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Cheating - game cheats, ps2 and others
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Cheating (video games)
Cheating in video games is a process whereby a player of a video game
creates an advantage beyond the bounds of normal gameplay, usually to make
the game easier.
Typical cheats include unfair advantages such as invulnerablility ("God
mode") or an infinite amount of some resource such as ammunition. Cheats may
also create unusual or interesting effects which do not necessarily make the
game easier to play, such as making enemies tougher. Cheats often take the
form of 'secrets' placed by game developers, usually to reward dedicated
players.
Cheats may be activated from within the game itself (a cheat code
implemented by the original game developers); or created by third-party
software (a game trainer) or hardware (a cheat cartridge).
History
Cheating in video games has already been around for almost the entire
history of videogames. The first cheat codes were put in place for play
testing purposes. Playtesters had to rigourosly test the mechanics of a game
and introduced cheat codes to make this process easier. An early cheat code
can be found in Manic Miner, where typing "6031769" (the phone number of the
developer, Matthew Smith)[1] enables the cheat mode.
Cheating on early home computers
Even on early gaming systems such as the ZX Spectrum, cheating was
prevalent, even a necessity (such as in the case of Jet Set Willy).[2] A
variety of different methods were used.
In a computer game, all numerical values are stored 'as is' in memory.
Gamers could literally reprogram a small part of the game before launching
it.[3] In the context of games for many 8-bit computers, it was a usual
practice to load games into memory and, before launching them, modify
specific memory addresses in order to cheat, getting an unlimited number of
lives, immunity, invisibility, etc. Such modifications were performed
through POKE sentences. The Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum also allowed
players with the proper cartridges or Multiface add-on to freeze the running
program, enter POKEs, and resume. Some games tried to detect the Multiface,
and refused to load if it was present. The earliest models had no ability to
"hide". Later revisions either included a switch, hid if you opened and
closed the menu before loading the game, or automatically hid.
For instance, with "POKE 47196,201" in Knight Lore for the ZX Spectrum,
immunity is achieved. Magazines such as CRASH regularly featured lists of
such POKE instructions for games. In order to find them a hacker had to
interpret the machine code and locate the critical point where the number of
lives is decreased, impacts detected, etc. Sometimes the term POKE was used
with this specific meaning.
Early gaming magazines such as Your Sinclair included sections containing
the latest tips and POKE cheats.
Early cheating was largely exploited by technology-orientated players due to
the difficulty of early cheats. However, a cheat industry quickly emerged as
gaming systems evolved, through the packaging and selling of cheating as a
product. Cheat-enablers such as cheat books, game guides, cheat cartridges
helped form a cheat industry and cemented cheating as part of gaming
culture.[4] Cheating was not universally accepted in early gaming however.
Gaming magazine Amiga Power took a very strong opinion on cheating,
condemning cheaters. They took the stance that cheating was not part of
their philosophy of fairness. They also applied this in reverse; games
should not be allowed to cheat the player, either.
Cheating on modern home computers and consoles
Cheating is very popular in modern videogames, with several magazines
dedicated to listing cheats and walkthroughs for consoles and computer
systems. POKE cheats have disappeared and have been replaced by trainers and
cheat codes. By and large, the majority of cheat codes on modern day systems
are implemented not by gamers, but by game developers. The reasons for this
are relatively clear:
* The establishment of a cheating culture has created expectancy from gamers
for video games to contain cheats.
* Cheats in single player games increase a game's replay value for the
gamer.
* Game developers understand that many people do not have the time to
complete a video game on their own,[5] and therefore cheats make a game more
accessible and appealing to a casual gamer.
* An example of someone who doesn't have time to complete a video game on
their own is a game reviewer working to a tight deadline. Cheat codes will
enable the reviewer to experience more of the game content in the limited
time available, and therefore (hopefully) produce a better review.
* With the rise in popularity of gaming, cheating using external software
and hardware raises a number of copyright legal issues related to modifying
game code.
Typical effects of cheats
Invulnerability
Invulnerablility ("God mode") is a state wherein the player character is
invulnerable to damage. A variation of this is "Buddha mode" where the
player character gets damaged or hurt but cannot die (health stops
decreasing when it reaches 1).
Invisibility
Invisibility in a video game causes enemies to not see the player character,
in order to avoid being attacked by them, such as the "notarget" code in
some first-person shooters.
