Cheat cartridge
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A cheat cartridge (or game enhancer) is a device that connects to a video game system that allows a user to input special cheat codes to manipulate a game in a way not permitted in its original programming. Usually the effect is to gain infinite lives, ammunition, unlock secrets, or do things that would otherwise allow an unfair advantage. Some games even have codes to activate unreleased levels, weapons, or items that may not have been available normally, and some even have codes to access debug menus used by programmers. For more recent systems, many "cheat cartridges" are not actually cartridges, but rather some form of optical disc (such as CD-ROMs or DVD-ROMs).
Functions
Cheat cartridges work very simply in older consoles. The cheat cartridge, which has a port identical to the one in the console, will sit in the console, and the game will attach onto it. The cheat cartridge can then modify values passed through it, which constitutes every single value that the game uses. In modern consoles, CDs or DVDs can be used, however a popular choice is to use a modchip which allows the console to become a personal computer, which can then have a memory editor or other applications installed on it for cheating (a hard drive must be available.)Cheat cartridges work similar to memory editors for the PC that make trainers. The code that you enter into the cheat device contains two major parts that may or may not be able to be decoded directly by the user based on the code shown. The first part is the address where the value to be modified will be located in the memory. This value, unlike in computer programs, will remain constant in consoles because the cartridge stores these values in the same place (because there is no OS to manage the RAM like in a PC.) The second part is the value, which determines what the address specified will be changed to. These values are constantly changed or 'frozen' by the cheat device so that they can never be read as any other value. Devices normally have an on/off switch to turn this effect on or off. Nintendo 64 Gameshark codes can also contain a third part that determines what combination of buttons will cause the address to be modified to the value once instead of being frozen.
Some cartridges have a search function which allows the user to use deduction to find and narrow down values that they wish to modify by searching for the value, changing the value, and then searching the previous results for the new value, and repeating this until the value is singled out of the entire memory.
Modifying any values in memory can have unexpected results, and normally people refer to cheat code websites so that they can know which codes to enter. People who understand hexadecimal and can convert numbers from base 10 to it may be able to change the value that the address is being changed to. ROM dumping makes finding and using these codes considerably easier, as these games and their respective memories can be opened with hex editors on PCs and modified. PC tools offer a lot more options to people attempting to find values to modify then any cheat cartridge can. Most emulators provide a cheat code device emulator, which also includes a value searching function like some cartridges.
PlayStation
The original PlayStation's parallel port allowed a cheat cartridge to be attached to the console. These cartridges were used for the same purposes as above, but also to play import or pirated game discs. In 1998, some developers discovered that in conjunction with a custom spring to make the console believe the CD lid was closed, game enhancers could be made for the system. The user would simply start the console with the game enhancer, the spring, and an original disc in place. After the console booted up, a player could swap a bootleg disc at a specificed point, and begin playing off of the disc.Game enhancers were available under numerous names, such as Game Hunter, Gold Finger and Game Killer, but all had similar features. Most cartridges on the market are derivatives of the Hong Kong version of the Pro Action Replay/GameShark cartridge, sometimes just renamed or changed cosmetically. When people refer to game enhancers, they usually mean the devices that allowed playing of imports and burned discs, not just cheat cartridges.
Game enhancers were an alternative to modchips until Sony removed the parallel port with the SCPH-9000 revision of the PlayStation in May 1999.
Xbox
The inclusion of a special hardware chip, or modchip, is the only way of allowing non-hard-programmed cheats on an Xbox. This modification allows users to perfrom acts such as copying entire games onto the hard drive, thus eliminating the need for a physical disc, and installing operating systems and software, which can allow memory editing to take place. Modification of the Xbox is considered by Microsoft and other companies to be illegal, and Microsoft claims they will ban anyone using a modded Xbox on their online gaming service, Xbox Live.Cartridges
Some well known cartridges include:- * Most likely the first cheat cartridge ever
See also
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