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Happy almost-Thanksgiving! At least here in the US :)
I'm headed off to enjoy some turkey, family, and friends for the next few days.

But for now I've got an odd little video on an odd little device here. This is the Datel Action Replay for Windows 9x from 1998! It's a device that plugs into the parallel port and runs some trainer software to let you cheat in a small handful of PC games.

And I don't know why, haha. I mean, for consoles these things made sense in the late '90s. But PCs? Typing in cheats were commonplace, dev consoles existed, command line entries were a thing, and free trainer programs were all over the place. Even if you didn't know any of that stuff as a computer gamer, the PC Action Replay still doesn't make much sense considering how few cheats it even supports. Makes for some prime oddware though.

Files

LGR Oddware - Action Replay Cheat System for Windows 95

Cheat devices like the Action Replay were commonplace on game consoles in the '90s. But on PC? Not so much. Didn't stop Datel from releasing the PC Action Replay in 1998 though, complete with VHS tape and parallel port dongle!

Comments

Anonymous

Have a good Thanksgiving Clint!

Anonymous

Happy Thanksgiving, and thanks for the new vid!

Anonymous

Enjoy that time away!

Jason McMillon

I had an Action Replay for my Commodore 64. It was so much more than a cheat cartridge. I extensively used the built in Assembly Language monitor for coding and to crack games. Good times.

Anonymous

Surprised to see this was a UK device. Was just getting into PC gaming around the time of release and never knew this existed! I had the Xploder for PS2 but, as you say, just seems pointless for PC. Anyway, enjoyed the video and happy Thanksgiving to you! :)

Anonymous

Tim Curry quietly judging the dongle from the shelf.

Peter Metzger

That is a glorious VCR you've got there.

Anonymous

This thing makes zero sense in the Win95/98 era.... and I love it.

Uncleawesome

I have one for the Amiga. Theres a ton of stuff you can do with it, and I don't understand half of it. It's to technical for me.

Anonymous

An Action Replay dongle for PC is every bit as useful as an internet petition to get Clint Eastwood to star as Kevin McCallister in a Home Alone remake. I wonder what possessed the creators to release this. Was it ignorance? Insanity? Hubris? A lost bet? I'm dying to know.

LazyGameReviews

Right? I really hope someone has some insight, haha. It's so bizarre considering how little it does, especially in late 1998.

LazyGameReviews

Yeah, those things are awesome! Even the earlier card version for PC seemed pretty rad in terms of additional features. But Dongle Action Replay... welp.

Anonymous

New title card? :)

Alyxx the Rat

Good episode, didn't even know there was Action Replay for the PC...

Alyxx the Rat

It seems entirely pointless, like you pointed out in the episode.

Anonymous

Sitting behind the desk? Felt like a visit to the doctor. LGR doctor. My PC is already feeling better. This is really weird and unnecessary. Which makes it awesome.

Anonymous

I feel bad for the person who spent 30 pounds when it was new. It's like getting underpants for Christmas.

Anonymous

What a fall from grace. As a kid I *lusted* after the C64 one after seeing the amount of cheat POKEs in various magazines, let alone some of its other facilities like taking screengrabs, editing sprites and even utilities for making backups. I still do lust after one… even if these days, the Retro Replay (an improved version hacked up by Sceners) image mounted on my 1541 Ultimate does the trick ;) This PC version is a big step backwards indeed. But I remember reviews of that original PC version with the external interface, and whilst it wasn't quite as fully featured, it reminded me somewhat more of what was possible with the C64/Amiga ones. Totally late 90's oddware at it's worst here.

Anonymous

Have an awesome Thanksgiving Clint! I remember the days (and frustration) of Game Shark and all the other types of cheats. Ah...good memories.

Lindsay Michelle

I am not surprised that this exists (thought I didn't know until today that it did), and I'm also not surprised that it's not very useful, haha. Happy Thanksgiving, Clint! Enjoy your time off - I know I will enjoy my time away from the usual daily grind :)

avfusion

Ah, haven't seen those little copy protection dongles since my university escapades learning LightWave 3D when I was young. I don't know if the firmware on that dongle has been dumped, but if you would like it dumped to put on the web archive or somewhere, I'd be more than happy to do it for you. I've done PIC development for a long time and have the equipment to manage getting the proprietary bits out.

Anonymous

Yeah, at first I thought it'd be a little flashable dongle to type in codes for you, but nope!

Joon Choi

This is far and away the most pointless and useless consumer tech product I have ever seen. Well done sir for finding and reviewing it. Happy thanksgiving!

SuperBunnyBun

I had one for a PS2 (gameshark for ps1), but didn't know one was for the PC

BastetFurry

When i really wanted to cheat back then in Win9x times i used ArtMoney and before that in DOS times the shareware version of GameWizard32. Nowadays i rarely do that, only when the game is trying to screw with me or has some bugs you need to get around. Looking at you Bethesda... ;)

Anonymous

Good point about who would it even be marketed towards? If you have enough tech knowledge to use that thing, then you could definitely figure out how to type in cheat codes. And not spend 30£! So pointless! Great video though, it's always fun to see you mocking things :)

Anonymous

Now -this- is an unexpected surprise! I just literally picked up an Action Replay replacement for my GameCube last week. Not for its cheating functions mind, but rather for bypassing the GameCube's Region Lock. That way, I don't need to replace my library of games. Mind, it doesn't work with every game, but it does the job fine. :)

Anonymous

More like inaction replay...

Anonymous

THIS IS NOT A GAME! I REPEAT, THIS IS NOT A GAME! :-P

Anonymous

I had a GameShark for my N64 that had a parallel port on the back of it. With that (and the PC software) you could access anything in the N64's memory, create your own codes and I think even download screenshots!