No-Clip or flying
No-Clip disables collision detection so the player character can pass
through walls or objects, inheriting a rather ethereal quality to playing
the game. Flying allows the player to move freely about in the game's space,
even up and down, as if walking through air.
Infinite resources
An infinite amount of some resource such as ammunition, lives, or money.
Some cheat codes allow the user to increase the amount of such resources to
the maximum amount the player is permitted to carry, but without giving them
infinite amounts; however generally the code may be repeated at any time, in
some cases, even while using the resource, essentially giving unlimited
amounts of the resource, e.g. being able to keep reloading while shooting,
giving the close equivalent of unlimited ammo.
Addition to weapons or inventory items
There are ways of editing a game save file to add certain useful items to
your inventory or give your player more weapons. Save files can also be
edited to place the player character in a different area in the game.
Unlockable items and characters
Some cheats can unlock hidden items or unused content in the game. In beat 'em
up games it is common for characters to be unlockable.
Unusual effects
Cheats may create unusual or interesting effects which don't necessarily
make the game easier to play. For example, one cheat in Jurassic Park:
Operation Genesis makes dinosaurs appear 'undead'. In other games, a cheat
may make the game harder to play; for instance one could give the enemy
special abilities, add a harder difficulty, make neutral bystanders attack
the player or give the player a disadvantage such as low health points. In a
few games the player is humorously penalized if they use cheat codes
originally for another game; for example, using cheat codes from Doom in
Descent would result in a sarcastic message from the programmers on screen.
Similar effects also occurred if codes from Descent were attempted to be
used in its sequels. The game Heretic played on Doom's codes, giving the
opposite results desired (instant death instead of invulnerability;
stripping weapons instead of providing them, etc)[citation needed]. Other
unusual cheats found regularly in games include "big-head mode" and codes to
change the colours of characters.
Some games allow the player to enter a code to change what the character is
wearing or to change the character itself, but not enhance the progress of
the game. For example, most of the Grand Theft Auto games allow the player
to enter a code to make the character change into an NPC. Another unusual
cheat code in the Grand Theft Auto games is the ability to make the people
of the town start rioting.
Effects such as this which are intentionally included in the game are known
as Easter eggs. One example of this is hidden level 'warps' in the original
Mario Bros..
Cheating Methods
Cheat code
Cheat codes are cheats that may be activated from within the game itself.
Most common entry points are in a developer console, a code entry dialog, at
title screens, or in-game. Cheat codes are often sequences of button presses
or textual commands, depending on the input device. Unlike other cheating
methods, cheat codes are implemented by the game developers themselves,
often as a tool to playtest certain aspects of the game without difficulty.
For example, the Konami Code was built in the game Gradius gave the player a
full set of powerups because the developer, Kazuhisa Hashimoto, thought the
game was too hard to play during testing.[6] Some games allow cheat codes to
be unlocked when a player has enough of some kind of points or money.
Examples of this are the unlockable secrets in Jak 2 and Jak 3 that modify
the player character's appearance, etc.
Modification of game code
Activation may take the approach of modifying existing game code.[7] In the
case of Jet Set Willy on the ZX Spectrum computer, a popular cheat involved
replacing a Z80 instruction DEC (HL) in the program (which was responsible
for decrementing the number of lives by one) with a NOP.[8]
Modification of game source code
There are some open source games such as BZFlag that have their source code
freely available. A player could take this code and rewrite it so it either
includes cheats or applies a cheat to the game automatically.
Trainers
Game trainers are programs made to modify behaviour of a computer game,
usually using addresses and values, in order to allow cheating[9]. It can
"freeze" a memory address disallowing the game from lowering or changing the
information stored at that memory address i.e. health meter. It simply
manipulates the data at the memory addresses specified to suit the needs of
the person cheating at the game. These methods of cheating are often less
reliable than cheat codes included into a game by its creators; certain
programming styles or quirks of internal game logic, different release
versions of a game, or even using the same game at different times or on
different hardware, may result in different memory usage and hence the
trainer program might have no effect, or stop the game from running
altogether.
