CHEAT POKES and in game programs. Alexander Desyatnichenko,
Sumy _________________________________________ first
publication - the magazine "ZX REVYUUKRAINA, 1996. New, much to
the filling and the revised version - a specially for the
magazine "ZX POWER", 1997. 1. The history of methods of
"unfair" games. The very first game programs for ZXSPECTRUM
were quite primitive and, therefore, comparatively light Vigra.
Perhaps any of you cmozhet hour-mi play RIVER RAID, aerial very
da Leco and bypassing those meager for Paz extra lives, which
bylnadelen pilot creators of the program. But as how to improve
the technique of programming became more sophisticated and
themselves game. In 1985, there were programs, gaming space
which has from several dozen to several hundreds of screens.
These are well-known You play as STARQUAKE, FIRELORD, ROBIN
in the WOOD and many others. Significantly
increased the number of opponents in the game
and markedly increased their aggressiveness, have begun to
impose restrictions on the time the task and ammunition
the main character. Increased demands and
to the brain play - now had to
keep in mind the map of the labyrinth,
layout of objects on the location and
This has to pick the keys to the door or
in parallel with the shooting at the enemy, ponder over the use
of objects. Of course, all these factors have strongly
influenced the rate of passage of game, which began to appear
more and more. Themselves as games are becoming more colorful,
have begun to create so-called FINAL CUT, - it when at the end
of the game in its successful demonstrated by the passage of
something like cartoon with congratulations and now plays after
each successfully completed screen, began to torment the most
urgent of all the issues - and what is there, then?
That's about that time and the first methods of "unfair" games.
What are they were? Of course, in addressing
reasons that complicate the game, and first
all, it concerns the limit of lives -
because very few people managed to get huge
gaming space with five lives in
conditions, when you throw all the time
stones, but still perform at this task. Anyone who is even
slightly versed in the native browsing
program listing to find in her memory addresses that store
number of lives, and addresses, in which it is the number
decreased with each character's death, and made changes to the
text of the program either directly, or through the operator
POKE in BASIC loader. Later lists of POKES began to publish in
computer magazines, and each user an opportunity to ask himself
in game of life, we need to
its passage, or simply eliminate the decrease in the number of
extra lives, established by the program. K By the time
downloaders already well-protected, so some games
"Obessmerchivalis" making tough changes directly into the body
of the game with a Copy COPY-COPY (Pirate 02), which allows it
to do. It is in this way and come down to us such games as
ALIEN 8, NODES of YESOD, INDIANA JONES and
DIZZY. Manufacturers of instant games
responded to such insolence and punished the user-coded primary
block games. Now, before the "loop" program, it needed to crack
and decrypt. Rigidly obessmerchivat game became less frequent,
increasingly it has become made from the boot. Began to
consider the interests play a "fair" - In the loaders before
hakkerskih POKE posed REM, so as usual the game worked fine,
but those who do not fit into the limits established in the
program, could remove the operator REM and play with infinite
life. Some loaders before you start the game, asked
question: "INFINITE LIVES (Y / N)?", and,
If yes, have made
appropriate changes. New word
was the game mode selection menu. For the first time this
could be observed in the program NEBULUS,
later - in the loaders to Bill Gilbert
Games KRAKOUT 2 and ROBOCOP. Appeared
first megatreynery - so called menu
of a few, three to ten
points, taking advantage of that, we can
limits to fully customize everything in the game on
his taste, from the infinite life and ending with the entrance
immediately to any level of the game. The first such
megatreynery you might see in games and SLAP FIGHT
NORTH STAR, much the same development infinitizatsiya "programs
found in our country due to the absence of the law on copyright
Rights. Now, almost every program, adapted for use in TR-DOS,
supplied if not megatreynerom, at least
unit would POKE. And there is still a huge mass of games past,
so either someone to end and not passed, but how much is the
new game, while before us has not come down .. Many of you may
say that everything is already come down to us and nothing new
is no longer be. And where is the FLYING SHARK 2 (from
FIREBIRDS'91), SAVAGE 4 (from PROBE '91), MONSTRLAND (from
ROLLINGSOFT'91), SATURN 2 (from OCEAN'91), CHANGE TO NINJA (from
ULTIMATE'92), DEUCE (from DURELL'92), DARK
INSIDE (from DINAMIC'92), GRABER (from
CEPPELIN'92), HAND TO HAND (from
USGOLD '92), LETIFEROUS (from IMAGINE'92), LITTLE ELEPH (from
GOLD WIN'92), NINJA IN FUTURE (from HIT PAC'92), SAVAGE
BARBARIAN (from MASTERTRONIC'92), TWILS
(From CODEMASTERS '92), THE GEGG (from
KONAMI'92), THE ISLAND (from MIKROGEN'92), YAMAHA ISD (from
ACTIVISION'92) and hundreds of other games? Did you see them,
because certain that these games exist, there is even describe
them! Repeatedly in the pages of various newspapers raised the
question of the moral aspects of infinite lives. But I, being a
bad player and fan of all the methods of cheating, leaving
resolution of this issue to the conscience of each and consider
their task only just share with you
methods of searching for addresses of immortality, and
how to use them - then I use only for themselves, whether
embedded in custom loaders and offer in this form
wide range of users - let
each of you to define himself.
