PunkBuster
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| Original author(s) | Tony Ray |
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| Developer(s) | Even Balance, Inc |
| Initial release | 2000 |
| Development status | Active |
| Operating system | Microsoft Windows, GNU/Linux, Mac |
| Type | Anti-cheat software |
| Website | www |
PunkBuster is a computer program that is designed to detect software used for cheating in online games. It does this by scanning the memory contents of the local machine. A computer identified as using cheats may be banned from connecting to protected servers. The aim of the program is to isolate cheaters and prevent them from disrupting legitimate games. PunkBuster is developed and published by Even Balance, Inc.
Even Balance, Inc. is a software producer based in Austin, Texas, United States.
Tony Ray founded Even Balance to develop PunkBuster after his experience with cheaters on Team Fortress Classic.
The first beta of PunkBuster was announced on September 21, 2000 for Half-Life. Valve Software was at the time fighting a hard battle against cheating, which had been going on since the release of the game. The first game in which PunkBuster was integrated was id Software's Return to Castle Wolfenstein.
Some games (like Crysis or BioShock 2) do not have a 64-bit version of PunkBuster. For this reason, 64 bit clients will not be able to play in PunkBuster enabled servers unless they run the 32-bit client of the game.
PunkBuster does not allow Windows users without administrative accounts to connect to any games. Upon connecting to a game, the user will be immediately kicked for having insufficient OS privileges. Starting with PB client v1.700, a Windows service with full administrative rights is used in complement with the ingame PunkBuster client, allowing updates without user rights elevation. However, some games might still require administrative rights before PunkBuster will function correctly.
PunkBuster uses a system called 'global banning'. Either the GUID (generated from the CD key) or parts of the computer's hardware are banned from PunkBuster-enabled servers. Most attempts at cheating will only receive a detection warning, but cheats that interfere with PunkBuster's software itself could lock out the GUID of the offending system and disable access to all PunkBuster enabled servers for that particular game. Particularly severe instances of cheating may lock the offending computer out of all PunkBuster-protected games.
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