Action Replay all over again
I just noticed that Datel will soon be launching a new version of the Action Replay MAX cartridge for the PlayStation2.
As well as the other game hacking, DVD multi-region naughtiness of the
previous version, this one has CD-R support for MP3 and DivX as well as a
emulator for Sega Megadrive/Genesis ROMs and an online IM/chatroom/forum feature. The EVO edition also includes a PC compatible 16 meg USB flash drive.
Now, media players and emulators are unremarkable in the mod-chipped scenester world, but for a mass-market device to be sold in high street stores it’s very interesting.
Datel are teh rox0r. They’re old school. As far as I remember there’s been an Action Replay cartridge available for every UK-launched console since the mid-80s. But it’s the original I have fond memories of. The big red cartridge that my friend had plugged into the back of his C64.
Imagine, in the game world, you’re in a tight spot. You’ve got enemies bearing down on you, and you’re dangerously low on missiles. There are only two ways the story is going to play out: go down in a blaze of glory Butch n’ Sundance style, or get saved by a
Deus ex machina.
So you hit the freeze button on the Action Replay and asked it to keep a check on the status of memory registers (PEEKing) for changes. Then you unfroze the game and fired off one of your missiles. Hit the freeze button again, the AR debugger would highlight locations whose values had decremented. You could then try copying the original value back in (POKEing) and returning back to the game. If the spent missile was replaced, your missile crisis was over, and new supplies can be gained on a whim. Keep the register full, and you’ve got Infinite Ammo. And what works for missiles might work for other things. Your character is can be stronger, move faster, jump higher… sometimes fly.
Entropy is reversed.
Every death can be turned
into a fighting chance.
It might not be sporting, it may offend the gaming purists, but it was ideal for those who (in the words of “Kobayashi Maru” game-hacker Kirk) “don’t believe in the no-win scenario”.
(My own code-usage is restricted to extreme circumstances, I like to finish
the game by myself. The Action Replay but for breathing life into older, completed games. I return to previously conquered worlds as an idle god.)
This was “hacking” as I first came to understand it. I already had some familiarity with programming, but this was comparatively arcane.
The realisation that behind the game there was a messy and intimidating world of code. And possibilities were available to those that could master this magic wand. Hack the game. Debug. Edit sprites. Fast Format. “Turbo Load”. The possibility of a world without another kind of control existed back there, and its many transgressions.
Neo dies, is resurrected and is then able to see the Matrix for what it is - running code.
(The original C64 Action Replay lives on in the retro-enthusiast scene
with a clone cartridge and C64 demo/copy party was held in Germany this last weekend.)
Action Replay later transplanted itself into the console culture (They were always called Action Replay cartridges in the UK, but until recently were rebranded under names such as “Game Shark” in the US) but over the years the features have moved away from the messy DIY raw code hacking
of the 80s. These days the promethean data can be downloaded directly from a website or magazine cover-mount. The relevant menus pop-up automatically when a game disc is inserted.
The code has disappeared, and we are once again a slave to the interface. But the underground promise of empowerment and control still lingers. The seductive rebelliousness – ranging from the amusing hacks (for example, a Tomb Raider code which gives the protagonist gigantic perky breasts… more so) to these features that seem to have crossed over from “the scene”, from dark side into Action Replay’s grey area – retro emulation or media playback without enforcing the “protection” mechanisms that the console manufacturers are obliged to force upon their customers.
It’s been over a decade since Nintendo lost its case against Galoob
over the Game Genie cartridge. But those were the days before the
DMCA. How long before the EU passes a law that takes away our Action Replay. Will Datel’s skills in systems analysis and reverse engineering one day be outlawed?
If the Military-Entertainment Complex engineers IP martial law
the first thing you’ll see are crack enforcement-troops abseiling from helicopters through the windows of business park somewhere in middle-England. There won’t even be a chance to hit “freeze”.
There may be dark days ahead. So keep informed on the issues through
EFF and others. You have nothing to loose but your infinite lives.
(Update: Apparently the new version no longer requires the memory-card “cartridge” element, since the codes can now be loaded from any memory card or USB flash drive.)
