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SmiteMeister

Multi-player Cheat codes enabled through hex editing?

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I was wondering if there is a way to edit the binary doom2.exe (or doom.exe or..) and enable cheat codes for multi-player games. Obviously if different versions of the exe are used per-player, doom2 will exit with a "consistency error". I'd be using the same executable file for all players, so that all players could use the cheat codes (IDDQD, IDFA, IDKFA, etc). I'm pretty sure most binary doom editors (such as DeHackED) don't allow you to do this. Correct me if I'm wrong. If I were to hex edit the executable doom2 file, any clue as to what I would look for or change to modify this function?

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SmiteMeister said:

I was wondering if there is a way to edit the binary doom2.exe (or doom.exe or..) and enable cheat codes for multi-player games. Obviously if different versions of the exe are used per-player, doom2 will exit with a "consistency error". I'd be using the same executable file for all players, so that all players could use the cheat codes (IDDQD, IDFA, IDKFA, etc). I'm pretty sure most binary doom editors (such as DeHackED) don't allow you to do this. Correct me if I'm wrong. If I were to hex edit the executable doom2 file, any clue as to what I would look for or change to modify this function?

Even if you manage to do this, you'll desync the game. The reason cheats aren't supported in multiplayer is that DOOM's netcode is too braindead to be able to transmit them to other nodes. So only cheats which have no effect on gameplay, such as IDDT in coop mode, are allowed.

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If this thread title appeared elsewhere, on a heavily multiplayer game forum, your post would have attracted all the moderator attention.

How is Doomworld's stance with one's cheating in multiplayer? I know that in other places, those people are banned on sight. How does Skulltag cope with them if they post about it?

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printz said:

If this thread title appeared elsewhere, on a heavily multiplayer game forum, your post would have attracted all the moderator attention.

Doom is a 16-year-old game. And most people do not use the vanilla executable for multiplayer anymore.

printz said:

I know that in other places, those people are banned on sight. How does Skulltag cope with them if they post about it?

Permaban from site, IRC, and master server.

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printz said:
How is Doomworld's stance with one's cheating in multiplayer?

As Quasar noted, it's not possible to cheat in Doom without the other player also using an executable allowing it. In addition, cheating is when you do something behind one's back. The option to allow cheats in multiplayer is present in various ports. That means that if we need to ban a Doom hack that allows it, we'd also have to ban ZDoom, ZDaemon, Skulltag and others!

Gez said:
And most people do not use the vanilla executable for multiplayer anymore.

It isn't clear how many people may be using it for multiplayer because DOSBox, which comes with the game these days, offers multiplayer connectivity through TCP/IP. A cheating tool doesn't become more acceptable just because it affects something few people use, in any case.

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myk said:

As Quasar noted, it's not possible to cheat in Doom without the other player also using an executable allowing it. In addition, cheating is when you do something behind one's back. The option to allow cheats in multiplayer is present in various ports. That means that if we need to ban a Doom hack that allows it, we'd also have to ban ZDoom, ZDaemon, Skulltag and others!

I hoped it was pretty obvious I wasn't referring to vanilla Doom, wasn't implying hex-editing the file (just changing the memory while it was on instead), and wasn't referring to everyone becoming allowed to cheat either.

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I'd say that the majority of people who frequent this forum (and therefore can be exposed to this thread) are aware of the existence of all those client/server ports out there.

(It'd be a different thing if, say, this were an Xbox forum monitored by Microsoft and there were plenty of multiplayer achievements in the XBLA ports, and people were chatting about hacking cheat codes there.)

People generally have no problem distinguishing between cheating to test stuff (cheat codes are very handy to debug maps and mods) and cheating to achieve a false sense of superiority over the other players. The latter type needs a supporting infrastructure to really happen -- a community of people you can scam into believing you are just that good, which means something visible, with IRC channels, forums, clans, and so on. If there is significant DOSBox/Vanilla Doom multiplayer activity, there are traces of it that can be found on the net.

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Gez said:
(and therefore can be exposed to this thread)

When looking for help on specific topics, I commonly peek at threads on different forums I'm unfamiliar with through Goggle search, reading the applicable thread only because it's talking about a topic I'm interested in, otherwise mostly ignoring the forum in general, almost never signing up unless I'm forced to do so to read the posts. I doubt my behavior is unusual. Many hits on Doomworld forums threads should be of this type.

Evidence of the use of DOSBox for DOOM multiplayer can indeed be found by searching the net, including tutorials helping people set things up.

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myk said:

When looking for help on specific topics, I commonly peek at threads on different forums I'm unfamiliar with through Goggle search, reading the applicable thread only because it's talking about a topic I'm interested in, otherwise mostly ignoring the forum in general, almost never signing up unless I'm forced to do so to read the posts. I doubt my behavior is unusual. Many hits on Doomworld forums threads should be of this type.

Google search for "doom multiplayer". In the first three results, I get ZDaemon, Skulltag, and the Multiplayer article on the Doom wikia.

The argument that people who google for Doom multiplayer would find this thread but not be exposed to ports is hereby invalidated.

myk said:

Evidence of the use of DOSBox for DOOM multiplayer can indeed be found by searching the net, including tutorials helping people set things up.


That's not the same thing at all. A tutorial to help set up a LAN or virtual LAN to play a game with friends on the one hand is one thing which will not give birth to the SRS BSNS attitude and Internet drama associated with online gaming communities.

Just like you can find a ton of stuff about playing Queen of Spades online. And I am pretty sure that you will not find as much drama about cheating and hacking for that game as you would find for something in the Halo or Counterstrike or UT or TF or whatever series.

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Gez said:
The argument that people who google for Doom multiplayer would find this thread but not be exposed to ports is hereby invalidated.

