How were codes for Game Genie/Gameshark/Action Replay found/created back in the day?
In: Technology
These devices could look at all of the numbers stored in the memory of the console. To make a cheat work, you would have to find a memory value that matters (like the player’s HP or number of lives or whatever) and tell the Game Genie what value you want it to have.
To make it more clear, let’s look at an example card for Final Fantasy IX using the GameShark. Here’s the code:
8008B7B0 FFFF
The first portion “8008B7B0” is the memory address that the GameShark is modifying. Like 1234 Sycamore St. is the address where Steve Smith lives. For this code it’s the place where the amount of money the player has is stored. The second portion “FFFF” is just the largest number that can be stuck in that memory address. It’s hexadecimal for 65,535. So the GameShark in this case is forcing the player’s money to always be 65,535 by screwing with the console’s memory.
So how is this code found? By checking all the different numbers in the different memory addresses in the console until you found the address you want. A lot of these devices could do this on the fly. Many GameShark models had a little button that you pushed and it would pause the game and do this. So it pauses the game, then you tell it to search for a number. If I’m looking for player money in FFIX and I had 125 at that point in the game, I could punch in 125. Then it tells you all the different memory addresses that currently have that value. To narrow it down, you could earn or spend a little money and do the process again until you keep getting the same memory address show up in your search results repeatedly. That’s your new cheat code: 8008B7B0 for the memory address and then whatever number after that that you want.
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