Slashdot Mirror
The Rise and Fall of the Cheat Code
An anonymous reader writes A new feature published this week takes a deep-dive look at
the history of the cheat code and its various manifestations over the years, from manual 'pokes' on cassettes to pass phrases with their own dedicated menus — as well as their rise from simple debug tool in the early days of bedroom development to a marketing tactic when game magazines dominated in the 1990s, followed by dedicated strategy guides. Today's era of online play has all but done away with them, but the need for a level playing field isn't the only reason for their decline: as one veteran coder points out, why give away cheats for free when you can charge for them as in-app purchases? "Bigger publishers have now realized you can actually sell these things to players as DLC. Want that special gun? Think you can unlock it with a cheat code? Nope! You've got to give us some money first!"
First up, up, up, left, left, down, right, down, right, up, up.
...for old time's sake
Don't leave children
Dangling like crickets,
Dark legs chained.
Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
It may be a bit dark, but I don't think I'm likely to be eaten by a grue
Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos
So cheat codes are alive and well - they just now start with $ sign.
pretty sure the konami code is B A start not A B start
One of the reasons we don't get many cheat codes any more is that the platforms don't like undeclared code running in games they approved for publishing.
I thought it made cheats go commercial. It there a first-person shooter for the PC that doesn't have wallhackers and botters?
cheat engine 4 life.
Yesterday I got several Google results with "deep dive" in them. Today I turn to a Salon story and there it is in paragraph 1. Now Slashdot. Looks like a new catchphrase has hit critical mass.
I remember playing Warcraft2 - you could allow cheats or not.
It was great - turning invincibility off so you could attack, then turning it back on again - it was basically who could type the cheats fastest would win!
We didn't play many games like that, but the occasional one off was entertaining!
Talk to Iolo, spam, spam, spam, humbug.
Why give people for free what we can make them pay for.
up-up-down-down-left-right-left-right-B-A-select-start is now: 2541 4562 3664 4562
We get to have cheat codes whenever we want and you can go shove your DLC up your ass. Just fire up a memory editor/debugger, CheatEngine being a free purpose designed one, and you are good to go.
The whole "selling cheat codes" thing is just so scummy. Particularly since I think it can lead to the "pay2win" mentality of "Maybe we should make this harder, so people need to give us money for cheats!"
Ever more cleverly not-so-disguised slashvertised advertorials?
Honestly, this is not really commonplace, at least not on the PC platform (no idea about console). There is only a handful of games I seen that sold cheatey DLC's (and with cheatey, I'm thinking of godmode esque cheats). Where does the idea that it's common came from, rose tinted nostalgia glasses?
Cheat codes are a bit less common sure, at least game specfic ones. Some games still got a dev console you can use, but it's usually engine rather than game-specfic cheats.
I see cheating as gaining an unfair advantage over another player. I do mean player and not bots or the computer (no moral dilemma) I remember in Age of Empires 2, you could enable cheats for all players and those games got crazy. (despite using cheat codes, I did not see this as cheating because no one was at a disadvantage) My general rule was play it through the first time with out cheating, then cheat to your heart's delight. The two worst cases of cheating in multiplayer games was Diablo 1 and Counter Strike 1. In Diablo 1, multiplayer toons were saved on the local computer instead of online along with that there was an app (bobafett) that aloud various cheats including killing all players on the same level you were on and then claiming their gold and gear that dropped. Counter Strike 1's infamous cheat was OGC. x-ray walls, auto target lock, auto fire. It got so bad that the more skilled players were being accused of cheating if their scores were significantly above the others. (this happen to me on numerous occasions) . I can't think of any other multiplayer cheat epidemics
And this is why my XBox isn't connected to the interwebs.
I'm not interested in your damned in-game economy, and I have no interest in getting my ass kicked by a 12 year old playing on-line.
