LGR Oddware - PC Action Replay ISA Card
Added 2020-02-17 22:09:44 +0000 UTCGot an early edit of the next Oddware episode for ya! Gonna be headed out on a trip tomorrow, still got a tiny bit left to add when I get back, but it's 99% done.
This is the 1993 Action Replay cheat device for PCs from Datel. And yep, it's a predecessor to the lackluster parallel port PC Action Replay I covered a while back in 2018. Thankfully though, this thing works a whole lot better than that and the PC GameShark did!
Unfortunately I only had this on loan to make this video so it's en-route back to its owner, but still, I was lucky to have access to it at all and mess around with it on video. Really didn't expect the "infinite cheat generator" and "game freezing" stuff to work quite how it did, so I hope you enjoy seeing this rarity in action.
Comments
Definitely not, it's such a fun device! And actually works as advertised, unlike most Oddware
LGR
2020-02-21 20:23:52 +0000 UTCThank you! I never heard of it either, and I was PC-only back then. Sure doesn't seem to have received too much mainstream attention, at least here in the US.
LGR
2020-02-21 17:12:55 +0000 UTCHeh, can't say I have. Lots of offers for other random voicework, but it's not really something I'm looking to pursue.
LGR
2020-02-21 17:11:42 +0000 UTCTrue! Although the Version 4.0 release of this card claims to work even with protected mode programs, including those for Windows. Curious how that'd function.
LGR
2020-02-21 17:11:16 +0000 UTCOf course this works better in DOS games than Windows 98 games because Windows 98 had protected memory which prevented programs from modifying another program's memory.
Malbeth
2020-02-21 14:32:33 +0000 UTCClint, with the way you say out loud the marketing blurbs on game and hardware packages, have you ever been asked to be a spoke-person for a company?
Frederic St-Georges
2020-02-19 14:09:06 +0000 UTCI can't believe I never heard of this at the time - not that it mattered since I was a console peasant in 93, but this is super interesting. Great video as always.
Chris Munch
2020-02-18 22:37:34 +0000 UTCHeh, yeah it just completely screws up the system if you try to turn on the AR trainer in protected mode. Hard reset required!
LGR
2020-02-18 18:53:34 +0000 UTCYep! I actually have the rights to use it on LGR, all those early Foods videos are struck with copyright claims because of that music.
LGR
2020-02-18 18:52:58 +0000 UTCI'd be quite curious to try one of those sometime!
LGR
2020-02-18 18:41:22 +0000 UTCIt's a box for Kai's Photo Soap, a classic image editing application :)
LGR
2020-02-18 18:41:07 +0000 UTCI heard music from early LGR Foods episodes!
BadgerSquatch
2020-02-18 15:16:04 +0000 UTChaha you for an OS nerd, you know exactly why it won't run in Protected Mode, the processor would have an absolute FIT if you scribbled on RAM that was page-protected.
Robert Butler
2020-02-18 15:09:51 +0000 UTCWow, it is surprising to see how well this thing works considering the negative review shown in the video and how bad the previous Action Replay thing worked. And with the phrasing in the post "unfortunately I only had this on loan" and what Clint said in the end of the video, I have an impression that he reaaaaly did not want to give the device back to the owner :)
Vladimir Vyun
2020-02-18 11:37:09 +0000 UTCWho you gonna call? Game buster π
Deckard Games
2020-02-18 08:22:20 +0000 UTCIs that a box of soap on your shelf behind you?
Ezydenias
2020-02-18 07:25:05 +0000 UTCI had GameWizard32 back in the DOS days, never got a full version and always used the shareware that only let you freeze one memory location. At least it let you mess with memory in the memory editor. But that AR debugger looks intriguing, i bet you can find codes trough disassembling, setting breakpoints and following what the program is doing, great if you want to learn reverse engineering. ;)
BastetFurry
2020-02-18 06:47:52 +0000 UTCThis is more like it :) This is more like how Action Replay works on Amiga. Very nice!
Uncleawesome
2020-02-18 06:37:13 +0000 UTCGreat video as always LGR! Can you and David make one of these for DOS Duke Nukem??? I'd buy that tomorrow!!! Save state is amazing to see on a legacy machine :-)
Seth C
2020-02-18 03:29:53 +0000 UTCAh, one can only wonder. Seems the core of their business moved away from computers and more into consoles not long after this.
LGR
2020-02-18 02:19:50 +0000 UTCTrue that! Heck it's still pretty useful for the kids at heart.
LGR
2020-02-18 02:18:38 +0000 UTCThat'd make sense! There's more about how it manipulates hexadecimal values in the manual and readme files.
LGR
2020-02-18 02:18:01 +0000 UTCWorth the price of admission for the save states alone. Wonder why they moved on from something so useful as this to the crap they sold later. Maybe not enough profit, even at $89, given all the cost of manufacturing the cards and printing the instruction manuals?
Joon Choi
2020-02-18 01:59:23 +0000 UTCI get the impression that the limit on two digits is because it's hexadecimal and limited to a single byte, so 00 to FF would be the range... That's still pretty wild to see a PC device capable of doing all of that! :o
Kris Asick
2020-02-18 01:47:07 +0000 UTCThis is impressive for teaching kids about stuff like memory addresses. Very cool.
Akselmo
2020-02-18 01:26:47 +0000 UTCThat was cool π *doink*
PhotoSvein
2020-02-18 00:31:15 +0000 UTCI imagine a bit of both, but it seems they couldn't help but include tons of niche stuff on top! They certainly sold it as a cheat device first, like they did with the Action Replay products for Commodore machines before this.
LGR
2020-02-17 23:05:02 +0000 UTCYep, I've uploaded everything to archive.org as usual! https://archive.org/details/PCactionreplay1993
LGR
2020-02-17 23:02:25 +0000 UTCThat memory freeze is so cool. I know I would have used those save states so much back in the day... Amazing piece of tech this is; do you know if that manual has been digitalized? Would love to take a look at it. Thanks for such a wonderful Oddware ep.!
LJFox
2020-02-17 22:55:10 +0000 UTCWow, this thing is damn cool! I wonder if developers were the main market for these things? It seems like it was designed as a dev tool first, w/ a cheat engine slapped on top! Either way I want one!
2020-02-17 22:53:59 +0000 UTCWhat a nifty device. It may be a bit cumbersome to use and to get stuff working. But at least it works. Save stating with DOS games. Truly, the greatest dream.
The Enforcer
2020-02-17 22:50:46 +0000 UTCSo it's basically what Cheat Engine does now, but as an ISA card with a cool button. I'm down!
Ian Spence
2020-02-17 22:49:12 +0000 UTCSeems like it would be a good debugging tool, or even a way to reverse engineer other company's software.
Steve Lovelace
2020-02-17 22:44:03 +0000 UTCI love your "Doink" sound effect on the button presses!
Kamira
2020-02-17 22:36:02 +0000 UTCSo this is basically the predecessor to Cheat Engine? Damn, the possibilities this thing has!
_Maki
2020-02-17 22:33:51 +0000 UTCHurray for more obscure retro pc awesomeness....
2020-02-17 22:30:29 +0000 UTCI love oddware! Thank you for releasing another one :)
JohnnyCache
2020-02-17 22:20:42 +0000 UTCOddware is my favorite! πππ
50_SHADES_OF_BEIGE
2020-02-17 22:18:43 +0000 UTC
