“Gaming Hacks” by Simon Carless dives into a spectrum of topics, ranging from emulators to MMORPG lingo to playing LAN-only console games online. If you’re looking for something that covers topics similar to the ones above and don’t want to waste your time searching the internet for answers, this book is for you.

I must start out by thanking Simon Carless and the O’Reilly publishing company for continuing in the effort to protect the real meaning of the word “hacker” and “hacking”. The news media constantly sullies the word by portraying an image of a young, white male living in his parent’s basement, socially inept and overweight. For the technically challenged: the real and original meaning is a person that likes to tinker around with technology and change things (not in a malicious manner) to get them to work the way they want.

I normally review games and post news over at 2404 – PC Gaming LLC (http://www.2404.org), a site created with PC gamers specifically in mind. For this reason, O’Reilly and company decided to send this book to me. You must bear with me; this is my first book review. Unknown to O’Reilly, I am also a 2600 subscriber, so I am used to reading about different sorts of hacks and tinkering. Even though I’m not a big programmer, I find it fascinating.

The questions I thought about most when reading the book were: “Who would it be good for?” and “Where might be the best place for it?” The first thing that popped into my head was an internet or gaming café. It will also definite appeal to hardware gurus, game developers, mod developers (game modification developers for those of you who aren’t familiar with the gaming world), home theater buffs that like to play games, and the very hardcore gamers that own every system and console available.

Because so many topics are covered in the book it may be hard for everyone to find all of the one hundred “industrial-strength tips & tools” useful. It all depends on what kinds and how many gaming systems you have piled up in your closet and how much you are willing to tinker with them. It also depends on your knowledge of the platform and genre you enjoy using/playing. For example, say you have always wanted to get into an MMORPG (massively multi-player online role-playing game) but have never had the time to understand the basic concepts of what goes on in this type of game. Not only does “Gaming Hacks” have an MMO dictionary, it also gives you tips and strategies on how to do well in this type of game, something people that are new to the MMORPG world would find very useful as they learn their way around the game and avoid being disrespected by the “regulars.”

Before I continue, I want to give a brief description of the layout of the book. Like the cover says, there are one hundred “hacks” total. The book begins with a foreword by Marc Laidlaw, a writer for the Half-Life series, which is very inspiring and would probably make any gamer want to start creating mods for games. After the foreword and the preface, the book is organized into eight chapters: Playing Classic Games, Playing Portably, Playing Well With Others, Playing with Hardware, Playing with Console and Arcade Hardware, Playing Around the Game Engine, Playing Your Own Games, and Playing Everything Else. This isn’t the kind of book that you’re going to read cover to cover. It is more of a game hacks dictionary. In the chapters, the hacks are listed by number with thermometer icons next to them (see picture above.) These thermometers, which indicate how difficult the hack is to execute, are useful because they let the reader know if they should attempt it or not. Along the way you’ll also find thumb tack and screw “icons” (see pictures to the right). The thumb tack indicates a tip or a suggestion and the screw signifies a warning.

As you can see, the book does a good job of targeting a variety of people from different technical backgrounds and gives plenty of warning before you leap into something that will be difficult.

The following are brief descriptions of each of the chapters:

The first chapter, “Playing Classic Games,” focuses on emulators and how to play homebrew games on consoles. Again, for the non technical reader, an emulator is a program that runs older games, or “ROMs,” on newer consoles or on computers. It’s a great way to enjoy the classics without having to dig up that old Atari 2600 or Commodore 64. Plus, you have the ability to hold many games on one storage medium. For example, you could store hundreds of SNES games on a CD that you could pop into your Dreamcast; eliminating the annoyance of hundreds of cartridges.

“Playing Portably” has some very interesting hacks which include playing games on your Ipod, taking and printing photos with your Game Boy, and installing a Playstation 2 in your car. There aren’t as many hacks in this chapter but it should appeal to the portable gamers out there.

“Playing Well With Others” will be most useful to gamers who are new to the MMORPG genre, but also to other multiplayer beginners. The major focus is on the MMORPG, which is the type of game that would probably be the most confusing to a new player. The chapter comes with a complete MMORPG dictionary and many useful tips and strategies. It also discusses online courtesy and etiquette which applies to any game you happen to play online. This chapter ends with a section on how to catch Half-Life cheaters redhanded. Yes, that might be a little random, but the book is a collection of tips and “hacks.” You have to keep that in mind.

I didn’t think the first hack in the chapter “Playing with Hardware,” titled “Build a Quiet, Killer Gaming Rig,” was correctly named. This hack only focused on how to make your computer quiet, not on building an entire computer. The rest of the chapter details hacks such as how to adapt old video game controllers to a PC, and then goes into things involving home theaters. Most of this chapter is focused on audio, home theater setups, and multimedia gaming.

Half of the hacks in “Playing with Console and Arcade Hardware” are for the Dreamcast console. In general the Dreamcast seems to be a very hackable console, the main reasons being that it’s a powerful, cheap system and it has internet connectivity. A huge community was formed around the system after Sega decided to abandon its customers. Some highlights in this chapter include playing import games on American consoles, hacking the Dreamcast visual memory unity (VMU), playing music and movies on your Dreamcast, and programming music for your Nintendo.

The next two chapters, “Playing Around the Game Engine” and “Playing Your Own Games”, are going to appeal to people who want to get their hands dirty with beginning mod and game development. On average, the difficulty level is higher for these chapters and will probably take some more time. Hacks include creating PS2 cheat codes, modifying PC game saves and settings, creating a vehicle model for Unreal Tournament 2004, and writing a game in an afternoon.

The last chapter, titled “Play Everything Else,” has seven miscellaneous hacks. The hack that stood out the most to me in this chapter was titled “Play Japanese Games Without Speaking Japanese.” The section includes a list of common words that appear in Japanese video games and gives the translations—something that could be very useful to the gamers that enjoy playing imports. Other hacks in this chapter include accessing your console’s memory card offline, overclocking your console and tweaking your tactics for FPS (first person shooter) glory.

The best advice I can give you if you are pondering whether or not to purchase this book is to look through the table of contents. If you like what you see, it will be worth the purchase. Whether it be overclocking a console, emulating an SNES on Dreamcast, writing MMORPG macros, or creating your own simple games, Gaming Hacks has a hack that every gamer can appreciate. True, you could probably find quite a bit of the information covered in “Gaming Hacks” on the internet but it is convenient to have it all in one place. If I were to give it a score out of ten I would give it a strong eight.

Book's Author

Simon Carless

About the Author

Simon Carless (http://www.mono211.com/ffwd) is an editor, writer, and former game designer who originally hails from London, England, but now lives and works in the bay area. He currently works as a Managing Editor for the online arm of Game Developer Magazine, Gamasutra.com, and was formerly an editor at the techgeek site Slashdot, concentrating on the Slashdot Games pages (http://games.slashdot.org/).