Welcome to the 32 Dangerous Cheat Codes, a brand new series that will run daily between November 24 and December 25. Join us as we discuss the hazardous ramifications of some of your favorite cheat codes. Today we're getting rid of music. And not just some music, but all of it. Why? Because we're talking about a very strange cheat code found in Syd of Valis on the Sega Genesis. Find out what I'm talking about in today's episode of the 32 Dangerous Cheat Codes.


Karen hates music. She likes the fashion, the big hair and pyrotechnics, but can't stand how the infectious melodies get stuck in her head. All it takes is one catchy chorus to set Karen off, and then the rest of her day is completely ruined. If this frustrated wallflower were to get her way, she would snap her fingers and remove music from her life entirely.

It sounds like Karen would get along with the creators of Syd of Valis, a cutesy 2D action game with a very strange cheat code.

In the 1990s, it was common to see developers sneak sound tests and other music modes into their games. But this Valis spin-off decided to go in the complete opposite direction, opting instead to remove the music entirely. If you simultaneously press the B and Start buttons at the title screen, the game will go out of its way to scrap the soundtrack and force you to play in silence.

What makes this so unique is that it's one of the few codes that ended up becoming a standard option in pretty much all modern games. It's rare to find a current title that doesn't allow you to mute the music and only listen to the sound effects, normally without holding the B and Start buttons. But this kind of thing was exceedingly rare in 1992, making Syd of Valis something of a trailblazer.

As it turns out, what is good for a video game is not good in real life. If Karen were to get her wish and magically erase all of the music from the world, she would quickly be driven insane. Movies aren't the same without the dramatic score punctuating each scene, and a world without dance is not a world most people want to live in. Gone would be the vibrant fashion trends, the must-have hairstyles, the love of learning a musical instrument and, yes, even Rock Band. It all leads to Karen realizing that the ambient sounds of the real world existing as normal takes the place of music, and it's even more annoying than the steady diet of EDM she was suffering through before.