Oldest trained games?

Codetapper · 20 May 2014, 04:54

Does anybody have any idea what the first ever trained C64 and Amiga game was?

The oldest one I can think of on the C64 was one of Mr Z's for Triad, perhaps Howard the Duck (December 20, 1986).

On the Amiga I have no idea, as I got my Amiga relatively late. My cousin's first batch of games (around the Stunt Car Racer/Op Thunderbolt/Rainbow Islands 1989 era) certainly had trainers, and a number of Il Scuro/Defjam's single file compacts (I hate that term!) had cheat options.

If anyone can think of the oldest games you can remember that came with a trainer option and list those, perhaps we can work backwards.

Here's a list of 1987 Amiga commercial releases, does anyone know for certain if any of these had trainers?

Also does anyone know the first game that used the term mega-trainer? (It might not be an Amiga game).

Hewitson · 20 May 2014, 05:28

The earliest trainers I'm aware of were done by Bad Boy/Trilogy in 1988. I think there's a good chance that he was the first person to train games on the Amiga.

Codetapper · 20 May 2014, 05:40

Nice one, I remember a bunch from Bad Boy. Since posting I've found this. According to the Fairlight CD:

Code:

typhoo.DMS   P 349568  XX-XX-87  Typhoon & Mousetrap TRAINER by Black Shadow

Both Typhoon and Mouse Trap were released in 1987, so that might be the earliest so far. Although I wonder if those dates are guesses. I don't have the ADF to check if they added dates on those. Does anyone have that disk?

Another trained game that keeps cropping up is Impact, which came out at the end of 1987/early 1988 (hard to tell with magazine cover dates).

Hewitson · 20 May 2014, 05:48

This Mousetrap trainer is apparently from March 1987, hopefully the scrolltext can verify its age.

http://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=29569

Overdoc · 20 May 2014, 15:24

On the C64, selectable trainers on start of the game were already available in 1985, but I would have to look in my collection for specific titles.
But even before trainers existed in form of a POKE command you had to enter after loading the game, before typing RUN.
Back in 1983 or so, cracked games were not compressed at all (or only char-packed, but not sequence crunched), and you could easily patch the game for endless lives etc. via POKE.

Codetapper · 20 May 2014, 23:49

Overdoc: Are you sure they were available way back in 1985? If you find any specific cases I'd be most interested. It means Triad's history page saying they were the first is wrong!

I wonder when the first POKEs appeared in magazines?

Mark Wright · 21 May 2014, 01:02

Due to tiredness and old age, I'm only able to offer unreliable and unverified info (as I'm too tired and elderly to check) but I can categorically state that "cheat options" (as was the style at the time) were a regular sight to disk-drive owning C64/Atari 8-bit pirates such as myself, circa 1984.

Of course I can't remember specific titles (for reasons I've explained) but I'm sure fellow 8-bit veterans will chip in, memories jolted, with their own anecdotes recalling how seeing the words "Unlimited lives? Y/N" ... "Hold START for infinite time" ... "F1 for no enemies" enhanced enjoyment of their latest "broken" acquisition. Certainly us piratical Atarians were starved of what C64 would later enjoy as "intros", but I'd wager we were the first to be able to answer "Invulnerability? Y/N" courtesy of a hacker.

( memory EDIT: Atari owners will remember NAPO, Glenn, LPS, Yogi (et al) who were hardcore, serial, BBS-obsessed "breakers" who added cheats to their releases in the mid-80s )
( Interesting read here: http://www.page6.org/archive/issue_29/page_18.htm documenting how to ruin copy-protected original disks, several years late )

As for the term "trainer".. I'm sure I first saw a "trainer options" menu before an Atari ST game in early 1987 (I'm not saying the expression originated there) possibly Barbarian. On the Amiga, I would agree that maybe Il Scuro of Defjam was first to offer the whole "left mouse-button for normal/right for cheat" option in very early 1988. There's something at the back of my mind though... HQC or Hotline? Possibly ECA or Star Frontiers were earlier? So long ago now... Anyway yes, at the time those early Il Scuro Defjam/CCS "compacts" came dangerously close to setting an unwanted precedent for the Amiga (based on the established Atari menu-disk model) but in the end Mr Scuro did us all a favour, by scrunching all of those diabolical ST ports into 85K each and flinging them out - en masse - onto disks that were easily (and quickly) formatted ;-)

I'm almost certain though, in related news, that it was Bamiga Sector One(/TKT/QRM/INA) who invented the convention of adding plus (+) symbols to indicate trainer enhancements - e.g. XENON 2 +, CRAZY SUE ++, AMOEBA INVADERS +++

( Final edit: this wasn't the first trainer for Great Giana Sisters, but enjoy the late '87 Mark II tune anyway: [ Show youtube player ] )

demoniac · 21 May 2014, 02:25

The first Amiga megatrainer that I remember was for Operation Wolf +5 by Lightforce. Out Run BS1 had a +2. Both came out in 1988.

