[Howto] Cheating in Games

[avindra]

Cheating in Nintendo Games with Dolphin

Wii games don't have much known action replay codes. I and others are now beginning to find them using Dolphin's new "Cheat Search" function.

[color=#5b2e91]Background

Memory editing, in short, involves searching for the values (health, lives, coins, points) that you want to edit, then changing or freezing them. This tutorial used to use Cheat Engine, but an awesome fella implemented a Cheat Search function in one revision, and I and others have improved on it in one way or another.[/color]

If you're seeking to cheat in a Gamecube game, chances are that cheats are already loaded. Right click on the game in the Dolphin window, click on "Properties". Go to the "AR Codes" tab. Choose the codes you want, and start up the game. That's it.

Unfortunately, only a few AR codes are known for Wii games. The following method will teach you how to generate AR codes for Wii (or gamecube) games.

Start the game
Boot into the game you want to find AR codes for.

Open the Cheat Search
This is found in Tools > Cheats Manager. Then go to the Cheat Search tab.

Initialize your target Value
If you're targeting bullets, get into the game so you can see your ammo remaining. If you're targeting health, get into the game and see your health.

Find the inital values
Note: While searching, the value can change (e.g., you're looking for health, and while searching, you get hurt.) This will throw off the value. If you think the value will change during search, pause emulation.

At first, click "New Scan". Change the dropdown from "Unknown" to "Equal". In the box, type in the value you're looking for.

Narrow it down
Fire a bullet, get hurt, whatever it takes to change the value. Once the value is changed, type the new value, and click "Next Scan".

Found it!
Once you find your code (SHOULD ONLY BE ONE, very rarely, you will see two codes), click "Create AR Code".

WRITE DOWN THE AR CODE GENERATED. At this stage, Dolphin's cheat manger has a bug and doesn't always properly save the code generated.

Re-Enter the code when you stop the game
Put your code that you've written down into the config for the game. It's that simple.

Bonus: I only have a FEW tries to get the value, and I'm left with a LARGE number of values even after narrowing it down.
You can use save states to help. Save a state where the target number is high. Search, narrow it down. When you run out, just load the state, and continue searching and narrowing it down. You will eventually find the code this way.

Conclusion
That's it! Comments, questions or concerns? Needs more clarity? More pictures? Please post in the thread so that I can improve this tutorial, the code, etc so it is as simple and effective as can be.

Happy cheating! Hopefully this will spare us from hours of gameplay which should be focused on more important things.

[ali]

this is interesting..
i will try and post here..
thanks..

[darkshadw]

This will work in every game?

[avindra]

It should work on every game. Some games probably use "double" instead of "int" (timers and such), so I'll have to add support for that. I haven't figured out yet how to go from little endian double to big endian double. Once I figure that out, we should be rolling with doubles and floats, etc.

Basically, games would use doubles with timers. E.g., The running timer in smash bros brawl is (probably) a double: 9.42 seconds. And percentages are doubles (50.45%).

Sometimes percentages (like dmg in Brawl) are actually ints. And I haven't gotten damage in Brawl to work properly. It freezes / changes the damage amount, but the game crashes. I'll try it out later.

[Luxion]

Now this deserves a BIG thanks. You're a genius! I have been playing around with cheat engine for a while but I never got anywhere with it on dolphin wii-- I had no idea the values were so complex. I would be doing unknown initial values and searching for changed values, but it would still leave me with hundreds of addresses in the end! Now I've memorized the short explanation of converting decimal to the big-endian byte system because I usually need to go in reverse when there isn't just one decreasing/changing address. Searching for changed values usually works the first time though.

Confirmed working with Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World with Dolphin-2.0x64bit using CE5.6. I've always wanted to cheat on this game after it got boring.



I plan to change values other than just money though.

Thank you so much for sharing!

(06-19-2010, 08:59 PM)avindra Wrote: Comments, questions or concerns? Needs more clarity? More pictures? Please post in the thread so that I can improve this tutorial, the code, etc so it is as simple and effective as can be.

If it's not to much to ask, I was wondering if you could somehow create a second code that goes in reverse order. Otherwise, I don't mind doing it manually when the situation calls for it ;P

[Luxion]

(06-20-2010, 02:27 AM)avindra Wrote:

(06-20-2010, 01:47 AM)Luxion Wrote: If it's not to much to ask, I was wondering if you could somehow create a second code that goes in reverse order. Otherwise, I don't mind doing it manually when the situation calls for it ;P

I am not sure what you mean. Do you mean to convert from the weird value to the regular value? Because the function goes two ways: it reverses, so it goes both ways. Sorry if this is not what you mean.

Yeah, that's what I meant-- from the weird value to the decimal value.

[avindra]

In that case, yes, the function already exists. Try it! Type a number, and give it back the weird number (big endian). It should give you the original number (little endian).

Any other requests? Any part of the tutorial was unclear?

[Luxion]

(06-20-2010, 03:52 AM)avindra Wrote: In that case, yes, the function already exists. Try it! Type a number, and give it back the weird number. It should give you the original number.

Any other requests? Any part of the tutorial was unclear?

I didn't know it went both ways! Thanks!

I'd say the tutorial is perfect ;]

[lesch]

nice tutorial, ive tried to make unlimited ammo for red steel 2, but at the 3rd search it doesnt find the value
at the 2nd it already only showed 2 addresses so i thought i should try freeze them, but nothin happend...

or simply use http://www.geckocodes.org/ for all your cheating needs

[thaCASHdude]

great tutorial! i'll try it out!