eli5: How do gamers figure out long cheat codes?

975 views

eli5: How do gamers figure out long cheat codes?

In: 720

17 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

The three most common methods are

1) The developer intentionally tells people, either just literally their friends or publicly.

2) The gamers can “read” the games code and “find” them.

3) The cheat codes are repeating inside jokes like the Konami Code or “There is no cow level”

Anonymous 0 Comments

Developers would often publish them in handbooks dedicated to cheat codes, or have them hidden somewhere in-game.

Other times they’d have someone take the role of a regular user in a game forum and just randomly leak the code, so it seemed like someone just eventually figured it out and it would gradually perpetuate to other forums / word of mouth etc.

Rarely did players stumble upon cheat codes organically.

Anonymous 0 Comments

For older games, like pre internet. There were magazines like Nintendo Power, and developers would send them cheat codes and they would print them. Sometimes they were in the games sleeve or booklet. So the headline would be like “exclusive new cheats for X!”. You then would share them and teach them to friends. For older consoles the code was more similar, as in there was a lot of cut and paste to use elements of already made games to save time. As such certain cheat codes that changed a parameter worked on multiple games for the same developer. So like a code sequence in “test audio” that turns off level clocks might work for a bunch of timed platformers made by the same company. There were even catalog books of cheat codes released now and then. Eventually cartridges like Game Shark came out, which allowed you to manually and semi-manually adjust a games code externally. The game slide into the Game Shark, which went in the console, then when turned on it went to it’s own modding screen where you could adjust code, make cheats, and even save them. They also had guides on common code sequences and how to adjust them for desired results, like make you invincible. It wasn’t super intuitive. This led people to understand the code, and now moders just use their computer to manipulate code and developers don’t need to put in cheats or codes cause the players will do it for free.

The true start of cheat codes is “Easter Eggs” and they predate video games. It comes from art, and film. Artists say conscripted to paint someone they don’t like, might sneak something in that means something to them but otherwise goes unnoticed. Eventually animators and such started doing it in film. Coders and game designers wanted to add something unique to their collective work, so they added little cheat codes and secrets to the games. Another big reason for cheats and codes is testing the game, a coder might add invincibility so they don’t have to learn the game to test maps and boundaries are working. That code is in the base of the game from the start and can’t be removed later, so the activation of that test setting is left in the game and leaked latter.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Unless the Gameshark codes.

They base on changing in-game memory.

For random example let’s say that that chunk of memory 0000FFE8 contains information about item rate drop of some monster so if you change into particullary value it will always drop item you need.

And the adress of memory is discovered throught analyzing the memory.

Let’s say you have 1000gold. So you’re looking for adress which cointains 00003E8. Then you’re changing in-game gold (spending or earning some) and in the adresses pool you found you’re looking for changes.

Anonymous 0 Comments

i forgot what game it was, but there was a README file inside CD with a text saying “oh by the way, typing xxxx will cause yyyy” in middle of text wall.

Anonymous 0 Comments

They’re not designed as ‘cheat’ codes. They’re designed for testers to use and are usually documented for them.

Anonymous 0 Comments

I believe scorehero.com once had its users all try different combinations to find the codes for guitar hero 3

Anonymous 0 Comments

Four ways:

Developers say it outright

Gamers look through the code

Common code or inside joke (think konami code)

Just testing things over and over and over again (this is also how bugs in games for speedrunning are often found)

Anonymous 0 Comments

I can explain how it used to work when GameSharks were still a thing. And this was how it worked with both my gameboy and my Nintendo 64. You see, those cheat codes were really just hexadecimal values for different quantities in the game like health or ammo. The gameshark had a hacking mode where you could put in a value such as how many bullets you had left and it would return every hex value with that quantity. Do this a couple times and it’s able to narrow it down to the right hex value, which was a memory address for that particular ammo counter. Then you had yourself a cheat code that would keep the ammo value constant that the GameShark could use.

Anonymous 0 Comments

So besides the whole look at magazines back in the day and devs straight up telling people.

Another of the ways done back in the day was either have a code or similar in the credits as a reward for beating the game.

Or more rarely they could be found in the game itself somewhere when you did what nowadays is equivalent to achievements.