Spyro Year of the Dragon PS1 Cheats: Lives, Colors and More
Pause the original PS1 Spyro: Year of the Dragon, then enter the button sequence for the effect you want. The most useful starting codes are 99 lives, big head and flat mode. Color changes use a longer shared sequence, while the difficulty options change something more substantial than appearance.
This is a guide to the original PlayStation game, often called Spyro 3. It is not a Reignited Trilogy list. Some inputs overlap between releases, but that does not mean every code, condition or effect is interchangeable.
On this page
Enter codes on the pause screen
Load a save, begin playing and press Start to pause. Enter the selected sequence while the game remains paused, then return to play and inspect the result. Press repeated buttons individually: Circle four times means four taps. Directions are directional-pad inputs, not a request to move the analog stick in a circle.
Keep L1 distinct from L2, and R1 from R2. The 99-lives code uses the second pair of shoulder buttons, while big head uses R1. If your controller has different printed labels, check the mapped PlayStation inputs before entering a long sequence. Our iPhone controller guide explains the setup checks without assuming that the physical labels always match.
Start with one visible effect. A single successful big-head or flat-mode attempt confirms the input context more clearly than trying three long codes and wondering which one was accepted.
Lives, hit point and visual modes
| Effect | PS1 sequence while paused |
|---|---|
| 99 lives | R2, L2, R2, L2, Up, Up, Up, Up, Circle |
| Extra hit point | Circle, R1, Circle, L1, Circle, R2, Circle, L2, Circle |
| Big head | Up, R1, Up, R1, Up, R1, Circle, Circle, Circle, Circle |
| Flat / 2D Spyro | Left, Right, Left, Right, L1, R1, L1, R1, Square, Circle |
The extra-hit-point row is not an invincibility code, and 99 lives does not remove the need to complete a challenge. Treat their labels literally. Big head and flat mode are visual changes; re-enter their respective sequence to return to the normal appearance.
The original-era sources below agree on these four combinations. The lives code belongs to Year of the Dragon: a list beginning with repeated Square presses may be describing the first Spyro game instead. Our PS1 Spyro trilogy guide helps distinguish the three original titles.
Change Spyro’s color
For these color changes, enter this shared prefix while paused:
Up, Left, Down, Right, Up, Square, R1, R2, L1, L2, Up, Right, Down, Left, Up
Immediately finish with the button in the table. The final button is part of the sequence; do not resume gameplay between the prefix and the ending.
| Color | Final button after the prefix |
|---|---|
| Black | Down |
| Blue | Cross / X |
| Green | Triangle |
Writing the common prefix once makes the differences easier to check. For example, the blue version ends with the bottom face button, Cross. It does not replace every Cross elsewhere in the list, and “Blue” is an appearance option rather than a new ability.
If nothing changes, retry the whole prefix from the beginning. The shoulder-button section is a good place to double-check your reading: it runs R1, R2, L1, L2. These rows were checked against the original PlayStation code list and an original-game walkthrough, not inferred from a modern remake’s controller layout.
Easy and hard difficulty inputs
| Option | PS1 sequence while paused |
|---|---|
| Easy | Circle, Square, Right, Left, Right, Square, Circle, Cross |
| Hard | Circle, Square, Right, Left, Right, Square, Circle, Square |
Only the final button differs. Original-era code references label these as easy and hard options; this guide does not promise that either will eliminate a particular race, boss or minigame requirement. Try a familiar encounter if you want to judge the change without also learning a completely new area.
Keep a normal save available before experimenting with progression-related options. The save-state and in-game-save guide explains how those two records differ. A snapshot created after changing a setting is not a clean record of the game before that change.
Keep demos, warp codes and remake lists separate
The tables above concern ordinary Year of the Dragon play. Some original copies also contain demo access or later-game warp options, but those instructions use different screens or conditions. They should not be appended to the end of a normal pause-menu code.
Likewise, a Reignited guide can be misleading even when it shows a familiar 99-lives sequence. Read the game and platform heading before copying the next row. For the preceding adventure, use the separate Spyro 2 PS1 cheat guide; the shared character and some similar effects are not enough to identify the correct list.
These are built-in button inputs. They are distinct from GameShark memory addresses and do not require an external cheat database. This article does not claim that EMUspace offers a memory-code engine or that the codes were personally tested in the app.
Common questions
Do I enter the lives code at the title screen?
No. For the code listed here, pause during gameplay.
Does “2D Spyro” turn the whole game into a side-scroller?
No. It is the flat character-appearance effect described by the original code lists.
Why is my color code failing?
Check the full prefix, the final color button and all four shoulder-button inputs. Also confirm that the guide and your copy both refer to the original Year of the Dragon.
Can I use a Spyro 1 lives sequence here?
Use the Year of the Dragon sequence above. Cheat lists for the first game use a different input and menu context.