HAMBURG (dpa) – When your exhausted opponent in battle suddenly rushes with renewed strength into the skirmish and you’re just about out of ammunition, it’s time for desperate measures.
That’s when gamers reach for any means necessary to prove themselves king of the digital hill. “Cheats” are a means to this end. They provide the tools for absolute victory, or at least some scurrilous thrill of besting an entertainment program.Cheat codes have existed as long as there have been computer games. Yet only with the advent of the Internet and its capacity for widespread distribution have they become a general commodity.What are cheat codes? They’re typically nothing more than a few letters typed on a keyboard. But when used during the heat of battle in a computer game, they can mean the difference between life and death.That’s because they make it possible for players of strategy and action games to suddenly have unlimited resources, weapons, or ammunition – or for inexperienced action game players to suddenly be invincible against even the toughest monsters.Cheats aren’t normally created to help the players, though. “Generally speaking, cheats are intended for the developers,” says Soeren Winterfeldt of game design company Eidos Interactive in Hamburg, Germany.Cheat codes are programmed tricks that allow software developers to test a game without having to tediously redo earlier tasks within the story line.“Many cheats give access to higher levels or provide access to certain features,” says Jochen Faerber, with gaming software firm Take2 Interactive.In addition, one sometimes also sees two different variations of cheat codes, respectively known as gimmicks and Easter eggs.These are little inside jokes created by programmers. Pranks such as dancing hippos, female characters losing their clothing onscreen, a medieval scene turning into a basketball court, or stone-age axe warriors gaining access to a black sports car with rocket launchers attached are some Easter eggs seen in recent games.Some Easter eggs, though, are as mundane as allowing users admittance to normally inaccessible playing area.Cheats come to light in various ways.“For some games, the cheats are leaked at the same time the game is released,” says Jochen Faerber. Normally, though, the cheats are withheld during the first month after a game is released, says Jens Schaefer of game maker Sierra.“Sometimes players figure them out on their own and put their notes on the Internet. Other times they’re given out officially in order to make it easier for players to move forward in the game.”Sometimes the search for cheat codes is itself a competition, whereby prestige is won by being the first to discover the codes after a game is released. The search for cheats can be remarkably simple though.Even mildly popular games have their own Web sites, often with the cheats posted.There are also Web pages not sponsored by game makers that are devoted to cheat codes.Cheat Book, at www.cheatbook.de, for example, lists game title alphabetically so that viewers can move easily to the cheat codes. Even the newest games, such as Black & White, or Tropico, are represented on the site.For games that are typically played against opponents via the Internet, the cheats can sometimes be a nuisance.“There are some geeks who write themselves programs for these games and use them to their advantage online,” explains Jens Schaefer. Usually someone then e-mails the game maker, who then develops a patch – a little program that protects against these malicious cheats.Discretion is the key word when it comes to cheats, even when one is just fooling around on the home PC. “Whether or not a player uses cheats really depends on their ambition, whether or not they really want to make it through the game on their own,” says Schaefer.Soeren Winterfeldt points out that cheats can take the fun out of games. After all, those who know that they can bull their way through the game with a few clicks on the keyboard might not be willing to spend the hours necessary to win without the help.