In the 1980s and 1990s, trainers were generally integrated straight into the
actual game by cracking groups. When the game was first started, the trainer
loaded first, asking the player if he/she wished to cheat. Then the code
would proceed to the actual game. In the cracker group release lists and
intros, trained games were marked with one or more plus signs after them,
one for each option in the trainer, for example: "the Mega Krew presents:
Ms. Astro Chicken++". Modern trainers append their titles with a single +
and a number, as many have several functions. The number used represents the
number of modifications the trainer has available[9]. Examples include
"Final Fantasy VII - Ultima Edition +50 Trainer" or "Halo +15 Trainer",
which would have 50 or 15 different effects respectively.
Modern trainers also come as separately downloadable programs; instead of
modifying the game's programming directly, values stored in memory are
changed.
Hardware
A cheat cartridge is attached to an interface port on a home computer or
console. It allows a user to modify the game code either before or during
its execution. An early example is the Multiface for the ZX Spectrum, and
almost every format since has had a cheat cartridge created for it; such as
Datel's range of Action Replay devices. Another popular example of this is
Game Genie for NES, Super Nintendo, Game Boy, and Game Gear game consoles.
Modern disc-based cheat hardware include GameShark and Code Breaker which
modify game code from a large database of cheats.
Emulation
Some emulators such as VisualBoyAdvance, Nestopia, Snes9x, and Project64
allow players to modify game code as the game is running to cheat. Some even
emulate cheating hardware such as Game Genie. Emulators such as MAME take
this a step further, by introducing menus specifically for cheating on a
particular game. One huge advantage of emulators over unaugmented authentic
hardware is that they are often able to save the state of the entire
emulated machine at any point, effectively allowing saving at any point in a
game even where no facility for saving and restoring progress is provided by
the game itself; additional hardware "instant replay" devices for some
consoles also allow such behaviour.
Saved game editors
Programs exist that offer the facility to change attributes held within a
game's save profile. It can allow someone to uncover secrets, discover
things cut from games and modify characters.[10] For example, on the game
Elite, utilities exist that allow the number of in-game credits to be
modified, or additional equipment to be acquired. Hex editors were formerly
quite a popular means of editing saved game files (e.g. to give the player a
large sum of money in strategy games such as Dune II). However, with the
rise of dedicated game-editing utilities, hex editing as a means of cheating
in games has become comparatively unpopular.
Strategy guides
Strategy guides are instruction books that contain hints or complete
solutions to specific video games. The exact meaning of a "strategy guide"
these days is very vague, as most could be easily ranked as "walkthroughs"
or "hint collections". Some people consider using a strategy guide a form of
cheating. This usually applies to adventure or role-playing games where a
puzzle may need to be solved. Strategy guides reveal the answers to puzzles
and give hints on how to pass certain scenes in a game. Some guides even
include a list of cheat codes for the game.
Cheating in online games
Cheating exists in many multiplayer online computer games. While there have
always been cheat codes and other ways to make single player games easier,
developers often attempt to prevent it in multiplayer games. With the
release of the first popular internet multiplayer games cheating took on new
dimensions. Previously it was rather easy to see if the other players
cheated, as most games were played on local networks or consoles. The
Internet changed that by increasing the popularity of multiplayer games,
giving the players anonymity, and giving people an avenue to communicate
cheats.
Aimbots
An aimbot, sometimes called "auto-aim", is software used in online
multiplayer first-person shooter games that assists the player in aiming at
the target. Since it gives the user an advantage over unaided players, it is
considered a cheat.
Twinking
Twinking is the practice of passing on valuable items not normally available
at player's character's level. Such activity is often employed by "power
levellers" in games such as EverQuest in order to quickly increase the rate
at which experience points can be accumulated and therefore the
corresponding progression within the game. However, in some cases, this may
not necessarily be a cheat as it can be done without breaking any game
rules, as in World of Warcraft, where high level players can easily mail
money and equipment to their lower level characters.
Macroing
Macroing is when a player uses a script called a macro, which automates
player actions, to automatically find items or defeat enemies for the
player's advantage. This is common in online multiplayer games such as
RuneScape or World of Warcraft, despite being against the rules of the video
game. Still, World of Warcraft has its own macros system, although the
commands are limited to less than 300 letters.
