[Tutorials] Written by me

[hackerkts]

Tutorial: Hacking fixed value non-DMA games
Tool(s) used: CWCheat 0.2.1 REV.A

What's non-DMA? This might be the first question you're going to ask me. Ok, for this tutorial what you only need to know is, non-DMA games address will not change, their addresses are permanent.

Objective: Hacking fixed values
Game used: Harvest Moon: Boy & Girl [US]

What do I mean by fixed values? Those values are visible and fixed, for example gold, time, attack and so on.

Let's get started, run the game. Check your current gold, in this case I have 1000G, hold Select button for 3 seconds (that's the default setting) and the cheat menu will pop out.

Scroll to "Cheat searcher" and press the X button, scroll to "Start a new search for a fixed value" and press the X button, press Square button and change the search bit to 16bit(8bit maximum value is 255, I wouldn't explain more about it). At the DEC put 1000, press X and wait for it to search.

It found 145 address, yours might be different result. Now let's change the value of gold. Go buy or sell anything. In this case I have 800G, so let's search for it, the steps are the same, except now you choose "Continue a search for a fixed value". You should get lesser address, repeat the step until you found one address left. If the address is not narrow to one, then you can try each of the address.

In this case, the gold address is 0x001B2F0C.

Stay tune for other tutorials!(:

[hackerkts]

Tutorial: Getting to know more about bits
Tool(s) used: -

This tutorial will be short one, as my first tutorial I stated about the searching bit. Someone people might not know why I choose 16bit for money, it's because of the range 16bit has. What you really need to know is,

8bit = 0-255
16bit = 0-65 535
32bit = 0-4 294 967 295
For more information about it, you can take a look at Integer (computer science) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The rest you don't need to know, mostly you will just end up using 8 and 16 bits, let's take look at 8bit. In Harvest Moon: Boy & Girl the gold range is definitely more than 255, so 8bit is out of the question. 16bit is possible, that's why I choose it.

Back to the first tutorial, the real money address is 0x001B2F0C, but in order for it to works in cwcheat, you have to put a 1 (because of 16bit) infront of the address. So it will looks like this, 0x101B2F0C.

I will cover up more about it on my other tutorial understanding more about cwcheat database.

[hackerkts]

Tutorial: Hacking difference value non-DMA games
Tool(s) used: CWCheat 0.2.1 REV.A

I can't find any non-DMA games to use as an example to find value that didn't show fixed value, I will still try to make a tutorial on finding them.

Objective: Finding the address for life bar (take note that I said life bar, it just show your character's life bar and no integer shown)
Game used: -

"How do we search the address of life bar? We don't even know the value of our life", alright it's pretty easy. First run the game on your PSP, load your saved file and take note of your character life bar's marking.

Hold down Select button button for 3 second, go to "Cheat searcher", and now go to "Start a new search for a difference" (this option is something like "Start a new search for unknown value").

You will see this,

First dump done!!
Select databasetype and modify data then resume search
Datatype: 8bit

By now I believe you should know which search type to choose, for fighting games it's more likely to be 8bit. Let's continue. Went back to your game and make some changes to your life.

After you make some changes with your life, go back to the cheat menu, "Cheat searcher", "Continue a search for a difference", if your life value is decreased then choose "less than before", if your life value is increase, then choose "greater than before". Or even better if you know the value that decreased/increased then you can simply choose "less by than before"/"greater by than before" respectively and put in the value.

Take note: Sometimes if you search using "less by than before" or "greater by than before" it might take a long time to search, and there's a probability that the game is hanged. Don't worry, there's always a solution. For example, if the value is decreased by 20, instead of choosing "less by than before" 20, you choose "less than before" same goes to increase value. This method might take longer time, but it's worth it when you found the right address(:

Just continue to change your character's life and search for the differences until you get a few addresses(just do some trial and error) or best, 1 address remain.

Hopefully by now hacking non-DMA games is not a problem for you.

[Bafyo]

Originally Posted by hackerkts

Tutorial: Hacking difference value non-DMA games
Tool(s) used: CWCheat 0.2.1 REV.A

I can't find any non-DMA games to use as an example to find value that didn't show fixed value, I will still try to make a tutorial on finding them.

