Cheat Code Central

Cheat Code Central, also known as CCC and CheatCC, is a video game website primarily known for its extensive list of cheat codes. Cheat Code Central offers previews, reviews, news, and various articles on the gaming industry. The site is owned by David Allison and was started May 9, 1997. Cheat Code Central posts exclusive content written by numerous freelance writers. Writers are paid on a per article basis, though they are required to write a minimum amount of trial articles for free in order to prove their skills.

History
In June 2001, the website began an exclusive paid membership area to the website entitled Cheat Code Central Platinum. Perks for membership to CCCP included access to the website without any ads, timed exclusive codes, and exclusive previews and reviews. Cheat Code Central Platinum lasted until June 2005, after which all of the site's content became free again.

By mid 2006, the website boasted approximately 3 million unique visitors a month. In July 2006, Beckett Media began running a spotlight series based on Cheat Code Central's extensive site content. The magazine, entitled Beckett Cheat Codes Powered by Cheat Code Central, featured some of the website's more popular cheat codes along with some of their reviews, previews, and special features. The bimonthly publication ran for only a year.

Early 2007, Cheat Code Central began a Game Trade service on their website. The service allows any registered member to trade their used games for purchase points towards new game titles.

In May 2007, CheatCC began releasing a weekly comic strip done by Matthew Walker. The title of the comics, Console Crash Comics, was to symbolize the three Cs of CheatCC and loosely mention the wars between the consoles (Xbox 360, PS3, and the Wii). After 37 strips the comics have been placed on hiatus.

June 2007 marked the beginning of CheatCC's official podcast dubbed C4 Podcast. "C4" means Cheat Code Central Crew.

Reviews and rating system
CheatCC previews and reviews the newest games entering the video game market. The overall score of the game is based on graphics, controls, music, sound effects, voice acting, and play value. The games are rated on a five-point scale: