In High School, I learned about using cheats in games. It was the early 2000s, and I only played Action/Superhero games. There weren't that many, either. Max Payne and Painkiller were a couple of my favorites.
The idea of game cheats intrigued me, so I searched the entire web for any information on developing my own cheats. I was amazed at the quality of the programs that were created on the web.
I often wondered, however, if it was ethical to use cheats. I didn't really feel bad about it, because I admit, the games were not as they should have been. The first Painkiller, for example, had flaws that were obvious at the time. It was that the enemies were dead easy, and I was so bored I no longer wanted to replay the same levels over and over again. I also only use these cheats in single-player, obviously, multiplayer cheating is an entirely different beast.
To put it simply, game trainers were not created until about 2004. Before this time, you had to program your own cheats or use existing ones. This was an inefficient process as it required you to know every aspect of the game. I do not envy the people that developed these game cheats since it could be a lot of work.
I started trying free cheats in Painkiller, especially after I bought a special code to unlock more levels for cheap. I used cheats in Painkiller for at least a year. I didn't invent anything, really. I just relied on what worked. I learned the of SourceGamers forums and found many great people who would help step me through the process of making a cheat or using a cheat.
My favorite modifier was fMaxHealth, a cheat that made me ten times stronger so I could beat the game on the hardest difficulties.
Unfortunately, when I was using these free cheats I was risking my PC's security. I would use every cheat that I got. Sometimes when I did that, a bad file would infect my PC, and then I would have to reinstall Windows and lose part of my saved game data. That really annoyed me off, but I continued to use cheats.
Then, eventually, I got fed up with this and looked for alternatives. I stumbled upon CheatHappens.com, and it was the best experience of my life. CheatHappens.com had a premium membership where I could use all of their premium cheats without having to pay for each one.
I have used likely hundreds of CheatHappens trainers over the years and have loved every cheat. I recommend CheatHappens to anyone who uses cheats or even just premium cheats in any sort of game on PC.
CheatHappens unlocks all the cheats of any game with their trainers.
There's no risk of an infected trainer since you are downloading all your trainers securely from their site.
You don't have to download files from their site since you can use their trainer manager software.
If a game update causes a trainer to stop working, they're nearly always quick to update the trainer to ensure compatibility.
I used CheatHappens to learn how to make cheats on my own using their CoSMOS software. The tool has tutorials to help you when you're just getting started. I learned more from other members of the community sharing their own tips and tutorials, as well as the trainers they had made with the software.
Overall I highly recommend CheatHappens for anyone that has bought games and wanted to be able to play them how they want to. If you find out you like what they offer, the best thing to do is to pay for the premium to get all their trainers.