I'll stick with my off-line gaming, thank you very much.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
this may just be my opinion as a greybeard, but back in my day of commander keen and blake stone: aliens of gold, Cheat codes existed but players rarely used them. part of the games replayability was its challenge; its where nintendo users patented the phrase 'nintendo hard.' Sure, you always knew the kid down the block with the Game Genie, but there was a certain pride and honor to beating Duck Tales without using it.
my question is when will DLC stop? I already bought the game, and back in my day that meant half or a quarter of the content. some can argue shareware was analagous to DLC but thats a stretch. Shareware originally came on BBS systems and was a form of advertising. it convinced you to mail in a check for $25 and get that sweet copy of Duke Nukem 1. DLC just serves to segregate players by monetary class, effectively voiding any reason to care about prowess in gameplay. Some trustfund kid in hawaii will always be able to kill you with his microtransaction-approved skill enhancement that doesnt get flagged on multiplayer servers as cheating. Turning my playing field into an ayn rand capitalist paradise will certainly make me reconosider your games.
tethering me to a multiplayer universe serves only two purposes I can think, perhaps 3. Its a way to ensure you rent me a product instead of me buying it, and it prevents me from using your game without you knowing exactly how and when i decide to play it. Sometimes im not here to collaborate and that should be OK. i should be allowed to selfishly play a game by myself, i shouldnt have to 'authenticate' with your servers and i should be allowed to avoid entirely your rich tapestry of trash-talking 13 year olds and perhaps multitask with a bit of quake in one window, and code in the other.
Good people go to bed earlier.
I think the reason they don't have cheats anymore is not because they can sell them as DLC, but because they CAN'T sell them anymore. If you look at it, cheats were first invented as a method of copy-protection, rather than a testing device.
It's most evident in a lot of older NES games (usually ones that were made before battery-backed saves) where the most commonly used "cheats" were so-called continue codes - button inputs that could be used to continue after a game over. These things were all over the place, and were usually listed in the way back of the game's manual. This was mostly a tactic to stop rentals and re-sale, since there was no easy way to look up the codes and unless you had the manual or knew someone who did, you'd be out of luck. Even the Konami Code is an example of this: unless you are very highly skilled at Contra, which was one of the first games to feature the code, you are probably not going to finish Contra without the extra lives granted by the code.
First, I think cheating only applies in multiplayer. A cheat in single player is just a mod the devs hardcoded in themselves.
In multiplayer, I would define cheating as an advantage that is limited to some, but it wasn't intended to be limited.
Under my definition, DLC and P2W aren't cheats, as it isn't intended that other players can't get them. The devs totally want everybody to pay and get that advantage.
I'm not saying the ideas of DLC and P2W are good, but just that they're not "cheats".
My favorite is still "xyzzy" from the old Adventure game: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xyzzy
Ive seen buggy levels, poor porting and such crappy games that didnt have cheat codes go into the trash (or if heard about before buying never were bought)
Its a good way (for solo games without the achievement rubbish that is just a forced online requirement coersion to shove ads down players throats) for the company to have a game with bugs not require so much patching (cheat around it instead of have to fix)
Many games have a few really poorly designed (or ported) spots that just dont work worth a damn for many players and if the company is stupid enough to have that spot in the block further content access (without a simple way around it) then they deserve the bad reviews (if you can find an honest non-aasslicking reviewer) and loss of sales for their incompetance.
"Deep Dive" means that you take a powerpoint slide to the boss's boss and try to explain technical details to a PHB for an hour (20 minutes over schedule), after which he uses his misperceptions to benevolently damage your program.
Not a cheat code per se, but when you play Armored Patrol on your TRS-80 Model 1, there is a 'trick' that allows you unlimited energy.
If you back your tank up to the edge of 'the universe' and then point your barrel back into the arena at bad guys you can just keep shooting and shooting and get an unlimited score - You'll never run out of energy and no tank or robot can kill you.
I remember leaving for school in 1982 with the space bar taped down, and then coming home to a zillion points.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Who pays for porntipsguzzardo now that we have the Internet?
