cheats not working

[BloodRaynare]

why would i have to do that?
i had gotten the cheats to work without doing it just now.

Because the emulator wouldn't load the cheats if you didn't put it in that directory.
Don't confuse the output of the widescreen patch with the regular cheats.

Regular cheats will still need to be put into the cheats directory.
(Unless, you modified the widescreen patch then put it directly into the cheats_ws.zip)