Objective: Finding the address for life bar (take note that I said life bar, it just show your character's life bar and no integer shown)
Game used: -

"How do we search the address of life bar? We don't even know the value of our life", alright it's pretty easy. First run the game on your PSP, load your saved file and take note of your character life bar's marking.

Hold down Select button button for 3 second, go to "Cheat searcher", and now go to "Start a new search for a difference" (this option is something like "Start a new search for unknown value").

You will see this,


By now I believe you should know which search type to choose, for fighting games it's more likely to be 8bit. Let's continue. Went back to your game and make some changes to your life.

After you make some changes with your life, go back to the cheat menu, "Cheat searcher", "Continue a search for a difference", if your life value is decreased then choose "less than before", if your life value is increase, then choose "greater than before". Or even better if you know the value that decreased/increased then you can simply choose "less by than before"/"greater by than before" respectively and put in the value.

Take note: Sometimes if you search using "less by than before" or "greater by than before" it might take a long time to search, and there's a probability that the game is hanged. Don't worry, there's always a solution. For example, if the value is decreased by 20, instead of choosing "less by than before" 20, you choose "less than before" same goes to increase value. This method might take longer time, but it's worth it when you found the right address(:

Just continue to change your character's life and search for the differences until you get a few addresses(just do some try-and-error) or best, 1 address remain.

Hopefully by now hacking non-DMA games is not a problem for you.

Another way we can lower the the search is after the "less than before"/"greater than before" you can do "equal to before"

[hackerkts]

Yes ofcourse you can search by "equal to before", I wouldn't recommend you to do that on the second search (first search -> start a new search, second search -> equal to before)

The reason is because, most values you found on the first search are fixed value, you will get a lot of addresses when you choose equal to before.

It's the same as you start searching for a fixed value (let's say 12), and you search again exact value 12. You will find yourself getting a lot of result.

[rex922]

equal to before is very use ful if u have about 100+ values and they go down very slowly
just do something that does not change the value then use equal to before the amount of values should decrease
@hacker its trial and error

[hackerkts]

Originally Posted by rex922

equal to before is very use ful if u have about 100+ values and they go down very slowly
just do something that does not change the value then use equal to before the amount of values should decrease
@hacker its trial and error

Just have to do some different searches type, and the address will gone down fast. And yeah, thanks for the correction, I miss out that word on my mind lol.

[Chat]

I tried to search a code for Resident evil psx and i used cheat search. I searches so i found only one adress. But when i go to Dissambler: i can´t find the adress that was showed when i searched! How to fix this problem?

[hackerkts]

You don't have to go dissembler, on the screen when it show Found 1 address, you press Triangle button and X button to select that address. It should temporarily added to your cheat list.

[hackerkts]

Tutorial: Understanding more about CWCheat database
Tool(s) used: -

Now let's get into the database, understand the format and learn to read it.

CWCheat database format:

_S
_G
_C0 or _C1
_L

_S is the game unique id (you can get the id at the cheat menu), _G is the game name, _C0 and _C1 is the cheat description, "what's the different between that 0 and 1?" 0 = [N] and 1 = [Y], it's just the default setting, disable or enable the cheat, it makes no big different, just use _C0 will do. _L is the cheat code.

Now let's have a look of non-DMA cheat format in the database,

_S ID
_G Game name
_C0 Cheat description
_L 0x#XXXXXXX 0xXXXXXXXX

# is the bit,
0 = 8bit (0-255)
1 = 16bit (0-65 535)
2 = 32bit (0-4 294 967 295)

XXXXXXX is the address

XXXXXXXX is the value in hexadecimal

Now let's have a look of DMA cheat format in the database,

_S ID
_G Game name
_C0 Cheat description
_L 0x6XXXXXXX 0xXXXXXXXX
_L0x000X0001 0xXXXXXXXX

6 will always start with 6, because it's a pointer. Next time you saw it start with 6, you automatically should know that it's a pointer

XXXXXXXis the pointer

XXXXXXXX is the offset

X is the code type,
0 = 8bit write
1 = 16bit write
2 = 32bit write
3 = 8bit inverse write
4 = 16bit inverse write
5 = 32bit inverse write

1 is 1 because it's a normal pointer, for almost all the time it's a normal pointer so you just leave it as 1.

XXXXXXXX is the value in hexadecimal

Try to open up cheat.db and figure which is non-dma and dma code, by now you should be able to add new cheat yourself.