LGR Oddware - DOS PC Action Replay: The Ultimate Game Buster

[@Niskirin]

So... Basically an ancient Cheat Engine implemented with hardware... That's actually impressive as all hell.

[@ShadowRune]

I was just thinking that. In a few parts that actually looked a bit more intuitive than cheat engine lol

[@Nukle0n]

You basically had to do it with hardware for something like this since there's no multitasking, you can't just alt-tab over.

[@beebeejoo]

@@Nukle0n I actually remember a cheat engine that worked for dos that did it in software. It was called gwiz I believe (I remember the executable having the words gwiz in it)? I remember using it on the game Descent. It basically worked the same without hardware. It took over the screen when you called it with a hotkey and then worked the same as this piece of hardware. This is still impressive as hell though.

[@screwthenet]

Game Genie came out 3 years earlier in 1990. Then 6 years after game genie ( 3 years after THIS weird pc thing in the vid) Game Shark came out in 1996. lol o>O

[@drunkredninja]

@@beebeejoo this. i used gwiz too.

[@dagoth3663]

13:58 I like how he said "unlimited balls" in the Duke Nukem voice.

[@BP.l0ne]

He does a pretty good impression of Duke Nukem ngl

[@troodon1096]

It's not just that Duke would say it that way, but it's also something easy to imagine him saying.

[@tehcooler]

Imagine this with Planet X3? O_o

[@dubfunk1886]

Good catch dude!

[@tomyyoung2624]

@@dubfunk1886 yes do that!

[@Spindash54]

This almost seems more like a dev debug tool than something meant for the average consumer. Really awesome. Especially the screen capture tool.

[@PoisonedAl]

You joke, but devs used kit like this along with pirating hardware. Dev kits for consoles were expensive, restricted in number, were hard to use and often didn't work very well. Alternatively you could get some 3rd party crack job for a fraction of the price that worked just as well if not better.

[@screwthenet]

Welcome to the PC gamer GOD LEAGE! lol

[@manuell3505]

In Windows you can just scan processes with Resource Hacker-like programs, but on 16-bit real mode you need physical hardware to reach memory adresses from outside the program. This device sure had more possibilities beyond games. If secretly installed, you might be able to record specific user actitvities without leaving a trace on disk.

[@rcmero]

Fun fact, searching for changes in memory addresses is exactly how the "trainer" function on some third-party Game Boy players for consoles like the Nintendo 64 work. The Gaming Historian has a good video on this if you want to take a look.

[@AndyLundell]

These things are very similar to old hardware debuggers. The clever part is making it run from "codes". You don't have to know how a debugger works, If you can copy a "code" from a magazine you're good to go.

[@dragoncracker]

doing this training process on the Playstation(grey) is exactly what got me into programming, computers, software patching, and my current career in electronics

[@coreultra]

I just endlessly love how chill and cozy LGR videos are. Most other KZbinrs are too loud, fast, and upbeat, they make me tired just watching them. Never change, LGR.

[@jonasthemovie]

Chilimonster One of few channels where I find music is ok during narration.

[@Typhoonbladefist]

Don’t forget to smash that like button and ring the bell to join the notification squad!

[@ectofrost]

And he doesn't interrupt with really obnoxious or loud jokes that kill the flow of the video. Nice and comfy.

[@duffman18]

His voice oozes ASMR

[@admiralfrosty3495]

Comfy is the right word. Along with all this old computer stuff, it’s like a warm nostalgia bath. Thanks for making our lives better, Clint!

[@nigel_navy]

I like how the picture on monitor unfolds to the edges when you switch between apps, it's so analogue

[@kelainefes]

It does that at every resolution change.

[@Eighty_Eight88]

I'd love for danooct1 to get a hold of this and test the virus scanner.

[@alexdemoya2119]

Great idea +1

[@plazmasyt]

Saaaaame

[@RobynVids]

sammmmme

[@MrDustpile]

This is basically the Amiga version for the PC and either my Amiga disks were all clean or the scanner had no use at all without a modem to find a database, which I'm not sure my manual mentions. Things like the music ripper re also fun and he should definitely do a Part Two. Though unlike other computer versions, this one doesn't appear to let you load freezes as standalone cold boots without the cartridge. Also, the C64 version's worth a look, as while it does less overall, it let me swap sprites in games, mess with the RAM data for cool glitch effects or whatever, pinch game fonts for headlines in word processing (by retyping the game text and printing those out) and lots of other funky stuff. Including software transfers.

[@TheTurnipKing]

@@MrDustpile I suspect it was looking for suspect behaviours, rather than any specific virus. There are a number of common hook points for viruses on AmigaDOS.

[@MaximumJoy]

I can't stop laughing at the delivery of "unlimited balls"

[@jocefjose6004]

Im always captivated by the glory of those Roland speakers.

[@CousinHubertRetrogaming]

I bought the superior model, (lgr gas them in black in many of his videos) in white, for like 30€ in France a year ago. There is still hope!

[@ambirbtruckdriver]

Jocef Jose me too

[@rajvinder89]

Yeah they look really nice, I have no idea if they sound good though.

[@CousinHubertRetrogaming]

@@rajvinder89 yes great sound

[@LGR]

@@rajvinder89 They do indeed! I've got a full video about them kzbin.info/www/bejne/b4fMk5WOj7yaqac

[@George_Railfan]

I can't imagine a 10 year me having much luck convincing my parents to drop $90 on something like this in 1993.

[@markm0000]

You had to be a baller to buy all this cool stuff. Sadly I forgot to buy it when everyone switched to 2000/XP and you could buy this weird 90’s stuff anywhere for pennies on the dollar.

[@potatochalbro]

In 1993 $90 was a month's pay where I live :))

[@Whelkman]

Sell it to them by explaining how it would multiply the value of all the $50 games bought in the past. That was basically true with me and the Game Genie, which was way less capable than this.

[@alexsilva28]

Then again most kids wouldn't have much use for this thing anyway. This is clearly marketed towards teenagers/young adults

[@coolbrotherf127]

I can't imagine a 10 year old would have any idea how to use it. I was pretty good with computers, but at 10 I doubt I would understand how editing memory in a PC creates hacks in games.

[@fen4554]

These deep tap devices remind me (edit; it's the exact same thing) of the interrupt button that my father wired up to our Apple II (actually Pineapple II clone). As I understood it there was a set of jumpers that would do this when shorted so he was just hooking up the button. It would interrupt the CPU and bring up the memory values currently in play. With it we could bypass all sorts of software lockouts, and even read game memory for things like current lives and change the values by seeing what code changed when you did different things in game. To be clear I was 6 at the time, but I watched in awe when that button was pressed and the graphics were replaced with a Matrix-like wonderland.

[@joe--cool]

The Apple ][ ROM has a built-in Monitor (aka debugger, the thing with the * prompt) including a disassembler and just about most features the Action Replay has. I think you could start it with CTRL+RESET or some other combination. Possibly shorting the 6502's reset pin with a button might have done the same thing on later Apple ][s.

[@majormojo]

Early Macs had two hw accessory buttons you could attach to the side of the case for interrupt (“programmer’s button”’) and reset. Later on, (Mac Plus or Mac Classic) the buttons were built in. All they did was poke through vents in the case to stab momentary switches on the logic board.

[@joe--cool]

Interesting. Thanks for the info I did not know that. I went to a DOS 80C88 and stayed with PCs and Amigas after my time with the Apple ][ and the PET. I still have most of them in semi-working condition.

[@gearwhizz]

For my Spectrum 128k+3 (with integrated disk drive) I had a module that plugged into the expansion port at the back called a Multiface 3 by Romantic Robot. In essence it was a box with a red button that would interrupt the game and allow you to enter codes similar to an Action Replay card (called POKES.) More importantly it allowed you to dump the entire content of the memory to a floppy disk. Not only did this allow you to save any game at any time, you could also back up any games you had loaded from an external tape drive. The loading time was incredibly quick and you could fit up to a dozen games on each floppy.

[@joe--cool]

Interesting. Didn't the Spectrum use those weird 3" floppies? Those had that much capacity? Wow. The Atari 8bit computers had an official cartridge that was called: Atari Assembler Editor. And on the C64 there was supermon64 which was quite like the Apple ][ monitor. It even still might have some of Wozniak's code in it. You can find it on github.

[@tiaxanderson9725]

Ah man, this takes me back. Years ago I was playing Diablo 2 with a friend and we had apparently both selected a wizard. But I went the ice path and he the necromancy path. But after a while he said "man kinda sucks that you chose ice instead of fire. All enemies you kill leave no corpses for me to revive." So I noted my XP, my HP (and max HP), mana (and max mana), the number of levels, as well as my stats and quickly looked up what my base stats should be. Then I used cheat engine to find all these values in memory, edited them to be lvl 1 again; killed a dude, then edited most of my stuff back to what it was, and killed another dude. Boom, 16 levels up, I picked my new fire based skills and in like 15 minutes we were back in action!

[@007arunabha]

what a mad lad :)

[@will5948]

Had the same problem, Necromancer / Ice Paladin - utterly useless team combination.

[@wumpusthehunted2628]

For whatever reason, Ultima 2 (Atari 8 bit) never dropped "blue tassels". Eventually I took a disk editor and added it, allowing me to complete the game.

