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Speaker 1: Welcome to tex Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio.

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Speaker 1: A there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host,

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Speaker 1: job and Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart

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Speaker 1: Radio and I love all things tech. And for some

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Speaker 1: of you, the following sequence will have at least some

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Speaker 1: level of significance. Up, up, down, down, left, right, left right,

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Speaker 1: b A, and maybe start. For those of you who

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Speaker 1: have never heard of that, that is the famous Konami code,

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Speaker 1: which was first used in a Nintendo Entertainment system part

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Speaker 1: of the arcade game Gradius way back in n And

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Speaker 1: what did that code do? Well, actually could do a

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Speaker 1: few things. If you put it in during the title

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Speaker 1: screen of the game, you would start the game with

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Speaker 1: thirty lives during the game. If you paused it and

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Speaker 1: you put that code in, you would receive extra missiles

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Speaker 1: and a speed boost and some other goodies, but only

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Speaker 1: once per level. It's arguably the most famous cheap code

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Speaker 1: of all time, one that has appeared in multiple games,

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Speaker 1: dozens of games, and also on other platforms not just games.

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Speaker 1: And sometimes it's a cheap code, sometimes it's an easter egg.

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Speaker 1: It goes well beyond Konami games. But why would Konami

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Speaker 1: even include that code in the first place. Well, see kiddos.

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Speaker 1: When video games were young, they were also vicious, Like

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Speaker 1: early video games were mega difficult and unforgiving. There's been

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Speaker 1: a resurgence of those kind of games recently, largely because

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Speaker 1: the people who played them as kids are adults now

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Speaker 1: and that's the kind of games they like to play.

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Speaker 1: But some of those early titles lacks stuff like continues,

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Speaker 1: so once you round lives, that was it. In fact,

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Speaker 1: in the early consoles, there was no real way to

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Speaker 1: save your progress at all. Some games would sometimes include

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Speaker 1: a code at certain points of a game, and if

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Speaker 1: you were to write down that code and then enter

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Speaker 1: the code in a future play session, it would allow

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Speaker 1: you to start from your finishing point. So that was

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Speaker 1: sort of a workaround for the lack of a save function.

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Speaker 1: Before you had stuff like memory cards and other ways

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Speaker 1: of like onboard storage that you could use to to

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Speaker 1: save games. But my point is these games were wicked hard,

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Speaker 1: and they weren't just hard for consumers, you know, they

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Speaker 1: were also hard for game developers. And sometimes you just

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Speaker 1: need to test the game code to make sure everything's working.

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Speaker 1: You want to check the graphics and the gameplay. You

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Speaker 1: might need to see how transitions are working, and you

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Speaker 1: want to make you know sure that the stuff is

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Speaker 1: behaving the way you want it to. And this can

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Speaker 1: be really slow going if you know, it's a bullet

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Speaker 1: hell style arcade game and it's so hard you can't

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Speaker 1: even get very far to test things, even though you're

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Speaker 1: the one have made it. So this programmer named Kazuhisa

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Speaker 1: Hashimoto decided to include a code that would give him

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Speaker 1: some boosts so that he could continue to play this

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Speaker 1: game he was working on. He said the arcade version

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Speaker 1: was so difficult he could never play through it, and

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Speaker 1: he was in charge of creating the port, so it's

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Speaker 1: possible the code would have remained more or less unknown.

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Speaker 1: I mean, back in those days, the average person didn't

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Speaker 1: have access to the Internet, and there was no such

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Speaker 1: thing as the World Wide Web at that point. In fact,

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Speaker 1: most gamers would just get their information from hard print

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Speaker 1: magazines like Tips and Tricks or Nintendo Power. So while

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Speaker 1: some curious folks would likely have uncovered the code one

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Speaker 1: way or another, it was possible that word wouldn't have

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Speaker 1: really spread very much. But Konami also included the same

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Speaker 1: code in another game. This one called Contra. This was

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Speaker 1: in Contra was a big hit in America, but it

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Speaker 1: didn't take long for word to spread that the code

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Speaker 1: that first appeared in Gradius is also in contract. Soon

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Speaker 1: folks share the information in various ways, like word of

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Speaker 1: mouth or in one of those video game magazines. Will

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Speaker 1: come back to that in a second, and the Konami

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Speaker 1: code was well on its way to becoming one of

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Speaker 1: the pillars of gaming in its own way. So I

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Speaker 1: thought I would do an episode about cheats and video games,

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Speaker 1: and some of the examples I'll mention are things that

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Speaker 1: developers built into their own games, either as like an

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Speaker 1: easter egg or sometimes like Hashimoto, as a way for

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Speaker 1: allowing developers to test certain game aspects without having to

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Speaker 1: worry about, you know, a ghost gobbling them up, or

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Speaker 1: a space marine stomping their brains in or whatever. I

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Speaker 1: also want to touch on, you know, the black market

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Speaker 1: industry of game hacks. These are tools that give players

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Speaker 1: unfair advantages in games, mostly you know, multiplayer competitive games.

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Speaker 1: We're gonna focus on that more in the following episode

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Speaker 1: or Wednesday's episode. I should say, I'm sure any gamers

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Speaker 1: out there have encountered sort of thing at one point

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Speaker 1: or another. If they play multiplayer games, I'm sure you've

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Speaker 1: had an experience where you've encountered a cheater. I know

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Speaker 1: I have. I remember playing a game of pub G

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Speaker 1: where I was in a car going very fast and

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Speaker 1: got sniped with one bullet to the head by a player,

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Speaker 1: And when I watched the death cam, I saw that

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Speaker 1: they weren't even in line of sight with my car,

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Speaker 1: and I thought, huh, that seems suss And then considering that,

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Speaker 1: that player then went on to like headshot three other

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Speaker 1: you know, players in the same moment told me they

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Speaker 1: were cheating. But I hope none of you have actually

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Speaker 1: made use of those kinds of cheats, because, let's face it,

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Speaker 1: that kind of cheating is totally lame. If you're relying

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Speaker 1: on code to give you an edge on other players,

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Speaker 1: well it's not really you that's putting in the work,

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Speaker 1: is it. But again, we'll get to that in the

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Speaker 1: next episode. Really, honestly, the history of cheat codes predates

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Speaker 1: the famed Konami code. I figured I had to start

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Speaker 1: there because it's the best known cheat code of all time.

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Speaker 1: I think before codes were really that accessible. However, players

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Speaker 1: have to put a little more work into cheat in

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Speaker 1: a video game, a computer game specifically. Now keep in

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Speaker 1: mind when personal computers were relatively new, they were largely

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Speaker 1: the domain of hobbyists and hackers and amateur programmers. And remember,

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Speaker 1: the hacker in this sense is a more broad term

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Speaker 1: than how it typically is used by the media. Hollywood

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Speaker 1: version of a hacker is someone who specializes in infiltrating

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Speaker 1: secure systems and then messes around with stuff or steals

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Speaker 1: data or whatever. You know, someone who's hacking into the

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Speaker 1: Pentagon or something. But that's just one type of hacker.

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Speaker 1: The more broad definition of hacker is someone who is

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Speaker 1: interested in learning how systems work, typically computer systems, and

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Speaker 1: then finding interesting things that they can do within that

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Speaker 1: system that perhaps were never intended by the people who

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Speaker 1: built the system in the first place. Like you might

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Speaker 1: discover that if you were to look at the code

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Speaker 1: underlying a program and changed a few values, you can

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Speaker 1: make the program and do entirely different stuff, or you

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Speaker 1: might just break everything and have to go back to

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Speaker 1: the original code. While on the old days of computer games,

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Speaker 1: hackers would use the good old peak and poke method,

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Speaker 1: now peak refers to getting a look at computer code

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Speaker 1: stored in a computer's memory. Now, remember, back in the

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Speaker 1: early days, we're not talking about computers that had like

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Speaker 1: hard drives and stuff. They were typically reading media from

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Speaker 1: some form of storage, right, They were reading it from

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Speaker 1: a disk or a cassette or something like that, and

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Speaker 1: it would load information into the computer's memory and then

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Speaker 1: execute instructions upon the information. So if you were able

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Speaker 1: to look at the information that's in the computer's memory,

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Speaker 1: and if you're really able to look at it carefully,

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Speaker 1: you might be able to suss what is doing what.

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Speaker 1: You might be able to say, oh, when I shoot

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Speaker 1: my gun, this one value changes, so that value has

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Speaker 1: something to do with me shooting my gun in the game.

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Speaker 1: Poke refers to changing those values within the code in

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Speaker 1: the computer's memory before you load the game in, So

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Speaker 1: you're poking or prodding the code in order to see

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Speaker 1: what happens. So let's use a theoretical example. Let's say

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Speaker 1: you're playing an old computer role playing game, something that

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Speaker 1: clearly drew inspiration from Dungeons and Dragons and and other

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Speaker 1: pencil and paper RPGs. There were tons of these in

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Speaker 1: the early days, Like I remember games like Bard's Tail

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Speaker 1: and Wizardry and countless others. Part of these games revolve

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Speaker 1: around creating a character, and each character has ability points

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Speaker 1: or attributes that have a number that describes how their magnitude. Right,

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Speaker 1: So if you were doing classic Dungeons and Dragons, you

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Speaker 1: would have an ability like strength, and it could range

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Speaker 1: from three to eighteen because you would in the old days,

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Speaker 1: rolled three six sided dice, So the lowest you could

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Speaker 1: get would be three. The highest you can get with

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Speaker 1: you an eighteen, and the average human would be somewhere

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Speaker 1: in the ten to eleven range. So if your computer

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Speaker 1: generated character has a strength of six, because that's the

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Speaker 1: quote unquote random number that the computer generated for that score,

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Speaker 1: that would mean that that character would be a little

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Speaker 1: bit on the weak side, and that would affect what

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Speaker 1: kind of class you could play, or how much damage

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Speaker 1: you would do with a melee weapon, or how much

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Speaker 1: your character might carry that kind of thing. However, let's

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Speaker 1: say you peak at the code in computer memory and

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Speaker 1: you suss out which bit represents the ability scores, and

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Speaker 1: then you go in and change a few values, and

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Speaker 1: you reload the game, and now you see that your

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Speaker 1: previously feeble character has been buffed out to eighteen strength

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Speaker 1: or heck, you know, some games actually didn't have limitters

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Speaker 1: on them, like within the game you could only get

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Speaker 1: up to eighteen, but if you went in and set

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Speaker 1: the strength higher, then you would effectively have that as

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Speaker 1: your strength. So while you could not at it through

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Speaker 1: the regular character generation, by manipulating the code, you can

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Speaker 1: give your character like strength and suddenly they would be

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Speaker 1: way more powerful than any other, you know, regularly created character.

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Speaker 1: I mean you could, uh just you know, you create

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Speaker 1: an entire party of characters this way, and you can

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Speaker 1: max out all their stats if you wanted to and

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Speaker 1: just roll over anyone who's in your way. Now, that

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Speaker 1: could get old pretty quickly because there's very little challenge

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Speaker 1: in the game left. But on a meta level, you

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Speaker 1: would be learning more about how game designers were building

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Speaker 1: out their games and designating the variables that determine how

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Speaker 1: the game works. So there was another level going on

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Speaker 1: in here. But anyway, the peak and poke method wasn't

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Speaker 1: exactly super accessible. Most folks didn't own a computer back

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Speaker 1: in the early nineteen eighties, and the people who did

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Speaker 1: own a computer, a lot of them weren't necessarily savvy

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Speaker 1: enough to get their hands dirty with altering code in

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Speaker 1: computer memory. I certainly did. Like I that was a

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Speaker 1: step further than what I was comfortable doing when I

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Speaker 1: was a kid, And some computer systems made this a

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Speaker 1: bit more tricky to pull off than others. But you

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Speaker 1: could think of that as sort of the predecessors to

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Speaker 1: computer game hacks. But then we get into the mid

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Speaker 1: nineteen eighties and then Nintendo Entertainment System. Earlier consoles like

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Speaker 1: the at Ty had games that had exploits built into them,

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Speaker 1: or sometimes they were just errors that developers had made

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Speaker 1: and players found them and found they could exploit them.

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Speaker 1: But it was the Konami code that really established the

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Speaker 1: video game cheat. I would say it's not that it

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Speaker 1: was the first one, but it was the one that

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Speaker 1: kind of set the bar. And again, early on, this

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Speaker 1: was something that game developers would include so that they

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Speaker 1: could continue to test and build out a game without

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Speaker 1: having to worry about being pixel perfect with their jumps

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Speaker 1: and whatnot. The only reason they made it into the

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Speaker 1: final product is that by the time these developers were

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Speaker 1: done building a game, they just kind of wanted to

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Speaker 1: ship it. Sometimes they just had to hit a deadline,

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Speaker 1: and you don't want to take the time and trouble

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Speaker 1: to go in and remove code that you inserted to

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Speaker 1: make it easier to navigate through the game. For one thing,

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Speaker 1: you might break something just by removing that code, and

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Speaker 1: then you're, you know, back to square one. And I'm

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Speaker 1: sure a lot of developers thought, who the heck is

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Speaker 1: going to stumble across this seemingly random sequence anyway, No

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Speaker 1: one's gonna just randomly do be A B A, you

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Speaker 1: know whatever, whatever. Except there was one step in this

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Speaker 1: process of bringing a game to market for the Nintendo

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Speaker 1: Entertainment system that guaranteed people will learn about these tricks. See,

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Speaker 1: Nintendo decided to do something that Atari did not do

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Speaker 1: back in the pre video game crash days. So before,

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Speaker 1: n Atari tried to be the only source for games

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Speaker 1: for the Atari console, but disenchanted developers who wanted more credit,

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Speaker 1: not to mention a share of revenue generated by games,

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Speaker 1: they left Atari to found their own studios, Activision being

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Speaker 1: a famous one. You know. Back then, if you programmed

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Speaker 1: a game and it was a smash hit, you essentially

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Speaker 1: got paid pretty much the same as if the title

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Speaker 1: had turned out to be a dud. Atari didn't give

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Speaker 1: like royalties to people even if their game sold millions

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Speaker 1: of copies, or really, we should say tens of thousands

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Speaker 1: of copies. It wasn't quite in the millions range for

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Speaker 1: the most part, except with the exception of a few titles.

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Speaker 1: So influential developers at Atari decided they would leave and

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Speaker 1: create new programmer centric business model companies like Activision, at

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Speaker 1: least the original Activision anyway. Atari tried to fight that,

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Speaker 1: but they lost, and third party developers had the legal

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Speaker 1: right to create titles for Atari consoles. But this also

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Speaker 1: meant that a bunch of sketchy companies began churning out

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Speaker 1: junk titles for the Atari twenty s DRED and the

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Speaker 1: console's reputation suffered as a consequence. Now, whether those junk

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Speaker 1: titles actively contributed to the video game Crash of three

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Speaker 1: really depends upon whom you ask, but it definitely didn't

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Speaker 1: help Attari's reputation. When Nintendo entered the market with the NES,

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Speaker 1: one of the decisions the company made was to require developers,

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Speaker 1: including internal Nintendo developers, to submit games to a certification

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Speaker 1: process to make sure that the games, you know, worked.

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Speaker 1: They didn't have to be a masterpiece. I'm not saying

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Speaker 1: that every game that came out for the NES was

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Speaker 1: a show stopper. There were plenty of bad games on

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Speaker 1: the NES, but they had to at least work properly.

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Speaker 1: They had to pass, you know, at least a cursory inspection.

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Speaker 1: Part of that submission process meant the developers also had

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Speaker 1: to reveal any codes that they had built in that

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Speaker 1: would allow for different features in their game, even if

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Speaker 1: those codes were only put there for the purposes of

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Speaker 1: building out the game in the first place. So again,

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Speaker 1: let's say that you've created a game that has you

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Speaker 1: know when he levels in it, and for the purposes

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Speaker 1: of developing the game, you have a code that lets

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Speaker 1: you skip levels. Well, you would have to disclose the

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Speaker 1: information when you submitted the game to Nintendo certification process

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Speaker 1: to let them know this exists there. Now, it doesn't

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Speaker 1: matter that it existed there just for development. As long

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Speaker 1: as it's in the game, you had to disclose it.

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Speaker 1: And part of this process also meant that Nintendo Power

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Speaker 1: the magazine, would get access to that information. This was

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Speaker 1: partly to help reviewers get through particularly difficult sections of

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Speaker 1: games so that they could write a thorough review of

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Speaker 1: a game as a whole. Like the reviewer might only

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Speaker 1: have a few days with a game maybe just a

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Speaker 1: day or two, and they need to be able to

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Speaker 1: write a comprehensive review, but they might not have the

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Speaker 1: ability to play the game all the way through, so

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Speaker 1: they might make use of these codes. The only catch

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Speaker 1: was that the magazine was to hold off on publishing

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Speaker 1: those codes, at least for a few episode issues, rather

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Speaker 1: after reviewing the game, so they couldn't just say, Hey,

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Speaker 1: the game's great, and here's how you get god mode

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Speaker 1: on it. But then once a few issues had passed,

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Speaker 1: they could publish the cheap codes and they would make

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Speaker 1: the pages of the magazine, and gamers would learn about

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Speaker 1: the codes either by reading about them or as was

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Speaker 1: pretty common on playgrounds in the nineteen eighties, through scuttle.

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Speaker 1: But I'll explain more about cheat codes after we take

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Speaker 1: this quick break. Okay, So magazines like Nintendo Power start

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Speaker 1: to publish cheak codes, and once people learned about the

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Speaker 1: Konami code, it became a way for developers to kind

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Speaker 1: of play with gamers. So in some games like Castlevania,

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Speaker 1: the Konami code would unlock tons of extra lives. I

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00:16:51,520 --> 00:16:54,720
Speaker 1: think you got fifty lives when you used it, which

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00:16:54,760 --> 00:16:57,920
Speaker 1: was really useful because that was a very challenging platform

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Speaker 1: or otherwise. In other cases, like an early teenage Mustant

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Speaker 1: Ninja Turtles game, if you put in the Konami code,

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00:17:04,040 --> 00:17:06,120
Speaker 1: it would unlock a feature in which the characters made

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Speaker 1: weird noises when they moved around. So it wasn't always advantageous.

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Speaker 1: Sometimes it was just a funny little joke. So the

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Speaker 1: Konami code wasn't just a developer tool now. It was

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Speaker 1: a fun surprise for gamers who took the trouble to

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Speaker 1: learn and use the code in the first place. It

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Speaker 1: would also go on to inspire future generations of game developers.

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Speaker 1: They're still games coming out today that pay tribute to

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Speaker 1: the Konami Code, though it's pretty rare for the code

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Speaker 1: or the equivalent of that code to actually unlock, you know,

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Speaker 1: game cheats. You're more likely to unlock an Easter Egg

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Speaker 1: or maybe even a reprimand sometimes putting in the cheat

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Speaker 1: code gets you a message from the game saying, uh,

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Speaker 1: but it's you know, it's a tougue in cheek, Hey,

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Speaker 1: I see what you're doing their kind of thing. For example,

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Speaker 1: in the recent and reportedly terrible remastered Grant Theft Auto

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Speaker 1: the Trilogy, the Definitive Edition, which is supposed to be

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Speaker 1: a remastered version of Grand Theft Auto Three, Grand Theft Auto,

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Speaker 1: Vice City, and Grand Theft Auto San Andreas, but has

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Speaker 1: turned out, at least according to most reviews I've read,

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Speaker 1: to be awful. Anyway, the Konami code on that one

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Speaker 1: apparently turns everyone's heads larger, so it activates big head mode,

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Speaker 1: something that was made famous in games like NBA Jam

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Speaker 1: and based on how some of the quote unquote remastered

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Speaker 1: characters look, that sounds like it could be pretty horrifying.

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Speaker 1: By the way. I do plan on doing a series

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Speaker 1: of episodes a little bit later on about the history

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Speaker 1: of the g t A series because it's really bummed

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Speaker 1: to see how the g t A Trilogy came out

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Speaker 1: because Vice City was one of my favorite games back

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Speaker 1: in the day, even though I also recognize it as

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Speaker 1: a very flawed game. Anyway, I mentioned earlier the peak

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Speaker 1: and poke method of cheating. That was something you could

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00:18:52,920 --> 00:18:55,239
Speaker 1: do on computers, but it wasn't so simple to do

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00:18:55,359 --> 00:18:59,080
Speaker 1: on consoles. See, this was the time of video game

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00:18:59,240 --> 00:19:03,760
Speaker 1: cartridges and the games were physically programmed. They were hardwired

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00:19:03,880 --> 00:19:08,639
Speaker 1: in read only memory format. That's wrong, which means you

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Speaker 1: can't make changes to it. You can only read information

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Speaker 1: from it. And they were hard coded onto circuit boards

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Speaker 1: that were housed inside plastic cartridges. So when you plugged

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Speaker 1: the cartridge into a console, the circuit board has little

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00:19:22,080 --> 00:19:26,040
Speaker 1: contacts on it that would come into connection with elements

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Speaker 1: inside the console and it would complete a circuit. And

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Speaker 1: thus the the console could consult the video game cartridge

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00:19:34,280 --> 00:19:38,000
Speaker 1: and pull the relevant information needed for any particular part

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00:19:38,040 --> 00:19:40,240
Speaker 1: of the game, and you play your game as the

347
00:19:40,240 --> 00:19:43,480
Speaker 1: console would load stuff into the console's memory. But there

348
00:19:43,520 --> 00:19:46,439
Speaker 1: was no easy way to interact with that system beyond

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Speaker 1: just playing stuff in a straightforward way. One company that

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Speaker 1: tackled that problem early early on was a company called

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Speaker 1: Detail based in the UK. The company created a piece

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Speaker 1: of hardware called the Action Replay now the O General.

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Speaker 1: Action Replay Device worked on Commodore sixty four personal computers

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Speaker 1: and you would plug this into a serial port in

355
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Speaker 1: the Commodore sixty four and it would let you do

356
00:20:09,760 --> 00:20:13,520
Speaker 1: stuff like freeze a program, like say a game, as

357
00:20:13,560 --> 00:20:16,159
Speaker 1: it was running, and it would reveal the code that

358
00:20:16,280 --> 00:20:19,040
Speaker 1: was in the computer's memory. That gave you a chance

359
00:20:19,080 --> 00:20:22,720
Speaker 1: to peak and poke essentially, but it was pretty challenging

360
00:20:22,720 --> 00:20:25,120
Speaker 1: for the average user to do this, and it also

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00:20:25,200 --> 00:20:27,560
Speaker 1: followed on the heels of older devices that would let

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00:20:27,600 --> 00:20:31,080
Speaker 1: you do stuff like bypass copy protection or alter code,

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00:20:31,480 --> 00:20:34,000
Speaker 1: again tools that were mostly useful for folks who had

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00:20:34,000 --> 00:20:37,560
Speaker 1: a bit of programming knowledge already, but it would spawn

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Speaker 1: some heavy hitters in the years to come. Enter the

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Speaker 1: Game Genie. This was a device that acted as a

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Speaker 1: middleman between the game cartridge and the game console. So

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Speaker 1: you would plug a cartridge into one end of the

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Speaker 1: Genie and you would plug the Genie into a video

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Speaker 1: game console. So there were different versions of the Game

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Speaker 1: Genie for different consoles. So, for example, the Nintendo Entertainment

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Speaker 1: System had a Game Genie version, and this would mean

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Speaker 1: that if you've plugged this kind of thing into the

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Speaker 1: Nintendo Entertainment System, the little door on the NES wouldn't

375
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Speaker 1: be able to close, the cartridge would be sticking out.

376
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Speaker 1: But it totally worked. The Genie came with a book

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00:21:17,760 --> 00:21:20,680
Speaker 1: of codes for various games, and the codes would allow

378
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Speaker 1: a player to set values for stuff, similar to the

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00:21:23,359 --> 00:21:26,000
Speaker 1: poke approach with old computer games, but all the work

380
00:21:26,000 --> 00:21:29,160
Speaker 1: had already been done for you, so when the console

381
00:21:29,200 --> 00:21:34,080
Speaker 1: went looking for specific information. The Genie would intercept that

382
00:21:34,200 --> 00:21:39,080
Speaker 1: request and replace whatever the intended value would be like

383
00:21:39,119 --> 00:21:42,479
Speaker 1: if it actually came from the cartridge with a new value. So,

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Speaker 1: for example, let's say you were playing punch Out on

385
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Speaker 1: the NES and you really wanted to knock out Mr Sandman,

386
00:21:49,440 --> 00:21:52,360
Speaker 1: but you never could nail the timing. Well, you could

387
00:21:52,480 --> 00:21:55,200
Speaker 1: use game Genie to enter in certain codes that would

388
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Speaker 1: mean you would never lose stamina when you were hit,

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00:21:58,840 --> 00:22:01,200
Speaker 1: or that you would take us damage when you were hit,

390
00:22:01,320 --> 00:22:03,800
Speaker 1: or that you could knock down your opponent if you

391
00:22:03,880 --> 00:22:07,879
Speaker 1: just land one punch. The game Genie would understand what

392
00:22:08,040 --> 00:22:12,040
Speaker 1: information to return to the console based on whichever code

393
00:22:12,080 --> 00:22:15,760
Speaker 1: you entered into the Game Genie, and the NES would say, oh,

394
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Speaker 1: here's what I'm supposed to do, because it would be

395
00:22:18,000 --> 00:22:21,880
Speaker 1: getting the information from the game Genie thinking that that

396
00:22:22,040 --> 00:22:25,000
Speaker 1: information was coming from the cartridge itself. So it was

397
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Speaker 1: a workaround. Now, how did the game Genie programmers even

398
00:22:28,600 --> 00:22:32,320
Speaker 1: do this, Well, they probably use something like a debug

399
00:22:32,440 --> 00:22:36,160
Speaker 1: kit and they ran cartridges through their debug kit. Deep

400
00:22:36,160 --> 00:22:39,880
Speaker 1: bug kits are essentially special versions of consoles, in this

401
00:22:39,920 --> 00:22:42,679
Speaker 1: case for video game consoles specifically, and they're meant for

402
00:22:42,760 --> 00:22:45,720
Speaker 1: developers to use so that they can look for problems.

403
00:22:45,760 --> 00:22:48,879
Speaker 1: Let's say that they're designing a game and something's not

404
00:22:48,960 --> 00:22:51,600
Speaker 1: working correctly. This is a way where they could run

405
00:22:51,600 --> 00:22:55,080
Speaker 1: it through a debug kit. They could create whatever the

406
00:22:55,160 --> 00:22:57,840
Speaker 1: scenario was and look for the code to find out

407
00:22:57,840 --> 00:23:01,120
Speaker 1: where the problem is. That's the purpose for a debug kit,

408
00:23:01,600 --> 00:23:05,080
Speaker 1: but it also means that if you were running a

409
00:23:05,119 --> 00:23:07,960
Speaker 1: game and you have a debug kit on, you could

410
00:23:08,040 --> 00:23:11,320
Speaker 1: watch those values and see which ones change whenever you

411
00:23:11,359 --> 00:23:14,720
Speaker 1: do something specific, like when you jump, and then you

412
00:23:14,800 --> 00:23:18,040
Speaker 1: might say, well, what happens if I change the variable there?

413
00:23:18,040 --> 00:23:21,400
Speaker 1: What if I change a number and see what that does?

414
00:23:21,640 --> 00:23:23,880
Speaker 1: And you find out, oh, this makes me jump much

415
00:23:23,960 --> 00:23:28,760
Speaker 1: higher or much lower, or much faster or whatever. It's

416
00:23:28,800 --> 00:23:30,760
Speaker 1: a bit of trial and error, but it's one way

417
00:23:30,800 --> 00:23:34,040
Speaker 1: to figure out how the game is working. It's essentially

418
00:23:34,040 --> 00:23:36,720
Speaker 1: the peak and poke approach, and once you know how

419
00:23:36,720 --> 00:23:39,800
Speaker 1: it works, you can create instructions that tell the console

420
00:23:39,920 --> 00:23:43,040
Speaker 1: to do something instead of what it was supposed to do,

421
00:23:43,440 --> 00:23:46,520
Speaker 1: like give you extra lines, or make your character stronger,

422
00:23:46,600 --> 00:23:49,600
Speaker 1: or whatever it may be. The game genie codes were

423
00:23:49,640 --> 00:23:52,960
Speaker 1: typically in the form of eight characters, you know, usually letters,

424
00:23:53,440 --> 00:23:56,240
Speaker 1: So if you wanted to be invulnerable and punch out,

425
00:23:56,640 --> 00:24:00,639
Speaker 1: then you would enter into the Game Genie code s

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00:24:01,000 --> 00:24:04,639
Speaker 1: z v A L P A X, and then you

427
00:24:04,680 --> 00:24:08,719
Speaker 1: would never lose stamina. That code is effectively an instruction

428
00:24:08,760 --> 00:24:11,399
Speaker 1: to the Game Genie. It tells the Game Genie what

429
00:24:11,560 --> 00:24:14,640
Speaker 1: to look out for when the console requests certain information

430
00:24:14,720 --> 00:24:17,800
Speaker 1: from the game cartridge, and then what information it should

431
00:24:17,840 --> 00:24:23,080
Speaker 1: send back based on that request. Now, Action Replay also

432
00:24:23,160 --> 00:24:26,520
Speaker 1: had devices out for the NES and other consoles you know,

433
00:24:26,600 --> 00:24:30,760
Speaker 1: so Game Genie was not the only game out there.

434
00:24:31,600 --> 00:24:36,240
Speaker 1: But unlike Game Genie, the Action replay systems frequently incorporated

435
00:24:36,320 --> 00:24:40,000
Speaker 1: a code trainer in them, and the trainer, as the

436
00:24:40,080 --> 00:24:44,240
Speaker 1: name implies, would search for recurring codes that might represent

437
00:24:44,359 --> 00:24:47,880
Speaker 1: something important within the game, an important effect in the game,

438
00:24:47,960 --> 00:24:50,720
Speaker 1: such as what happens if you lose a life in

439
00:24:50,720 --> 00:24:54,600
Speaker 1: the game, and so. Theoretically, anyway a player could use

440
00:24:54,640 --> 00:24:58,520
Speaker 1: the trainer to figure out which lines of code we're

441
00:24:58,880 --> 00:25:02,600
Speaker 1: creating these effects and then substitute their own values in

442
00:25:02,680 --> 00:25:06,400
Speaker 1: that code. Means the player could actually change the way

443
00:25:06,400 --> 00:25:08,880
Speaker 1: the game works. The trainer meant that if you had

444
00:25:08,880 --> 00:25:12,679
Speaker 1: a bit of determination and patients, you could have practically

445
00:25:12,720 --> 00:25:16,240
Speaker 1: limitless abilities to change the way a game performed, rather

446
00:25:16,280 --> 00:25:19,200
Speaker 1: than relying upon a sequence of codes coming straight from

447
00:25:19,200 --> 00:25:24,439
Speaker 1: a company like Game Genie. Despite this technological advantage where

448
00:25:24,640 --> 00:25:27,560
Speaker 1: you know you're no longer just limited to whatever a

449
00:25:27,600 --> 00:25:31,600
Speaker 1: company publishes, you can do whatever based on the amount

450
00:25:31,600 --> 00:25:35,520
Speaker 1: of time you spend trying, the Game Genie ended up

451
00:25:35,560 --> 00:25:40,720
Speaker 1: really dominating the space. So while action replay had advantages,

452
00:25:41,200 --> 00:25:44,560
Speaker 1: it could not compete with Game Genie on the market.

453
00:25:45,240 --> 00:25:47,920
Speaker 1: This industry, by the way, was really tumultuous. For one thing,

454
00:25:48,000 --> 00:25:51,600
Speaker 1: Nintendo was none too pleased that companies were producing hardware

455
00:25:51,600 --> 00:25:56,520
Speaker 1: that's circumvented Nintendo programming, so the company would end up

456
00:25:56,560 --> 00:25:59,919
Speaker 1: suing Galobe. That was a toy company that had acquired

457
00:26:00,119 --> 00:26:03,560
Speaker 1: the distribution rights to the Game Genie, and at the

458
00:26:03,640 --> 00:26:08,520
Speaker 1: heart of the lawsuit was Nintendo claiming a copyright infringement

459
00:26:08,960 --> 00:26:13,200
Speaker 1: against its property. So Nintendo's argument was that the Game Genie,

460
00:26:13,359 --> 00:26:17,359
Speaker 1: by altering the code, or rather by substituting new code

461
00:26:17,440 --> 00:26:19,720
Speaker 1: for what was supposed to be fed to the game console,

462
00:26:20,359 --> 00:26:24,359
Speaker 1: was essentially creating a derivative work. That is, the game

463
00:26:24,440 --> 00:26:27,240
Speaker 1: that a Game Genie user was playing wasn't the quote

464
00:26:27,320 --> 00:26:31,880
Speaker 1: unquote original Nintendo title but rather a game based off

465
00:26:31,920 --> 00:26:35,719
Speaker 1: that title because the code had been altered. The courts, however,

466
00:26:36,240 --> 00:26:40,560
Speaker 1: didn't buy Nintendo's argument. Essentially, the court said these devices

467
00:26:40,600 --> 00:26:43,639
Speaker 1: don't create derivative works and therefore are not part of

468
00:26:43,640 --> 00:26:47,199
Speaker 1: a copyright infringement scheme. Now, this set of precedent that

469
00:26:47,280 --> 00:26:51,840
Speaker 1: allowed the game enhancement business, because that's what these devices

470
00:26:52,040 --> 00:26:56,240
Speaker 1: are largely referred to as as game enhancers. It allowed

471
00:26:56,240 --> 00:26:59,960
Speaker 1: that business to flourish without the fear of copyright infringement lawsuits,

472
00:27:00,440 --> 00:27:05,320
Speaker 1: particularly from Nintendo. Glube supported the game Genie Brandon products

473
00:27:05,359 --> 00:27:07,639
Speaker 1: for a few years, but by the mid nineties decided

474
00:27:07,680 --> 00:27:10,879
Speaker 1: to get out of that business. This gave day Tell,

475
00:27:11,040 --> 00:27:14,240
Speaker 1: the company behind the Action Replay hardware, a shot at

476
00:27:14,359 --> 00:27:17,879
Speaker 1: really establishing a presence in the North American market, because

477
00:27:17,920 --> 00:27:20,960
Speaker 1: while the Action replay was, you know, fairly popular in

478
00:27:21,000 --> 00:27:24,440
Speaker 1: the UK and in Europe, it never really took off

479
00:27:24,480 --> 00:27:28,680
Speaker 1: in America. So Detail would partner with a company called Interact,

480
00:27:29,119 --> 00:27:33,439
Speaker 1: which has its own interesting history, fairly brief but interesting history.

481
00:27:33,760 --> 00:27:36,919
Speaker 1: But the important bit for our story is that Interact

482
00:27:37,240 --> 00:27:40,879
Speaker 1: had established a reputation as a company that carried pretty

483
00:27:40,920 --> 00:27:44,720
Speaker 1: good quality third party peripherals for big video game systems,

484
00:27:44,760 --> 00:27:48,600
Speaker 1: so stuff like controllers that included features that you wouldn't

485
00:27:48,640 --> 00:27:51,960
Speaker 1: find on the bog standard version of the controller that

486
00:27:52,000 --> 00:27:55,240
Speaker 1: would come with a console. So day Tell had a

487
00:27:55,280 --> 00:28:00,280
Speaker 1: partner in North America that had established relationships with retailers,

488
00:28:00,320 --> 00:28:04,360
Speaker 1: and finally, Detel had an opportunity to get its hardware

489
00:28:04,440 --> 00:28:07,680
Speaker 1: a good chance in the North American market. The company

490
00:28:07,720 --> 00:28:11,760
Speaker 1: decided to introduce game enhancement hardware with a new brand,

491
00:28:12,119 --> 00:28:15,200
Speaker 1: So instead of using the brand Action Replay, the new

492
00:28:15,240 --> 00:28:20,240
Speaker 1: hardware had the name game Shark. The first two products

493
00:28:20,280 --> 00:28:23,640
Speaker 1: that Interact released were game Shark devices for the original

494
00:28:23,680 --> 00:28:27,520
Speaker 1: PlayStation as well as for the Sega Saturn. Now that's

495
00:28:27,560 --> 00:28:29,800
Speaker 1: interesting to me because by this time, most of the

496
00:28:29,840 --> 00:28:34,119
Speaker 1: game console world was migrating away from cartridges and heading

497
00:28:34,160 --> 00:28:38,120
Speaker 1: toward optical discs a a compact discs or c d s.

498
00:28:38,720 --> 00:28:41,280
Speaker 1: Nintendo would actually be an exception to this. They held

499
00:28:41,320 --> 00:28:45,040
Speaker 1: onto cartridges a while longer, largely because it's more challenging

500
00:28:45,080 --> 00:28:48,720
Speaker 1: to copy a cartridge than it is a CD. But

501
00:28:48,800 --> 00:28:51,240
Speaker 1: there are a few other benefits with cartridges as well,

502
00:28:51,280 --> 00:28:54,480
Speaker 1: like load times are typically much lower with cartridges, but

503
00:28:54,840 --> 00:28:57,840
Speaker 1: the capacity of a cartridge is much more limited than

504
00:28:57,840 --> 00:29:02,040
Speaker 1: on optical discs. Alright, so see d's gave developers more

505
00:29:02,120 --> 00:29:04,840
Speaker 1: room to build games. They didn't have the same limitations

506
00:29:04,880 --> 00:29:07,000
Speaker 1: as cartridges though, as I mentioned, you know, you had

507
00:29:07,040 --> 00:29:10,040
Speaker 1: to figure out stuff like copy protection to mitigate things

508
00:29:10,080 --> 00:29:13,560
Speaker 1: like piracy and emulation. That was a challenge with CD

509
00:29:13,720 --> 00:29:19,640
Speaker 1: based systems, especially as h C d rewrite capabilities hit

510
00:29:19,680 --> 00:29:24,040
Speaker 1: the market. These game Shark devices would plug into you know,

511
00:29:24,320 --> 00:29:28,000
Speaker 1: an expansion slot, serial port, or a memory card slot

512
00:29:28,080 --> 00:29:31,800
Speaker 1: on consoles like the Sega Saturn. Uh. There would be

513
00:29:31,920 --> 00:29:35,440
Speaker 1: other versions for game Shark that were for older cartridge

514
00:29:35,440 --> 00:29:38,600
Speaker 1: based systems as well, including the Game Boy handheld consoles.

515
00:29:39,120 --> 00:29:41,480
Speaker 1: And there were lots of different game Shark products, but

516
00:29:41,520 --> 00:29:44,240
Speaker 1: the ones I found most interesting had the game Shark

517
00:29:44,320 --> 00:29:48,440
Speaker 1: Pro designation. These not only could store thousands of codes

518
00:29:48,520 --> 00:29:53,120
Speaker 1: within the game sharks themselves, they also included memory space.

519
00:29:53,520 --> 00:29:55,760
Speaker 1: Back in the day, if you were to buy say

520
00:29:55,800 --> 00:29:59,280
Speaker 1: a Sony PlayStation memory card, you would have enough space

521
00:29:59,320 --> 00:30:02,640
Speaker 1: on there to store were a whole fifteen game saves

522
00:30:03,320 --> 00:30:07,239
Speaker 1: and that was it. You could save fifteen times, not

523
00:30:07,320 --> 00:30:09,520
Speaker 1: just in one game, I mean in all of your games.

524
00:30:09,880 --> 00:30:12,440
Speaker 1: You could have fifteen saves stored on that card and

525
00:30:12,440 --> 00:30:14,960
Speaker 1: that's it unless you were to delete a save. The

526
00:30:15,040 --> 00:30:18,440
Speaker 1: Game Shark Pro for PlayStation had enough memory to store

527
00:30:18,520 --> 00:30:22,400
Speaker 1: a hundred twenty saves, and you know, it was way

528
00:30:22,480 --> 00:30:25,560
Speaker 1: cheaper than buying the equivalent number of memory cards. So

529
00:30:25,640 --> 00:30:27,440
Speaker 1: even if you looked at this is just a beefed

530
00:30:27,480 --> 00:30:30,360
Speaker 1: up memory card, had a lot of value. The Sega

531
00:30:30,440 --> 00:30:34,320
Speaker 1: Saturn version of Game Shark Pro similarly allowed players to

532
00:30:34,360 --> 00:30:38,960
Speaker 1: have way more storage space than a standard Sega memory card. Now,

533
00:30:39,040 --> 00:30:42,720
Speaker 1: for the original PlayStation game Shark, that device plugged into

534
00:30:42,760 --> 00:30:47,360
Speaker 1: a port on the back of Sony's original PlayStation, not

535
00:30:47,440 --> 00:30:50,800
Speaker 1: the memory card slot, but like a serial card slot,

536
00:30:51,240 --> 00:30:55,160
Speaker 1: and eventually Sony decided to get rid of that port entirely,

537
00:30:55,360 --> 00:31:00,000
Speaker 1: possibly in response to the Game Shark's rise and popularity,

538
00:31:00,040 --> 00:31:03,160
Speaker 1: so later versions of the original PlayStation had no port

539
00:31:03,280 --> 00:31:06,160
Speaker 1: in the back of them. But never fear, Game Shark

540
00:31:06,240 --> 00:31:09,120
Speaker 1: released products that included a boot up CD that you

541
00:31:09,120 --> 00:31:12,239
Speaker 1: would insert before you would launch a game, plus a

542
00:31:12,240 --> 00:31:15,520
Speaker 1: device that plugged into the standard memory card slot on

543
00:31:15,600 --> 00:31:19,240
Speaker 1: the front of the PlayStation. The device would store codes

544
00:31:19,320 --> 00:31:22,520
Speaker 1: generated by either of the system itself or by the user.

545
00:31:23,040 --> 00:31:26,000
Speaker 1: More on that in the second Game Shark codes have

546
00:31:26,400 --> 00:31:29,240
Speaker 1: two parts to them. The first part of the code

547
00:31:29,680 --> 00:31:32,120
Speaker 1: was the memory address for the line of code that

548
00:31:32,160 --> 00:31:35,120
Speaker 1: you wanted to change, so it might be a line

549
00:31:35,120 --> 00:31:37,800
Speaker 1: of code that represents your number of lives or your

550
00:31:37,840 --> 00:31:40,760
Speaker 1: amount of health. The second part of the code represented

551
00:31:40,800 --> 00:31:44,480
Speaker 1: the value you wanted to substitute, which is pretty simple really,

552
00:31:44,520 --> 00:31:47,400
Speaker 1: so like if you found the line of code that

553
00:31:47,680 --> 00:31:50,040
Speaker 1: was for the number of lives and you saw it

554
00:31:50,080 --> 00:31:53,360
Speaker 1: started at three and you change that to boom, you've

555
00:31:53,400 --> 00:31:57,280
Speaker 1: got ninety nine lives. And like the action replay pro

556
00:31:57,400 --> 00:32:01,040
Speaker 1: models that came before it, the Game Shark. Game enhancement

557
00:32:01,080 --> 00:32:05,160
Speaker 1: systems had ways to train codes, giving users the ability

558
00:32:05,240 --> 00:32:07,520
Speaker 1: to make their own game cheat codes and not just

559
00:32:07,600 --> 00:32:10,840
Speaker 1: rely on ones that were previously published. The system would

560
00:32:10,840 --> 00:32:13,240
Speaker 1: look out for potential lines of code that might represent

561
00:32:13,360 --> 00:32:17,120
Speaker 1: something important and give users the chance to insert new values.

562
00:32:17,480 --> 00:32:20,800
Speaker 1: Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't. Sometimes it would take

563
00:32:20,840 --> 00:32:23,719
Speaker 1: multiple attempts to find just the right line of code.

564
00:32:24,160 --> 00:32:26,800
Speaker 1: But this provided a level of flexibility that you didn't

565
00:32:26,800 --> 00:32:30,040
Speaker 1: find in earlier products like the game Genie, and again

566
00:32:30,440 --> 00:32:33,160
Speaker 1: the Game Shark would inject this code to stand in

567
00:32:33,240 --> 00:32:37,040
Speaker 1: place for what was supposed to happen. You could also

568
00:32:37,160 --> 00:32:39,880
Speaker 1: do stuff like search for specific types of files in

569
00:32:39,960 --> 00:32:43,120
Speaker 1: game data, like music files or video files, which would

570
00:32:43,120 --> 00:32:45,680
Speaker 1: allow you to play those media files on demand. That

571
00:32:45,760 --> 00:32:48,280
Speaker 1: was pretty cool. So you could like turn it into

572
00:32:48,320 --> 00:32:51,160
Speaker 1: almost like a CD of music. You could pick which

573
00:32:51,200 --> 00:32:54,240
Speaker 1: tracks to play. Or let's say that there was a

574
00:32:54,240 --> 00:32:57,000
Speaker 1: an in game cinematic that you had never really seen,

575
00:32:57,080 --> 00:32:59,320
Speaker 1: you could find it in those files and play it

576
00:32:59,400 --> 00:33:03,360
Speaker 1: on demand. One Nintendo sixty four version of the game

577
00:33:03,400 --> 00:33:06,080
Speaker 1: Shark even included the ability to connect to a phone

578
00:33:06,120 --> 00:33:10,760
Speaker 1: line and access the Internet. This was a pretty amazing thing.

579
00:33:10,840 --> 00:33:14,200
Speaker 1: It gave you Internet access, limited Internet access. It was

580
00:33:14,280 --> 00:33:16,880
Speaker 1: kind of curated by game Shark, but you could do

581
00:33:16,920 --> 00:33:20,600
Speaker 1: it through in sixty four. Uh the The whole thing

582
00:33:20,640 --> 00:33:23,320
Speaker 1: came with a keyboard and the connectors that you needed

583
00:33:23,360 --> 00:33:26,600
Speaker 1: to tap into Game sharks online services, which included the

584
00:33:26,600 --> 00:33:30,240
Speaker 1: ability to upload and download saves two different games, as

585
00:33:30,280 --> 00:33:33,840
Speaker 1: well as cheat codes. There's a pretty phenomenal development for

586
00:33:33,880 --> 00:33:37,400
Speaker 1: the time, particularly for a game console that wasn't natively

587
00:33:37,600 --> 00:33:41,520
Speaker 1: Internet ready. Uh Nandanto would later release its own peripheral

588
00:33:41,600 --> 00:33:44,560
Speaker 1: called the sixty four d D that allowed players to

589
00:33:44,600 --> 00:33:47,479
Speaker 1: connect to an online service called rand Net, but that

590
00:33:47,520 --> 00:33:50,600
Speaker 1: peripheral wasn't available for very long, and I personally don't

591
00:33:50,640 --> 00:33:54,800
Speaker 1: know anyone who had one. Uh. While Game Shark made

592
00:33:54,800 --> 00:33:57,760
Speaker 1: a name for itself with gamer Circles, the parent company

593
00:33:57,840 --> 00:34:02,240
Speaker 1: of Interact, it's North America distributor, was in financial trouble.

