"SNES Trainer Charts" - The scene before GBAtemp?

[UltraSUPRA]

Before we start, make sure you have images turned on.



So I downloaded an old SNES ROM set that I'd say is pretty good, and I discovered something.
Something interesting, that I thought I'd never discover.

A pre-1997 hacking scene for console games...in the US.

Now, I always knew that there was a hacking scene before then. It was called Chiwan Kong bootlegging, and it revolved around slapping Mario's face on anything they could.
And I always knew that there were console pirates here in the US before then, too, but they always used some sort of code language that resembled phone numbers with missing digits and it was all probably really confusing.

But my discovery was nothing short of astounding.

SNES Trainer Charts...?

Dated June 1994, this seems to be like a magazine that's shown on an SNES (a "console mag", as the creator put it) that, as far as I know, never got past the first issue.
It has good music and a nice menu. Let's see about the contents.

The Charts

Okay, first off, I don't even know what a "trainer" means in this context. Pokémon? Neural networks? Wii Fit?
And how could a "trainer" get released within three hours of another one? Imagine if Mupen64 and Project64 were released within one minute of each other.
Also, Sega doesn't suck. #DreamcastMasterRace

How did Anthrox get five ****ing points?! The maximum amount of points I could see is two (first working trainer of the month, released less than three hours before one with less options).

Now I'm even more confused. We're talking about groups? What does that code language mean? Why isn't there any info about the trainers? Was making an SPC file really that big of a deal? What is a trainer?!

Also, I can't help but notice that this guy misspelled "existence".

What's wrong with the Sega Genesis?

Was it Miyamoto or Iwata that said "a delayed game is eventually good, but a rushed game is forever bad"? It takes time to make a good menu on a system with a niche programming language.

"05-29-940"

Okay, I think I'm starting to understand what a trainer is.

So...what, a trainer isn't a ROM dump?

A menu is a menu, even if the only option is "press start to play".

ARE THEY ROM DUMPS OR ARE THEY TASBOTS?!


Interview with -PAN-/ATX

Wait, the scene's existed since '86?

Also, who what?

Okay, so you joined the scene in '89, but you chose that name in '86...my brain hurts.

???

Can't please everyone. I remember watching this hilarious "politically correct Thanksgiving pageant" and there was this Tofurkey gag with the moral of the story being if you try to please everyone you get a mouthful of crap.

And while I don't instantly dislike gays simply because they're gay, I believe that people shouldn't marry those of the same gender. But I'm still a homophobe, and you're still a racist. You got yourself nowhere.

oof

Three hours?! I've never been more happy about the fact that all non-subscription-based US games on every system before 2001 has been dumped.

Suddenly the extension ".smc" makes a whole lot more sense.

I like the joke.

Interview with SIGMA SEVEN

This is gonna be interesting.

Didn't STC guy get pissed about the racial slurs with the first guy?

It just keeps getting stranger...

...and sillier, too...

Toilet humor. I like it.

Why does STC get three separate lines in a row?

Spares count?

And we go from being pissed at racism to making racist jokes and full circle back to being pissed at racism.

Also, I desperately hope that "fone" means like an archaic Discord, like Tyson calls boneless wings "wyngz".

Interview with JSI of FFE

Part of the Chiwan Kong bootlegging scene, I see.

People actually owned the Atari Jaguar other than my family?!

That don't sound like Nintendo. Stopping at the name?

Hey, the Genesis had the better MK1 and EWJ.

Anthrox Christmas demo? Where can I find a video of it?

People actually know about the 3DO? We don't even own one!

Has someone put Guile's theme on the opening cutscene for Final Fantasy X yet?

I have nothing to say for this page.

Interview with H. SCHMIDT

Contra was on the GameBoy?!

Everybody used an Amiga, huh?

And a Commodore.

I thought the GBC was released in 1998 in Japan.

Wow, an emulator from the '90s is better than a computer from the '80s!

Yuzo Kushiro? Why have I never heard of him if he worked on SoR?!

The only one? What about AvP? Rayman? Bubsy F3?

I'm confused.

Wild Card Plus Specs

Graphics, languages, and time-wasters were considered hardware pushers?

Is this a copier or a flashcart?

CDs were cutting-edge? Savestates existed? The thing could be used on the SNES and the Genesis at the same time? Where can I buy one?!

Editorial

There were console mags before this?

On time? Yeah, sure, it's been twenty-five years on the month and this is the only issue.

A second second page. Woo.

Wonky Charts? Huh?

⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯

So this was the scene before GBAtemp, and hell, even before PSX modchips (or the console itself). What else have you guys been keeping from me?

 

[cearp]

first of all, trainers are like cheats, patched to a rom.
so, you boot the game, and may be presented with a cheat selection screen.
you choose your cheats, then continue to boot the game.
often they have cool graphics and music, to kind of show off their skills.
here's a personal favorite:


with no cheats, people just called them 'intros'. but there would still be cool music+gfx.
people can call cheat programs for games trainers too, like you can download a trainer for XYZ modern pc game.
it's different to the trainers of those days though, there is no rom that gets patched, but it's still cheats.
the '+5' in the trainer name means that it has 5 cheats.


it's a long post, i'll read the rest after work!
nice share

 

[FAST6191]

If that was so fascinating then I imagine the following will blow your mind


That said seeing old school computer hacker irreverent humour interpreted by the youth of today is quite amusing.

Edit. Probably should also chuck in
https://scenerules.org/

 

[andyhappypants]

Wow! This brings back memorys of the old school Commodore Amiga scene releases with their amazing (at the time) cracktros as they were known back then! Awesome share.

 

[Deleted member 42501]

Wow! This brings back memorys of the old school Commodore Amiga scene releases with their amazing (at the time) cracktros as they were known back then! Awesome share.

Yep this was all nothing new if you were in the Amiga scene. If these names:

Ackerlight Agile Alpha Flight Angels Anthrox Bamiga Sector one Black Monks Classic Crest Crystal Defjam Delight Dual Crew Endless Piracy Fairlight Flashtro Hoodlum Horizon Legend LSD Megaforce Nemesis Oracle Paradox Paranoimia Prodigy Quartex Razor 1911 Rebels Red Sector Scoopex Skid Row SlipStream Supplex Tarkus Team The Band The Company The Silents Trilogy TRSI Venom Vision Factory Wanted Team World of Wonders Zenith

Mean anything to you and you want to stroll down memory lane:

https://flashtro.com/

 

[andyhappypants]

Yep this was all nothing new if you were in the Amiga scene. If these names:

Ackerlight Agile Alpha Flight Angels Anthrox Bamiga Sector one Black Monks Classic Crest Crystal Defjam Delight Dual Crew Endless Piracy Fairlight Flashtro Hoodlum Horizon Legend LSD Megaforce Nemesis Oracle Paradox Paranoimia Prodigy Quartex Razor 1911 Rebels Red Sector Scoopex Skid Row SlipStream Supplex Tarkus Team The Band The Company The Silents Trilogy TRSI Venom Vision Factory Wanted Team World of Wonders Zenith

Mean anything to you and you want to stroll down memory lane:

https://flashtro.com/

Somehow being now in my 40's ive managed to remember most of this stuff! Its amazing what sticks! Thanks for the link, ill check it out when ive got a bit more time

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Before we start, make sure you have images turned on.



So I downloaded an old SNES ROM set that I'd say is pretty good, and I discovered something.
Something interesting, that I thought I'd never discover.

A pre-1997 hacking scene for console games...in the US.

Now, I always knew that there was a hacking scene before then. It was called Chiwan Kong bootlegging, and it revolved around slapping Mario's face on anything they could.
And I always knew that there were console pirates here in the US before then, too, but they always used some sort of code language that resembled phone numbers with missing digits and it was all probably really confusing.

But my discovery was nothing short of astounding.

SNES Trainer Charts...?

Dated June 1994, this seems to be like a magazine that's shown on an SNES (a "console mag", as the creator put it) that, as far as I know, never got past the first issue.
It has good music and a nice menu. Let's see about the contents.

The Charts

Okay, first off, I don't even know what a "trainer" means in this context. Pokémon? Neural networks? Wii Fit?
And how could a "trainer" get released within three hours of another one? Imagine if Mupen64 and Project64 were released within one minute of each other.
Also, Sega doesn't suck. #DreamcastMasterRace

How did Anthrox get five ****ing points?! The maximum amount of points I could see is two (first working trainer of the month, released less than three hours before one with less options).

Now I'm even more confused. We're talking about groups? What does that code language mean? Why isn't there any info about the trainers? Was making an SPC file really that big of a deal? What is a trainer?!

Also, I can't help but notice that this guy misspelled "existence".

What's wrong with the Sega Genesis?

Was it Miyamoto or Iwata that said "a delayed game is eventually good, but a rushed game is forever bad"? It takes time to make a good menu on a system with a niche programming language.