[@blahorgaslisk7763]

The unholy combo was a necromancer and a paladin specializing in buffing auras. Once the necromancer managed to raise a few skeletons and the paladin buffed them you soon had a rolling wave of skeletons just moving down everything that got in their way. Big bosses could slow you down but I don't remember they were all that tough even if the paladin had to shift tactics and do some heavy lifting while the skeletons were serving as distractions. The first time we tried this we hadn't really talked about any tactics, but once the wave of skeletons were swarming all over the mobs we were laughing like maniacs. I still think I had more fun playing D2 than D3 or any other similar game. It might just be nostalgia talking but if so then I don't want to know the truth...

[@alexsilva28]

H A C K E R M A N

[@shauno6893]

Holy crap, absolutely amazing. It's basically a debugger marketed as a cheating device. Incredible stuff. I can imagine a kid who just wants to beat Rick Dangerous buying this thing and then crying about being unable to use it, lol

[@twistedyogert]

He'd figure it out.

[@pt8306]

Alternate universe: Kid buys it, can't figure it out, eventually does some reading and figures it out, uses it to cheat, gets bored, starts modifying other parts of memory for thrills, eventually discovers C and starts on a long, fruitful career in programming.

[@alexsilva28]

@@pt8306 and that kid was named Albert Einstein

[@pt8306]

@@alexsilva28 and then everyone started clapping. Can confirm, was the debugger

[@Dhaos620]

Rick Dangerous? I remember it being Dave Dangerous

[@k9techku]

Man that is probably one of the single coolest pieces of retro oddness you've shown so far. And you've shown off some awesome stuff.

[@ahlkazar7227]

Friday morning oddware, best way to get through work.

[@bradtoddler3765]

It's evening on my time zone 😐

[@50centgotshot9times]

Saturday morning for Australia

[@bradtoddler3765]

@@50centgotshot9times Yeah, we're live in different time zones :|

[@KrzysztofDerecki]

I remember seeing ad of this thing as a kid in some magazine. I was reely tempted, especially I believed it won't take any of our presious 640kb memory, since it's hardware. I used standard memory editors, but they always took some memory, and if there was a game for which you had to optimize memory - you were done. Also later, after struggling with some games I discovered their developers were protecting against such intrusion. They stored critical values in multiple memory locations, sometimes obscured, bit reveresed, xored etc and it made cracking them very very hard, at least for a kid :) So I spent many hours in hex editor instead actual playing game... and ended as a programmer today :) Great times!

[@tylercoombs1]

Oh yeah, that's something we haven't really needed to deal with in a while

[@user-pq6mr6op3p]

Bullshit...You was not editing hex code. You might of made some little batch file. No way.

[@VectraQS]

Damn, this is neat. It's basically a semi-user-friendly, gaming-focused debugger.

[@penfold7800]

That thing is REALLY COOL. Finally, someone made it possible for me to play through the completeness of a game. It would be an absolutely invaluable tool for anyone reviewing games back in the day, especially as it does screen-dumps too. What an awsome piece of kit.

[@hannibalsolo4409]

I had an Action Replay for my old Amiga. Really neat. I liked looking through the memory when I was playing a text adventure, you could find out which words the parser would recognise.

[@pepe6666]

wow thats neat

[@deusexaethera]

Total non-sequitur: Did anyone ever make a Duke Nukem themed pinball machine entitled "BALLS OF STEEL"? Because someone really, really should.

[@Artigkar40000000]

There is a pinball game for Windows pc that came out around 1997 that is called Balls of Steel and it has a Duke Nukem 3D table. Its actually the game where the infamous "I've got balls of steel!" oneliner originally comes from. Duke says it occasionally when you start a new round on that Duke Nukem table. EDIT: Oh, you meant an actual pinball table? Yeah that would be pretty cool.

[@michealpersicko9531]

Closest you'd probably get is by using Visual Pinball which is an extremely accurate pinball simulator and builderr made using only visual BASIC; there might be one made by using a modified Bally/Williams VPX table file

[@delaticaldigital]

18:08 "Running over nuns" - LGR

[@alexanderthomas2660]

Ah yes, good times. Hitting all the pedestrians and then trying to escape when pulled over by a cop, by using the “I badly need to find a restroom” excuse.

[@demogorgonzola]

Grew up on Carmageddon, everyone is fair game. ;-)

[@nslouka90]

Just your average Sunday

[@greenaum]

Grand Theft Auto 0.5! Actually what was that game? Looks like it'd be a lot of fun in DOSBOX.

[@alexanderthomas2660]

@@greenaum It's ‘Vette!’ from Sphere, 1989. I have a feeling the designers of the cybertruck were big fans of that game, it would fit nicely between those other minimal 3D models.