2. Corporate CHEAT.
At the beginning of sinklerovskoy "era went
the most incredible rumors that some programs have so-called
Hot key, pressing that you can
get up things like pass
through walls, jump through screens
and entire game levels, to ensure currently
immortality and unlimited ammunition. Then gradually these fraud
(In English - CHEAT) became a subject of increasing publicity,
and now Every schoolchild knows that when a menu
2 Select the program CYBERNOID REDEFINE
KEYS, and then a request to override
press left, right, etc., press
keys, which together write
on the screen the word "ORGY", then we can easily
become immortal. Very interesting CHEAT
games in the series DIZZY. So, if after
Download TREASURE ISLAND DIZZY (DIZZY 2),
by simultaneously pressing P, O and A, and
then ENTER, then start a CHEAT.
Now, at any time during the game
you can press C (for this myself Dizzy disappears) and the keys
Z, X, K and M to move the game screen. Clicking on the JUMP
Dizzy joystick returns to this screen you choose, and you can
continue playing already at that point. Even cooler is designed
to CHEAT SPELLBOUND DIZZY 128K (DIZZY 5). If the front page of
type "I WANT AN OMLETTE "(without the spaces if you do not get
right the first time, you can repeat up until the curb do not
blink), then during the game by pressing the C key
the screen is called a whole menu with a choice
type CHEAT, using which one can not
only move the screens, but also to choose any item, add
yourself and the lives of stars, even just save all the family
members. Almost all the programs the company OCEAN have built
proprietary CHEAT. For example, if a table of scores of games
NAVY SEALS 1 '2 dial instead of his name the phrase "CLUBBING
SEASON", then, with difficulty in passing, you can press ENTER
and go directly to the next level. Practice shows that the
absolute CHEAT three most active
ways: remapping the keyboard controls, a set of code in front
page a set of code in the table records. However,
is that the program throughout
Game supports CHEAT, - in the game IRON
SOLDIER at any time you can do
immortal, by simultaneously pressing
G, A, D. What is this and where they CHEAT
it come from? The fact that the programmer
to create a game program must verify that it works and does not
check somehow, and bypass all the screens on proprygat all the
bumps, killed on each peg ... In other words, it should provide
all possible and impossible versions of the game in every game
screen to program anywhere properly fulfilled and
nowhere to hang, not to mention the fact
that he must pass several times the entire
game from beginning to end completely, making sure its normal
operation and in achieving this goal. Of course, individual
routines can be checked and under the supervision of the
monitor debugger, but complete game - only in the form in which
it receives the user. Of course, not every programmer, even if
it is the author of his own game
can quickly and easily pass through,
say, NARCOPOLICE with all levels.
Therefore, purely for themselves, the programmers have done
here such secret CHEAT, typed after loading the password and
check your game inside and out. Why do not they cleaned their
after final debugging? And you
imagine what a fully branded finished the game with heaps of
protection? Not so easy to remove from it a fragment
program, especially if it is hundreds of times
"Pereksoren and packaged together with the main
block games. Besides, after some
time, you can publish this and CHEAT
call this new interest in their game at
those who failed to pass earlier. If
do you really want to pass through some interesting but
difficult game, but nor CHEAT, nor POKES to her you do not know,
You can try to find a CHEAT myself for this, even knowledge of
assembler initially did not need, need a good program, monitor,
and a little of your intuition. This is most easily done by
ROM - uncompressed long code block the game is written to disk
and viewed the monitor for the search in it a text message.
