The Norton Disk Edit could only be used as a hex editor in this context.
So you'd guess if something is a cheat code, like maybe some text word standing out in the section clearly belonging to a code. Having experience with assembly you can see if something is a code or a data, even without disassembling it.
You'd get way better chances with Hiew for this, getting hex editor and a disassembler/assembler, nested jumps on jmp's, locations bookmarks.

I see, I though one moment it was a tool which could be abused to scan for key codes. And yes HIEW would be my first choice for a DOS hex editor

I was a subscriber to a gaming magazine. They bundled CDs, later DVDs with at least one full game, some shareware software and games, game demos, patches, trailers, drivers, mods for certain games and various other things including cheat databases.

vstrakh wrote on 2026-01-08, 10:24:

The Norton Disk Edit could only be used as a hex editor in this context.
So you'd guess if something is a cheat code, like maybe some text word standing out in the section clearly belonging to a code. Having experience with assembly you can see if something is a code or a data, even without disassembling it.

I used to just look for strange-looking words, without knowing if they were in a code or data section, for example "goobers" in Wolfenstein 3-D seems out-of-place. I'm not sure if I ever had success with that scheme though, given that often you need to hit some key sequence which isn't going to appear in ASCII.

Jonas-fr wrote on 2026-01-08, 09:11:

And while we're at it if anyone have info on how to discover cheats and make trainers for DOS games with the tools of the era just post there also, this is a general DOS/Win3x/Win9x cheat making/reverse engineering topic : )

I used to use "GAMETOOLS" ("G3X.EXE" might be a useful search term for it), which was basically a TSR debugger which included a feature where you could search memory for a byte or word that increased or decreased each time you popped the TSR up. If you were playing DOOM for example (not sure I ever actually used it on DOOM) you might pick up some bullets, tell the TSR that the value increased, then shoot, tell it the value decreased, etc. Each time you tell the TSR the value changed it, it will tell you how many locations in memory it narrowed the search down to. Sometimes it would say zero, and you'd have to try a different memory location size or something. Once you figure out where something is stored in memory, you could use the TSR to edit that location. Fortunately in DOS if you boot with the same configuration the same absolute memory addresses will normally be used every time you start the game.

It also comes with a program called "TSRCRACK", which I never tried using. It looks like a TSR which can be scripted to edit memory when certain conditions are true.

I remember columns at back of magazines with cheats or "pokes" listed fot 8bits. Then I guess there were some lists and databases on bulletin boards, which in the land of high phone rates we picked up on public domain disks for a buck or two. Some of the stuff for popular games you could get a tip from a buddy at school. Sometimes the game had a hint line and you could wheedle a cheat out of the operator.

Oh yeah, when it came to getting trainers someone else wrote - as opposed to making your own - I certainly remember BBSes having huge numbers of them in their file lists.

I always liked such cheats and the process of discovery. For instance if you search a value, say 75, you find it all over and can methodically analyse where it is and change it to see what happens, a mix of know how, luck and patience and you can change the value. Using a debugger is possible in some cases, trying to follow values as they change or what logic is applied. I think trainers use memory pointers to "find" where a value is being stored in this game session and then change it, and other technique include things like altering dlls that get used and more. And the result is all those interesting little cheat applications, was fun back in the day to find them, now they seem to be in large, advert flooded and possibly dubious locations

doshea wrote on Today, 03:00:

I used to use "GAMETOOLS" ("G3X.EXE" might be a useful search term for it), which was basically a TSR debugger which included a feature where you could search memory for a byte or word that increased or decreased each time you popped the TSR up. If you were playing DOOM for example (not sure I ever actually used it on DOOM) you might pick up some bullets, tell the TSR that the value increased, then shoot, tell it the value decreased, etc. Each time you tell the TSR the value changed it, it will tell you how many locations in memory it narrowed the search down to. Sometimes it would say zero, and you'd have to try a different memory location size or something. Once you figure out where something is stored in memory, you could use the TSR to edit that location. Fortunately in DOS if you boot with the same configuration the same absolute memory addresses will normally be used every time you start the game.

It also comes with a program called "TSRCRACK", which I never tried using. It looks like a TSR which can be scripted to edit memory when certain conditions are true.

these sound good!