The Declining Popularity of Gaming Cheat Codes

Once extremely popular, cheat codes have fallen into relative disfavor with the gaming community. Some are unnaturally vehement in their point that cheating "ruins" games, and that anyone who cheats is like Hitler, except if Hitler didn't actually try to take over the world and stayed home playing his PS2 all day instead. So it is that often one will find themselves searching for PSP cheats and finding nothing but nerd debates.

Say for instance, you look for Miami Vice psp cheat codes. You aren't going to find any. Did you miss that last mission goal? Nobody said games had to be fun, they just have to be real! The closest thing you can find resembling "cheats" for this and other such games are guides that other players have written, which can be found on gamefaqs.com.

These guides focus on gameplay elements, such as how to find certain characters, how to earn specific cars, and various exploits to make the game easier. They also let you know how to gain certain achievements that the game gives as rewards for proficient playing. This is certainly not to be confused with actual cheating, however.

Cheating seems to have become frowned upon with the advent of multiplayer gaming. In online games, cheating truly is detrimental and can ruin other players' experiences. This is largely why developer cheats are disappearing. Oftentimes this does not benefit the developers, as players who would otherwise play through an entire game find themselves frustrated and think that it is simply "not worth it" to put forth the effort of going through an entire game.

Where there is a will, there is a way, however. Hex editing, long a mainstay of PC gaming, has come to the PSP in the form of a homebrew program that will allow the gamer to perform edits to memory addresses allowing them to change basically any numerical aspect of their game.

This can, say, in a game of Tiger Woods PGA Tour, allow a player who just shot a magnificent 16 over par on a par 3 hole drop his number down to a ridiculous -16. An impossible feat in real life, but hex editing can do a whole lot.

Homebrew is only available to those lucky enough to own a PSP based on the 1.5 firmware, or modified versions of later firmware. The unfortunate tactic of Sony to clamp down on these developments is dubious, as many buy PSPs simply for these homebrew elements. Often, homebrew is the only way to cheat, so without these tools, less skilled players (or those with less time) will be left with no recourse. Such is the fate of the gamer today!