This brings back memories... I worked on an xbox game around 10 years ago and we added in a bunch of cheat codes. The one that never got published was one that added names of the developers and our families to all of the bad guys. The fat enemy was our boss. Haha.
Fun times!
It may be a bit dark, but I don't think I'm likely to be eaten by a grue
"Nothing happens here."
Another reason cheat codes existed is that without them, a lot of players couldn't finish the game. I think there are several reasons for this: the arcade roots, a larger percentage of hardcore gamers, the need to prevent the player from finishing an expensive game quickly after buying or renting it and game design being a much younger discipline.
Don't get me wrong, I actually prefer today's easier games, but it does mean that you don't really need a cheat code anymore to finish most games. Instead of having the difficulty increase a lot as the levels progress, games now have selectable difficulty from the start and achievements to add challenge for more talented and/or experienced players.
Clearly wasn't going for haiku.
Isn't it B -> A? The article's title has it as A -> B. I find this quite distracting.
Some pinball machines easter eggs and some even gives you extra points.
http://hem.bredband.net/b25718...
Valid arguments and certainly righteous, but games are actually games--that is, people playing them aren't pondering the economic and philosophical reprecussions of monetarily-attained in-game advantages. They're blowing time with entertainment, thinking about it as little as possible. Game developers and distributors can take advantage of this by charging for whatever they want, however they want, with whatever frequency they want. While we might be able to remember the 90s and say no, we aren't the bulk of their market share. 5,000 thirty+-somethings mumbling "get off my lawn" is negligible in comparison to 5,000,000 elementary/high-school students more than willing to shell out Christmas money for some digital "thing" they'll forget about next week. Yes it's silly, yes it's actually morally questionable (the same way converting real money for WoW gold coins is), but there's not numbers enough of people who actually notice and care to stop it.
I believe the code was Ctrl-Alt-W, which allowed you to instantly win the game. It was awesome because of how pointless it was. It brought you to the final scenes of the game. In one of them, a character's dialog was replaced with something like "I wonder why I'm standing here", because if you cheated you way to the end, you wouldn't know the story.
I first heard this acronym about a month ago from my 12 year old son. What? Someone asked in this thread, when will DLC go away? It will probably never go away and here is why, in my opinion: Kids are playing games on line and the spoiled kids whose parents give them anything they ask for buy all of the DLC shit and go ahead in the game. I am awesome! I beat the boss and leveled up! The kids who don't get to buy the DLC shit and get left behind in the game, either nag their parents - please can I buy weapon pack XYZ!!! - please! - or, if they can, beat the system by being really good at the game which is detrimental in its own way as it means spending too much time - wasting too much time playing stupid games. It is pitting the asshole parents against the parents who actually want to instill some sense of values in their kids. I think my kid will learn in the future that his DLC loving chums are in fact loser douchebags, but it will take time to learn that. Right now he has this neck breathing brain dead friend who he looks up to a lot (the kid blows his nose in his t-shirt - disgusting child, idiot parents). I can't tell him - your 'friend' is a fucking retard - he needs to learn that himself and find better friends, but this is what one is up against and this is part of what the game company pimps are exploiting. The vulnerability and insecurity of youth. Keeping up with your 'friends'. Staying popular. Simple as that.
Suck Blue Frog (Quest for Glory 2)
Command parsers were fun.
When I was a kid, I didn't have the hand-eye coordination to beat the tough video games. Cheat codes (and I include things like warp zones in this category) allowed me to beat the game and feel cool. When I was older, and decided to dust some of these games off, playing the whole way through without cheating provided a new level of fun. I suspect that cheat codes helped make games appealing to players of different abilities.
I've heard this accusation before, but I'm not seeing much evidence of a trend.
Goggling "pay DLC cheat codes" brings up a few examples that I then looked into with gamefaqs. Dead rising 2 has some cheats you can pay for, but there were no cheats in dead rising one. Saints row 3 appears to have other cheats for free that are roughly the same thing. Sleeping dogs cheat DLCs appear to simply be shortcuts, like buying in-game money.