[@johnmh1000]

Hi LGR I came to this channel via Techmoan in the UK. What a great place!! I think I'll be binging on your vids for days! Thanks for all this stuff! (okay enough with the exclamation marks)

[@ChrisR3tro]

This works in a very similar way, a debugger would work. I am quite impressed at the ability to switch in and out of different graphics modes. Gods might not have worked because of version differences in the executable by the way.

[@DaveF.]

Oh - that's nice - that's a proper Action Replay - this is exactly what the cartridges that they developed for the 8-bit computers were designed for - freezing the memory state of the machine, saving system memory dumps (save states), and identifying variables in memory that games were using. Brilliant stuff - even down to having a memory monitor - that allows you to peek (literally) into the memory of the machine - very old school.

[@TheTurnipKing]

12:49 It's presumably a hex value. The score would probably be a longer value, so you COULD do it, but you'd need to alter multiple bytes. The fact it's ISA presumably means that it's mainly targetted at 16bit PC software,and that's probably where a lot of the failure of the later Windows models comes in, 32bit and up, Windows (and indeed the PC in general) has far better memory protection. You can actually do a lot of stuff like this straight up from the dos Debug command, but it's not quite as useful, since you can't interrogate the state of the program while it's running. it's the ability to track the state of the variables as they change that makes this so effective. 16:33 Possibly the wrong version of the game. Compilation versions, trainers, game updates, etc, can result in changes to the executable that could make parameter tables wrong. 18:51 A less legit feature of this would be to make a save state of the game AFTER you've passed the copy protection check. For example. I'm sure no-one ever did that, though.

[@andywolan]

"it's the ability to track the state of the variables as they change that makes this so effective." Ya, that feature alone makes it useful. Add the savestate capability and you have yourself one heck of a cheat/debug device.

[@spagamoto]

I had a program called Cheat-o-Matic that did this in Windows 9X (IIRC it also worked clear up to XP). I think it used the debugging capabilities provided by the OS.

[@thomasschlitzer7541]

Atari 2600, C64, my Amiga, my first PC and the action replay are the reasons that I learned about hex and coding and modifying games. That started it all. Love that thing. Wish I still had that innocent curiosity. Now it became all money and business. Good times.

[@cjallday1130plays]

Now this is just straight up Oddware! Always look forward to these episodes, thank you for the years of entertainment!

[@TheTurnipKing]

it wasn't actually that odd. The Action Replay style device has a long and distinguished history going back at least as far as devices for the 8-bit home micros, intended to transfer games from tape to faster storage mediums. (for example, the Multiface on the ZX Spectrum, which had many of the same memory interrogation capabilties)

[@cjallday1130plays]

@@TheTurnipKing it's odd that it's an obsolete piece of hardware that probably barely anyone uses for DOS, plus if you really think about the software it runs, it reminds you of Cheat engine

[@TheTurnipKing]

@@cjallday1130plays I guess it's odd if you didn't grow up with the 8 and 16 bit home computers.

[@cjallday1130plays]

@@TheTurnipKing well, i didnt, i mostly grew up with the 32 and 64 bit era of gaming (PS1, N64, Sega Saturn, Win95, etc)

[@duffman18]

@@cjallday1130plays the PS1 action replay/game genie type devices were everywhere so I'm surprised you didn't see them. I had an Xplorer. And then an Xlploder which was the same thing as the Xplorer except it allowed you to create your own cheats, like you do a search of the code at full health, make your character lose some health then search again to work out which part of the code was the health bar, and then create your own infinite health cheat. Stuff like that except it got way more complicated than that and was really fun to mess around with

[@DragonNexus]

Deeply *deeply* fascinating video. I had no idea it could get so in depth as this. It's such a brute force way of doing it, but it's also kinda elegant at the same time.

[@r38007]

What a cool device! I would have killed to have this back in the day. I remember using I think a game shark pro on the ps1 that let you hex edit live.

[@danielthundersteel7146]

I never had anything to do with retro gaming really and many of the things you show were before my time or from a time when I was too young to tinker with pc stuff. but your videos are just so calming and relaxing. I love watching them. never change.

[@hjalfi]

That looks like, effectively, a hardware debugger/ICE type thing on an ISA card. That is so incredibly useful. I wish I'd had one back in the day for just general programming! Hell, I wish I had one _now_: I don't care about cheating in games, I just want to be able to halt the system and inspect memory to try and make my own code work...

[@phodon129]

Have you tried Cheat Engine? It has the same features.

[@mayhair]

@@phodon129 There's also scanmem/GameConqueror for GNU/Linux computers.

[@UberAlphaSirus]

Yup, cheat engine, you can do all sorts of stuff. I think code monkey is making something similar.

[@cleverlyblonde]

vmware workstation integrates with visual studio to accomplish similar.

