how come none of the cheats work for me????????? any suggestions? also how can i get all the secret weapons? thanks

did you hold down shift when you pressed 8 so you got the * symbol? the * symbols are part of the code.

From the official W2 cheat page (http://w2.team17.com/main.html?page=good&area=chea):
Whilst playing the game itself and the time starts to tick down, type these cheats (including the asterisks) and and activate by pressing the backspace key.

Note:
The OnDeadlyGround cheat becomes a regular option if you have patched the game.

To get infinite amounts of all weapons (="Full Wormage"):
Use one of these as a team name and all players will get all weapons.
Un-patched version:
TEAM17MicroProse
Patched version:
IAmACompletepoof

Note:
These two cheats are case sensitive and need to be typed in exactly as I typed above, including the small p in the second.