Action Replay cartridge for Amiga 500.

Action Replay is the brand name of a series of devices created by Datel, primarily used for changing the behavior of video games. Currently, Action Replay is available for the Nintendo GameCube (which is compatible with the Wii), Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, PlayStation 2, Xbox, Nintendo DS, and PlayStation Portable (PSP). It will give infinite amount of an item and many other possibilities. Image File history File links Action_Replay_Amiga500. ... Image File history File links Action_Replay_Amiga500. ... This article is about brands in marketing. ... Datel (previously Datel Electronics) produced a wide range of hardware and peripherals for home computers in the 1980s, for example replacement keyboards for the ZX Spectrum, the PlusD disk interface (originally designed and sold by Miles Gordon Technology) and the Action Replay cartridge. ... 2006 is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Nintendo GameCube , GCN) is Nintendos fourth home video game console, belonging to the sixth generation era. ... The Wii (pronounced as the pronoun we, IPA: ) is the fifth home video game console released by Nintendo. ... The Game Boy Color , shortened to GBC) is Nintendos successor to the Game Boy and was released on October 21, 1998 in Japan and in November of 1998 in the United States. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... The PlayStation 2 , abbreviated PS2) is Sonys second video game console, the successor to the PlayStation and the predecessor to the PlayStation 3. ... The Xbox is a sixth generation era video game console produced by Microsoft Corporation. ... “NDS” redirects here. ... The PlayStation Portable , officially abbreviated as PSP) is a handheld game console released and manufactured by Sony Computer Entertainment. ...

Origin and history

Action Replay has its roots in the Commodore 64 home computer. In its trademark red cartridge, the Action Replay was one of the most popular turbo cartridges; that is, cartridges that allowed faster disk and tape operations, allowing for example most of the disk operations to run 10 times faster. Another key point was it that it was also a freezer cartridge, which meant it could stop the current program, save memory contents on tape or disk, and when this file was loaded again (on a C64 which need not have the cartridge installed), the program would continue from the exact same point. This allowed single-load games to be backed up and copied. The cartridge also included a lot of other utilities, like floppy disk file management and disk copying features. One of the most important features of the Action Replay was a sophisticated machine language monitor which allowed program code to be viewed and modified, register contents could be altered and breakpoints set, whilst the program code is running. fuck this.. The Commodore 64 is the best-selling single personal computer model of all time. ... Children playing on a Amstrad CPC 464 in the 1980s. ... In various types of electronic equipment, a cartridge can refer one method of adding different functionality or content (e. ...

Since then, there have been many revisions of the theme for various systems, but they have all, with some exceptions, retained the same feature found in C64 version, that is, the ability to examine memory locations and — more importantly — modify them. The exception to this rule are the Xbox and PlayStation Portable Action Replay devices, which are save game transfer devices, as well as the Action Replay Max Duo for the Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS (cheats work for Game Boy Advance games, yet only saves are used with Nintendo DS games). The Xbox is a sixth generation era video game console produced by Microsoft Corporation. ... The PlayStation Portable , officially abbreviated as PSP) is a handheld game console released and manufactured by Sony Computer Entertainment. ... A saved game is a piece of digitally stored information about the progress of a player in a computer or video game. ...

Method of operation

Action Replay is capable of saving the system's state to tape or disk operated in broadly the same way. By attaching to the computer's memory bus (via the Zorro expansion slot on the Amiga) all memory access by the processor could be monitored. By keeping track of all writes to hardware registers (for example, to the video or sound hardware) the Action Replay could keep a complete copy of the state of all those registers in its own internal memory. This state could then be saved, along with the contents of the computer's RAM for later re-loading. By pressing a button on the Action Replay, an interrupt loaded a special monitor program from the Action Replay's ROM which could then be used to load, save and modify the computer's memory. It was even possible to alter CPU registers of the paused code, and later revisions included a complete disassembler. Cheating was possible by altering values stored in RAM.

A knob on the Amiga version of the Action Replay MKIII allowed games to be slowed down, to make them easier. This worked by intercepting vertical blank interrupts and running a wait loop until at least the next vertical blank. This did, however, have the limitation of only being able to reduce game speed by 50% or more.

The Action Replay was a formidable opponent for anyone trying to prevent their game code or graphics being ripped, or their game saved for later re-loading. One weakness was discovered in the Amiga version. It was possible to detect when the interrupt (hardware level 7, unmaskable) which the Action Replay used had been triggered, but only after the Action Replay monitor program had exited. At best the programmer could then choose to crash his program deliberately, making saved copies crash as well. However, it was possible to patch code which did this using the monitor program, so even that was not a total defence.

