Ever since the first video games 30 years ago, individuals have had a compulsion to subvert and modify games and also the console systems they run on. Be it simple machine code tweaks on microcomputers such as the Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum to allow you limitless “lives” on games way back in the 1980s, to Sony PSP flashing services allowing you to run a greater range of apps on their DSi.

Games makers and hardware manufacturers have had an on/off relationship with the soldering and hacking crowd. In one way, they bring more worth to the games and systems - e.g. modchips give great convenience to games players who can download non-sanctioned games from the internet. Similarly, game hacks breathe new life into very challenging games, and nowadays it’s de rigeur for software makers to actually build in cheat codes for games players to find.

But to balance that out, games manufacturers state that such modding hurts their profits, as mods are also applied to get around piracy steps, and circumventing firmware that restricts cartridges to work just in particular geographical locations. These are strong reasons for console and software developers to continually develop new measures to make modding more difficult to carry out.

However, no matter how compelling the arguments are against chipmods, modding is a big market that isn’t will not go away while the demand is there.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 10th, 2010 at 4:07 am and is filed under Universe Of Games. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.