Game Genie vs Gameshark vs Pro Action Replay

[kainemaxwell]

Who wins this fight?

[recorderdude]

Game Genie by far, by its cultural significance and universal brand recognization alone.

[ccovell]

Game Genie. Though the Pro Action Replay (Gameshark in the US in early years) could let you find your own cheats, only the Game Genie could let you HACK the ROMs! :evil:

[Rickstilwell1]

The only reason I didn't like Game Genie as much as the other two is because it limited you to only a small number of codes at a time so you had to mix and match wisely and try different ones at different times.

[Jack_Burton_BYOAC]

Pro Action Replay was the hacker's choice. The ability to play imports was arguably more important than the cheats.

[bb_hood]

Pro Action Replay was the hacker's choice. The ability to play imports was arguably more important than the cheats.

Yeah, my thoughts exactly. Its the only of this type device ive ever used at all, and I use it all the time in my Saturn.

[JSoup]

I was always a GameShark fan, but that might have more to do with availability than functionality.

[MarioMania]

Game Genie for me..

[Az]

Really kind of a loaded question, being that they didn't even exist on the same platforms/generations or had totally different functions depending on the platform/versions.

16 bit - Pro Action Replay by a huge, gigantic margin

32 bit - Gameshark was an Action Replay

64 bit - All three, (GS, AR, Codebreaker) performed the same functions and used proprietary code formats, which was pointless since they could be translated into the other devices format as well. I'll give AR the advantage due to the PS2 USB memory card save utility

[Crystalian]

I'm seriously the only one who actually voted for the Gameshark!?!
I know the Game Genie's cultural significance and it was the first cheat device I owned and arguably the most prolific. My SNES Game Genie is my passthrough for SFC games on un-modified consoles (I know, I know, just break the tabs already...). I hate how the NES Game Genie scratches the hell out of your contacts though. The Game Boy Game Genie was cool in that you could just randomly throw crap in until you actually hit on a working code! I wish I could remember the one I made up as a kid where in Metroid II if you got hit you life counter went haywire and just never stopped rolling, effectively making you invincible!! The Sega Genesis also got a nice unit, one of the few...
However, The Game Shark gets it for being my N64 passthrough, easiest to use for PS1 and PS2, and having permanent residence in the back of my Saturn instead of an ST key which I couldn't find at the time. I never got or used the one for the Gamecube, so I can't comment there.
Finally, the Action Replay is too hit-or-miss with me. It's a historical oddity for the NES, cool on the Gameboy, essential for soft-modding an original X-Box, utterly useless for a DS (really, Nintendo can brick my system if I use one; thanks I'll pass), etc... I just don't get how a company can lose focus almost every time they release a new product. Maybe I'm too biased, but the DS thing is a deal-breaker for me.

[recorderdude]

Since when did ARDS brick a system? You're getting your rumors all mixed up. What actually was said is that a rumor was going around that Ninty can brick a 3DS that's using a FLASHCART, and that was already debunked. Ninty can't even connect to a regular DS, let alone brick it. In fact, the only programs ever made to brick DSes only worked on fats, were made by hacker hobbyists (one of which who was also responsible for a lot of GOOD DS softs but turned against pirates and quickly apologized after he realized what he had done) and hidden in ROM dumps and Porn homebrew. I won't tell the guy's name because he still hosts the virus on his website and it's sort of not a good idea to try it.

[Crystalian]

Since when did ARDS brick a system? You're getting your rumors all mixed up. What actually was said is that a rumor was going around that Ninty can brick a 3DS that's using a FLASHCART, and that was already debunked. Ninty can't even connect to a regular DS, let alone brick it. In fact, the only programs ever made to brick DSes only worked on fats, were made by hacker hobbyists (one of which who was also responsible for a lot of GOOD DS softs but turned against pirates and quickly apologized after he realized what he had done) and hidden in ROM dumps and Porn homebrew. I won't tell the guy's name because he still hosts the virus on his website and it's sort of not a good idea to try it.