[@absurdengineering]

Modern CPUs have stunning hardware debugging built in. You can use Visual Studio or windbg as an interface between you and the hardware. Data breakpoints, multiple hardware breakpoints that don’t modify code memory, etc. Awesome.

[@j.a.8224]

Hearing all the press release blurbs on the back of the box I was more and more skeptical. But as soon as you showed how feature-packed the manual was I knew it was going to be impressive... that much detail means you're looking at something powerful. And clearly it *was*... wish I'd had one of these back in the day!

[@LarixusSnydes]

This is actually quite useful for debugging programs in general. Neat gadget!

[@lukey391]

Dude I have been a subscriber of yours for about 5 years now, your content you create now is insane. Well done for the 1 million views. You deserve it. Take care clint.

[@crzyces1693]

Man, I love this channel. I can space it out for a month or two, then finally get a new vid alert, check it out and realize that you've done 6 other videos and I end up binge-watching 2 hours before falling asleep with you talking about Unreal or some crazy thrift hunt through every goodwill in the tristate area. Good fun! Seriously though, absolutely love the channel. I'm going to be visiting my uncle when this medical issue passes. He has a type of ALS but was an avid gamer and elite programmer, working for the government; everywhere from Raytheon to N.A.S.A. to retiring and taking a _retirement job_ (? he loved tech so that was retirement for him =^) as a senior project manager at a medical software design company. You know, the typical easy low-stress job. Oddly enough, it was for him. Heck, barely being able to talk or type more than 25 words a minute he still takes free programming classes through M.I.T. for whatever obscure new language he isn't already fluent in. He will be absolutely ecstatic to watch someone going over all the tech things he loved in the '80s, '90s and early 2k's as programming was fun for him, but besides being with family, playing with odd tech was his passion. I can't wait to kick back and watch some of your vids with him. Thanks for that!

[@daveie3]

That thing is awesome. I played many of those games on a 286 as a kid. So interesting how it works. Great video! Very fun to watch!

[@DaNargh42]

Duke Nukem voice: "Unlimited balls"

[@tomypower4898]

Da Nargh you are probably making a mistake

[@netsurferx1]

...of STEEL!

[@Major_Mason]

Very cool episode! My first ActionReplay device was for the DSi which was also compatible with DS Lite. I spent over 1,000 hours tinkering around with Mario Kart DS and its AR Community. Good times 🙂

[@MrFutago87]

13:20 That's how gaming magazines got their screenshots back in the day.

[@TheTurnipKing]

Well, when they weren't straight up printing the screenshots and press releases given to them by the game publishers.

[@the8-bitsonicfan58]

Those cheaters!

[@pierdeer]

I remember hearing stories of game magazines having to photograph screens and they'd have strict guidelines on how to do that. Game Boy screenshots before Super Game Boy or special kits from Nintendo themselves were a pain in the ass for example. The editors would have to play the games with the game boy attached to wooden rigs with a camera right over the screen and they couldn't play the games proper as a result. I imagine this must've made it so much easier for them, at least when it comes to DOS games.

[@UXXV]

There were also TSR screen capture programs for MS-DOS that worked well that were used too not all mags had this device

[@pecet]

UXXV exactly. Remember using screen thief for dos for that

[@taben9jake]

Oh man, this reminds me of the glory days of using my game shark pro on my playstation to make my own codes. Fun times

[@JAMIELYNNnj]

My daughter and I have been sick with the flu, some LGR singing sweet nothings into our ailing ears is exactly what we needed this morning.

[@turbinegraphics16]

You have the Corona virus.

[@EscanthonX]

@@turbinegraphics16 It's extremely unlikely that they do.

[@JAMIELYNNnj]

@@turbinegraphics16 I mean...I literally stated 'the flu', but yeah sure coronavirus.

[@StainStudio]

Your Duke Nukem impersonnalization was actually quite good! Loved it! Thx for the vid!

[@patriktschenett]

I had that and used it quite regularly! The first version I had could't cheat in protected mode games (DOS4GW et all) and I had to buy a second, newer card because you couldn't update to the newer firmware.

[@markm0000]

That’s neat. Do you still have all your old stuff from back then? I was dumb and threw most of it away. I’m glad I kept my desktop.

[@patriktschenett]

Yes, I have most of it. I am sort of a collector. However, I sold my original Action Replay to buy the newer version so I don't have that anymore.

[@markm0000]

Patrik Tschenett well if you are willing to part with something I’m interested in desktop parts from 96-03 for my dream Pentium 3 build. I’ve already got a lot of stuff for it but I always wanted one of those cigarette lighter and cup holder, a front panel equalizer with screen, a bendable spot fan, and a dummy PCI slot cooler from that era. I’ve got a Tualatin with a copper heatsink and 90mm fan adapter, 6600GT AGP, WinTV, Plus Deck 2, Audigy 2 Platinum Drive, WiFi ab for 98se, and USB 2.0. Let me know thanks

[@zatramander]

This video made my day. I've been intrigued to see what this thing could actually do ever since I saw the exact paper ad you showed at 2:37 in a 1995 issue of PC Gamer UK that I got from somewhere and still have. This would've been absolutely awesome to have back in the day to play around with.