Later Action Replays which only supported cheat codes and had no monitor program worked by monitoring memory access for certain triggers, or by overwriting certain memory addresses at particular times (such as once per frame, or on a timer). On systems such as the Dreamcast, this could even be done entirely in software.

Typical features

General:

• With the Action Replay, users can obtain objects that are not obtainable during normal gameplay. Example: using the Action Replay to get three of the "Forbidden Four" NES games in Animal Crossing.
• Action Replay allows users to have infinite amounts of limited resources, such as lives, time, money, or ammunition.
• Action Replay lets users access levels that are not normally available (most of these levels were usually used for beta testing, or were removed from normal gameplay).
• Action Replay can activate a game's debug menu that can be accessed with the correct parameter enabled that are normally unavailable to the player. Some functions/features that are usually included can be of great benefit to the player, such as access to Level Warps, Invincibilty, various Test modes and unlocking various game features in an instant.
• Action Replay can download game saves and etc. if the user has internet access for his/her game console. (This doesn't apply to the GameCube.)

Specific: “NES” redirects here. ... Animal Crossing may refer to the following: Animal Crossing (series), the list of Animal Crossing games and their common characteristics. ... Boxes of ammunition clog a warehouse in Baghdad Ammunition is a generic military term meaning (the assembly of) a projectile and its propellant. ... In computer and video games, a level (sometimes called a stage, course, episode, round, world, map, wave, board, phase, or landscape) is a separate area in a games virtual world, in modern games typically representing a specific location such as a building or a city. ... Software testing is a process used to identify the correctness, completeness and quality of developed computer software. ... A debug menu is section of a game that game developers use for testing a game and that can usually allow one to do actions unavailable in the actual game. ...

• The Game Boy version of Action Replay allows Mew and other pokemon to be captured in Pokémon Gold/Silver/Crystal/Red/Blue/Yellow/Green/Ruby/Saphire/Emerald/Firered/Leafgreen.
• The GameCube version comes with a Freeloader, which allows users to play games from one country on a console from another country (e.g. Japanese games playing on a North American GameCube).
• The Action Replay MAX (an updated version of the original Action Replay for PS2) also includes the ability to play DVDs from any region, manage memory card saves, download game saves and codes via a Network Adapter, and chat online via Datel's own network (again using the Network Adapter). The updated version also includes PC software that allows users to create discs playable on an unmodified PlayStation 2 containing items such as DivX-encoded movies, MP3s, Homebrew software, and a Sega Mega Drive/Sega Genesis emulator. USB flash drive support is also included.
• The Action Replay MAX can be used to access the controversial "Hot Coffee" modification to Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.
• The Action Replay for Xbox helps with an exploit which can allow for homebrew, unsigned code to be run on the Xbox.
• The Action Replay Max Duo for Nintendo DS and Game Boy Advance is similar to a normal Game Boy Advance Action Replay. In 2006, Datel released two new Action Replays with real cheat codes. One version is just a cheat device and the second includes a trainer toolkit to allow users to create their own codes. The device includes the typical on/off code switch as well as manual entry for the codes. However, in order to receive a firmware update, you must connect via USB to a computer with the Action Replay Code Manager software installed.

Mew ) is one of the 493 fictional species of Pokémon creatures from the Pokémon media franchise – a collection of video games, anime, manga, books, trading cards and other media created by Satoshi Tajiri. ... DivX is a brand name of products created by DivX, Inc. ... MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a popular digital audio encoding format. ... Homebrew is a term frequently applied only to video games that are produced by consumers on proprietary game platforms; in other words, game platforms that are not typically user-programmable, or use proprietary hardware for storage. ... The Sega Mega Drive was a 16-bit video game console released by Sega in Japan (1988), Europe (1990) and most of the rest of the world. ... A USB flash drive, shown with a 24 mm U.S. quarter coin for scale. ... Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is the fifth video game in the Grand Theft Auto series. ... The Xbox is a sixth generation era video game console produced by Microsoft Corporation. ... {{ It is proposed that this article be deleted, because of the following concern: Advertisement of non-notable software; identical content to DS EXPLOit If you can address this concern by improving, copyediting, sourcing, renaming or merging the page, please edit this page and do so. ... Homebrew is an album by Paul Lansky. ... In communications, a code is a rule for converting a piece of information (for example, a letter, word, or phrase) into another form or representation, not necessarily of the same type. ... “NDS” redirects here. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...