The first set of Ultimate Hint Kit disks had BASIC trainer source code, which the users can run. It seems that the disks were released in 1989. Certain magazines had BASIC trainers as well, but most Amiga magazines appeared in 1988. So I don't think these came earlier.

Cpt. Hindsight · 21 May 2014, 10:10

CSDB found 1934 matches for C64 cracks released between 1982 and 1984. I guess some of them include trained games as well. Don't expect me to try them all.

Hewitson · 21 May 2014, 10:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mark Wright

I'm almost certain though, in related news, that it was Bamiga Sector One(/TKT/QRM/INA) who invented the convention of adding plus (+) symbols to indicate trainer enhancements - e.g. XENON 2 +, CRAZY SUE ++, AMOEBA INVADERS +++

They may have been the first to do it on the Amiga, but I'd be very surprised if it didn't originate on the 64.

musashi9 · 21 May 2014, 12:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by Codetapper

Both Typhoon and Mouse Trap were released in 1987, so that might be the earliest so far. Although I wonder if those dates are guesses. I don't have the ADF to check if they added dates on those. Does anyone have that disk?
.

These 2 were released on the 22nd of Aug 1987
See
http://www.flashtro.com/index.php?e=...=Amiga&id=2824
and
http://www.flashtro.com/index.php?e=...=Amiga&id=2822

DMS is in the zone

Codetapper · 21 May 2014, 13:24

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hewitson

They may have been the first to do it on the Amiga, but I'd be very surprised if it didn't originate on the 64.

Conan cracked by Mad Hackers Inc on the C64 shows "Conan+" as part of the filename and cracking message, although the file appears to have been crunched at some later stage. Ice Hunter and PC Fuzz also show the + symbol in the filename, but again I suspect they were crunched and renamed later aswell. The packer exhibits all the colour flashing and screen corrupting of late 1980s style packers.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cpt. Hindsight

CSDB found 1934 matches for C64 cracks released between 1982 and 1984. I guess some of them include trained games as well. Don't expect me to try them all.

I searched all 19 pages of 1984 entries and there were only about a dozen trainers in total.

Bumping Buggies cracked by CAS has a screen offering either 255 or 5 lives to start.

Ice Hunter has a trainer screen, as does PC Fuzz, both cracked and trained by Derbyshire Ram. Ice Hunter could well be a very early 1984 crack because the game copyright shows 1983.

The earliest game with an actual date that I have found so far is Tales of the Arabian Knights, cracked and trained on 15/08/1984 by Anti-ROM & Asa.

I also found Jet Boot Jack with a trainer screen where you can press 'C' to cheat. This was supposedly done in 1983 by Ass. Again, the trainer text may have been added by someone crunching the game at a later stage.

Quote:

Originally Posted by musashi9

These 2 were released on the 22nd of Aug 1987
See
http://www.flashtro.com/index.php?e=...=Amiga&id=2824
and
http://www.flashtro.com/index.php?e=...=Amiga&id=2822

Nice find! According to the readme, Typhoon was trained first so that's the earliest known Amiga trainer so far! Maybe Fairlight were the first on the Amiga and not Bad Boy/Trilogy?!

a4k-oerx · 21 May 2014, 14:45

What about "HQC - Karate Kid 2", says "Date 1987‑08" here:
http://arabuusimiehet.com/break/amig...s.php?id=14500

Quote:

HQC inc. present --- Karate Kid II cracked, floppyspeeded and trained --- Press F10 during game to start/stop the trainer !!! (watch the left LED! dark=on/light=off!) ...

Scrolltext: http://arabuusimiehet.com/break/amig...4500&txtid=289

20 May 2014, 04:54	#1
Codetapper 2 contact me: email only! Join Date: May 2001 Location: Auckland / New Zealand Posts: 3,182	Oldest trained games? Does anybody have any idea what the first ever trained C64 and Amiga game was? The oldest one I can think of on the C64 was one of Mr Z's for Triad, perhaps Howard the Duck (December 20, 1986). On the Amiga I have no idea, as I got my Amiga relatively late. My cousin's first batch of games (around the Stunt Car Racer/Op Thunderbolt/Rainbow Islands 1989 era) certainly had trainers, and a number of Il Scuro/Defjam's single file compacts (I hate that term!) had cheat options. If anyone can think of the oldest games you can remember that came with a trainer option and list those, perhaps we can work backwards. Here's a list of 1987 Amiga commercial releases, does anyone know for certain if any of these had trainers? Also does anyone know the first game that used the term mega-trainer? (It might not be an Amiga game).

