Catha For Council Blog

Throughout the history of computer and video games, people have had a compulsion to alter both software and hardware for fun or profit. Right from the classic POKE hacks on the Spectrum giving you unlimited lives on Paperboy back in the 80s, to Nintendo DS Lite flashcarts permitting you to run a wider range of apps on their DS.

System developers and games developers have had a tricky relationship in regards to the hacking and soldering crowd. In one way, modders add value to the games and systems - for example chips that have been modified make it convenient for gamers who can play backups on their consoles. Similarly, games hacking adds new purpose very challenging games, and these days it’s de rigeur for games developers to build in cheat codes for gamers to seek out.

On the other hand, software producers opine that this type of chip modification hurts their revenue, as mods are also applied to short-circuit measures against illegal copying, and short-circuiting firmware that fixes discs to play just in certain locations. These are compelling reasons for console and games developers to perpetually develop new steps to make chipmods more and more tricky.

Whatever the causes against chipmods, chipmodding is now a large market that isn’t going to go away.