.

 

9. BEING A MILLIONAIRE IN THE SIMS

The method: Depending on what version of the game you had, you typed either rosebud, kaching, klapaucius or motherlode after opening up the passcode.

The result: MONEY MONEY MONEY.... MONNEEEYY.

 

8. THE ANT MISSIONS IN COMMAND & CONQUER: RED ALERT

The method: Hold down the Shift key and click on the speaker in the main menu when you've installed the Counter Strike expansion pack.

The result: Four ridiculously hard missions that involved you fighting off giant ants. Think about that for a second in terms of the current situation with EA, loot boxes and DLC. You got four missions for free. That's how it used to be.

 

7. TOMB RAIDER 2'S LEVEL SKIP AND / OR GUNS

The method: Sidestep left, sidestep right, sidestep left. Hold the WALK button and move backwards then forwards. Release the WALK button. Turn around 360 degrees three times in any direction. Jump forward (or backward) and immediately press and hold the ROLL button.

The result: No, it didn't turn Lara Croft naked and it didn't make bears faint when they saw Lara Croft naked. All it did - depending on whether you jumped forward or backward - was either give you every gun in the game or make you skip a level.

 

6. FLYING CARS IN GRAND THEFT AUTO: SAN ANDREAS

The method: Up, Down , L1, R1, L1, Right, Left, L1, Left.

The result: Every time you drove a car over any kind of a bump, it turned into the flying car from Harry Potter. Fun and all as it was, it didn't help when you were trying to chase the train.

 

5. THE WEIRD CONFIG MODE IN SONIC THE HEDGEHOG

The method: Up, C, Down, C, Left, C, Right. Hold A and press Start.

The result: A strange, strange world where Sonic can turn into pretty much anything in the game, levels can be skipped at random and the game crashes pretty quickly. The first time you accessed it, you felt like you'd just hacked the Matrix.
 

 

4. FIGHTING AKUMA IN SUPER STREET FIGHTER II

The method: Defeat every character in twenty-five minutes with no continues with at least three Perfect rounds.

The result: Akuma turns up in the final round, defeats M. Bison and steps into place - and then proceeds to batter the ever-loving crap out of you. Seriously, if you could beat Akuma that way, you were some kind of genius.

 

3. GOD / GUN MODE IN DOOM

The method: Type IDFKA or IDDQD in Doom or Doom 2.

The result: Invulnerability and all guns. Go on a kill-crazy rampage in all of its 8-bit glory!

 

2. BLOOD IN MORTAL KOMBAT

The method: Press A, B, A, C, A, B, B at the title screen.

The result: You'll hear Scorpion shout "GET OVER HERE!" or Shao Kahn / the announcer say "EXCELLENT!", and then came the moral panic of the '90s - blood and pixel-driven violence in computer games.

 

1. THE KONAMI CODE

The method: Press Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A.

The result: Depending on the game, you either got 30 lives (in Contra), 9 lives (in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), or in other games such as ISS 64 or Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, it did a range of different things. It wasn't just games produced by Konami either. Just this year, the Bank Of Canada used the code on one of their webpages celebrating the new $10 note. You typed the code in and received some fireworks and a MIDI version of Oh, Canada. The Deftones, the Ataris, Falling In Reverse, the Moldy Peaches - it's even been used in songs.