Arcade Golf Game Fraud Scandal Revealed, Probed

Thanks to Highway Games for reprinting The Stinger Report articles on further developments regarding revelations of tournament fraud in arcade game Golden Tee Golf. The situation developed after "Incredible Technologies... ejected eight ranked players following investigation into the manipulation of scores... [following the discovery of] either a software or firmware system to deceive the ITS [networked arcade golf] network." The piece notes that "Over US$12 million in cash prizes has been awarded since the International Tournament System (ITS) [for Golden Tee] began in 1995", although the amount involved in this fraud is rumored to be closer to $20,000, and it's also mentioned: "Efforts to exceed this interface's limits has led to a series of bizarre experiments on personally owned machines ranging from a Belt Sander or even the drive wheel of a motor scooter employed to max out the track ball." In this case, it's theorized that "...fraudsters may have created a firmware mechanism that emulates the movement of the trackball and talks to the game board, so able to generate the optimum power and direction for shots."

Comments

Do people have to cheat at everything?

[josh glaser]

I mean, if you're playing a game alone it's OK, but everybody is sick of cheaters in online games and now this? Come on...

Play fair. That's an ORDER!

Ancient Chinese Wisdom:

[Anonymous Coward]

Where there is money, there are criminals.

Anyone with personal experience?

[kathgar1]

After reading both articles I am still somewhat confused. It seems that initially that the harddrives were not encrypted at all and were easy to hack. Then with the someware updates (that seem to be quite costly I might add) this was changed.
How is the interface designed? They keep refering to a trackball, which I assume records your swing somehow but it is lax on the details. I guess google and eBay might have some information. I wonder if they even encrypt the data down the line.
Frankly I am not sure they can have a secure system. Even if you get rid of the home ownership, what about the bar's owner messing with it? The users control the client, and when there is money to be made people will try to cheat. Even Las Vegas has problems with people cheating their slot machines and they have a government agency and inspections.

Tournament Standards?

[mdielmann]

Although cheating like this is deplorable, it also raises the question of how this tournament is run. Don't they have officials supervising the game play? I mean, can you imagine what would happen in any other tournament if you could bend (or break) the rules?