Trainer options that improve broken games

[Dastardly]

What games do you think benefit from one or more trainer or cheat options?

I’m a huge fan of Turrican 2, but I hate the time limit. I think the levels are too big and there are too many goodies to be discovered to be restricted by a timer. I much prefer using the infinite time trainer and taking my time to explore the game at my own pace.

It improves the game for me and makes it much more enjoyable.

What are yours?

[Retro-Nerd]

I agree. A time trainer makes a lot of sense in many Amiga action games. Time limits are an old relict from the arcades forcing people to spend more coins. Mostly pointless for normal (get to the end) levels in games.

[Dastardly]

It definitely improves Turrican 2 for me. I think games like the first 2 Beasts also benefit because of their ridiculous difficulty level.


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[gimbal]

Turrican 2 very much, there are so many hidden secrets everywhere, the timer really impacts the ability to just go explore freely. In fact in the first level alone if I go all over to the hidden paths in the sky to collect all the gems and one ups, I generally run out of time reaching the exit. And that's when I know where to go.

EDIT: oh, but the question is what trainers improve broken games... then I can't name Turrican 2, that game is beautiful. Need to think more deeply about this.

[Dastardly]

Is it even possible to collect everything in the first level without running out of time?

If it’s not then that’s seems to be bad design.


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[ptyerman]

Timers in games are my pet hate on any platform and have been since I started with computers in the early eighties. If I'm going to play anything with a timer involved I always look first to see if a trainer or console code is available to disable it, if not I avoid that particular game!
Did I mention I hate timers?

[gimbal]

I don't mind time pressure sections of a game, just not from start to finish. It's pretty much cargo cult game design, I'm glad it stopped being a thing.

This question haunts me, I'm pretty sure there were one or two (Amiga) games I only found playable with a trainer, but they just completely escape me.

[malko]

Back in time, one of my good friend finished all "Turrican" & "Shadow of the Beast" games without the help of any trainer. I don't say he managed to get all bonuses in "Turrican", but he finished all of them.
I do consider "Shadow of the Beast" games as "memory" games. Enemies are always appearing at the same places. So as soon as you remember where to place your character on the screen and hit you can progress without much damage (mistakes happen ). Same for most part of Jim Power that was played recently in the EAB's competition.

All games require time to play and progress but these one are more easy in this sense (contrary to shoot'em up as enemies' bullets will vary depending on your place on the screen and how much enemies you missed/left shooting at you).

For me, some shoot'em up deserved a trainer. The one that is coming to my mind now is "Blood Money". I did play it for hours but never managed to finish it or even progress far enough to be happy. The day I put my hand on a trained copy I remember being shouting at the coders how mad they were .

Like you I am not a huge fan of time limit in games. Like in "Nevermind" . But as @gimbal, I am not against if section of a game have time limit.
Some games have replaced the time limit with a continuous scrolling (which forces you to move forward without stopping). For such games, I don't know any trainer stopping the scrolling...

I much prefer time bonuses -> You can't finish in a given time : you don't loose a life but you don't get extra points.

I think Hi-score should always be the reference of the progression.

So for me trainer that were usefull : Blood Money, Nevermind.

[Photon]

Hm, if the game is broken only a code fix helps, not a trainer. And if it does have a bug and it's not of the Guru type you can usually work around it. Or exploit it

So an overreaction, I think.

All trainer options are good in all games, they are options, and all games have some difficulty level, never zero. Maybe a reason to choose floppy over WHDLoad in preparation for old folks' home reflexes, we must preserve the trained images

I don't use trainers because I use WHDLoad but apparently instead the tried and tested method of starting a game that's too hard, complaining after 20 minutes and start another game and repeat

I used trainers for some games back in the floppy days though, I don't remember but I'm sure I used it for SOTB and some shooters that were too close to shall we say "Continue?" based coin-ops And probably Nebulus and Nebulus 2. But mostly if a game was designed to be frustrating it wouldn't be fun anyway so I gave it a miss. Floppies weren't free and you used them up for everything. Hm, maybe a good criterion for which ones to replay...

[Dastardly]

"Broken" wasn't the best way of describing it, I suppose, but you know what I mean. I agree that trainers are never a bad thing as well. Choice is always good.

[jotd]

Level skipper is a must-have when you want to test a particular level. Levelskipper can also defeat remainders of protection that happen at some point of a level.

Well, if the game is broken, we should fix it instead of training it. Unless "broken" means "too hard".

[kremiso]

deep trainers have been the life saviour of a lot of miggy titles

its not just infinite lives, but yes also removing the time limit or some more also hacks things that helped to try some different gameplay, that you like more

the permanent autofire in Xenon2
the faster scrolling hack also in Xenon2
the just fight without bomb sequences hack in IK+

these are just the first that come in mind that i have replayed and liked