On the History of Chip Modding and Games Hacking
Posted in Internet Games on January 22nd, 2010Right through the history of gaming, individuals have loved to subvert and hack the game code and also the console systems they’re run on. Right from the game hacks on the ZX Spectrum giving you invincibility on Sabre Wulf back in the 1980s, to Nintendo DS Lite flashcarts enabling you to play a larger range of games on their Nintendo DS.
Software developers and console developers have had an uncertain relationship in regards to the soldering and hacking crowd. In a sense, hackers add value to the systems and games - for instance chips that have been modified make it convenient for games players who can play backups on their consoles. Likewise, software hacks brings extra value to very challenging games, and in the modern gaming era it’s even de rigeur for software developers to build in “easter egg” cheats for gamers to discover.
But to balance that out, software developers state that this kind of modding damages their revenue, as mods are also applied to circumvent steps to try and prevent illegal copying, and circumventing firmware that restricts discs to work just in particular geographical locations. These are strong reasons for hardware and software developers to continually develop new steps to make chipmods all that more dificult.
However, no matter how compelling the grounds are against chipmods, modding is now a huge market that isn’t going to go away.
