Considerations
While compatible with the Xbox 360, "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas" was originally an Xbox game. Because the Xbox controller and the Xbox 360 controller feature different button layouts, cheat codes for original Xbox games must be translated in order to work on the Xbox 360 controllers.
Identification
Original Xbox controllers feature two small, circular buttons positioned above the standard four-button layout. One of these additional buttons is white, the other button is black. The "white" button sits over the "Y" button, while the "black" button sits above the "B" button. Any cheat code including the words "white" or "black" refers to these buttons. This creates a problem when playing original Xbox games on the Xbox 360. Reading "black" or "white" in a code simply refers to these buttons and doesn't have anything to do with the code's effectiveness or performance.
Translation
While they lack "white" and "black" buttons, Xbox 360 controllers have two long, horizontal "bumper" buttons set into the top of the controller. These "bumper" buttons sit above the usual "trigger" buttons and fill the same exact roles as the original "black" and "white" buttons. The "left bumper" button replaces the "white" button on the original Xbox controller. The "right bumper" button replaces the original Xbox controller's "black" button.
Codes
A sample "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas" cheat code reads "Right Trigger, Black, Left Trigger, A, Left, Down, Right, Up, Left, Down, Right, Up." The code, which grants $250,000 plus full health and full armor, must be translated to work on the Xbox 360, with the "Black" button replaced with a press of the "Right Bumper." For another example, the original Xbox code for aggressive traffic reads "Black, B, Right Trigger, White, Left, Right Trigger, Left Trigger, Black, White." On the Xbox 360, the same code would read as "Right Bumper, B, Right Trigger, Left Bumper, Left, Right Trigger, Left Trigger, Right Bumper, Left Bumper."