Micro_Mart_-_January_7_2016_

APP OF THE WEEK

App Of The Week

Poke

T

his week’s app looksat the semi-

unethicalactivityof cheatingin

games.Whilemanyof you reading

this will automaticallylook awayin disgust

at the very thoughtof havingto cheatto

beata computer, otherswill quitehappily

shrugtheirshouldersand couldn’t care

less, just as longas they can finallybeat

that end-of-the-levelguardian.

Cheatingin computergameshas been

aroundfor as long as the computergame

itself.The cheatscomein manyforms:

as somekind of hiddencodethat the

developersaw fit to include,as a separate

applicationthat activatesthe cheatwhen

the gameis runningor as a hardware

attachmentthat offers pre-programmed

enhancementsfor the gamein question.

Eitherway, it’s still a cheat.

Poke It!

Years ago,duringthe 8-bitcomputerera,

you couldcheatin a gameby writinga

smallprogrambeforehand,whichwould

‘poke’a particularmemoryaddress and

allowyou to substitutethe valuesin

the gamewithyourown.Thesevalues

usuallyfollowedthe formof infinitelives,

more money, full energyor whatever. The

actualBASICcommandwas Pokeand

workedby simplytypingin ‘Pokeaddress,

value’;the trickwas knowingwhat

address to Poke.

The programmingbehindusingPoke

may havegonethe way of the dinosaur,

but the conceptstill exists.This week,we

look at a very handyapplicationcalled,

unsurprisingly, Poke.

Codefromthe70s.org

Pokeis describedas the ultimategaming

utility, whichcan allowyou to cheatin

a varietyof modern games.So says the

developer, codefromthe70s.org,aka

MartonAnka.

It’s a very smallpackage,weighingin at

just under1MBwhenunpacked,and the

latestversioncan be downloadedfrom

goo.gl/HMYQSK.

How DoesIt Work?

GettingPoketo workis quitecleverand,

onceyou get usedto it, remarkablyeasy.

Oncedownloaded,unpackand install,

thenlaunchthe gamein question.In our

example,we decidedto test it on the

excellentFasterThanLight.

Oncethe gamehas launchedand

you’vestartedplaying,makea noteof

one of the valuesthat you wishto Poke;

in our example,we usedthe starting

valueof Scrap(or in-gamecash)as 30.

NowstartPokeand clickon the ‘Refresh’

button.You shouldnowsee a list of

runningapplicationsin the Pokewindow,

and yourgameshouldbe amongthem.

Double-clickthe gamein the Pokelist, and

you’llbe presentedwitha blankscreen

containingvariouscolumns:Description,

Address and so on.

Clickon ‘Add’and enterthe valueas a

DWORDthat you currentlyhavein-game

• 30 in our case.Clickon ‘Next’,and Poke
  will search for all valuesrelatingto ‘30’ or
  whateveryou entered.
  The next step requires you to go backto
  the gameand spendsomeof that valuein
  order to changeit from the entered number
  (30 for us) to a new value(10 afterwe spent
  20 Scrap).Whenyou’vedonethis, enterthe
  new valueinto Pokeand click ‘Next’.
  KeepgoinguntilPoketells you that there
  are only two valuesleft. Tick the ‘Add
  all locations’box, followedby ‘Next’and
  entera namefor the value,suchas Cash,
  for example.
  You’ll now havetwo entriesin the Poke
  window(Cash#1and Cash#2).Double-
  click the ‘Current Value’ columnand enter
  your own number– ‘999’for example.If
  the in-gamevaluedoesn’t change,try the
  other;it will be one of the two.

Cheater!

There we haveit: instantin-gamecash or

whatever. Pity it doesn’t workin real life.mm

iAnincreasefrom 30 cashto99999.Notbad

fora day’s work

iEntertheinitialvalue,thenchangethe

valueingame

Cheats never prosper, but it sure beats losing

FeaturesAt A Glance

• You can finallywin!


• Works withprettymuchevery
  gamegoing.


• No needto involvedodgy
  ‘trainers’.


• If at firstyoudon’t succeed,
  cheat!