The History of Video Games Cheats
If you’ve ever played a video game and had to deal with someone using some sort of cheating software or hack to get ahead in the game, then you know how frustrating it can be. Cheaters not only ruin the fun for the honest players, but they can also cause damage to the reputation of a game and make it less likely for consumers to buy in-game content. According to a recent study by Irdeto, 76% of gamers said they’d stop playing a game that is heavily impacted by cheating.
Cheat codes are often the result of bugs in a game’s code or glitches that don’t get fixed, and they can give players an unfair advantage that wasn’t originally intended by the developer. These hacks can include things like wallhacks, aimbots, twinking and artificial lag, among others. They’re also sometimes the result of players modifying the underlying software with tools such as decompilers, emulators or hex editors.
The earliest video game cheats were used to aid in the vital debugging process during development, and some were even incorporated into the game itself as a way to add lore or a signature element of a particular programmer’s style. The most famous example is the Konami Code, which gave players unlimited lives in Castlevania II. The same string of numbers could be entered into the game’s code to activate various functions, including teleporting and instant-healing.
Modern gaming software is much more difficult to manipulate. Many games feature a sophisticated code architecture with security and authentication that makes it very difficult for players to modify the game’s code or data without detection. However, a number of hacks are still in use, despite these measures. They range from simple hex editing to more advanced hacks that require the modification of a player’s underlying hardware or system drivers.
Gamers often implement these kinds of cheats to gain an edge in competitions or simply to save time by allowing them to bypass tedious elements of the game. This can include removing character progression milestones, speeding up the respawn of items and power-ups or making the game more enjoyable by changing the way that enemies behave or how the game world looks (a.k.a. a “wallhack”).
Other cheats can be more serious, such as allowing players to trade in-game currency for real cash, which is in direct violation of the Terms of Service of most online games. This can also lead to shady practices such as macro scripting, where players automate repetitive tasks such as collecting items or defeating enemies to amass large amounts of virtual money. Thankfully, these kinds of exploits are becoming less common as the industry becomes more aware of the risks and takes steps to prevent them. However, the need to protect users remains as important as ever. Game developers should use anti-cheat technologies such as hex editing, obfuscation and process handle hiding to prevent hackers from gaining access to game processes or data.
