Quake · PC · 1996 · Cheat Code
Effect: God mode grants invincibility; noclip disables collision with geometry; notarget makes all enemies passive.
Quake shifted the PC first-person shooter cheat paradigm from memorised keyword sequences typed during gameplay (as in Doom) to an in-engine developer console accessible via the tilde key. Typing commands directly into the console felt more like interfacing with the game's internals, and it exposed players to Quake's scripting and configuration system for the first time. The "notarget" command in particular was a novel addition — allowing players to spectate AI behaviour without triggering it — and became a staple for level designers and modders studying the game's enemy logic. The console approach influenced virtually every major PC first-person shooter that followed.