[@DeadNoob451]

"They warned not to plug the freezer into serial." Yeah those need a fully blown power outlet afaik.

[@ZeldaGX]

If you acquire one of your own and think there's more content to show off here, please upload a part two to this! As someone who didn't grow up during the DOS era, this video was incredibly satisfying and educational to understanding how games, memory, and action replays work!

[@RetroJackal]

Later Action Replays got worse...just gloried save managers. I miss cheat cartridges.

[@bigmoneygangster1498]

The 3ds one was a joke

[@FennecTECH]

without modified firmware there was nothing they could do. The code exec protection on the 3ds was and still is damn strong. Cheat carts were a casualty of Nintendo’s war on piracy

[@TheTurnipKing]

also, blame the Game Genie, which essentially did the same thing but tried to package it up in a way that made it simple and "fun". Essentially they removed the memory scanning aspect and simply provided you with codes, which they could then be supply via premium rate numbers for the latest games.

[@nekkun831]

later, video game developers used dynamic memory ranges. you cant really use trainers as easily then

[@bushmaori]

PS2 one corrupted my memory card. Lost everything including a 100-hour FFX save :l

[@tomahzo]

I used to have an Action Replay IV for my Amiga 500 back in the early 90:ies. I never used it for cheating but for dumping audio samples (which you can do with the DOS version too), screen grabbing, saving memory and for editing sprite memory so that you can get your own sprite art into your favorite games ;). It's a great creative tool and makes games more interesting. The manual for the Amiga version is as technical as the one you have there but at the end of the day the thing certainly does what's advertised.

[@chrismifsud7154]

I Love it! I used the Amiga 500 Action Replay so so so much back in the early-mid 1990's not only for cheating but also ripping mod music from games and artwork. It works in pretty much the same way. Amiga, you press the red freeze button, type in TS3 (TS= Trainer Start and 3 = lives).... go back to game and lose a life. Type in T2 and so on... Then when you narrowed the possibility you type in Mxxxxx (xxxx being the memory code it gives you) and then modify the number to 99 or even better FF :)

[@ezoray]

I had the same, presumably they were more popular for the Amiga. I had the Mk3 and as you say it was useful for ripping and cheating in games, and also for solving bugs in your own code.

[@radekc5325]

Plus, that built-in disk copier! :D (at least on my Mk3)

[@chrismifsud7154]

@@ezoray Yes MK 3 too. I still have it :)

[@chrismifsud7154]

@@radekc5325 Yes.. Burst Nibble or D Copy... Cant remember. But I prefer XCopy :)

[@SheepUndefined]

I keep finding really catchy DOS tunes through your channel. My list grows.

[@muchosa1]

Back in the day we used a hex editor and found where the stats were and changed it to FFFF

[@MichaelSoldwisch]

The only way to play Sim City 2000

[@harriehausenman8623]

@@MichaelSoldwisch And Civ!

[@crazydescent]

Unlimited money in Command & Conquer :D

[@harriehausenman8623]

@@crazydescent That would've been soooo sweet !!

[@infamousacidrain]

The only way to play Xcom.

[@MandleRoss]

I have no idea why this is the last thing I want to watch before going to bed, but it strangely calms me, so it is!

[@un1qu3-senpai]

I'm surprised there isn't a modern recreation of this device like the Sound Blaster clones. This would be super fun to toy with.

[@ValdikSS2]

There's kind of is, modern cheaters use DMA-enabled FPGA cards to modify memory in hardware, to bypass anti-cheats in games.

[@andi]

Thank you for putting that German Magazine post at 2:25! Really did enjoy seeing it :D

[@TheAtoll]

Your videos on the forgotten and obscure have truly inspired me and my own deep dives! Please consider reviewing Waterworld: The Quest for Dryland. It has some really interesting "full motion video" in it! Or maybe just a deep dive on "full motion video" in general!

