How to make offline PC games faster or slower.
Video games provide many options for customizing the gameplay. For example, you can tweak the controls, change the graphics settings, and even set the difficulty in some cases.
Read: How to Play PC Games on Android
However, what you usually cannot do is change the speed of the game. You may experience game stuttering if you change your PC game settings because your framerate is lower than normal, but this is somewhat different.
No, we are talking about changing the speed of the game. You can use this trick to fast forward slow gameplay or slow down the action. How?
When Do You Need to Speed Up or Slow Down Your Game?
For most games, messing around with gameplay speed is a bad idea. The difficulty of the game and the flow of combat depend on a certain speed, and changing it can make the game too easy or incredibly difficult.
However, some games have quite high skill requirements. Platformers such as Rogue Legacy or Hollow Knight are popular among slot machine lovers. However, it can be difficult for newcomers to the genre to keep up with the fast pace. A slightly slower game speed would allow even absolute beginners to master the mechanics.
In addition, there are games with such a slow pace that it becomes tedious to play them. The official Pokémon games are notorious for this. For an experienced player replaying the game for the hundredth time, the ability to quickly complete the game is a godsend. Especially if you are doing a trial run and are going to restart several times.
Using Cheat Engine to Change Game Speed
If the game doesn’t initially offer the ability to modulate the speed of the game, you need to try a roundabout method. This is easier said than done, since usually you can’t interfere with the internal processes of the game itself.
This is where the Cheat Engine comes in. A nifty little memory scanning tool, Cheat Engine can be used to play with many hidden game variables. Cheat codes like unlimited health bar or item duplication are easy to implement in games that don’t usually have cheat codes.
But for this guide, we are interested in another feature – Enable Speedhack. This option allows you to modulate the speed of any running application, including games. Note that this requires the Cheat Engine to “inject” code into the running process, causing it to be flagged as malware by many antivirus tools. You may need to create an exception for the tool manually.
To get started, download Cheat Engine from the official website.
Run the downloaded file to start installing Cheat Engine on your computer.
The installer will try to install a bunch of malware if you’re not careful. Just click the “Ignore All” button to prevent this.
Select Done when the setup is complete. There is no need to run the Cheat Engine yet – we first need to run our game.
Now open the game you want to speed up or slow down. We’ll demonstrate this with Rogue Legacy 2, a fast-paced platformer that slows things down.
To see the change in speed in real time, let’s move from the menu to the gameplay itself.
Now press Ctrl + Esc to minimize the game window and open the start menu. You can leave the game running, but it’s better to pause it first.
Search for Cheat Engine in the search box and run it as an administrator.
Cheat Engine will open in a new window. Don’t worry if all the display options don’t make much sense – we’re only interested in one option.
First, choose File > Open Process to select your Cheat Engine gameplay.
You will be presented with a list of all running processes on your computer with their names and icons. You can easily find your game in this list. Select it and click Open.
The original window will return, but with the name of the selected process at the top. You will also notice that all of the grayed out options are now available.
Check the box next to “Enable Speedhack” to enable it.
You can now drag the slider to select a speed modifier: left to slow down, right to speed up. You can also enter a numeric modifier directly into the text field. When you’re done, click Apply.
Now go back to the game window (without closing the Cheat Engine, it should be running) and you will see slow motion. Sometimes it doesn’t work the first time, so you may need to close Cheat Engine and repeat the steps to get it working.
What About Online Games?
If you’re thinking of using the method we’ve described to slow down your online game, don’t worry. Offline games keep track of time by querying the operating system, allowing programs like Cheat Engine to insert themselves in the middle and trick the app. However, in an online game, these calculations are performed by the server.
And even if you manage to get Cheat Engine to work in an online game, the server will detect abnormal behavior of your game and ban you. Especially for competitive multiplayer games where using third party software to gain an unfair advantage is prohibited.
Speeding Up Emulator Games
Many people enjoy playing handheld console games on their PCs using software emulators. Among other advantages, the big advantage of this method is the change in the speed of the game.
Because the software emulates the target hardware for the game to work, it allows you to directly modify aspects of how it functions. You don’t need any third party apps to speed up or slow down the emulated game – just take a look at the emulator options to find this feature.
What Is the Best Way to Speed Up or Slow Down an Offline Game on PC?
Microsoft Windows does not provide any way to directly change the speed of any application.
You can use Cheat Engine to change the speed of any running process. You can also slow down Google Chrome, but this is useful for gaming. Many games provide better gameplay at higher or lower speeds, which is possible with Cheat Engine.
However, it doesn’t work on Android or iOS as their architecture is much more limited. But you can always use an emulator to play these games on your PC and then change their speed.
How to make offline PC games faster or slower
How to make offline PC games faster or slower