Researchers {Alanh0, Darkfloyd}
Game hacking, often viewed through a lens of infamy and intrigue, surprisingly holds a significant and constructive role in the realms of software development and cybersecurity. This intersection is not just about exploiting games for personal gain; it’s about skills, learning, and innovation.
Looking back, the age of DOS gaming and the early days of game hacking were more than just a nostalgic memory. They were the stepping stones to the interactive, community-driven gaming culture we see today.
Our researchers tried to give some old good memories by using DOSBOX, Game Wizard 3.0 and some game to demonstrate a very simple game hacking trick. It is for research and education purpose only :)
Game Wizard 32 became TSR (Terminate & Stay Resident). Game Wizard 32 can then be activated at anytime by pressing the backtick key.
Then we started a very good game, you should let your kids play the game to learn about The European Age of Discovery.
It’s very obvious that we could modify the gold value, now we got 1000. We switched to GW and searched.
Then we switched back to game and donated some gold. :)
Now we got 999 gold and searched again in GW.
It searched the memory address 0003DC42, we went to that address and modified the value, from 999 to 9999
We switched back to the game and checked the value, we became rich now :D
This early era of game hacking laid the groundwork for the interactive and highly customizable world of modern gaming. Today, game mods, user-generated content, and open-source game development are mainstream, partly thanks to the pioneering spirit of those early DOS game hackers.
Demo Video:
