Cheating in 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) enables the cheat mode.

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Typical effects of cheats

Invulnerability

Main article: God mode

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

Main article: Noclip mode

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.

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, or give the player a disadvantage such as low health points. In a few games the player is humourously penalised 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).

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

Main article: 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. 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. 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.

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. 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, eg. 'infinite cash' or 'instant research'. For example: "Final Fantasy VII - Ultima Edition +50 Trainer".

Modern trainers also come as separately downloadable programs; instead of modifying the game's programming directly, values stored in memory are changed.

Hardware

Game Genie cartridge for the Mega Drive/Genesis.

Main article: Cheat cartridge

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

File:Operation wolf mame cheat.jpg

Operation Wolf cheat menu under MAME

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. 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

Main article: Strategy guide

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

Main article: 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

Main article: Aimbot

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

Main article: 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.

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.

Sale of online currency

The prevalence of massively multiplayer online games (MMORPGs) such as EverQuest has resulted in the trading of in-game currency for real world currency. 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. 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."

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
• Hacker (cheater)
• Mod (computer gaming)