Cheat Engine (CE) is a proprietary, closed source[5][6] memory scanner/debugger created by Eric Heijnen ("Byte, Darke") for the Windows operating system in 2000.

Cheat Engine can view the disassembled memory of a process and allow the addition and/or alteration of game states to give the user advantages such as infinite health, time, or ammunition.

It also has some Direct3D manipulation tools, allowing vision through walls "Wallhacking" and zooming in/out "FOV changes", and with some advanced configuration, Cheat Engine can move the mouse to get a certain texture into the center of the screen.

The module is compiled with the Windows Driver Kit and is written in C.[12] Cheat Engine also has a plugin architecture for those who do not wish to share their source code with the community.

It is used to allocate nonpaged memory in kernel mode, manually loading the executable image, and creating a system thread at Driver Entry.

The notice claimed Cheat Engine allowed evading anti-cheat technologies, accessing in-game DLC items/microtransaction items that could only be bought with real money.

Eric Heijnen responded by shutting down the cheat tables section to the public, asking them to be hosted off-site and coming to an agreement with ESA.

[18][19][20] Bloatware-free versions are generally available on the product's Patreon page, or users can build the program from the GitHub repository through any Pascal compiler.