I am an amateur (very amateur) game modder but one thing that puzzles me is that it would seem that the older a game is the easier it should be to mod yet I find it to be the exact opposite. Is there a way to use C++ to view, modify the .exe files of games? I am NOT intending to break any copyright laws or anything like that, I just like to mod games to my particular taste as a hobby. Any help is appreciated. Thanks.
If I understand modding correctly, to do so, you need some sort of API to send data to the program. In other words, it's sort of a plug-in design.
Older games are not easily moddable because they were never intended to be. They were designed with a single purpose in mind: to be played for a while, then quickly forgotten.
The only way I can imagine you could mod one is by reverse engineering. Oh, yes. Grab your disassembler and start reading. You'll get eventually, or you'll go nuts.