I know nothing about this game, but it was a neat story. I was struck by a sense of nostalgia for an era where you could use cheat codes or trainers to get infinite money in games like SimCity or Civilization. Now such things are "vulnerabilities" and almost portrayed as "stealing" because, I assume(?), it gives you some sort of advantage in a multiplayer setting/marketplace? (I get it; the cultural shift just tickled me.)
That still exists for many single player games, though with the creep of ingame purchases into even single player games, there has been a reduction. But it's still plenty easy to fire up something like CheatEngine and poke around in a games memory. Many games these days also tend to have mod support, and if its halfway decent, someone will pretty quickly make a cheat/sandbox mod.
With all that said though, there's a certain trainer scene that has disappeared. From what I've seen, many have transitioned to the paid/freemium model (see things like WeMod and similar) and thus have to deal with somehow monetizing cheating; that tends to lead to some dark patterns and not so savoury behaviours. It was never the cleanest of scenes, but it feels particularly slimy these days.
I do miss the keygen and trainer chiptunes though.
You're right. This is going to make me sound like an old fart (my dad always said this would happen to me, too, one day) but while I appreciate living in the here and now, I do miss when every scrap of everything wasn't an opportunity to make a buck. There are more than enough indie games or old games I can continue to run to stay happy, so I think it's more the culture I'm reflecting on. Plus ça change.. :-)
> I do miss when every scrap of everything wasn't an opportunity to make a buck.
I'm not so old that I would refer to myself as an 'old fart' in anything but jest, but I remember those times as well. I think it speaks to a broader issue that you almost _need_ to try to make a buck off everything to enjoy some comforts and luxuries.
