Curious about Video Games

[isaiahk9]

Hiya,
I've just been a little curious about programming in relation to video games. Most people know that to mod or hack Unreal Tournament or Gear of War, you use U Script. But what language would you use to hack or mod a game like Worms Armageddon, or Medal of Honor : Allied Assualt? I know that you need the source code and not the compiled program in most cases, but I'm just curious as to how you can find out what language you need to learn to hack/mod certain games? Again, this is just curiousity right now, and I understand that such a lofty program is outside of my reach as of now.

Thanks,
isaiahk9

[DtY]

Most likely, assembler.

Start on a smaller scale, I've changed the text around in some GB(C) games before using a hex editor, and some other small stuff like changing a few instructions to NOP (no operation) right inside Stella (Atari 2600 emulator) to get simple stuff like infinite lives, et cetera.

[isaiahk9]

Sorry if I was unclear, I meant games on PC.

Thanks for the advice.

[Vermette]

In the PC world, it's often the manipulation of compiled C++ code, so knowledge of assembly is immensely helpful.

Where devs provide tools for modding, it might be hooks for calling or injecting code (again, c++), or the writing of engine scripts, which is often in a language like Lua. This is ignoring other factors like level design, graphic design, sound, etc...

DtY: That's exactly what the "codes" were back in the Game Genie days; you were manipulating memory addresses given as hex values

[DtY]

isaiahk9 @ Thu Sep 03, 2009 2:34 pm wrote:

Sorry if I was unclear, I meant games on PC.

Thanks for the advice.

Yep, I was just suggesting you start with old consoles before you jump into modern PC games.

Vermette @ Thu Sep 03, 2009 2:39 pm wrote:

DtY: That's exactly what the "codes" were back in the Game Genie days; you were manipulating memory addresses given as hex values

Yeah, but it's more fun to do it by hand (If you can call using an emulator debugger "by hand"...)

[isaiahk9]

ty Vermette and DtY, question answered.

[[Gandalf]]

Umm... I don't know what all this talk of assembly is. That sounds more like for the creation of little hacks for games.

Almost all modding is done using SDKs released by the developer, or by modification of game contents (ie. map scripts, weapon data, textures, etc). There is no single language used for modding, and some games even use multiple scripting languages / a combination of compiled programs. LUA is common, C/C++ are common, Python is relatively common, etc.

[Vermette]

Gandalf @ September 4th 2009, 10:54 wrote:

Umm... I don't know what all this talk of assembly is. That sounds more like for the creation of little hacks for games.

Well, the OP did say "hacks", which is what I interpreted as cracking or otherwise modifying the original code. Not every game gets an SDK released, but people are still out there modifying things. I know that the fan community for The Sims2 had a habit of releasing their own patches, often even preempting EA Maxis on bug fixes.

edit: Your username breaks the quote tag :\