cYs Driver

April 30th, 2009
Lazy Bastard: Aside from hacking codes, you created an in-game memory viewer/editor for Socom 2 (PS2), and Cora, a basic cheat system for PS2. What inspired you to create these?

cYs Driver: Well for the in game memory view there was a lot of talk at the time about people finding uni-terror's (i think :P) old code for Socom 1 that allowed you to view memory in your scope where it told you the distances. But at that time even the big (active) hackers on the Socom scene couldn't manage to port it. I decided i'd give it a go and with my previous C skills i actually found it incredible simple looking through how the socom 1 version of the code worked and it took me all of about an hour to port it over, but of course i couldn't just port it over i had to make it better and add some memory editing features to it :)

For cora, i had been into PS2 dev for a couple of months and was looking at how PS2 link was able to debug your homebrew and basically just started inquiring about how it was able to stay active during my game. Misfire seemed to be the only one with the knowledge and the will to teach me how it was working. At the time the only thing able to get online in Socom 2 was "Codemajic" and i thought i'd give a go at getting a very simple almost proof of concept device working online and so cora was born.


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

cYs Driver: Probably in game coord modifier for 007:Nightfire, it just was incredible fun properly flying about maps able to raise your height with the analogue sticks.


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

cYs Driver: Either in game memory dumping from the CMP team as it just helped hacking on so many levels or all weapons for any of the socom series, Glow sticks were the shit for getting your rave on in game ;)


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)

cYs Driver: Since i joined the scene very late compared to most people doing these questionnaires i didn't have those really famous hackers like CMX to aspire to be like, in the beginning it was probably most of the CMP team (and still is) but now people like stealth and skandalous who basically took me under their wing once they started seeing me hack some fairly decent codes for socom, stealth especially taught me a lot.


Lazy Bastard: What was your first code/hack?

cYs Driver: I honestly have no idea; it would have been something fairly simple like changing text strings for Socom 2 since it was the first game i started on (heh starting with one of the hard ones)


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

cYs Driver: On most modern games anything to do with coordinates since there’s no real facility to put breakpoints on addresses and monitor them.


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

cYs Driver: Definitely once again coordinates, they're just so much fun to play with being able to go places you're not supposed to :)


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

cYs Driver: Probably entering in really long codes into your cheat device that you've just hacked to find that they don't work and you've got to test about 10 more variations of the code.


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

cYs Driver: Leechers.


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

cYs Driver: Definitely Socom 2, i wasn't around for the very beginning of it when people ported some stuff from Socom 1 but there were still so many unthought-of codes for the game that still had to be hacked.


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?

cYs Driver: Too many times to remember, the most annoying probably was finding the coordinates for socom 2 but never being able to find where the pointers are kept, stupid DMA.


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

cYs Driver: I actually can't think of any codes that were a nightmare to hack, it's been about 2 or 3 years since i've been hacking any codes what-so-ever. But the most hair-pulling thing i've TRIED was in game dumping, but for an actual accomplishment it has to be Cora, i went through a very sharp learning curve for that, stressful times!


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

cYs Driver: Dumping libMC2 games, i managed to get my hands on the actual library code at one point and got so close to getting it to work but still just not quite perfect...


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

cYs Driver: Back in the day when i was most active, i liked to BMX and play guitar a lot but now it's playing guitar, gigging and the girlfriend.


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

cYs Driver: Everyone to stop being so fussed about fame and credit and allowing others to see your work so they too can learn. The only way the current gen systems will be broken is if everyone comes together and shares all the knowledge they have.


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

cYs Driver: Never give up, help each other out and learn your language. I remember people telling me "you still don't understand what the code is doing", but being convinced that i knew it just because i knew what addiu stood for. It took me a while to realize that this meant nothing and you had to be able to read the code as if it was a high level language spotting out the important subtraction which takes off your health :)