[@Richard.Linder]

I was so happy so see this video - especially after the disappointment of the previous Action Replay prodcuts you featured. I had a few Action Replay cartridges for the Amiga 500 and Commodore 64, over the years, and they were Awesome! A friend and I originally saw the C64 Action Reply cartridge advertised in a UK Commodore 64 magazine. We had never heard of it or Datel Electronics. They were the new kids on the block, taking on more the established companies. The product sounded almost too good to be true, and the price was also very competitive. We deciced to take a chance and import one. After a painfuilly long wait, it finally arrived! Wow, was it amazing! It did everything it promised. Freeze games and make "backups" of them. Save states, screenshots, find and create cheats, rip and modify sprtes, rip and save music (SID tunes) from games, disable sprite collision (cheat to stop you getting killed by enemy sprites) and a whole lot more. And the number one feature for me: the Fast Loader. The C64 had a painfully slow disk drive, and some pretty arcane disk commands. It really was the system's greatest downfall. But this cartridge changed all of that. You got a fast loader which allowed you to use the function keys as hotkeys to list disk directories, load and run games and more. And the difference was huge! In later versions of Action Reply It loaded games 10 to 20 times faster than standard - several times faster than the famed Expyx Fast Loader cartridge. Loading a game went from taking minutes, to just seconds. It really was a game changer for the aging C64! If you still have a C64 you really should try it, or its spiritual sucessor the Retro Replay. Or even better, there is an awesome disk drive replacement cartridge called the 1541 Ultimate II+ that allows you to emulate the old 1541 disk drive and run many such classic cartidges as well, so you can quickly and conveniently run disk images at the incredible speed afforded by the Action Replay cartridges, and have all their other features too. What a win. :)

[@packleaderjeff2142]

Action Replay will always remain the most important part of my DS memories.

[@AshtonSnapp]

I remember messing with cheats while playing Pokemon Black/White. My foolproof strategy? Activate the “steal Pokemon” cheat to enter Team Rocket mode.

[@WastelandPuppy]

I'm in a really terrible situation right this moment. Thank you so very much for taking my mind off that, Clint. I'm much calmer thanks to you.

[@retropuffer2986]

One of the more interesting Cheat systems you've covered.

[@mikefr24]

I used to use Norton Utilities Hex editor for DOS to do this exact same thing to save games. I would look for changes in values in order to modify them to give me more money or whatever. Lol. This hardware card is so much better and I would have loved to have had it. Very cool Oddware. Love the channel!

[@crowbarviking3890]

I remember doing that manually with many games. Saving the game after changing just one thing, run a hex editor and manually search for the correct spot :-D

[@cube2fox]

Wow that was probably harder than playing the game normally :D

[@crowbarviking3890]

@@cube2fox Nah, back in the 90s when you had no internet connection and played a game from a CD that was included with a games magazine you had no cheat codes unless the magazine handed them to you with the game. so instead of cheating in warcraft 1, i simply modified the savegame to give me more gold and wood. Most common internet use when my father finally allowed me to use his PC to dial up was looking up cheat codes and playing ultima online :)

[@cube2fox]

@@crowbarviking3890 Awesome! :D

[@frankschneider6156]

Ever heard of bindiff ?

[@crowbarviking3890]

@@frankschneider6156 oh was it released in 87?

[@windwalkerrangerdm]

Years after, still surprised. Amazing as always.

[@superbunnybun]

"don't insert into serials" I feel there should have been a shot of you trying to push the cable into a bowl of cheerios

[@cplpetergriffin1583]

Nah that joke is to predictable and easy

[@ghettoandroid]

Your enjoyment of this piece oddware pleases me thoroughly!

[@AmyraCarter]

(before video) "Ah, shit; here we go again..." lolz (even the deadpan expression on your face says it) 15:30 Gemini via Shovelware Diggers reviewed this game (a demo of it) and was confused by it... I think I can count on one hand how many pieces of LGR Oddware that actually worked reliably... Still though, this is really cool, and thanks for sharing.

[@jason86768]

I had one of the GameShark cheat devices for my original Sony Playstation console, and with it you could freeze your game and develope your own cheat codes, searching for changing variables, which could be stored on the device for use later. It blew my teenaged mind! Loved it.

[@karapuzo1]

A TSR program called "game wizard" had similar features, without any hardware. Used it extensively in the 90s.

[@peebola]

I used game wizard but I found game tools to be better. textfiles.com/piracy/SOFTDOCS/gamtools.txt

[@44Bigs]

Game Wizard was perfect.

[@jwr2904]

@yeoldstark industries ?

[@Slamraptor]

Not specific to this video but I just wanted to say that I'm really grateful that you're doing this Clint. I grew up with all this stuff and own half the games that are on your shelves myself. It really makes me glad that you're not only trying to show all this stuff but also capture the Zeitgeist and try to explain what everything felt like back in the day. Keep up the good work man. (: Edit: Wow that save state blew my mind. xD

[@jhunter1573]

I did have a Action Replay cartridge that would fit into the cartridge port on my Commodore 64. What a great device to use with a number of things you could do with it. Print,copy,screen save and lots of other things 👍

[@Mr.Beauregarde]

Dude, your joy is my joy. It's such a treat when "works as advertised".