I'm not sure who's arguing that or why it matters. I think we're not standing on the same branch of the tree here. My posts merely meant to confirm that some people out there are using DOSBox to play, because you had doubted the DOS executable could be relevant to cheating or something :p

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I doubt the DOS executable are relevant to the form of cheating that is the cause of Internet drama. ZDaemon and Skulltag both have plenty of this type of cheating, and all the retardedness associated with it.

Vanilla Doom, nowadays, does not.

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Okay, for clarification of my intent, the purpose would be to enable game cheats for *all players* to knowingly use. I did derive a few good answers from the crowd. The first one is that one person cheating might throw the game out of whack, even with the same binary. This kind of goes hand-in-hand with game inconsistencies. The other good answer being that some ports might already allow this. I, myself, do not cheat on multi-player games like ZDaemon or any of those public ports. The purpose was more for modification & testing purposes - mostly for group modding and testing purposes.

As to why it would attract bans from a moderator on an area of a forum particular to Doom editing, is beyond me. I do feel it is a somewhat fair initial reaction -- although, it deserves a further questioning of the intent of the player(s) and game modder(s) involved.

"Internet drama" is easily ignored, as such. Consider the Internet another form of media. It's often based on sensation rather than quest for knowledge. As a more "seasoned" Internet user, and a more "mature" Doom player (in terms of years, I suppose, having begun playing Doom in 1996), I could expect these kind of questions and comments would surface. They did not take me by surprise. Safe to say, my question was not ill-intended.

[edited for grammar and punctuation, the best I could, since I posted my reply at nearly 4 AM EDT.

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Gez said:
Vanilla Doom, nowadays, does not.

The only cheating controversy we've had here recently has involved speed running and Compet-n, where the original executable is involved.

Vanilla online games are played sometimes, and if someone cheats in vanilla deathmatch using an aimbot or wallhack and talks about it openly or is exposed here, or posts cheating applications, it's just as controversial as doing it for ZDaemon or whatever.

The reason this isn't really controversial is because of the nature of cheat codes, as we discussed, not the executable in question.

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myk said:

The only cheating controversy we've had here recently has involved speed running and Compet-n, where the original executable is involved.

And multiplayer is not.

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What you're trying to talk about involves the supposed chances that someone will post about vanilla head-to-head playing. That and whether it's okay to cheat or post cheating applications is not related. The last time there was a vanilla contest, back in 2001, there were allegations the winner cheated. Any similar contest nowadays could bring up similar controversy. Whether something is controversial to ZDaemon or Skulltag users is not a determinant on whether we will allow it here, either. Sometimes we allow talk here that they consider threatens their "cheating security".

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SmiteMeister - what about using dehacked instead of using cheat codes? Like, make ammo boxes give you lots of ammo, make the player start with lots of health, etc?

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SmiteMeister said:

I was wondering if there is a way to edit the binary doom2.exe (or doom.exe or..) and enable cheat codes for multi-player games. Obviously if different versions of the exe are used per-player, doom2 will exit with a "consistency error". I'd be using the same executable file for all players, so that all players could use the cheat codes (IDDQD, IDFA, IDKFA, etc). I'm pretty sure most binary doom editors (such as DeHackED) don't allow you to do this. Correct me if I'm wrong. If I were to hex edit the executable doom2 file, any clue as to what I would look for or change to modify this function?


You would have to do more than just hex edit it. To enable cheats you would need to remove the muliplayer checks and you would also have to transmit the cheat sequences to the network in the form where a client can setup the cheat so the game does not explode (well really just desync).

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You could edit the source code and that would be much better then hex editing. I doubt that the source for the original Doom is still around (and even if it was it would probably be almost unusable), but you can modify the code for a source port.

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bgraybr said:

You could edit the source code and that would be much better then hex editing. I doubt that the source for the original Doom is still around (and even if it was it would probably be almost unusable), but you can modify the code for a source port.


hah

http://www.doomworld.com/idgames/index.php?id=14576

It works, you just have to port it back to whatever you want to port it to.

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bgraybr said:

Eh. But why would you want to mess around with code from 199-something when there's plenty of modern ports?


The old source code is clean and has nothing in it.

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GhostlyDeath said:
You would have to do more than just hex edit it.

Considering the work entryway has done hacking, I bet it's possible. (Not that Andrey would do it.)

bgraybr said:
You could edit the source code and that would be much better then hex editing.

Easier, yes, but it's not better if what you want is to modify the DOS binary.

I doubt that the source for the original Doom is still around (and even if it was it would probably be almost unusable), but you can modify the code for a source port.

The original release is of course available. No reason to misplace that. It's both on id Software's very own FTP section (the idstuff folder also mirrored by idgames) under the old license, as well as on idgames and other places under the GPL (as GhostlyDeath linked.) The sources they used for the DOS executable were a bit different from the release, though, because they contained the proprietary DMX sound library Carmack didn't have the rights to release. One of the reasons people like use the DOS executable is due to its OPL3 support for music, and that is part of the sound code not available in the released sources.

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TimeOfDeath said:

SmiteMeister - what about using dehacked instead of using cheat codes? Like, make ammo boxes give you lots of ammo, make the player start with lots of health, etc?


That's easy, but different from what I had in mind, which was to allow *all users* to use the cheat codes in multiplayer mode for testing purposes. Understand something, folks. A lot of times, cheat codes are added into games as 'test codes', and then left in for the purpose of one's own (single player) entertainment. That's why these multi-player "checks and balances" are put into play. The long-winded hype of multi-player cheating on whatever server was besides the point. Thanks for the answers..and the hysteria.

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Personally I have often longed for the option to change the music during multiplayer games, and I think it's a feature worth adding in modern source ports.

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