Cheating in modern multiplayer games is a serious issue, as it violates rules and often results in players being banned. It wasn’t always like this, though, as retro gaming, particularly in the 1980s, featured some of the best cheats, glitches, and exploits of all time. These were often worked directly into the game’s code, and if you knew the cheat, you could gain an advantage. There are plenty of examples of these kinds of cheats and exploits, many of which add a lot of fun to a game. We’ve rounded up the seven that helped define classic video game cheating and arranged them in no particular order.
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1) The Konami Code
When it comes to cheat codes, the one that’s probably the most well-known is the so-called “Konami Code.” The code has carved out a niche in popular culture and is often included as an Easter egg in various media. It was first used in the 1986 NES port of Gradius, where it gave the player a full complement of power-ups at the start of the game. If entered backwards, it gave the player 30 lives. It’s probably best known for its use in Contra, also on the NES. Entering Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Start provides the player with 30 lives, and the Konami Code gained a lot of popularity for this, to the point that it’s sometimes called the “30-lives Code.”
2) Mortal Kombat – Blood Code
When it was released in 1992, Mortal Kombat was a revolutionary game. It was also incredibly controversial due to its realistic characters and gore. Mortal Kombat started as an arcade game, but it didn’t take long for it to be ported to home consoles. When it came to the Super Nintendo and Game Boy ports, the blood was removed. It was also gone in the Sega Genesis and Game Gear ports, but a code fixed that. If a player entered A, B, A, C, A, B, B on the “Code of Honor” screen, they enabled the gore, making the game more like its arcade counterpart. Additionally, entering Down, Up, Left, Left, A, Right, Down (DULLARD) opened up a full cheat menu with additional options.
3) Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out! – Fight Mike First
Nintendo released Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out! On the NES in 1987, and it’s widely considered to be one of the best games on the system. In it, the player takes control of Little Mac, a fighter who must work his way through a series of opponents before facing the Champ: Mike Tyson. Getting to Tyson involves a series of memorized moves, and once you reach him, a single hit landed on Little Mac ends the game. When this happens, it seems like all the time and effort spent getting to the fight were wasted. Fortunately, there’s a cheat code for that! If a player enters the password 007-373-5963 on the “Continue” screen, they are taken to fight Tyson immediately, bypassing everyone else.
4) Super Mario Bros. – Turtle Tipping
Super Mario Bros. was a revolutionary platformer when it debuted alongside the NES in 1985. The game includes tons of secrets players have found and exploited over the years, and there are many ways to play it. There are a few cheats people can use, and one of the most popular is “Turtle Tipping.” This is less of a cheat and more of an exploit that requires skill and patience to master. Still, once you get the hang of it, you’re essentially given infinite lives. On World 3-1 and in some other areas, there’s a staircase with a turtle on it. Jumping on the shell forces the Koopa Troopa inside, and you can repeatedly jump on that shell, racking up points until you successively earn as many 1UPs as you want.
5) The Legend of Zelda – The Second Quest
There’s no denying that The Legend of Zelda is one of the most important RPGs in gaming history. It features a massive world, plenty of puzzles, and exciting dungeons to explore. Many players made their way through the game, and once you beat it, you unlock the Second Quest. This is a replay of the game with increased difficulty, the dungeons and shops are moved around and altered, and it’s essentially what it sounds like — a second quest. If players wanted to skip the whole “beating the game thing,” all they had to do to unlock the Second Quest was to enter “ZELDA” in the name input screen.
6) NBA Jam – Big Head Mode
When it was released in 1993, NBA Jam absolutely revolutionized the basketball sports video game genre as an era-defining masterpiece. The game improved on every prior attempt at making a viable basketball game, and it influenced the ones that followed. It was incredibly successful and had tons of fans — it also had several cheats and exploits. One included adding a real-world roster to the game, but the most fun to play was easily the so-called “Big Head Mode.” It’s exactly what it sounds like, and all a player had to do was enter Up, Turbo, Steal at the “Tonight’s Matchup” screen right before the game starts, and everyone’s head balloons to massive proportions.
7) Sonic the Hedgehog – Level Select
Like Super Mario Bros. on the NES, Sonic the Hedgehog was a transformative masterclass in platformer design. The game introduced one of the industry’s most enduring franchises that survived Sega’s abandonment of hardware development after the Dreamcast’s failure. Sonic fans love playing his games, and there are a lot of them. Going back to the very first one, there was a way to choose whichever level you wanted to play, which wasn’t part of the game’s normal playthrough. On the title screen, press Up, Down, Left, Right — wait for a chime — and then hold A and press Start, and you’re taken to a level select and debug mode. The code was so popular that variations of it have appeared in many Sonic games since the first one.
What’s your favorite retro gaming cheat? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
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Image Courtesy of Bandai Namco Pictures/Studio Bones