594
00:34:02,280 --> 00:34:06,360
Speaker 1: In fact, its parent company was in financial trouble at

595
00:34:06,360 --> 00:34:08,960
Speaker 1: the end of two thousand to Detail would part ways

596
00:34:09,040 --> 00:34:13,240
Speaker 1: with Interact and lose that North American presence, and Interact

597
00:34:13,400 --> 00:34:17,319
Speaker 1: retained the game Shark i P. Interact would later sell

598
00:34:17,480 --> 00:34:23,120
Speaker 1: that I P to mad Cats, another third party peripheral company,

599
00:34:23,200 --> 00:34:26,040
Speaker 1: and they did that in two thousand three. Uh Katon

600
00:34:26,719 --> 00:34:29,399
Speaker 1: or recod Tan if you prefer, that was the parent

601
00:34:29,440 --> 00:34:32,120
Speaker 1: company of Interact. It actually went into bankruptcy not that

602
00:34:32,200 --> 00:34:35,560
Speaker 1: long after having sold off the game Shark I P.

603
00:34:36,200 --> 00:34:39,840
Speaker 1: Detail meanwhile formed another relationship with a company called Rocket

604
00:34:39,880 --> 00:34:43,400
Speaker 1: Game Products to market devices similar to the Game Shark

605
00:34:43,440 --> 00:34:45,719
Speaker 1: in North America, and it turned out that Rocket Game

606
00:34:45,719 --> 00:34:50,080
Speaker 1: Products was really a sister company to Daytail. Game Shark

607
00:34:50,560 --> 00:34:53,719
Speaker 1: would undergo a major transformation under Mad Cats. It it

608
00:34:53,840 --> 00:34:58,480
Speaker 1: shifted more towards downloaded save points to let layers skip

609
00:34:58,520 --> 00:35:02,279
Speaker 1: tricky parts of games rather and entering cheap codes. The

610
00:35:02,320 --> 00:35:05,080
Speaker 1: fact that products like game Genie and game Shark even

611
00:35:05,160 --> 00:35:07,960
Speaker 1: came around would mean that console manufacturers would look for

612
00:35:08,000 --> 00:35:11,000
Speaker 1: new ways to build in systems that would prevent such stuff.

613
00:35:11,440 --> 00:35:15,000
Speaker 1: Moving forward, when we come back, we'll look at the

614
00:35:15,040 --> 00:35:25,640
Speaker 1: next era of game cheats. Let's talk about another cheat

615
00:35:25,680 --> 00:35:28,720
Speaker 1: code that would hold a special place in video game history,

616
00:35:29,000 --> 00:35:31,000
Speaker 1: at least here in the United States. And this was

617
00:35:31,080 --> 00:35:33,960
Speaker 1: one that players could put on a certain game for

618
00:35:34,000 --> 00:35:38,239
Speaker 1: the Sega Genesis, that code was A B A C

619
00:35:38,600 --> 00:35:41,520
Speaker 1: A B B. I'm curious how many of you out

620
00:35:41,520 --> 00:35:45,319
Speaker 1: there already know what I'm talking about. The game was

621
00:35:45,600 --> 00:35:49,760
Speaker 1: Mortal Kombat, and the code was the so called Blood Code,

622
00:35:49,840 --> 00:35:52,960
Speaker 1: which would allow players to experience Mortal Kombat more or

623
00:35:53,040 --> 00:35:56,520
Speaker 1: less the way it was in the arcades, namely as

624
00:35:56,560 --> 00:36:01,239
Speaker 1: a gory, bloody fighting game. You see. Midway Games, the

625
00:36:01,320 --> 00:36:05,000
Speaker 1: creator of the Immortal Kombat franchise, had banked on shock

626
00:36:05,120 --> 00:36:07,880
Speaker 1: value being a big part of the Mortal Kombat game,

627
00:36:08,320 --> 00:36:10,440
Speaker 1: and it totally worked. It was a huge hit in

628
00:36:10,480 --> 00:36:13,640
Speaker 1: the arcades, but the home market was a different beast

629
00:36:13,800 --> 00:36:17,040
Speaker 1: from the arcades, and Midway wanted to tread lightly so

630
00:36:17,080 --> 00:36:20,719
Speaker 1: as not to invite regulatory oversight from the US government,

631
00:36:21,160 --> 00:36:24,320
Speaker 1: So for most of the homeport releases of Mortal Kombat,

632
00:36:24,440 --> 00:36:27,759
Speaker 1: the rule was that the gore and the blood would

633
00:36:27,800 --> 00:36:32,640
Speaker 1: get toned way way down. Heck, Nintendo's version of Mortal

634
00:36:32,719 --> 00:36:36,319
Speaker 1: Kombat replaced the blood with this grayish stuff that I

635
00:36:36,360 --> 00:36:39,600
Speaker 1: guess was supposed to be sweat. Those fighters sure do

636
00:36:39,760 --> 00:36:43,640
Speaker 1: sweat a lot when they get kicked in the face. Anyway,

637
00:36:43,680 --> 00:36:48,080
Speaker 1: the blood code on the Sega Genesis restored the bloody

638
00:36:48,160 --> 00:36:51,479
Speaker 1: nature of Mortal Kombat and became a big selling point.

639
00:36:51,560 --> 00:36:54,480
Speaker 1: In fact, it really played into Sega's slogan, which was

640
00:36:54,680 --> 00:36:59,839
Speaker 1: Sega does what nintend? Don't I stumble over that because

641
00:36:59,880 --> 00:37:01,920
Speaker 1: I just think it's clunky, but I get what they

642
00:37:01,920 --> 00:37:04,759
Speaker 1: were saying. It was cute, and that indicated that the

643
00:37:04,760 --> 00:37:09,120
Speaker 1: Genesis was a console that wouldn't sugarcoat game content. Predictably,

644
00:37:09,440 --> 00:37:14,720
Speaker 1: this marketing philosophy attracted not just gamers, but concerned politicians who,

645
00:37:14,840 --> 00:37:18,160
Speaker 1: if you're being generous, they were earnestly concerned about child

646
00:37:18,200 --> 00:37:21,279
Speaker 1: well welfare. But if you're more cynical, you might say

647
00:37:21,360 --> 00:37:24,000
Speaker 1: they just wanted to score some political points among older

648
00:37:24,080 --> 00:37:26,239
Speaker 1: voters who are far more likely to show up on

649
00:37:26,280 --> 00:37:30,520
Speaker 1: election day. Joe Lieberman led the charge back in those days,

650
00:37:30,800 --> 00:37:35,120
Speaker 1: condemning violent games as being harmful to children. Somebody please

651
00:37:35,480 --> 00:37:39,279
Speaker 1: think of the children. Sag of America's VP said, Hey,

652
00:37:39,320 --> 00:37:42,080
Speaker 1: old dude, games just you know, they're not just for kids.

653
00:37:42,080 --> 00:37:45,560
Speaker 1: In fact, most people buying our games are adults. I'm

654
00:37:45,600 --> 00:37:48,759
Speaker 1: paraphrasing here. That's not word for word what was said.

655
00:37:49,080 --> 00:37:51,239
Speaker 1: But this was an early example of the video game

656
00:37:51,280 --> 00:37:54,840
Speaker 1: industry trying to fight back against the stereotype that video

657
00:37:54,880 --> 00:37:58,520
Speaker 1: games were solely for children. It was also another example

658
00:37:58,560 --> 00:38:00,759
Speaker 1: of a younger industry having to with the fact that

659
00:38:01,280 --> 00:38:03,800
Speaker 1: the people we have put in charge of making laws,

660
00:38:03,920 --> 00:38:06,120
Speaker 1: at least here in the United States, tend to be,

661
00:38:07,200 --> 00:38:10,480
Speaker 1: you know, a little bit older, like sometimes around twenty

662
00:38:10,520 --> 00:38:15,760
Speaker 1: years older than their average constituents age yikes, and older

663
00:38:15,800 --> 00:38:22,239
Speaker 1: people may have antiquated ideas about technology and media. The

664
00:38:22,320 --> 00:38:25,239
Speaker 1: brew haha would lead to the emergence of the Entertainment

665
00:38:25,320 --> 00:38:28,759
Speaker 1: Software Ratings Board or e s r B, which is

666
00:38:28,800 --> 00:38:32,719
Speaker 1: made up of industry representatives who self monitor game content

667
00:38:33,160 --> 00:38:36,279
Speaker 1: and apply labels to alert consumers about the kind of

668
00:38:36,320 --> 00:38:40,239
Speaker 1: stuff that appears in video games, and also consequently would

669
00:38:40,320 --> 00:38:42,560
Speaker 1: lead to the founding of E three. But That's another

670
00:38:42,600 --> 00:38:45,400
Speaker 1: story that I've already covered on this podcast in the past.