Criticisms

Datel, the maker of Action Replay, has received several criticisms from the gaming world over its game enhancer products. One of the most frequent complaints is the so-called "planned obsolescence" where codes for a just-released game require the most recent version of the cheat software. It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Planned obsolescence (business). ...

Datel as of now has encrypted the codes on the Action Replay for PS2, GC and GBA; this was meant to stop hackers from translating its codes for use in other cheating devices, but it prevents users from making their own codes for their games. It also prevents the creation of codes using a template.

But now several programs are available to decrypt the codes into RAW format and can be changed. This now also allows users to enter their own user RAW codes and encrypt them into the proper format. These programs can also convert from older formats to newer ones.

Cheat codes normally involve a memory address, a value, and sometimes a trigger that says when the code is activated (always on, on at the start, on after a certain button press); because of this, for some games it is possible to create a code template, and derive hundreds of codes by modifying the values. For example, in a role-playing game, one can use a code template and a table of values to create a code that will give any character, any piece of equipment in the game. By encrypting the codes, it is not possible to use such a template, and any code must be created and distributed by Datel; because of the sheer number of codes that can be created in this fashion, it is not plausible for Datel to release a list of codes with this versatility.

Sometimes, the codes for certain first-party games on the GameCube make it impossible to go further into the game with cheats activated (e.g. Pikmin and Star Fox Adventures). Other times, cheats freeze the game in the first stage (e.g. if cheats are activated at the beginning of Super Mario Sunshine and Metroid Prime, the game will freeze, and the system will have to be switched off). Also, in Pokémon games, advanced-generation ones especially, using the "Instant Win" code causes the glitch character "??????" to appear, usually resulting in a corrupted game. Nintendo does not license the Action Replays for use on its consoles. That being said, Datel's website often indicates when a code should not be used. In the video games industry, a first-party developer is a developer who is part of a company that actually manufactures a video game console. ... Pikmin (ピクミン in Japanese) is a real-time strategy video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo GameCube video game console in 2001. ... Star Fox Adventures is an action-adventure game developed by Rare and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo GameCube and part of the Star Fox series. ... Super Mario Sunshine ) is a 3-D platforming video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo GameCube. ... Metroid Prime )is a video game released in November 18, 2002 developed by Nintendo-owned Retro Studios and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo GameCube. ... It has been suggested that M be merged into this article or section. ...

Datel's first Action Replay released for Nintendo DS was a game save manager which did not have any cheat code features whatsoever. This was a deviation of what was expected from the Action Replay name; some critics deemed it a misuse of the brand name. Later a version was released that addressed previous complaints by allowing use of unencrypted cheat codes. An Action Replay oriented tool for the DS called the Trainer Toolkit became available in the month of February which allows actual creation of cheats with the use of a PC hookup.^[1]

Versions for computers

• Commodore 64
  • Action Replay I to III
  • Action Replay IV and V (1988)
  • Action Replay VI (1989)

• Commodore Amiga
  • Action Replay Original and Mk II (A500 cart / A2000 CPU card)
  • Action Replay (A1200 card)
  • Action Replay Mk III (A500 cart / A2000 CPU card) (1991)

• PC
  • Action Replay PC (ISA card) (1994)

The Commodore 64 is the best-selling single personal computer model of all time. ... Amiga is the name of a range of home/personal computers using the Motorola 68000 processor family, whose development started in 1982. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

Versions for video game consoles

8-bit era

• Nintendo Entertainment System and Sega Master System
  • Pro Action Replay

“NES” redirects here. ... The Sega Master System (SMS for short) is an 8-bit cartridge-based gaming console that was manufactured by Sega. ...

16-bit era

• Sega Mega Drive/Sega Genesis
  • Action Replay
  • Pro Action Replay
  • Pro Action Replay 2

• Super NES
  • Pro Action Replay MK1 to MK3

The Sega Mega Drive was a 16-bit video game console released by Sega in Japan (1988), Europe (1990) and most of the rest of the world. ... The SNES controller The Super Nintendo Entertainment System, also known as Super Nintendo, Super NES or SNES (pronounced either as a word or initials), is a 16-bit video game console released by Nintendo in North America, Brazil, Europe, and Australia. ...

