War Games Hack!

Dave has to hack his arcade machine War Games style to get free games.

#Arcade #Hack #WarGames

[EEVblog]

Hands up if you've seen War Games 2 (a.k.a The Dead Code)

[Tommyinoz]

Don't play the game called 'Global Thermonuclear War', there's a major bug in it!

[dashbrj]

Long time ago my mum stopped me using the modem by putting call control on the phone line. This prevented outgoing calls. It thwarted me a bit until I knew how it worked. One evening when mum and dad were out, I grabbed my walkman which could record, held the microphone up to the ear piece of the phone and hit last number redial. From there I played the tones back preceeded by the "deactivate code" and eventually nailed it. I wrote the code down and rearmed it when when they pulled in the drive. From my modem. :) I owned up when the bill came in, higher than usual, then said I wouldn't do it again if I could organise my own phone line. Sure enough a few weeks later (on my own Aussie peso's) I had my own dedicated line for my modem. With call control, to stop my sister using it when I was away :)

[DavePoo]

Shout out to the lonely Apple IIc in the background, been sitting there since EEVblog #788

[czarodzi]

Throwback Thursday classic! I've seen that movie dozens on times and just now seeing that clip realized it's featuring a rotary pay phone.... Shoe of hands if you remember using them!

[gamer]

I did something similar with an old Lenovo laptop that my dad bring from his work.
The BIOS was password locked so we needed to unlock that in order to change the boot sequence and install a fresh OS.
I found on internet that on some Lenovo laptop you can short circuit 2 points of the PCB near a small SO8 chip and if you short circuit at the right timing (during the boot sequence of the laptop) you can access BIOS setting and change whatever you want.

So I soldered two wires from a 3 pin fan header, then to short the wires I used a paperclip that I bend in order to bridge to make connection when needed (during boot of laptop).
It worked like a charm and we could modify boot order and install fresh OS.

[TimoNoko]

The phone-hack does not work like that. You have to dial and wait for the coin-testing pulse, which you then short to the ground like a coin would. I am an expert, my Diplom-Thesis was "Microprocessor-based exchange for coin-operated telephones (1977)".

[dlabs]

Now the kids just go "wtf is a phone booth?"

[databang]

Mr potatohead, MR POTATOHEAD! Backdoors are not secrets!

[kiq]

Way back in say, the 1980s when arcade games were really popular in the bars/pubs I used to take a vinyl record "zerostat" in my coat pocket and zap some of the machines from the front. Sometimes it would give a free game or do very weird and interesting things ! I don't remember any one of them actually breaking (or maybe once ?) but sometimes I would have to unplug the game and reset it. Wargames, what a WONDERFUL movie ! Some of which was supposedly based here in the pacific northwest. What he is doing at the pay phone is grounding either the tip or ring line to get the dial tone to come up. Free call

[larryrussell]

What he did with the payphone is called "ground start." Normally tip and ring float and signaling (on hook, off hook, dial pulses) is done by opening and closing the connection between them. But for more complicated signaling, like pay phones, the phone would ground ("earth" for you Aussie blokes) one of the leads. Unfortunately, I think that after the "start" signal, additional signaling was required indicating the coins that were deposited.

[vkhau]

good job, now I have another movie on the watch list.

[line]

What the chap did was possibly feasible as he used earth calling to get dial tone not loop disconnect as per consumer phone, a system used by many PABX, not certain if it still used nowadays, we used to have an earth connection with a crocodile clip on our test telephone 'butt' that did exactly the same thing to get dial tone.

[JWH]

That movie pretty much defined what I think it means to be a hacker.

[peterschmidt]

My "hack" as a youngster was making 20c pieces out of an old steel lawn mower base. Worked a treat on the older arcades. Not so well on newer ones because I think they had a magnetic coin detector in the coin slots. Played many a free game until the local arcade got wise of it....There were other venues though.
BTW The mower bases were also great for making ninja stars too ;)

[peterschmidt]

I've just got a set of those same joysticks Dave to upgrade the crappy ones that came with the Pandora. They're pretty good except they don't contact too well with all the restrictors on, so I took off the top one and just left the square in there. Still works great even with 4 way games like pacman etc.

Besides, you're a handy guy. Make a new control plate and add the extra buttons in there. You might need them for other games depending on what's included in the 400 board!

[TheDefpom]

It looks ike the software uses 1p c button for other things too, might be an idea to add another button :-)

[raymondcourtois]

The removable pull tab is a piece of history too..

[Zardox-The-Heretic-Slayer]

"I never even learned how to swim"

[billdlv]

Back when I was boy...pull tab coke cans, rotary phone dial, phone booths, loop around lines...good movie.