About

The Shelby Cobra, popularly known as simply the Cobra, is a cheat unit modeled after the real-life AC Cobra car^[1] in the 1999 real-time strategy game Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings that can be spawned by typing "HOW DO YOU TURN THIS ON" into the in-game chat. It moves extremely quickly and attacks by firing a rapid stream of bullets. As the most well-known cheat unit in the game, it has become an icon of classical video games.

Origin

Age of Empires II features a variety of cheat codes^[2] that can be used in cheat-enabled games to spawn units, grant resources, and manipulate the game world or players in various ways. Due to its versatility and design, the Cobra established itself as the most popular cheat unit, and became a symbol of cheat codes in Age of Empires.

The unit can be seen at around 4:32 in the video below:

Predecessor

Age of Empires also features a cheat unit resembling a sports car with a person holding a rocket launcher, Winsett's Z, which can be spawned by typing "BIGDADDY" into the chat. It was modeled after 1995 Chevrolet Camaro Z28^[3], and was the strongest unit in the game – possesing incredible speed and the ability to kill most units in just one hit.

Spread

Shortly after the game's release, various internet sites^[4][5] published complete walkthroughs, tips and cheats to Age of Empires II, including "HOW DO YOU TURN THIS ON", responsible for spawning the Shelby Cobra. The phrase also entered gaming slang and could be seen to turn up on various forums, especially after the release of Age of Empires II: HD Edition.

Sprites

Credit to Blue Villager.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References