I honestly don't feel that using the Konami code for Contra should ever be considered cheating cause that game was just mean.... I've used a couple from time to time but largely grew out of it. I still like using cheat codes for GTA but that's because I play those games to vent aggression by murdering virtual people with tanks and exploding cars and even then it gets dull pretty quickly.

I think the only game I ever cheated to win was Judge Dread on the SNES cause I couldn't get past this one boss and I found a level skip code that allowed me to bypass him and finally finish the game.