The original Grand Theft Auto uses player-name codes rather than GTA V's phone system. The first step is identifying the version: PC and PlayStation have different code vocabularies, while the Game Boy Color adaptation has its own options. A working code for one is not evidence that the same word belongs in another.
This is a researched reference to selected useful codes, not a claim of hands-on testing or an exhaustive debug-command list. For the game's development, cities and character choices, read the GTA 1997 profile.
How to enter original GTA cheats on PC
Use the player-name entry screen before starting play. Enter the code as the name and confirm it. Where a code enables an additional key action, the name alone is not the final step: the weapon shortcut below also uses the asterisk key during play.
Remove police pursuit:
iamthelaw.Unlock cities:
itsgallus.Weapons, armor and a jail card:
suckmyrocket.Enable the asterisk weapon shortcut:
buckfast, then press*in play.
These entries are documented in Grand Theft Wiki's original GTA list. Keep the spelling intact. Search results contain variant spellings for some less common codes, so this selection avoids relying on an ambiguous infinite-lives word.
PlayStation name-entry codes
The PlayStation release also accepts names, but use its own list. These are text entries, not directions to press the controller buttons represented by individual letters.
99 lives:
SATANLIVES.All cities:
CAPRICEorTURF.Weapons:
GROOVYorMADEMAN.Weapons, armor and a jail card:
PECKINPAH.Level selection:
SKYBABIES.No police:
CHUFF.Maximum wanted level:
EATTHIS.9,999,990 points:
WEYHEY.
The platform separation is corroborated by iGrandTheftAuto's cheat reference. Notice that a points code is described as points, not automatically as a modern GTA Online bank balance. The first GTA's scoring structure is part of how its progression works.
Original GTA on Game Boy Color: cheat options
The handheld adaptation is not the PC executable running on a smaller screen. Its documented name options include LEVELS for level access and FULL for ammunition. Use the Game Boy Color section of the linked reference rather than entering a PlayStation name and assuming the handheld is broken when nothing happens.
This guide does not claim an official Android or iOS release of the original 1997 game. An emulator running a handheld version remains that handheld version for code purposes. The device displaying it does not change the original game's cheat parser.
Choosing an effect for the task
Extra lives, police removal and level selection solve different problems. Lives provide more attempts; police removal changes pursuit; level access changes what can be selected. None should be described as a universal mission-completion command.
A weapons code can help explore combat but does not teach a route or explain a mission objective. For learning the cities, it is often clearer to change one variable at a time. That makes it easier to identify whether a problem comes from navigation, the objective or the player's equipment.
If a code does nothing
Return to the version check first. Confirm that the game is the original GTA, not GTA 2 or a London expansion. Then confirm that the code was entered on the name screen and accepted rather than typed into a menu that does not process it.
For the asterisk shortcut, check the actual input reaching the game. A keyboard layout or emulator mapping can make a visible key label misleading. Do not install an unrelated trainer just to solve a name-entry problem.
Saving and related games
Keep a separate clean save or progress record before experimenting. This guide does not make a blanket claim that modern achievement rules apply to every 1990s release. It also does not promise that restarting reverses every saved consequence of an experiment.
The London 1969 cheat guide and GTA 2 cheat guide cover different code sets. Matching the exact game is more useful than collecting a long mixed list labelled simply GTA cheats.
Sources & verification
Sources last verified on . This article covers published information, not hands-on testing.
Editorial & update notes
AI-assisted research and writing based on the linked references. This is not a hands-on review. Cheat codes have not been tested by NextPlayIntel; platform and edition limitations are explained in the guide. Images are labelled AI-generated illustrations, not gameplay screenshots.
