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Thanks for watching TechWiz. Click the subscribe button, then enable

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notifications with the bell icon, so you won't miss any future videos. Ever since

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human beings coalesced into actual societies that came up with systems for

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handling their affairs, people have found ways to cheat them. From taxes to

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sports to that show where Joey Greco got shanked by a philandering lover, trying

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to gain an unfair advantage is nothing new. And so it is with video games. Just

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like there are plenty of shortcuts you can take that would land you in trouble with the IRS, the history of cheating in

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video games is long and varied. In fact, cheating goes all the way back to the

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earliest days of gaming when developers started putting cheat codes into their

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games to allow them to skip levels in order to test their functionality more

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quickly. And although many of these codes weren't intended to be disclosed

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publicly, some early gamers were still quite interested in examining the

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underlying code of many games in detail, meaning it wasn't long before they

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started finding exploits. Some of these were even used to try and fix underlying

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problems, such as an early retail trainer program for Castle Wolfenstein,

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released in the mid-1980s that promised to fix crashes and other bugs, but also

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gave players access to additional items and level skips. But other times, gamers

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just discovered these debugging codes on their own instead of relying on

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commercially available trainers for additional functionality, as the

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developers usually didn't bother to take these out before the games were

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released. The famous Konami Code, which is now an Easter egg on many popular

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websites, is a notable example of this. Before long, developers took notice of

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the fact that cheat codes made their games more appealing and started actively putting them into games with

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the intent that players would use them. Back in the '80s and '90s, chasing down

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the almighty high score was the holy grail of many a gamer, meaning codes for

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things like infinite lives could help them reach scores that were previously

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unattainable. And even if players didn't care about maxing out their scores,

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cheats provided a new way to experience titles that a gamer had already beaten.

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For example, Mortal Kombat featured a code that wasn't really a cheat, but

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enabled gore in the game, which was default by default, because some

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politicians in the US thought a little bit of 2D pixelated blood was far too

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much for the masses to handle responsibly. So by the mid-1990s, cheat

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codes were wildly popular, and the demand for them was so high that gamers

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didn't want to be restricted to just what was built in by a developer. So

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products like the Game Genie, Game Shark, and Action Replay hit the market.

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Cartridges that actually manipulated the code of whatever game was inserted into

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them. In this way, players could discover their own cheats, even in games

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that didn't have any built in, and share them with other gamers. And even though

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some developers, notably Nintendo, did not appreciate this and tried to

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litigate cheat cartridges out of existence by saying that they were

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infringing upon copyrights, courts disagreed, and the devices remained

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popular well into the late 1990s and early 2000s. But in the mid-2000s, the

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popularity of cheat codes plummeted rapidly. But why? Did gamers just

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suddenly have a change of heart? Well, sort of. Back when cheat codes were the

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height of cool, they were typically found primarily by reading gaming

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magazines or simply by word of mouth, making gamers that had them they were

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part of some super rad secret society. But internet search engines came along

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and blew up that entire paradigm, since now anyone could look up a code in a

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matter of seconds. But what really killed off the traditional cheat code

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was the achievement system that was introduced around the same time that

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online play became a key feature of first PC and later console gaming.

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Gamers now chase down achievement points like they did the high scores of

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yesteryear. But since you can now instantly compare your achievements with

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those of others from around the world, instead of just playing for personal

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satisfaction, using cheat codes or other exploits to rack up achievements became

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frowned upon, as it undermined those who poured tons of time and effort into

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acquiring them honestly. And for those who care more about online multiplayer

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than single-player achievements, online game services like Xbox Live and EA

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Origin started aggressively banning cheaters in order to provide a level

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playing field for the millions of gamers who log onto their servers. Of course,

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this doesn't mean that cheats don't still exist. While cheat codes are much

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rarer in games than they used to be, many games still contain secrets or

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Easter eggs that can be discovered in ways other than entering codes. And

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exploits are still used by speedrunners to beat games in record time, Taren,

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making it sort of a twist on the concept of a high score. And you can learn more

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about that right up here. But of course, actual modern-day cheating, in the sense

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of gaining an unfair advantage, is the most common on online multiplayer

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servers. So, let us know if you'd like to see a follow-up episode on the arms

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race between game studios and players of ill repute as we explore modern-day

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cheating techniques. But you know what's the exact opposite of something of ill

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repute? Private internet access, a VPN.

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Not only does PIA work on up to five devices at once by hiding your true IP

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address and allowing you to bypass geo-restrictions and censorship by

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making you appear that you're connecting from somewhere else, it also blocks

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unwanted connections to help prevent attacks, auto blocks all traffic if the

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VPN disconnects, keeping your data out of the hands of advertisers and other

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snoops who are tracking your activity, prevents DNS leaks, and even includes

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Mace, PIA's built-in malware blocker. PIA supports multiple VPN protocols and

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encryption levels, allowing you to dial in the exact level of protection you

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need. They have apps for Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, Linux, and a Chrome

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extension with support for more platforms coming soon. And PIA has over

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3,000 servers in 28 countries and does not log user activity. So, what are you

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waiting for? Check them out today at the link below.

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So guys, thank you very much for watching. Let us know in the comments if

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you'd like to see a follow-up video on cheating. Make sure to like the video,

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dislike, comment, get subscribed, and

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you know, we'll see you on the next one.