What the devil happened to cheat devices?

[piinyouri]

Huh.
That's interesting to know. : o

Back on topic, I remember Action Replays being a bit less invasive and generally better than Gamesharks.

Prepare to have it blown again: They were basically the same hardware. They were branded regionally (GS for NA and AR for Europe) and software was slightly different (the European AR having more features)

Huh.
That's interesting to know. : o

I remember the first time I saw what a cheat code was. I had brought over Extreme G to a friends house, and one of thier friends hijacked the controller from me, promising to "show me something cool". He quickly went to the name menu, something I don't think even knew existed at that time, popped in the name 'roller' and this chiming sound went off and I literally jumped up. I thought I knew everything about that game, but here I was sitting at the foot of a mountain of revelation. From that day I was hooked. Indeed sometimes I would put codes into games I hadn't even beaten legitly yet. I was an impatient lass.

I have no problem with games that temporarily disable trophies/achievements when you input a code. They should make that practice standard.

Sorry, I'm rambling. >.<

 

[Saulkar]

Just to be redundant: Online multiplayer and achievements.

 

[Frasman]

I remember back in the day, my original NES would not work unless the game genie was installed, because the contacts on the NES unit were so worn out.

I agree though, devs should bring back cheat codes, and just disable Trophies / Achievements and progression as a result.

 

[piinyouri]

And (at risk of coming of as a "OMG CASUAL" kneejerk) I think games today tend to be a bit more forgiving than the games of then, meaning there's (slightly) less need for them.

For me, it was less about becoming super powerful than it was about just screwing around. I remember trying to go through all of Goldeneye with just the watch laser. That certainly wasn't about making myself powerful.

So true. Or trying to make it through with the enemies all set to fast motion with rocket launchers. Your greatest weapon is them!

But of course though at the end of the day, everyone enjoyed using the Gold PP7 to destroy absolutely everything destructible in a level.



No? Just me? '-'

 

[Soxafloppin]

I liked how the Uncharted games handled the cheat situation..

Beat the game on Normal, you can use cheats on Normal and lower, you can't use them on hard mode until you beat the game on hard mode.

 

[Elementary - Dear Watson]

The achievements thing happened, but also games got massively easier!

[sub]Or I grew up... something like that! [/sub]

 

[Ragland]

Cheats? Those things designed to increase the fun of a game by ADDING content, such as invincibility or flying cars?
You speak madness, sir. Everyone knows games are meant to generate profit and nothing else.

 

[Threeseventyfive]

The ability to sell overpriced DLC happened.

/thread

 

[Dragonclaw]

I liked cheat devices personally. If I choose to mess around with my game in a single player setting...EVEN IF I get achievement points from doing it...who cares?

None of my friends gamerscores affect me at all...I wouldn't care if they used a cheat any more than I care if they have 1000 points from Avatar. It just doesn't affect anything.

 

[RADIALTHRONE1]

Nobody has mentioned CoD4 yet?
With infinite ammo the grenade launcher on the M16 had the fire rate of a P90 on double tap; and going though "Gillies in the Mist" and using slow-mo for every shot was the most entertaining thing ever.

Also, i still have an action replay for both my DS and GBA.

OT: I agree with most theories/ideas here.

 

[Gatx]

Hell, for that matter what happened to cheats. I agree that achievements had something to do with it. As does this new prevailing attitude that cheating in a single player game in somehow the business of everyone on the internet.

I don't mind things like "invincibility" cheats and what not no longer being in games. For PC games at least, they're still there if you're able to access to command console.

What I do kind of miss are those codes that unlock things that have no business being in the game whatsoever that the devs made and hid away for fun. Things like the N1 Starfighter or the car in Rogue Squadron and Rogue Leader.

 

[Yopaz]

I've never really cared for cheats.

All the same I wonder why more games haven't done what Starcraft 2 did: Where when you activate a cheat it disables achievements.

That way you can have both cheats and achievements in the same game, but exclusive from each other so none of the nastyness.

The functionality of Action Replay is more than a cheat device and since it's taking advantage of using modifications on the original code there's no way to prevent "tainted" achievements or unfair advantage online. It works in a way that adds a script giving access to things that aren't supposed to be a part of the game. This could be cancelled characters in some games or even cancelled levels. It can also be used to remove region blocks from games which is something all the big companies seem to dislike.

OT: As others have said achievements and online multiplayer are the reasons we don't have these cheat devices anymore. Since these new consoles also got an update system it's quite easy to write a script that can prevent the use of these devices so there's no use in making these anymore.

I like the way they allow cheats, but disable achievements, it's great for those of us who don't care for achievements and just wants the fun we used to have.

 

[Adultism]

Probably already been stated but, Achievements, Trophies, and stuff like that. I love games that still have cheat codes so I can just rage on everything. Sadly we are at that day and age where those kinds of things are looked down upon as lack of skill or such things like it. I was called a noob for using cheats on GTA awhile ago. Why can't I just enjoy my games any ways I want to?

 

[Forsvaine]

It was easier to turn cheats into DLC.

No, not really. Must have something to do with achievements/trophies, and Microsoft and Sony probably weren't too keen on someone tinkering with their precious consoles.

 

[VoidWanderer]

Why would people pay for cheat devies when they can just go to gamefaqs?

 

[thenumberthirteen]

Why would people pay for cheat devies when they can just go to gamefaqs?

Because there's a difference between a Game Shark and a cheat code. Cheat codes are programmed into the game by developers, but a game shark changes values in the console's RAM to set health to 1000%, or increase movement speed, or any other form of weird and wonderful effects. You can't do that with gamefaqs.

 

[Krois]

Personally, I like it when it is possible to cheat or mod in a single player game. It's like opening up to a whole new world of possibilities with the game and without a whole new lot of work on developer's behalf.

Back in the PS1 days, my first playthrough would be me playing it normally. Once that's over and done with, I'd play it with cheat or try things I didn't get a chance to try. I have no idea how many things I missed on FF7 until my second playthrough.

And with modding, I used to do it on Red Alert 2 if anyone know how that works. I enjoy the game on its own pretty much but modding allows you to do insane creative stuff. Much like once you're done with making whatever Lego wanted you to make, then you made a spaceship out of it.

Support the return of cheat.

 

[VoidWanderer]

Why would people pay for cheat devies when they can just go to gamefaqs?

Because there's a difference between a Game Shark and a cheat code. Cheat codes are programmed into the game by developers, but a game shark changes values in the console's RAM to set health to 1000%, or increase movement speed, or any other form of weird and wonderful effects. You can't do that with gamefaqs.

Granted, but it wouldn't be too hard to find a website with the same information, but then again I am not much into cheating on consoles.

 

[thenumberthirteen]

Why would people pay for cheat devies when they can just go to gamefaqs?

Because there's a difference between a Game Shark and a cheat code. Cheat codes are programmed into the game by developers, but a game shark changes values in the console's RAM to set health to 1000%, or increase movement speed, or any other form of weird and wonderful effects. You can't do that with gamefaqs.

Granted, but it wouldn't be too hard to find a website with the same information, but then again I am not much into cheating on consoles.

Not really. There's nothing you can do in Super Mario to give you infinite fire flower (that I know of), but a cheat cartridge can as it physically changes the code in the game from "FireFlower=false" to "FireFlower=true". It essentially mods the game. You can maybe do something similar on PC with command line codes or changing a file, but on consoles unless a developer has purposefully built in an infinite lives cheat code you can't get infinite lives without a cheat device.

 

[Mirroga]

I consider them to still be in existence in the form of unlockables and new game+. Or are we really talking about actual cheats that are considered making the game way too easy instead of it being a reward?