Gaming Hacks

Modify PC Game Saves and Settings

Poke into the depths of your favorite PC game to give yourself the edge.

There’s a whole industry devoted to cheating and hacking game saves on consoles ( [Hack #75] ), but what about PC games? Shouldn’t that be as easy, if not easier, than console hacking? Yes! Console hacking may be more exotic and interesting because consoles are black boxes you’re not really supposed to open, but it’s easy to cheat with PC games; you control the hardware and software of a general-purpose computing device!

You can often find trainers (small executable patch files that add an up-front menu to the game in which you can select infinite lives, max ammo, and other fun options) that combine all the extras you want in a ready-made package. Some exploit debug modes that the programmers have left in the game. Others modify specific values in saved games. You can perform plenty of interesting hacks on PC games old and new.

PC Game Hacking Overview

There are several types of PC game hacking tools. All overlap in some way, and you’ll often have the best results by combining some or all of them:

Memory finders

Scan the PC’s memory while a game runs, allowing you to search for and replace certain variables to produce intended (or unintended!) effects.

Hex editors

Allow you to edit saved files, changing variables more permanently.

Code disassemblers

Tools that show you a partially human-readable version of the compiled code. This is a complicated approach to changing parts ...