When working with tape, after decompressing the main block
games, download any disassembler and run it on a dump. "
Browsing contents of memory, a special attention to the text
messages, which in the game you've never seen on screen, and if
the eyes are caught per se, Write down or memorize them. Most
often this unusual words or phrases that hint at
CHEAT. So, in a game MIDNIGHT RESISTANCE
it will offer "I AM AN OCEAN TESTER", immediately followed is a
whole subroutine, which can run a team RANDOMIZE USR 28749 and
she will ask you to configure the game to your liking. Having
found such an unusual phrase, you can try to type them in the
title page or scoreboard. If all else fails,
and suspicion on this phrase is very large,
you'll have to ask for help from the disassembler to find where
the program is a reference to this phrase, and after that to
happen. And it really You can reliably find something
interesting scanning routines poll keyboard. After a
redefinition of key survey hotkeys during the game and control
of the rollover is involved in such routines, and if you find a
survey of the key, not involved in the game, then surely it is
CHEAT. I do not include practical examples how the survey looks
at the keyboard assembly language, since he apply
6.5 way to do this interview. As for programming professionals,
then All fingers are not enough to
simply just enumerate the methods by which you can control a
few keystrokes, the entire series or so a single key. Also, I
hope everyone who is going to own obessmerchivat games, has
representation about it. There is another feature that can also
be attributed to subject firm CHEAT, at least in
this article. This applies to codes and
passwords, which give some programs after the passage of certain
stage of the game, such as game levels, and
through which you can then begin to play, skipping already
completed earlier levels of the game. These codes and passwords
repeatedly published in the press find them among the most text
messages are also not difficult, if not coded, of course. In
Some programs, for example, LORNA, in general, such codes are
written to the levels explaining: "CLAVE ACCESO FASE 2: LOLI",
"CLAVE ACCESO FASE 3: PLANINGA" etc.
Very often, users complain that
knowing the code, they can not recruit him, -
the keyboard is polled as fast
that is only to touch the first key, as this letter instantly
filled all the space allocated for a set of
secret word. Sorry, my dear!
but to blame your computer - it does not
"In a corporate" interrogates the keyboard.
Of course, you can tinker and rewrite
procedure of the survey, but if you just want to just see
what's in the next level and do not let this game for wider
audience, then I can share with you a secret, as in barbarous
"to deal with unruly keyboard. Principle control is very simple
- so if your computer so quickly knocks out an entire row of a
the same letter, so do not let it necessary, and to help with
this! To do this again start the monitor, which allows not
also view and edit
memory contents, and change the code. For example, if
second-tier games LORNA was the access code LOLI, you
interrupted him, say, 2222. Now, when the program asks you to
enter a code to load the second level, simply press the button
2. Obedient machine knocks so twos, as will fit in the allotted
for this position on the screen, then
You can safely click on ENTER and download
the second level. Once again I want to remind
you that distribute software such
rigidly as amended by no means
If you can not, because there are people out
game description or from computer magazine learned access codes
to the game levels, and enter into them can not because of your
own, with I may say so, "modernization." AND
One more remark. The access code can
stored in the program twice - in a text message on your screen
after successfully passed the level, and just very
a - for him and will handle the program for comparison with
code that you typed.
3. The use of published POKES.
In numerous publications devoted to
ZX SPECTRUM, published long lists of
POKES, had even published a separate book with
POKES for 600 games. However, most of
They have not been tested, many mistakes were made (about this
warning and publishers themselves), a large number POKES
suitable only for a specific version
games, some even designed
only for insertion through
copyist. Have had to ignore and just reprints of the
publication in edition with the same errors. And this
more personal, much worse, when some
guys send the log POKES, taken
from other publications or from other people's boot,
emphasizing the fact that they have their found themselves. In
tests, it turns out that many of them contain explicit mistakes
and not even checked. Determine These POKES were found not
their pseudo-authors is very simple - it's just Obviously, if
the address of immortality coincides exactly with the
necessary, and the value that need to put on the cell, does not
lead to the desired result. For example, for one
of the games have been proposed for the installation of an
infinite life at Record 32,132 0. Turned out to be the same as
if to put on this 0 cell, then after the first error game
will give "GAME OVER", because in this
cell actually need to Record the number of
182. It is safe to conclude that this
POKE not only belongs to his imaginary
author, but not even checked. In connection
with all this, the published POKES should be treated with
caution, especially if you install them harshly. Ideally set in
POKES Loaders games after downloading long
code block and decompression of the block, that is, before the
last RANDOMIZE USR. Unfortunately, many hackers publish
their POKES, found in programs that are loaded at any address
or unopened. By the way, now divorced a lot of different
packers, which compressed by the long code blocks.
Naturally, POKES, found in a program packed with a compressor,
not suitable for the program, otkompressirovannoy others. Would
like very much to all Who is going to release personally found
addresses of immortality, they pointed to the case when the
program downloaded to his native place in memory
machines and fully unpacked. Of course, it should be flawless
POKES, properly working and not giving unwanted side effects.
And for those who could not find in print POKES for heavy
games or just do not trust them, you can
recommend only one thing - load
disassembler and find those yourself.