It seems to me like more games are simply cutting out cheats altogether, for free or paid. I suspect it's more about wanting to make sure cheats don't ruin the mandatory online multiplayer portion that all games seem to have to have, or ruin the achievement/trophy systems. GTA had always been good for cheats, but GTA V, the cheats are severely limited. Invincibility only for 5 minutes, and cheats can't be used in missions. It's annoying: replaying games with cheat codes gives more replay value: several months after beating a game fairly, I might want to play it again, but don't want to spend as much time getting the hang of it again.
If you intend to keep it offline, why not JTAG or RGH it which would enable game modding, game trainers as well as homebrew and emulators.
The advent of all games involving a "social" context, requiring access to the internet, and the use of DLC and micropayments, is what made me give quit gaming entirely. The cheat code business is a side-effect of this. This is one of the items on my short list of things that the internet has made worse.
> cheats were first invented as a method of copy-protection
Huh? This doesn't make any sense.
> These things were all over the place, and were usually listed in the way back of the game's manual.
No, they weren't. The Contra code you mention was never in the manual.
> unless you are very highly skilled at Contra, which was one of the first games to feature the code, you are probably not going to finish Contra without the extra lives granted by the code.
Perhaps your reflexes are decaying. It's not terribly difficult, I was able to complete it in my teen years.
And if all video games in the desired genre with the desired production values on the desired platform have become "those kinds of games", tough.
Isn't it B -> A? The article's title has it as A -> B. I find this quite distracting.
YES! Oh my god what the FUCK?! I literally want to strangle the dumbass who made the article specifically about cheat codes and managed to fuck up the FIRST image of the most recognizable cheat code of all time. That's like having a huge image of M=EC^2 at the top of an article about Einstein.
I don't know why saved games are even exportable on current consoles. Really they should just be backed up to the internet
Because console makers want to attract users who buy consoles because they work without an Internet connection. This includes people living outside the range of cable and DSL as well as privacy-paranoid gamers, who are possibly overrepresented on Slashdot. Notice how much goodwill Xbox One lost when Microsoft announced that the console would have to phone home every 24 hours to renew the cached receipts for disc games. (For comparison, Steam can stay offline for a couple weeks.) Microsoft had to backpedal hard on that, letting Adam Orth go after the "#dealwithit" incident.
PC multiplayer games still have cheats. They just have to be set from the console, by an administrator.
The Daddy casts sleep on the Baby. The Baby resists!
we need warez. I don't see why anyone would consume any media not originating from the scene, be it legally paid or not.
Brilliant solution. No one ever considered that!
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
To return to a simpler time, just say "XYZZY".
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
Dangit... You just made me jump to my bootloader...
...how much fun I had with the soapy tit wanks
*Electro-bastard ray in Carmageddon, lest you think I'm being a deviate without due cause...
The article is pretty selective.
It spreads out this whole development over a 20 year period that spanned the 80's and 90's.
In reality all subjects it touches upon were already firmly established in the 80's.
Seriously, i had magazines with pokes, built in developer codes, cheats for player use AND cheat cartridges (well, sort of). And the best thing is it was on just one system, the MSX.
Inthe 70s, Zork on PDP11s had GDT (game debugging tool). It allowed you to manipulate the arrays of objects, locations, etc. It had a password prompt, that demanded your name, cat and zip code. I recall that the name was supnik, the cat was barney, and I've forgotten the zip code. Bob Supnik was the DEC engineer that translated ZORK frm MDL to Fortran.
There is no God, and Dirac is his prophet.
there were a few different variations on it. Learned that the hard way....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L...
Most DLC is in the game already... its just hidden... right or wrong you can unlock it really easily either by modifying some of the files yourself or downloading a hack.
And then you have all sorts of game mods that change the game works indifferent to content. Maybe you don't like a boss at the end of the game... you freeze his AI so he just stands there if you want... or whatever.
That is the new cheat code.
Not DLC.
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.