PlayStation Cheats

The PSX used a common-available medium (the CD) and that led to some interesting results. Players found ways to pirate and duplicate the games using their PCs. They also found ways to load their PSX CDs on their PCs and look at the content - most of it just what you'd expect, but sometimes the game developers mistakenly left unused graphics on the CDs that hinted at future products or unreleased sequels.

Ordinary PSX Cheats

You can easily find many interesting, amusing, and unexpected PSX cheats for thousands of titles at cheat sites like www.gamefaqs.com and www.gamespot.com. (Note that on Gamespot, you have to go to the Cheats section and search for the PSX title you're seeking. They don't have a PSX section, but the PSX cheats are still in their database. At least at the time of this writing, they are!)

There's an enormous variety of cheats out there, from hidden characters to unlockable costumes to mystery weapons to invulnerability to instant access to all areas of the game.

The bulk of PSX cheats are fairly straightforward to enable. Usually they involve entering a sequence of button presses at key points in the game user interface - often before starting a game. In some PSX games, such as NFL Blitz, it clearly shows you a code-entering screen before you start your session. In others, there are only audio cues, or no cues at all.

Other common methods of "unlocking" or enabling a cheat involve going to unlikely areas to find secret items or characters, repeating tasks, winning certain challenges repeatedly, or performing certain tasks in a specific sequence. Unlocking a cheat can be fairly simple, or it can require the patience of Job and the reflexes of Superman.

Other Hackery

The PSX also opened itself to cheating by including a peripheral port on the back of the chassis. This port, which generally went ignored by game developers, allowed the GameShark people (and other cheat-device makers) an interface for affecting the games that the PSX ran.

The PSX GameShark is a device that allows players to easily enter cheats for their favorite games without needing to enter tricky codes or repeatedly perform feats of gaming single-mindedness. Other PSX cheat devices actually allow cheaters to bypass the PlayStation's copy protection schemes and browse the contents of the game CDs in the comfort of their living rooms.

Is PSX Cheating Dead?

The PSX is decidedly dated now... but in another ten years, it'll probably be retro-cool.

Stock up on your favorite cheats now! Who knows how long the cheat websites will continue to store the cheats for your favorite PSX games. And when you decide you want a little PSX fix, you probably don't want to have to play all the way through the games the hard way.