"05-29-940"

Okay, I think I'm starting to understand what a trainer is.

So...what, a trainer isn't a ROM dump?

A menu is a menu, even if the only option is "press start to play".

ARE THEY ROM DUMPS OR ARE THEY TASBOTS?!


Interview with -PAN-/ATX

Wait, the scene's existed since '86?

Also, who what?

Okay, so you joined the scene in '89, but you chose that name in '86...my brain hurts.

???

Can't please everyone. I remember watching this hilarious "politically correct Thanksgiving pageant" and there was this Tofurkey gag with the moral of the story being if you try to please everyone you get a mouthful of crap.

And while I don't instantly dislike gays simply because they're gay, I believe that people shouldn't marry those of the same gender. But I'm still a homophobe, and you're still a racist. You got yourself nowhere.

oof

Three hours?! I've never been more happy about the fact that all non-subscription-based US games on every system before 2001 has been dumped.

Suddenly the extension ".smc" makes a whole lot more sense.

I like the joke.

Interview with SIGMA SEVEN

This is gonna be interesting.

Didn't STC guy get pissed about the racial slurs with the first guy?

It just keeps getting stranger...

...and sillier, too...

Toilet humor. I like it.

Why does STC get three separate lines in a row?

Spares count?

And we go from being pissed at racism to making racist jokes and full circle back to being pissed at racism.

Also, I desperately hope that "fone" means like an archaic Discord, like Tyson calls boneless wings "wyngz".

Interview with JSI of FFE

Part of the Chiwan Kong bootlegging scene, I see.

People actually owned the Atari Jaguar other than my family?!

That don't sound like Nintendo. Stopping at the name?

Hey, the Genesis had the better MK1 and EWJ.

Anthrox Christmas demo? Where can I find a video of it?

People actually know about the 3DO? We don't even own one!

Has someone put Guile's theme on the opening cutscene for Final Fantasy X yet?

I have nothing to say for this page.

Interview with H. SCHMIDT

Contra was on the GameBoy?!

Everybody used an Amiga, huh?

And a Commodore.

I thought the GBC was released in 1998 in Japan.

Wow, an emulator from the '90s is better than a computer from the '80s!

Yuzo Kushiro? Why have I never heard of him if he worked on SoR?!

The only one? What about AvP? Rayman? Bubsy F3?

I'm confused.

Wild Card Plus Specs

Graphics, languages, and time-wasters were considered hardware pushers?

Is this a copier or a flashcart?

CDs were cutting-edge? Savestates existed? The thing could be used on the SNES and the Genesis at the same time? Where can I buy one?!

Editorial

There were console mags before this?

On time? Yeah, sure, it's been twenty-five years on the month and this is the only issue.

A second second page. Woo.

Wonky Charts? Huh?

⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯

So this was the scene before GBAtemp, and hell, even before PSX modchips (or the console itself). What else have you guys been keeping from me?

tl;dr did you ever figure out what a trainer is?

ATX likely got 5 points because they had the first/best trainer for 5 separate games. The names don't mean anything, they're just scene release filenames, which would be accompanied by a NFO explaining what the hell the release actually is.

Trainers were pretty big for a while especially for PC games since there was nothing like Action Replay/GameShark/Game Genie for PC that actually worked properly. There was actually a GameShark for PC but it only worked with a specific release of a few different games and was never updated to support more games, and PC games often had different versions per region with updates released for them, so the cheats would almost never work and you couldn't add your own. Nor did they tell you what version of the game the cheats were for, so you were lucky if you got any of them working.

Trainers released by scene groups told you exactly which version you needed, which made it a simple thing to find the correct update or region release.
GameShark/Action Replay/Game Genie cheats were better in a way since you had far more options, but if you played on a flashcart or similar those might not be an option.

 

[FAST6191]

I had one of the PC gameshark/action replay things. It needed a dongle which was annoying as it was around the time I started having to add parallel cards to boards (1999-2000 timeframe if some of the games I remember using it on are anything to go by). It was also as unstable as everything else at that point in time (never knew if it was the software, windows or the game being run). That said it did have cheat search options.

Wish someone had been around to backhand me and say go get a debugger as it is functionally the same thing, and there are plenty around (don't know if ollydbg was a thing yet at this point but it was not like it was DOS era), but I suppose this is what we get when the internet is not yet a thing.

 

[subcon959]

It's cool to see there are still young people finding this stuff interesting. I was experiencing the same feelings when the "scene" associated with my avatar was going on.