CodeMaster / CMX

July 12th, 2009
Lazy Bastard: You've written many programs that have been helpful to the hacking community, founded GSCCC (now CodeTwink.com), and hacked quite a few impressive codes. What was your inspiration for all this?

CMX: I first started making cheat codes due to the fact that GameShark had no Infinite Health code for Resident Evil for PSX. It was then I vowed to find my way to connect the system to the pc and communicate with the system to start developing my own cheats.


Lazy Bastard: What is your favorite code/hack that you hacked?

CMX: The code I like the most was my cheat to make any vehicle fall out of the sky for the Grand Theft Auto series on PS2 by pressing just the Select button.


Lazy Bastard: What is your favorite code/hack of all time?

CMX: This would be some cheats I made for Halo for XBOX1, we had a blast with the spider-man mode and super duper jumps on Blood Gulch, Sidewinder and other multiplayer maps.


Lazy Bastard: Who would you say influenced you the most in the video game hacking scene? Who did you 'look up to' when you first entered the scene? (doesn't have to be the same person for both)

CMX: Early on, it was definitely Gavin Thornton and Wayne Beckett. They are extraordinary talents and I looked up to both of them. They helped me with code, ideas, and various other things pertaining to Action Replay/GameShark back in the day. Later on, I grew apart from them at datel and both had quit datel. I then say that to this day, I still look up to the infamous Barubary. He still is one of the sharpest ones I have met that came along with the ride known as GSCCC.


Lazy Bastard: What was your first code/hack?

CMX: Quite obvious, if you refer up earlier, it was Infinite Health for Resident Evil PSX.


Lazy Bastard: What do you think is the most difficult type of code/hack to hack, and why?

CMX: I'd definitely say that any type of energy bar on the screen without a number next to it. Due to you have no idea how many units the developer will use for it. If they used floating points, if it starts at 0 and goes up instead of starting high and going down, etc..


Lazy Bastard: What is your favorite type of code/hack?

CMX: Any and all assembly language codes. I love reprogramming minor aspects of the game.


Lazy Bastard: What is your least favorite aspect of hacking?

CMX: The long memory dumps. Some systems are better than others, but for the most part, the dumping takes longer than making the cheats for me.


Lazy Bastard: What do you like least about the hacking scene?

CMX: How everyone just turns their back on you because they disagree. Everyone is allowed an opinion, if they deny someone of theirs, what does that say about their character?


Lazy Bastard: Which game did you find the most fun to hack, and why?

CMX: Grand Theft Auto 3 definitely. Rockstar screwed up and left in all of the debug symbols inside of the ELF so that you could see all the neat tidbits on how the game works.


Lazy Bastard: Did you ever hack an awesome code, or find an address in memory that would've yielded an awesome code, but then lost it somehow?

CMX: Not that many times did I ever lose the codes. I save files that I edit on my computer almost every 5 seconds or if I type anything at all. I'm very paranoid over lost data. Still, to this day, the cheats on codetwink.com are in a "txt" file on the server instead of inside a MySQL database, as I do not 100% trust them. But ALT, F, S is almost second nature to me now, so I dont lost much data.


Lazy Bastard: What was the most difficult, 'hair-pulling' hack you've ever accomplished?

CMX: Syphon Filter PSX - Walk Thru Walls, it took me about 40 hours of debugging to get it to work 100% properly. (Check out the code on the site, its pretty lengthy.)


Lazy Bastard: Was there ever a code you just couldn't get to work quite correctly (something you hacked/attempted to hack)?

CMX: Depends on what you mean, sometimes, people ask for codes that are theoretically impossible to create. Have I ever tried to find some type of code like that? Sure, but it was more for the fun of seeing if I could do the impossible than actually thinking something would come out of it.


Lazy Bastard: Aside from hacking and gaming, how do you like to spend your time?

CMX: I own a used video game store now called GameSwap in St. Louis, Missouri. You can buy any of the old games I used to hack cheats for CodeBreaker and other products at http://www.mygameswap.com


Lazy Bastard: What do you think must happen for the video game hacking scene to continue to thrive?

CMX: All good things come to an end, PS3 is locked up pretty tight, and on this generation, everyone learned a lot on securing up the system. I expect the next gen systems to be totally locked down, with digital signatures on everything, including the firmware on the drives that load the discs, and/or do away with discs entirely for downloaded content. In either case, hacking could become a thing of the past for consoles.


Lazy Bastard: One last question: if you had one thing to say to current, aspiring, and future hackers, what would it be?

CMX: Never throw in the towel early. The more time you spend, the more you learn. Even if you are banging your head against the wall, when you eventually discover what you are looking for, the sun shines bright and you'll have new methods/ideas for future games.