I don't remember if it was a Game Informer or what, because it's been several years since I checked. The gist was if you did a system update or used any online connectivity such as the Nintendo store to buy software, redeem tokens, etc. that it would detect either the presence of the device or that your altered save files "raised a flag" somehow and that your system could either be "bricked" entirely or the firmware would be updated so that the DS was no longer compatible with the Action Replay. Basically this would have ended up being a "firmware race" to see if your AR could trump the DS or not. It is not my intent to spread rumors, but I thought this was a well-known/accepted bit of info. I personally never tried an Action Replay out of paranoia for that possibility. I have several R4's that work fine, so I don't believe I would have "mixed up" rumors as I don't recall reading ANYTHING about an R4 causing issues. As I said, it's been years since I "did my homework" on what to buy, and I'm one of those where once I've found MY answer I stick with it. I apologize if I inadvertently put out "bad gouge" as far as the DS version goes, but overall the AR series has failed to impress me and I don't end up buying/using products I'm not impressed by.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

I don't remember if it was a Game Informer or what, because it's been several years since I checked. The gist was if you did a system update or used any online connectivity such as the Nintendo store to buy software, redeem tokens, etc. that it would detect either the presence of the device or that your altered save files "raised a flag" somehow and that your system could either be "bricked" entirely or the firmware would be updated so that the DS was no longer compatible with the Action Replay. Basically this would have ended up being a "firmware race" to see if your AR could trump the DS or not. It is not my intent to spread rumors, but I thought this was a well-known/accepted bit of info. I personally never tried an Action Replay out of paranoia for that possibility. I have several R4's that work fine, so I don't believe I would have "mixed up" rumors as I don't recall reading ANYTHING about an R4 causing issues. As I said, it's been years since I "did my homework" on what to buy, and I'm one of those where once I've found MY answer I stick with it. I apologize if I inadvertently put out "bad gouge" as far as the DS version goes, but overall the AR series has failed to impress me and I don't end up buying/using products I'm not impressed by.

Even if something like that was considered, it was never implemented or practiced.

The only thing that has ever occurred on DS (much like PSP) is a cat-and-mouse game of firmware updates that BLOCK the use of flash cards and illegally produced bootleg DS cartridges.

[BlastProcessing402]

I don't remember if it was a Game Informer or what, because it's been several years since I checked. The gist was if you did a system update or used any online connectivity such as the Nintendo store to buy software, redeem tokens, etc. that it would detect either the presence of the device or that your altered save files "raised a flag" somehow and that your system could either be "bricked" entirely or the firmware would be updated so that the DS was no longer compatible with the Action Replay. Basically this would have ended up being a "firmware race" to see if your AR could trump the DS or not. It is not my intent to spread rumors, but I thought this was a well-known/accepted bit of info. I personally never tried an Action Replay out of paranoia for that possibility. I have several R4's that work fine, so I don't believe I would have "mixed up" rumors as I don't recall reading ANYTHING about an R4 causing issues. As I said, it's been years since I "did my homework" on what to buy, and I'm one of those where once I've found MY answer I stick with it. I apologize if I inadvertently put out "bad gouge" as far as the DS version goes, but overall the AR series has failed to impress me and I don't end up buying/using products I'm not impressed by.

The DS doesn't even have updatable firmware or access to an online store. None of that came in until the DSi. There is nothing the AR is going to do to a DS or DSlite, and even with the DSi/3DS, it's not going to brick anything it just won't work at worst.

[kainemaxwell]

This may sound weird but does the Gameshark Lite playstation work on the ps2?

[JSoup]

This may sound weird but does the Gameshark Lite playstation work on the ps2?

It will boot.
You can select your cheats.
You can select start game.
But that's about it. Either the whole thing will crash at that point or the game will start with none of the cheats activated.

[kainemaxwell]

*Sigh* this sucks...

[wiggyx]

PAR/shark hands down. The Genies were fun, but were weak and lacking features. Points for being first, but deductions for not upping the game when better cheat devices came along.

[ccovell]

Actually the Action Replay predated the Game Genie by quite a bit. Datel first made the AR for Commodore-64 and Amiga computers, IIRC.

[wiggyx]

Well, my mistake. Something new every day :)

[BlastProcessing402]

This may sound weird but does the Gameshark Lite playstation work on the ps2?


It will boot.
You can select your cheats.
You can select start game.
But that's about it. Either the whole thing will crash at that point or the game will start with none of the cheats activated.

At least some versions of the Gameshark2 came with a disc for PSX games that is essentially the same thing as Gameshark Lite. Of course with as many revisions of the PS2 hardware as there are, I can't guarantee it works with all of them.

[kainemaxwell]

At least some versions of the Gameshark2 came with a disc for PSX games that is essentially the same thing as Gameshark Lite. Of course with as many revisions of the PS2 hardware as there are, I can't guarantee it works with all of them.

See what's messed up is the gameshark cdx for psx has a lot less games than the bonus psx disc that came with the ps2 gameshark. No option to add codes though. Totally blew what I had planned too.