Frequently Asked Questions

Before asking for help, check to see if your questions haven't already been asked and answered here.

How do you cheat [insert specific program name]?

That's usually the wrong question to ask. The answer will always depend on the details of the program and what you want to accomplish. You should focus on learning a few general strategies that you can use over and over again to figure out the details of any specific problem you might come across. A few of these strategies can be gleaned from the online tutorials: How to Cheat Tux Racer, How to Cheat Yoink.

Why won't the games used in the tutorials launch on my machine?

Unfortunately, neither Tux Racer nor Yoink is still maintained, and they may be too old to run on newer versions of Mac OS X. Apparently maintaining backward compatibility isn't one of Apple's more important goals. Equally unfortunate is the apparent fact that nobody, to my knowledge, has bothered to create an updated tutorial for The Cheat. This means that you may not be able to follow along with the tutorials, but hopefully they will still provide you some value as you just read along and view the screenshots.

Is it possible to cheat multi-player games?

Maybe. Probably not. You can try, but most modern servers have consistency checks in order to detect cheating. Some companies have low tolerance for multi-player cheating, so it's possible to get your account banned if you're not careful. Basically, I don't recommend cheating in a multi-player setting. If you choose to try, you do so at your own peril.

Why isn't The Cheat being developed anymore? I want new features!

I'd like to keep The Cheat going, but my G4 died. I think her power supply went out, but since I wasn't sure and I didn't really want to futz around buying expensive parts I didn't need, I gutted her and installed a new Gigabyte motherboard and Intel processor instead. Oh, don't look so appalled! She's now humming along, running  NetBSD and serving this website like a champ. Even in death, she reaches out!

The good news is, The Cheat is open source software. That means any competent and motivated programmer can pick up the sources and get to work, and some already have. If you want a specific feature but don't have the proper know-how, just find a friendly programmer to do the work for you! Heck, I'll do it for you. Just buy me a Mac, and I'll implement whatever you want. The nicer the specs, the more advanced the feature(s) you'll get! I'm only partly kidding.

Is it possible to cheat online Flash games?

Generally, yes. Again, it depends on the exact nature of the program and what you're trying to accomplish. There are several video tutorials on YouTube demonstrating some Flash games being cheated. Take a look at these for inspiration:

•  Extra money in Bloons Tower Defense
•  More gold in Dragonfable

Why do my saved cheats not work the next time I try to use them?

Sometimes they will, sometimes they won't. It will work as long as the variables have the same addresses every time the program runs. The older the program, the higher the chance that this is true and that saved cheats will work. If you want the technical answer, read on. It depends on the game and where the variable exists in the address space of the process you're cheating. If the variable is static, global, or even on the stack (and assuming the address space isn't subject to randomization for security purposes), then the addresses may remain the same each time. On the other hand, variables that are created on the heap are subject to pseudo-random placement by the allocator, so their addresses may change unexpectedly, even while the program is running.

There's not much you can do about it if the variable's address changes. You've just got to search for it each time. Bummer!

Can I apply multiple cheats at the same time?

Yep. Once you add a variable, it will appear in the list if you're in cheat mode. To add more cheats, just go back to search mode, clear the current search, and look for the next one. Once you've found all the cheats you want, you can apply one or more cheats from the cheat mode.

Why do I need to authenticate as an Administrator to use The Cheat?

It used to be possible back around the time of Mac OS X 10.3 or so to use the virtual memory "backdoor" functions without Admin rights. Those were good days. Fast-forward to today: These newfangled versions of Mac OS X (perhaps starting with 10.4 or 10.5?) don't trust regular users with the kind of power The Cheat is meant to provide. So that's it; you have to authenticate in order to use the virtual memory functions provided by the kernel, and that's the only reason. The Cheat certainly doesn't do anything devious with those elevated privileges, and the source code is open in case you want to check that for yourself.

My searches keep returning zero search results. What gives?

Oh no, the cheat has evaded you thus far! Well, just keep trying. Maybe the variable you're searching for is not the type you expect, or maybe its value is masked or transformed in a way that is making it hard to find. If you are fluent in assembly code and competent with a debugger, you may be able to find the code that reads or writes the variable you're looking for. In that case, the debugger should be able to tell you where the variable is. If you're lucky, the variable will be in static memory where it will have the same address every time. The point is, almost everything can be done, given enough time, the right tools, and the right knowledge.