671
00:38:46,000 --> 00:38:48,399
Speaker 1: But yeah, this is kind of like the mp A

672
00:38:48,400 --> 00:38:52,120
Speaker 1: A for movies. You know, it's that rating that tells you,

673
00:38:52,120 --> 00:38:54,799
Speaker 1: you know, who is this game suitable for, or rather,

674
00:38:55,360 --> 00:38:59,360
Speaker 1: who is this unsuitable for. If it's an imframature game,

675
00:38:59,760 --> 00:39:03,359
Speaker 1: you shouldn't be, you know, letting your eight year old

676
00:39:03,400 --> 00:39:08,000
Speaker 1: play it. Right around all that mess, It's Software released

677
00:39:08,000 --> 00:39:10,520
Speaker 1: a game that I'm pretty sure Lieberman would classify as

678
00:39:10,600 --> 00:39:14,480
Speaker 1: the equivalent of a nuclear bomb for children's health. That

679
00:39:14,560 --> 00:39:18,640
Speaker 1: game was Doom, which introduced a new approach that ties

680
00:39:18,680 --> 00:39:22,120
Speaker 1: into cheats because you you actually did have cheat codes

681
00:39:22,160 --> 00:39:25,319
Speaker 1: in Doom, like, for example, you could type in I

682
00:39:25,560 --> 00:39:28,600
Speaker 1: D D q D and that would make you invulnerable.

683
00:39:28,960 --> 00:39:31,520
Speaker 1: There was another code that would let you walk through walls,

684
00:39:31,719 --> 00:39:36,040
Speaker 1: the no clip code, and those were present in Doom.

685
00:39:36,080 --> 00:39:40,800
Speaker 1: But beyond that, it also introduced the WAD file extension

686
00:39:41,000 --> 00:39:43,920
Speaker 1: w a D. At least according to some sources, that

687
00:39:44,160 --> 00:39:48,359
Speaker 1: w A D stood for Where's All the Data. It

688
00:39:48,440 --> 00:39:52,200
Speaker 1: was a file type that held information data for a

689
00:39:52,360 --> 00:39:56,040
Speaker 1: Doom Engine based games, like a lot of the game's

690
00:39:56,080 --> 00:39:59,719
Speaker 1: resources would be stored in that file. The WAD included

691
00:39:59,719 --> 00:40:04,480
Speaker 1: rees sources like graphics and sound. It had a header

692
00:40:04,520 --> 00:40:07,120
Speaker 1: and a directory as well as all the different resources,

693
00:40:07,160 --> 00:40:10,359
Speaker 1: and when you paired it with a WAD editor like

694
00:40:10,760 --> 00:40:13,520
Speaker 1: there are tons of them that became available, and most

695
00:40:13,520 --> 00:40:16,040
Speaker 1: of them were free to use. Players would be able

696
00:40:16,080 --> 00:40:19,160
Speaker 1: to access the files, you know, the WAD files, open

697
00:40:19,200 --> 00:40:22,880
Speaker 1: them up, and change them. This took a huge step

698
00:40:22,920 --> 00:40:26,160
Speaker 1: beyond just making a character immune to damage or allowing

699
00:40:26,200 --> 00:40:29,120
Speaker 1: the player to walk through walls. Players can make changes

700
00:40:29,160 --> 00:40:33,040
Speaker 1: in Wade to create mods for Doom. This opened up

701
00:40:33,080 --> 00:40:37,240
Speaker 1: the ability for player generated maps and graphics. You needed

702
00:40:37,239 --> 00:40:40,000
Speaker 1: the Doom engine to run the mods, but this meant

703
00:40:40,040 --> 00:40:43,200
Speaker 1: that talented monitors could make their own levels and their

704
00:40:43,200 --> 00:40:46,760
Speaker 1: own monsters in Doom. They could challenge players to complete

705
00:40:46,760 --> 00:40:49,760
Speaker 1: those levels, or you know, sometimes they would just create

706
00:40:49,840 --> 00:40:52,160
Speaker 1: jokes that were meant to make folks laugh as they

707
00:40:52,200 --> 00:40:55,240
Speaker 1: blast you know, I don't know, smurfs instead of demons

708
00:40:55,360 --> 00:40:58,800
Speaker 1: or something. The WAD files allowed for a pretty generous

709
00:40:58,800 --> 00:41:01,520
Speaker 1: amount of of custom szation. Now, there was some stuff

710
00:41:01,840 --> 00:41:05,040
Speaker 1: that was still set in stone that you could not change.

711
00:41:05,160 --> 00:41:08,680
Speaker 1: There were certain gameplay elements that tied into other parts

712
00:41:08,840 --> 00:41:13,160
Speaker 1: of the game engine, so you couldn't change everything, but

713
00:41:13,719 --> 00:41:17,600
Speaker 1: you could make a lot of interesting mods. Uh. What

714
00:41:17,719 --> 00:41:21,240
Speaker 1: the Wade development really did was encouraged communities of modyrs,

715
00:41:21,680 --> 00:41:25,319
Speaker 1: which would be related to, but often distinct from, the

716
00:41:25,320 --> 00:41:29,600
Speaker 1: communities of hackers and gamers looking for exploits. By the

717
00:41:29,600 --> 00:41:32,880
Speaker 1: time we start creeping through the two thousand's, the landscape

718
00:41:33,000 --> 00:41:37,759
Speaker 1: was changing rapidly. For one thing, Microsoft introduced achievements and

719
00:41:37,840 --> 00:41:41,440
Speaker 1: Sony would follow suit with the trophy system. These systems

720
00:41:41,560 --> 00:41:45,080
Speaker 1: reward gamers who complete certain tasks, some of which are

721
00:41:45,160 --> 00:41:49,799
Speaker 1: notoriously difficult to pull off. The achievements or trophies are

722
00:41:49,840 --> 00:41:53,000
Speaker 1: badges of honor. They showing that the gamer has managed

723
00:41:53,000 --> 00:41:55,960
Speaker 1: to do something that was notable in some way. But

724
00:41:56,040 --> 00:41:59,279
Speaker 1: obviously the value of those badges it vanishes if it

725
00:41:59,320 --> 00:42:02,560
Speaker 1: turns out you can cheat your way to earning them. Uh.

726
00:42:02,719 --> 00:42:05,399
Speaker 1: There are lots of games that include these sort of things,

727
00:42:05,440 --> 00:42:08,520
Speaker 1: not just on consoles. You know, Steam games have these two.

728
00:42:08,920 --> 00:42:12,239
Speaker 1: So as such, Microsoft really clamped down on cheating in

729
00:42:12,280 --> 00:42:14,920
Speaker 1: two thousand eight, stating that if a player were caught

730
00:42:15,000 --> 00:42:18,080
Speaker 1: cheating in an effort to boost their gamers score, that

731
00:42:18,200 --> 00:42:21,160
Speaker 1: score would be nullified and the person would forever be

732
00:42:21,239 --> 00:42:24,319
Speaker 1: branded as a cheater. Now, I'm in favor of that,

733
00:42:24,920 --> 00:42:27,960
Speaker 1: in that an achievement really only means something if you've

734
00:42:27,960 --> 00:42:30,400
Speaker 1: earned it. I'm sure all of you have witnessed some

735
00:42:30,480 --> 00:42:34,279
Speaker 1: moment where someone received an award or something and you

736
00:42:34,360 --> 00:42:37,160
Speaker 1: felt deep down to that person or that company, or

737
00:42:37,200 --> 00:42:40,920
Speaker 1: that movie or whatever didn't really deserve that award. That

738
00:42:41,000 --> 00:42:44,680
Speaker 1: kind of thing tends to tarnish the awards themselves, and

739
00:42:44,680 --> 00:42:48,400
Speaker 1: it's a pretty hard thing to shake. And so Microsoft said, yeah,

740
00:42:48,440 --> 00:42:51,960
Speaker 1: if we catch you, your toast. Another thing that made

741
00:42:52,000 --> 00:42:55,320
Speaker 1: it important to scale back on cheating was the emergence

742
00:42:55,360 --> 00:42:58,360
Speaker 1: of online competitive play. So in the old days, games

743
00:42:58,360 --> 00:43:02,040
Speaker 1: are typically played on a single machine, so they were

744
00:43:02,320 --> 00:43:06,120
Speaker 1: often single player games. Sometimes they were multiplayer games, but

745
00:43:06,160 --> 00:43:09,040
Speaker 1: they were restricted to however many people could connect to

746
00:43:09,080 --> 00:43:12,319
Speaker 1: a single system at that one time, so for a

747
00:43:12,360 --> 00:43:15,160
Speaker 1: lot of consoles that maxed out at around four players,

748
00:43:15,640 --> 00:43:18,760
Speaker 1: Cheats were usually something that a player could use against

749
00:43:18,840 --> 00:43:22,760
Speaker 1: a system itself and give the player and edge against

750
00:43:22,800 --> 00:43:25,640
Speaker 1: computer controlled enemies and that kind of thing. But in

751
00:43:25,719 --> 00:43:28,600
Speaker 1: an era in which people could network computers together in

752
00:43:28,640 --> 00:43:33,040
Speaker 1: a local area network or land, or later on connect

753
00:43:33,200 --> 00:43:36,480
Speaker 1: via the Internet, there was this need to prevent cheating.

