GameCheat

by Jonathan Hunt

GameCheat is an application which allows you to cheat at games by altering the memory of the game as you are playing it. For example, the memory location holding the number of lives could be altered to give a huge number of lives. You can alter any other counter (score, money, etc.) as long as the value of the counter can be seen.

GameCheat can be run from the RISC User menu system or by double-clicking on its icon in a Filer window. A brief message will appear to confirm that GameCheat has been installed. Next, run the game you want to cheat at. Let's say, for example, that you want to give yourself a huge number of lives:-

1. Start playing the game and note how many lives you have. Hold down the left Alt key, type in this number, and then release the Alt key.

2. Now lose a life. Hold down the right Alt key, type in the new number of lives, and then release the Alt key.

3. GameCheat should now have identified the location where the life counter is stored and from now on you can alter this counter as many times as you want by holding down the right Ctrl key, typing in the new value, and releasing the Ctrl key.

It is quite likely that the on-screen life counter will not update immediately to reflect the new number of lives, so don't worry if nothing appears to have happened. Try losing another life. This should update the on-screen counter.

The same method can be used to alter other values, for example score or money, though in these cases instead of losing a life, you should gain some more score or money.

How it Works
When you type in the first number with the left Alt key held down (stage 1), GameCheat searches through the game's memory and makes a list of all the locations where that number is stored. When the next number is typed in with the right Alt key held down (stage 2), GameCheat searches through the locations pointed to by the list. Any locations in the list that don't contain this new value are removed from the list. Hopefully only one location will be left in the list and this location should be the one containing the counter you wish to alter. Locations pointed to by the list can be altered by typing in the new value with the right Ctrl key held down (stage 3).

The star commands DisplayList and RemoveList can be used to view the list and to remove all items from the list.

GameCheat Hints
Sometimes the list doesn't get narrowed down to one location after just one "Right Alt key" search, and so more than one location is altered at stage 3.  Sometimes this doesn't matter, but it can cause strange things to happen to the game. If this problem occurs you can repeat stage 2 to narrow the list down more.

If numbers less than 256 are typed in, GameCheat assumes that bytes should be searched for, otherwise words are used. If you want GameCheat to increase a counter to a value over 255, you must get it to at least 256 first.

If the game uses most of the computer's memory, there might not be enough memory to create a list. GameCheat will not be able to inform you of this, but if you can't manage to alter a counter, lack of memory is usually the cause.

Copyright  RISC User 1995
