Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

PS2 Controller Hack Nets Codes for GTA

Posted by Zonk on from the imaginative-gaming dept.

glengineer writes "Gotta love edisoncarter for his cheesy, brute force, and effective hack of the PS2 controller to discover cheats for Grand Theft Auto - San Andreas. He used the parallel port of his PC connected to relays on the PS2 controller to step thru the combinations of button pushing needed to obtain cheats that were not released by Rockstar."

8 of 67 comments (clear)

  1. Re:huh. by xerxesVII · · Score: 4, Funny

    I remember being a little kid...
    Yes, I know that now. But thank you for your pedantry.

    --
    "We shall grapple with the ineffable, and see if we may not eff it after all." - Douglas Adams
  2. Re:huh. by crow · · Score: 4, Interesting

    There are several ways to acquire cheat codes:

    * Leak from an insider

    * Lucky guess or brute force

    * Analysis of the code

    This looks like a new method of brute force. However, it would be easy for the game to detect it and disable all cheat codes--all they would have to do is have a bunch of extra special codes that instead of giving you more power, silently disable cheat codes.

  3. Re:Why do they exist? by chudgoo · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Is the art of the Easter Egg lost on you or what?

    It's a long standing tradition among game makers to leave little presentsin the final build of the game,
    and much like real presents it's up to you whether or not to open them when you should (after you've beaten the game)
    or to completely destroy the experience by using them early on.

    In this age of big business and artificial limitations I find it very refreshing that developers remember where they came from.

  4. Sounds fishy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting
    He used the parallel port of his PC connected to relays on the PS2 controller to step thru the combinations of button pushing needed to obtain cheats that were not released by Rockstar

    So, how did the "relays" know when he'd actually found one? I'd read the article, if it was actually available.

    SUre, it's easy to program some i/o lines to just twiddle all combinations of the buttons, but you have to have something that confirms that you actually hit something interesting.

    1. Re:Sounds fishy by pluke · · Score: 4, Informative

      Not having read the article either or even played the game, i can only go on my prior knowledge of such games, which cause the controller to vibrate when you have correctly input a code. So if that was the case it would make automating the process very quick indeed.

      --
      "all through my house i set up traps, it seems like the rats have a map, so now i feed the rats crack" - Donald D
    2. Re:Sounds fishy by burns210 · · Score: 4, Funny

      A large tank falling from the sky is a good indicator.

  5. Re:Why do they exist? by captnitro · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Even better, it's the presentation. You play a game once without them, and you play it with cheats the second or third time around -- it's an entirely different game.

    Last year when bored I became a fan of turning my UT2003 single-player speed ('slomo') down to something far below normal, like 0.001, 1.0 being normal. At that speed it became more like an elaborate chess game, where you had minutes to decide where to go or who to shoot first. While it's not for everyone, it made for some very interesting matches -- you savor the triumph of a frag a little more, and then kick your own ass for not noticing the guy behind you for four minutes.

    There's something that we like in games that's more about situations than strictly playing. Cheat codes allow us to get to the parts we really liked about the game.

  6. random button pushing? by drxray · · Score: 5, Funny

    I bet his system also plays a mean game of Tekken!

    (joking, I love tekken...)

    --
    Slashdot - Mutual Assured Discussion