754
00:43:36,920 --> 00:43:39,680
Speaker 1: That became more evident now it was no longer a

755
00:43:39,680 --> 00:43:42,560
Speaker 1: tool that someone could use to experience a tough game

756
00:43:42,640 --> 00:43:45,760
Speaker 1: that they otherwise would be unable to play or unable

757
00:43:45,800 --> 00:43:48,719
Speaker 1: to finish. Now we're talking about tools that could be

758
00:43:48,800 --> 00:43:52,560
Speaker 1: used to give one player and edge over other players.

759
00:43:52,600 --> 00:43:55,200
Speaker 1: That's a different matter. Like I actually do think that

760
00:43:55,320 --> 00:43:58,319
Speaker 1: cheat codes have a place in games. I don't think

761
00:43:58,400 --> 00:44:02,080
Speaker 1: they are good for multiplayer games unless it's you know,

762
00:44:02,120 --> 00:44:05,120
Speaker 1: to do stuff like cosmetic things that are just jokey

763
00:44:05,239 --> 00:44:08,280
Speaker 1: kind of stuff. That's fine. Uh, And if it affects

764
00:44:08,320 --> 00:44:11,040
Speaker 1: everyone equally. I don't really have a problem with that either.

765
00:44:11,440 --> 00:44:13,880
Speaker 1: What I also don't have a problem with our single

766
00:44:13,880 --> 00:44:17,000
Speaker 1: player games where there's a cheat code that would let

767
00:44:17,000 --> 00:44:19,759
Speaker 1: someone experience a game that otherwise they might not be

768
00:44:19,800 --> 00:44:24,400
Speaker 1: able to finish. Like, folks, I'm old, I'm I know

769
00:44:24,520 --> 00:44:27,600
Speaker 1: that's not that old. I don't don't don't at me,

770
00:44:28,400 --> 00:44:30,520
Speaker 1: But what I'm saying is that my reflexes are not

771
00:44:30,560 --> 00:44:32,520
Speaker 1: what they used to be. And I was never a

772
00:44:32,600 --> 00:44:35,520
Speaker 1: elite gamer by any stretch of the imagination. So there

773
00:44:35,560 --> 00:44:38,439
Speaker 1: are a lot of those games that I probably never

774
00:44:38,440 --> 00:44:41,120
Speaker 1: would have seen the end of, unless either I watched

775
00:44:41,120 --> 00:44:44,040
Speaker 1: a video of someone else playing it, or I used

776
00:44:44,200 --> 00:44:46,480
Speaker 1: some sort of cheat in order to be able to

777
00:44:46,520 --> 00:44:48,680
Speaker 1: get through parts of the game that otherwise I just

778
00:44:48,680 --> 00:44:51,640
Speaker 1: couldn't make it through. In those cases, I think cheats

779
00:44:51,640 --> 00:44:54,759
Speaker 1: have a valid place, But when you're talking about multiplayer,

780
00:44:55,280 --> 00:44:58,200
Speaker 1: that's a different story. And that was just a preview

781
00:44:58,360 --> 00:45:00,560
Speaker 1: of the troubles we would see before the birth of

782
00:45:00,640 --> 00:45:03,000
Speaker 1: e sports. Now, once e sports came along, you know

783
00:45:03,040 --> 00:45:07,080
Speaker 1: the organized play of video games. We're talking about like

784
00:45:07,160 --> 00:45:10,640
Speaker 1: seasons and tournaments where you have professional video game players

785
00:45:10,680 --> 00:45:15,080
Speaker 1: pitting their skills against elite opponents, often for impressive prize money.

786
00:45:15,160 --> 00:45:18,120
Speaker 1: I mean, obviously, just like in any other kind of sport,

787
00:45:18,600 --> 00:45:22,080
Speaker 1: cheating would be a serious problem for that kind of competition.

788
00:45:22,600 --> 00:45:24,880
Speaker 1: If someone were relying on codes to give them an

789
00:45:24,960 --> 00:45:29,440
Speaker 1: edge over opponents, that could invalidate an entire tournament, and

790
00:45:29,520 --> 00:45:33,040
Speaker 1: that has happened more than a few times. In fact,

791
00:45:33,040 --> 00:45:35,400
Speaker 1: in our next episode, I will talk more about the

792
00:45:35,480 --> 00:45:38,799
Speaker 1: cheating tools that have popped up more recently. These are

793
00:45:38,840 --> 00:45:41,160
Speaker 1: the kind of things you'd likely to encounter if you

794
00:45:41,200 --> 00:45:45,120
Speaker 1: were playing an online competitive games, So we'll talk about

795
00:45:45,239 --> 00:45:47,799
Speaker 1: wall hacks and aim bots and that kind of thing

796
00:45:48,440 --> 00:45:51,720
Speaker 1: and how those tools have created huge headaches for various

797
00:45:51,719 --> 00:45:54,920
Speaker 1: studios and e sports organizations. Will also talk about some

798
00:45:55,040 --> 00:45:57,319
Speaker 1: of the systems that are in place that are meant

799
00:45:57,360 --> 00:46:01,120
Speaker 1: to detect that kind of cheating and then respond to it.

800
00:46:01,880 --> 00:46:05,919
Speaker 1: And we'll cover a few instances of notable cheaters as well,

801
00:46:06,440 --> 00:46:10,080
Speaker 1: including folks who try to cheat during massive et sports

802
00:46:10,120 --> 00:46:14,040
Speaker 1: events and got caught in the process. Because you know,

803
00:46:14,040 --> 00:46:16,319
Speaker 1: when you're talking about big prize money, it actually becomes

804
00:46:16,320 --> 00:46:18,799
Speaker 1: a big business. Not only that, but then you've got

805
00:46:18,800 --> 00:46:22,160
Speaker 1: the people who are developing some of these hacks who

806
00:46:22,320 --> 00:46:26,360
Speaker 1: might be selling them on you know, the black market essentially,

807
00:46:27,000 --> 00:46:29,080
Speaker 1: And there are gamers out there who will pay for

808
00:46:29,120 --> 00:46:33,400
Speaker 1: that because they want that experience of being elite gamer,

809
00:46:33,520 --> 00:46:36,440
Speaker 1: but they lack the skill and ability to actually do it.

810
00:46:36,800 --> 00:46:41,120
Speaker 1: Like if I if I compete in any online multiplaying game,

811
00:46:41,680 --> 00:46:45,280
Speaker 1: I guarantee it will be a miracle if I'm above

812
00:46:45,400 --> 00:46:49,080
Speaker 1: the bottom. I mean, I just know that because my

813
00:46:49,160 --> 00:46:52,319
Speaker 1: skills are limited. Uh, but I wouldn't want to cheat

814
00:46:52,400 --> 00:46:54,759
Speaker 1: to boost that because that's not really me anyway, right,

815
00:46:54,800 --> 00:46:59,360
Speaker 1: I Mean, it wouldn't be me being a higher scoring player.

816
00:46:59,640 --> 00:47:02,920
Speaker 1: It would be the code I was using there's no

817
00:47:02,960 --> 00:47:07,120
Speaker 1: accomplishment for me there, so I'm comfortable being the bullet sponge.

818
00:47:07,480 --> 00:47:10,040
Speaker 1: That's my most valuable asset to any team I'm on

819
00:47:10,560 --> 00:47:13,640
Speaker 1: that trust me. As long as I'm there, you don't

820
00:47:13,680 --> 00:47:15,640
Speaker 1: have to worry about getting shot. I'm gonna be attracting

821
00:47:15,640 --> 00:47:19,280
Speaker 1: every bullet in the game towards me, so you'll be okay.

822
00:47:19,320 --> 00:47:21,319
Speaker 1: But yeah, we're gonna talk about all that in the

823
00:47:21,360 --> 00:47:25,759
Speaker 1: next episode on Wednesday's episode, and uh, it's it's an

824
00:47:25,760 --> 00:47:28,480
Speaker 1: interesting thing to really look into. It's also interesting to

825
00:47:28,520 --> 00:47:30,719
Speaker 1: look into the ways that various companies have tried to

826
00:47:31,600 --> 00:47:36,479
Speaker 1: detect and counteract cheating two different levels of success. There's

827
00:47:36,560 --> 00:47:42,879
Speaker 1: some games that are notoriously rife with cheaters, and every

828
00:47:42,920 --> 00:47:45,839
Speaker 1: now and again you'll see a big perch and then

829
00:47:45,880 --> 00:47:48,400
Speaker 1: over time they build up again. So we'll talk about

830
00:47:48,400 --> 00:47:50,640
Speaker 1: those in the next episode as well. If you have

831
00:47:50,680 --> 00:47:53,160
Speaker 1: suggestions for topics I should cover in future episodes of

832
00:47:53,160 --> 00:47:55,080
Speaker 1: tech Stuff, reach out to me. The best way to

833
00:47:55,120 --> 00:47:57,680
Speaker 1: do that is on Twitter. The handle for the show

834
00:47:57,840 --> 00:48:01,400
Speaker 1: is text Stuff hs W and I'll talk to you

835
00:48:01,480 --> 00:48:10,760
Speaker 1: again really soon. Text Stuff is an I Heart Radio production.

836
00:48:11,000 --> 00:48:13,840
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit the i

837
00:48:13,920 --> 00:48:17,160
Speaker 1: heart radio, app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to

838
00:48:17,200 --> 00:48:18,120
Speaker 1: your favorite shows.