Friday, November 14, 2008

Cheat codes

Cheat codes
Cheat codes (also called debug codes or backdoors)
are codes that can be entered into a video game to
change the game's behavior, alter characters' looks and
abilities, skip levels, or access other hidden features.

History
The practice of cheat codes and secrets in a
video game was started in the Atari 2600 game
Adventure. Afterwards, codes were implemented
and used by game developers to playtest certain
aspects of their games; for example, a common use
of a cheat code is to skip to a level in a game. In
moddable games, such cheat modes are often left
in released titles specifically for modder use.
The practice became well-known, and now many
games have cheat codes intentionally included as
a form of easter egg or unlockable prizes. Some
video game magazines have sections devoted
to providing these codes. Booklets are also produced
that collect cheat codes for a large number of games.
Many codes, for both older and more recent games,
can be found at specialized.
The method of entering cheat codes varies; on video
game consoles, the code is frequently a sequence
of button presses. Alternatively, on computers such
as the Amiga or PC, the code may be textual and
entered using the keyboard, or through a more
complex combination of input devices. In some
recent games, the cheats are also enabled by adding
special settings in game configuration files.

Usage
While normal cheat codes are built into the game
by the programmers, unofficial cheat codes can be
created by manipulating the contents of the
memory address for a running game. On video
game consoles, this is done using a cheat cartridge.
Users of some early home computers called these
codes pokes, named after the command used to
input them. Nowadays, cheating like this is
considered "hacking" because the user must use
external software or hardware to change values
in the game memory.
Cheat codes are, by definition, considered cheating
and most serious players only use them for
experimentation, if at all. Sometimes, though, using
cheat codes is necessary, particularly in the case of
bugs: If a serious game-stopping bug is encountered,
a cheat code may be able to bypass it without the
need to start the whole game over again from the
beginning.
The game Micro Machines for the NES had a bug
where the game would freeze if the player reversed
over the start/finish line at the start of the race. This
was due to a single zero being a one in the code.
Discovered after thousands of games were made,
Codemasters, rather than throw the cartridges
away, which would have been very costly, used
technology from their Game Genie cheat cartridge
to rewrite the code in every game.
Often cheats spell a word, possibly comical or relating
to the cheat (for example, "Start", "Left", "A", "B"
would spell "Slab").