The History of Cheating in Games
Techquickie
·Techquickie
·2019-05-06
·
1,150 words · ~5 min read
0:00
Thanks for watching TechWiz. Click the subscribe button, then enable
0:03
notifications with the bell icon, so you won't miss any future videos. Ever since
0:07
human beings coalesced into actual societies that came up with systems for
0:11
handling their affairs, people have found ways to cheat them. From taxes to
0:15
sports to that show where Joey Greco got shanked by a philandering lover, trying
0:20
to gain an unfair advantage is nothing new. And so it is with video games. Just
0:24
like there are plenty of shortcuts you can take that would land you in trouble with the IRS, the history of cheating in
0:29
video games is long and varied. In fact, cheating goes all the way back to the
0:33
earliest days of gaming when developers started putting cheat codes into their
0:38
games to allow them to skip levels in order to test their functionality more
0:41
quickly. And although many of these codes weren't intended to be disclosed
0:45
publicly, some early gamers were still quite interested in examining the
0:49
underlying code of many games in detail, meaning it wasn't long before they
0:53
started finding exploits. Some of these were even used to try and fix underlying
0:57
problems, such as an early retail trainer program for Castle Wolfenstein,
1:01
released in the mid-1980s that promised to fix crashes and other bugs, but also
1:07
gave players access to additional items and level skips. But other times, gamers
1:11
just discovered these debugging codes on their own instead of relying on
1:14
commercially available trainers for additional functionality, as the
1:18
developers usually didn't bother to take these out before the games were
1:21
released. The famous Konami Code, which is now an Easter egg on many popular
1:25
websites, is a notable example of this. Before long, developers took notice of
1:29
the fact that cheat codes made their games more appealing and started actively putting them into games with
1:34
the intent that players would use them. Back in the '80s and '90s, chasing down
1:38
the almighty high score was the holy grail of many a gamer, meaning codes for
1:42
things like infinite lives could help them reach scores that were previously
1:46
unattainable. And even if players didn't care about maxing out their scores,
1:49
cheats provided a new way to experience titles that a gamer had already beaten.
1:53
For example, Mortal Kombat featured a code that wasn't really a cheat, but
1:57
enabled gore in the game, which was default by default, because some
2:01
politicians in the US thought a little bit of 2D pixelated blood was far too
2:05
much for the masses to handle responsibly. So by the mid-1990s, cheat
2:09
codes were wildly popular, and the demand for them was so high that gamers
2:13
didn't want to be restricted to just what was built in by a developer. So
2:17
products like the Game Genie, Game Shark, and Action Replay hit the market.
2:21
Cartridges that actually manipulated the code of whatever game was inserted into
2:25
them. In this way, players could discover their own cheats, even in games
2:29
that didn't have any built in, and share them with other gamers. And even though
2:32
some developers, notably Nintendo, did not appreciate this and tried to
2:36
litigate cheat cartridges out of existence by saying that they were
2:40
infringing upon copyrights, courts disagreed, and the devices remained
2:44
popular well into the late 1990s and early 2000s. But in the mid-2000s, the
2:49
popularity of cheat codes plummeted rapidly. But why? Did gamers just
2:52
suddenly have a change of heart? Well, sort of. Back when cheat codes were the
2:57
height of cool, they were typically found primarily by reading gaming
3:00
magazines or simply by word of mouth, making gamers that had them they were
3:05
part of some super rad secret society. But internet search engines came along
3:09
and blew up that entire paradigm, since now anyone could look up a code in a
3:13
matter of seconds. But what really killed off the traditional cheat code
3:17
was the achievement system that was introduced around the same time that
3:21
online play became a key feature of first PC and later console gaming.
3:25
Gamers now chase down achievement points like they did the high scores of
3:28
yesteryear. But since you can now instantly compare your achievements with
3:31
those of others from around the world, instead of just playing for personal
3:35
satisfaction, using cheat codes or other exploits to rack up achievements became
3:39
frowned upon, as it undermined those who poured tons of time and effort into
3:43
acquiring them honestly. And for those who care more about online multiplayer
3:47
than single-player achievements, online game services like Xbox Live and EA
3:51
Origin started aggressively banning cheaters in order to provide a level
3:55
playing field for the millions of gamers who log onto their servers. Of course,
3:59
this doesn't mean that cheats don't still exist. While cheat codes are much
4:03
rarer in games than they used to be, many games still contain secrets or
4:07
Easter eggs that can be discovered in ways other than entering codes. And
4:10
exploits are still used by speedrunners to beat games in record time, Taren,
4:15
making it sort of a twist on the concept of a high score. And you can learn more
4:19
about that right up here. But of course, actual modern-day cheating, in the sense
4:23
of gaining an unfair advantage, is the most common on online multiplayer
4:27
servers. So, let us know if you'd like to see a follow-up episode on the arms
4:31
race between game studios and players of ill repute as we explore modern-day
4:36
cheating techniques. But you know what's the exact opposite of something of ill
4:40
repute? Private internet access, a VPN.
4:43
Not only does PIA work on up to five devices at once by hiding your true IP
4:47
address and allowing you to bypass geo-restrictions and censorship by
4:51
making you appear that you're connecting from somewhere else, it also blocks
4:54
unwanted connections to help prevent attacks, auto blocks all traffic if the
4:58
VPN disconnects, keeping your data out of the hands of advertisers and other
5:02
snoops who are tracking your activity, prevents DNS leaks, and even includes
5:05
Mace, PIA's built-in malware blocker. PIA supports multiple VPN protocols and
5:10
encryption levels, allowing you to dial in the exact level of protection you
5:13
need. They have apps for Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, Linux, and a Chrome
5:19
extension with support for more platforms coming soon. And PIA has over
5:23
3,000 servers in 28 countries and does not log user activity. So, what are you
5:28
waiting for? Check them out today at the link below.
5:32
So guys, thank you very much for watching. Let us know in the comments if
5:36
you'd like to see a follow-up video on cheating. Make sure to like the video,
5:39
dislike, comment, get subscribed, and
5:42
you know, we'll see you on the next one.