4. Address search of immortality.
During the period of 1991 to
obessmerchivaniya I had studied about 1000 games, and I try to
share with your own search techniques and successes in this
field. So, where do you start? Of course, first you need to run
the game, make sure of its normal work, little play, paying
particular attention to such things as: how much extra life is
given program, as it appears on the screen, as those lives
taken away and what happens when the limit is exhausted before
lives end. Then you need to understand
looking into the boot, under which addresses
downloaded program files and how they are run. If you have
problems with this, we first need to boot Hack and lead the
entire game to a form that it is easy to download and run from
the BASIC command RANDOMIZE USR. How this is done, I hope you
understand At least, this is a topic for another
articles and those articles and entire books have been
a lot. Let no one take offense at me and ripe for hackers is
that I so much detail "Chew" in their articles, according to
their standards, sometimes basic things. I just set myself to
write, so that even those who only yesterday sat at the
computer, read it, tried it and quietly even
himself crossed the barrier between BASIC and
machine code, because I myself started
master assembler this way,
trying to immortalize recalcitrant toys.
For the first example of best
fits any widespread and at the same time quite difficult
game, for example, STAR BOWLS. As you noticed, the original
player is given 8 lives that very quickly thereafter decrease.
Boot from that long code block the game is loaded at address
26000 and starts at address 34620, starting with pre-unpack
the initial load address. Load
this file (do not forget to install it CLEAR to one less than
the address load, ie, 25,999) and extract
team RANDOMIZE USR 26000. Now you need to download and run the
disassembler, but how to do it, because it needs
more than 6 KB of memory, and we have it all busy busy and
decompressed long blocks of the game? But not all memory
occupied by native code programs, After all, the game still
needed a lot of graphics, music, spreadsheets, etc. which we
now do not need. If it is known that the game starts at address
34620, we can assume that from this address and following up to
26000 and is Here is useless to us until the information
therefore, here and load the disassembler. Of course, if you're
working with a disk, then can be directly through the monitor
to determine where in the file relevant information,
pre-writing it in uncompressed form, and absolutely no problems
with the 128k-machines that allow download without caps and
explore the code by using a remarkable STELTH STALKER MONITORa.
Running a disassembler, let's try to find a program the place
where the specified number of lives. Classically, the number of
life is placed in the battery and then entered into memory,
constantly it enshrines. Ask a disassembler to find the
We mnemonic LD A, # 08. He immediately stopped at the address
47805:
47805 LD A, # 08
47807 LD (48249), A
Now it becomes clear that the number of lives permanently
stored in the cell 48249. But what if there is not Record 8,
and, say, 100 lives? You can restart a long block, erasing the
memory decompress it (RANDOMIZE USR
26000) and give POKE 47806,100. Now start the game (RANDOMIZE
USR 34620) and you with your own eyes see that the number of
lives has increased significantly, however, they became somehow
not 100, and Only 64 ... The fact that this game
prints the number of lives in
hexadecimal, and if
You will need 255 lives, the screen
instead of the usual number of 255 will be # FF.
Many of the games check the number of lives and
do not print on the screen, if, say,
greater than 9. Game BOSCONIAN, for example, print the number
of lives in decimal form, but under this number on the screen
is allocated only two digits, and if you ask her more than 99
lives, then after the first same collision get GAME OVER. There
Games, which represent the number of lives not by the number
and the appropriate number of subjects, for example, the number
of lives in the game ROBOCOP RoboCop to the number of heads at
the bottom of the screen. Imagine what would happen if you ask
them more than required? Of course, if the program checks it,
then cuts off the excess, and if not? Then, in the LAST NINJA 2
program when printing the number of remaining lives will try to
build a single file 255 ninja Game MURRAY MOUSE SUPER COP try
place within the screen 255 mice. K
Moreover, even such a huge margin
lives can not always be sufficient for the successful
completion of the game - for example, I do not confident that
in twenty-seven levels of the game SPACE HARRIER 2 killed me
less than 255 times. For all these reasons, this method
problems with the number of lives
just could not find distribution, but he
undesirable. Much more beautiful and safer
work POKES, eliminating the decrease
lives. As usual at a time is taken away only one life, the most
likely, apparently, use the command DEC for this purpose. Let's
go back back to STAR BOWLS and verify this assumption. As we
already know, a permanent record of life in this program
selected memory cell at 48,249. Let's try to find a fragment
where would appeal went to the memory cell, for example,
through the battery. Disassembler will issue:
46275 LD A, (48249)
46278 DEC A
46279 DAA
46280 LD (48249), A
To be continued ...
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