Sale of online currency
The prevalence of massively multiplayer online games (MMORPGs) such as
EverQuest and Runescape has resulted in the trading of in-game currency for
real world currency.[11] This can lead to virtual economies. The rise of
virtual economies has led to cheating where a gamer will cheat to gain large
amounts of ingame money which the player will then trade for real cash. One
common method of doing so is through macroing, where a player will write a
script to automate an action which generates cash.[12] The Terms of Service
of most modern online games now specifically prohibit the transfer of
accounts and/or sale of in-game items for 'real-world' money.
Prevention of cheating
Prevention of cheating in singleplayer games is practically non-existent,
shown by the fact that most cheat codes are implemented by game developers
themselves. However cheating on online games is common on public servers and
to this extent some online games , such as Battlefield 1942 include specific
features to counter cheating exploits, by incorporating tools such as
PunkBuster or VAC (Valve Anti-Cheat). Prevention of cheating is an important
feature on most modern online games. It is especially important during
online gaming tournaments, where a cash prize will often be at stake.
Cheating on consoles
Since modifying a game's code is much harder on a console game than on a
computer game, cheating on a console mainly appears in the form of cheat
codes and cheat cartridges. Cheat codes in console games are usually
activated in a slightly different manner than computer games, owing to the
different forms of input (game controller vs. keyboard and mouse).
Therefore, console cheat codes are usually activated by a certain
combination of button presses on the game controller. Cheat cartridges are
also popular on consoles. For example cheat cartridges (or CDs) were and are
available for all the major sixth generation consoles, such as the Sony
PlayStation 2.
Legality of cheating
Cheating in a game usually involves cheat codes, where the manufacturer has
implemented a certain code that grants the player some advantage. However,
some cheats involve the use of an external program, most commonly a trainer,
and this raises a number of copyright related legal issues. These issues
were brought up in the case Lewis Galoob Toys, Inc. v. Nintendo of America,
Inc., where Nintendo sued Lewis Galoob Toys stating that its cheating
device, the Game Genie, created derivative works of games and violated
copyright law.
Prevalence of cheating in video games
Cheating has taken place on almost every videogame that has ever been
created. A casual gamer, if stuck at a place in a videogame, will often use
a cheat code to get past it. The widespread nature of cheating is shown by
the popularity of game guides, sites such as GameFAQs and cheat sections in
almost all videogame magazines.
Cheating is often nowadays not simply considered a way to finish a game but
a way "to get more out of the game, kind of like buying a special edition
DVD where you get extra stuff."[13]
Cheating as a fact of videogames has been helped to gain acceptance by the
open-ended nature of modern videogames, such as Grand Theft Auto:San
Andreas, where cheating can often increase the user experience and increase
how long a game is played. Conversely, cheating can also shorten the
playtime of some games; a 'walk through walls' code effectively removes
whatever barrier (such as a locked door or a long and difficult path) the
game world contains, making bypassing the 'block' an almost trivial task.
See also
* Cheating
* POKEs as cheats
* Mod (computer gaming)
References
1. ^ Hacking Away & Rumbles. Your Spectrum. Retrieved on 2007-01-02.
2. ^ Jet Set Willy. Your Spectrum. Retrieved on 2007-01-02.
3. ^ Hardcore retro-speccy cheating code. gnome. Retrieved on 2007-01-02.
4. ^ Mia Consalvo. Cheating:Gaining Advantage in Videogames. MIT. Retrieved
on 2007-01-03.
5. ^ Jason Rybka. Why Use Cheats and Codes for Console and PC Games?. The
New York Times Company. Retrieved on 2007-01-03.
6. ^ Cracking the Code: The Konami Code.
7. ^ Hacking Away: "Jump To It". Your Spectrum. Future. Retrieved on
2007-01-01.
8. ^ So You Want To Be A Hacker. NoNowt eZine X Magazine. NoNowt. Retrieved
on 2007-01-02.
9. ^ a b "Trainers" at About.com's Video Game Strategies
10. ^ Saved Game Editors. VGWS. Retrieved on 2007-01-07.
11. ^ Game exchange dispute goes to court. CNET. Retrieved on 2007-01-02.
12. ^ Eternal Lands' MMORPG Postmortem: Mistakes and Lessons, Part II.
DevMaster. Retrieved on 2007-01-02.
13. ^ Jose Antonio Vargas. "In Game World, Cheaters Proudly Prosper",
Washington Post, August 26, 2006.
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