20 May 2014, 05:40	#3
Codetapper 2 contact me: email only! Join Date: May 2001 Location: Auckland / New Zealand Posts: 3,182	Nice one, I remember a bunch from Bad Boy. Since posting I've found this. According to the Fairlight CD: Code: typhoo.DMS P 349568 XX-XX-87 Typhoon & Mousetrap TRAINER by Black Shadow Both Typhoon and Mouse Trap were released in 1987, so that might be the earliest so far. Although I wonder if those dates are guesses. I don't have the ADF to check if they added dates on those. Does anyone have that disk? Another trained game that keeps cropping up is Impact, which came out at the end of 1987/early 1988 (hard to tell with magazine cover dates).

21 May 2014, 01:02	#7
Mark Wright Junior Member Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Hove, actually Posts: 218	Due to tiredness and old age, I'm only able to offer unreliable and unverified info (as I'm too tired and elderly to check) but I can categorically state that "cheat options" (as was the style at the time) were a regular sight to disk-drive owning C64/Atari 8-bit pirates such as myself, circa 1984. Of course I can't remember specific titles (for reasons I've explained) but I'm sure fellow 8-bit veterans will chip in, memories jolted, with their own anecdotes recalling how seeing the words "Unlimited lives? Y/N" ... "Hold START for infinite time" ... "F1 for no enemies" enhanced enjoyment of their latest "broken" acquisition. Certainly us piratical Atarians were starved of what C64 would later enjoy as "intros", but I'd wager we were the first to be able to answer "Invulnerability? Y/N" courtesy of a hacker. ( memory EDIT: Atari owners will remember NAPO, Glenn, LPS, Yogi (et al) who were hardcore, serial, BBS-obsessed "breakers" who added cheats to their releases in the mid-80s ) ( Interesting read here: http://www.page6.org/archive/issue_29/page_18.htm documenting how to ruin copy-protected original disks, several years late ) As for the term "trainer".. I'm sure I first saw a "trainer options" menu before an Atari ST game in early 1987 (I'm not saying the expression originated there) possibly Barbarian. On the Amiga, I would agree that maybe Il Scuro of Defjam was first to offer the whole "left mouse-button for normal/right for cheat" option in very early 1988. There's something at the back of my mind though... HQC or Hotline? Possibly ECA or Star Frontiers were earlier? So long ago now... Anyway yes, at the time those early Il Scuro Defjam/CCS "compacts" came dangerously close to setting an unwanted precedent for the Amiga (based on the established Atari menu-disk model) but in the end Mr Scuro did us all a favour, by scrunching all of those diabolical ST ports into 85K each and flinging them out - en masse - onto disks that were easily (and quickly) formatted ;-) I'm almost certain though, in related news, that it was Bamiga Sector One(/TKT/QRM/INA) who invented the convention of adding plus (+) symbols to indicate trainer enhancements - e.g. XENON 2 +, CRAZY SUE ++, AMOEBA INVADERS +++ ( Final edit: this wasn't the first trainer for Great Giana Sisters, but enjoy the late '87 Mark II tune anyway: [ Show youtube player ] ) Last edited by Mark Wright; 21 May 2014 at 02:09.

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20 May 2014, 05:28	#2
Hewitson Registered User Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Melbourne, Australia Age: 41 Posts: 3,772	The earliest trainers I'm aware of were done by Bad Boy/Trilogy in 1988. I think there's a good chance that he was the first person to train games on the Amiga.

20 May 2014, 05:48	#4
Hewitson Registered User Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Melbourne, Australia Age: 41 Posts: 3,772	This Mousetrap trainer is apparently from March 1987, hopefully the scrolltext can verify its age. http://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=29569

20 May 2014, 15:24	#5
Overdoc Commodore Collector Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: Austria Age: 53 Posts: 944	On the C64, selectable trainers on start of the game were already available in 1985, but I would have to look in my collection for specific titles. But even before trainers existed in form of a POKE command you had to enter after loading the game, before typing RUN. Back in 1983 or so, cracked games were not compressed at all (or only char-packed, but not sequence crunched), and you could easily patch the game for endless lives etc. via POKE.

20 May 2014, 23:49	#6
Codetapper 2 contact me: email only! Join Date: May 2001 Location: Auckland / New Zealand Posts: 3,182	Overdoc: Are you sure they were available way back in 1985? If you find any specific cases I'd be most interested. It means Triad's history page saying they were the first is wrong! I wonder when the first POKEs appeared in magazines?

21 May 2014, 02:25	#8
demoniac Registered User Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: - Posts: 1,687	The first Amiga megatrainer that I remember was for Operation Wolf +5 by Lightforce. Out Run BS1 had a +2. Both came out in 1988. The first set of Ultimate Hint Kit disks had BASIC trainer source code, which the users can run. It seems that the disks were released in 1989. Certain magazines had BASIC trainers as well, but most Amiga magazines appeared in 1988. So I don't think these came earlier.

21 May 2014, 10:10	#9
Cpt. Hindsight Registered User Join Date: Jun 2012 Location: Southpark Posts: 477	CSDB found 1934 matches for C64 cracks released between 1982 and 1984. I guess some of them include trained games as well. Don't expect me to try them all.

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