493 Words About: Pharaoh’s Hippo Stomp Cheat Code

In 1999, I played a lot of Pharaoh for PC because I was obsessed with ancient Egypt, and because of this I learned about Hippopotamuses. I also was living at a time when cheatcodes were still programmed into games.

To wit.

I press and hold the buttons “Control” then “Alt” and then the letter “C.” A text box will appear, and I can type a number of “codes.” One will give me 1000 deben(the in-game currency). One will let me immediately win the scenario I’m playing. One will increase city exports. And one will make a “passel” of angry hippos appear where my mouse cursor is situated on the screen.

It was usually in the center of my city.

I typically would save my game before I used this code, because I knew this would create chaos, pandemonium, and worst of all, dissatisfaction of my citizens which would cause property values to sink and it would take forever to win the scenario I was playing. There was one game I recall when, out of boredom (or curiosity), I entered the code “Hippo Stomp” around 30 times. Soon enough the burgeoning metropolis I had created was awash with the hulking pixelated mammals who bobbed their head and chewed on nothing while the crushed bodies beneath their feet suggested there was once a civilization here. Granaries full of pomegranates and wheat would soon be filled with rotting produce.

I laughed, reloaded my save, and finished the scenario.

When I wrote about the videogame Mercenaries I mentioned missing cheatcodes, and that wasn’t just attempts at humor. I do miss cheatcodes a lot and not simply because they made games easier or funnier.

Videogames are computer software which means they are built up of code that then creates a simulation, whatever that may be. “Hippo Stomp” was one of my earliest experiences with computer coding because it taught me that I could impact the reality of a game, even in a hilariously morbid way. Using just 11 characters, I was able to create something new in the game which had not existed before.

When I was a kid the computer, like the refrigerator or television, seemed like something totally alien and perfect that had just arrived; I never thought how it could be made or unmade. Videoames seemed much the same way.

In its own subversive way, cheatcodes allowed me a doorway into videogames because it showed me how software was ultimately, like any machine, something that was made and could be changed. I could create cities like the designers intended, but I could also destroy them using this code. Dropping hippos from nowhere was a hot burst of agency I had never experienced.

“Hippo Stomp” is a code unlocking a core memory: me laughing at hippos devouring a small town. It was absurd that something so random could exist, or that I could make it exist. 

Though the code “Side Show” certainly left me boggling.

Joshua “Jammer” Smith

1.29.2024

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***UPDATE***

I’ve uploaded a video on YouTube of myself reading this essay. You can listen to me read it by following the link below:

493 Words About: Pharoah's Hippo Stomp Cheat Code (youtube.com)