32/64-bit era

• Sega Saturn
  • Pro Action Replay (also available with 4M RAM expansion)

• PlayStation
  

  

  GameShark / Action Replay cartridge for Playstation. From left to right: cartridge in case, front of circuit board, back of circuit board, in-house development board.
  • Action Replay (1995)
  • Pro Action Replay (1996)
  • Action Replay CDX (1997)

• Nintendo 64
  • Pro Action Replay (1999)
    • Equalizer (Cheat Code Cartridge) (1999)

The Sega Saturn ) is a 32-bit video game console, first released on November 22, 1994 in Japan, May 11, 1995 in North America and July 8, 1995 in Europe. ... The Sony PlayStation ) is a video game console of the 32/64-bit era, first produced by Sony Computer Entertainment in the mid-1990s. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 800 × 158 pixelsFull resolution (1024 × 202 pixel, file size: 76 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) I, the creator of this work, hereby release it into the public domain. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 800 × 158 pixelsFull resolution (1024 × 202 pixel, file size: 76 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) I, the creator of this work, hereby release it into the public domain. ... The Nintendo 64 ) is Nintendos third home video game console, and its third home video game console for the international market. ... Equalizer (Cheat Code Cartridge) Equalizer (Cheat Code Cartridge) by Datel The Equalizer is a game hacking, cheat cartridge by Datel that was released for the Nintendo 64 and all of its features would later be licensed to InterAct for their GameShark Pro for the N64. ...

6th generation era

• Sega Dreamcast
  • Action Replay CDX
• PlayStation 2
  • Action Replay 2 (2000)
  • Action Replay 2 V2 (2001)
  • Action Replay MAX (2003, significantly updated in 2004)
  • Action Replay MAX EVO edition
• Xbox
  • Action Replay (2002)
• Nintendo GameCube (Some people report problems getting to work with newer GameCubes)[1][2][3]
  • Action Replay aka Action Replay Gamecube (2003)
  • Action Replay Max Evo (2003)

The Dreamcast , code-named Dural, Dricas and Katana during development) is Segas fifth and final video game console and the successor to the Sega Saturn. ... The PlayStation 2 , abbreviated PS2) is Sonys second video game console, the successor to the PlayStation and the predecessor to the PlayStation 3. ... The Xbox is a sixth generation era video game console produced by Microsoft Corporation. ... The Nintendo GameCube , GCN) is Nintendos fourth home video game console, belonging to the sixth generation era. ...

Versions for handheld consoles

• Game Boy
  • Pro Action Replay
  • Action Replay Online
  • Action Replay Extreme
• Sega Game Gear and Game Boy Color
  • Pro Action Replay
• Game Boy Advance
  • Action Replay (2001)
  • Action Replay Duo aka Action Replay GBA (2005)
• Nintendo DS
  • Action Replay Duo (2005)
  • Action Replay DS (August 2006)
• PlayStation Portable (PSP)
  • Action Replay MAX aka Action Replay PSP (2005)

For the entire Game Boy series of handheld consoles, see Game Boy line. ... The Sega Game Gear is a handheld game console which was Segas response to Nintendos Game Boy. ... The Game Boy Color , shortened to GBC) is Nintendos successor to the Game Boy and was released on October 21, 1998 in Japan and in November of 1998 in the United States. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Action Replay Duo (also known as Action Replay Max) Action Replay MAX For the PlayStation 2 Package Action Replay MAX Duo is a cheat device for gameboy Advance released by datel in 2005. ... “NDS” redirects here. ... Action Replay Duo (also known as Action Replay Max) Action Replay MAX For the PlayStation 2 Package Action Replay MAX Duo is a cheat device for gameboy Advance released by datel in 2005. ... Action Replay DS is a Nintendo DS game hacking device by Datel and a part of their popular Action Replay product line. ... The PlayStation Portable , officially abbreviated as PSP) is a handheld game console released and manufactured by Sony Computer Entertainment. ...

See also

• GameShark
• Game Genie
• Multiface

GameShark is the brand name of a line of video game enhancers and other products for a variety of console video game systems and Windows based computers. ... Game Genie cartridges for the (clockwise from top) Super NES, NES, Sega Game Gear, and the Game Boy systems. ... The Multiface was a hardware add-on released by Romantic Robot UK Ltd. ...

References

External links

• CodeJunkies.com – Official Action Replay website