[@anthonyiodice]

Ugh, I miss instruction manuals so much. They’re my favorite reading materials.

[@narcopsy]

Try reading a book. I love instruction manuals too, but to say they're your favorite thing to read?

[@MrRom92DAW]

As someone who grew up with various action replays and game sharks... I definitely understand the excitement over finding one that actually does what it claims to LOL they weren’t all gold. Looking at you, Gameshark 64

[@penniesshillings]

"Doink!" Love your sound effects... adds depth and character to your thing. :-)

[@user-pi5xz5je4y]

Big ol doinks in Amish.

[@Charming_Prism]

There's something about these videos that makes you forget about your problems. Thanks man.

[@danwoodward23]

Datel was a big employer in my town shout out to stoke on trent

[@markm0000]

Seeing comments like these are so nice. It really brings the community together.

[@danwoodward23]

@@markm0000 thank you Mark

[@incars1000]

Ceramics and memory modification

[@guguy00]

And mind-numbing football.

[@RetroGod1982]

Datel Electronics still sold Spectrum hardware until 1998 too

[@EmeraldBlack-up6xi]

Did not expect this to work. Nice to finally see one of your weird accessories do what its supposed to.

[@Dosgamert]

This device, 1993. Groundhog Day, 1993. Coincidence? I think not. That movie is all about savestates.

[@user-vn7ce5ig1z]

IRL save-scumming. 😀

[@tomyyoung2624]

Yes! Mario!

[@Evgenii_Fedorovskii]

Incredible piece of iron !!! Probably the best equipment that has been reviewed under the heading "Oddware"! Thank you for the video!!! =)

[@SebastianPerezG]

Cheat Engine from the 90's

[@twistedyogert]

I was thinking about Game Genie.

[@KairuHakubi]

this is absolutely brilliant and fascinating. in '93 I just had a Game Genie for my NES, and I was disappointed with its limitations.

[@JohnDlugosz]

The card seems to be a "hardware debugger", but with more specialized software and its own button. I remember cards that added address monitoring, in the days before that was built into the CPU. Debuggers such as Borland's Turbo Debugger and Periscope supported various cards.

[@TONYTHETlGER]

Happy Birthday to me, a video from LGR? Thank you so much!

[@eggplantunleashed4740]

I miss the days when I was around 7 Years Old. Me and my Brother had 100's of Amiga Games with Trainers built in :) It was Awesome!

[@Mech4]

It's rather heartening to find that some of these things actually did what they purported to do. Instead of a "You can do anything! (Not really)" type dealy.

[@PuroresuFan]

"I can just stand in these spikes forever" Why do I feel like a deathmatch wrestler would say that? lol

[@RageUnchained]

Or a sonic player who fell down one of the pits on the mine level.

[@tomypower4898]

steal the my cakes!

[@tomyyoung2624]

yes i will yes!

[@ceedub21]

I love it when he says "Baaaaaalls" in the nukem voice.

[@kamillatocha]

reminds me early days when i was cheating in flash games with cheat engine

[@rogueanuerz]

haha facebook game

[@gustavrsh]

I remember that for flash games you had to multiply the search value by 8 for it to work for some reason

[@lightchipster]

Oh man, you just brought back forgotten memories of me using a program like that!

[@kamillatocha]

@@gustavrsh that is true

[@nightcritterz]

mmm 2004 neopets days

[@RastanPinball]

Wow this thing is so cool. I never saw this back in the day. I would have loved this back then. Love all your videos. It takes me back to this time digging in deep in to the autoexec.bat, config.sys, IRQ, etc. Thanks

[@Feark]

10:14: *In another dimension:* We can play this game forever... So yeah, lets play this game, FOR EVER!

[@RageUnchained]

Ah yes the perpetual pacman lgr universe.

[@JessicaFEREM]

This is majorly cool. I can just imagine one of these coming to computers today, being like a Cheat Engine but physical and undetectable

[@justindelpero]

I swear you'd make a great trailer voice over :D "Unlimited Ballllllz"

[@zacattack8498]

This was a very dope video. Didn't know Action Replay had products that old and retro.

[@Jorqell]

Game Wizard was a working software version of this, the pro version even had advanced memory scanning for health bars and such. Try it out.

[@QuintusCunctator]

Thanks! I also tried that software and it worked wonders. I was just trying desperately to remember its name, but you solved that problem!

[@ulfy01]

This thing exceeded all expectations. I'm kind of blown away. I don't think I ever heard of it back then.

[@AsbestosMuffins]

on one level this is absolutely amazing, on another level, this is a security nightmare

[@frankschneider6156]

If an attacker has access to the hardware you are done anyhow.

[@KrzysztofDerecki]

Not so much, i played with such tools back then, and many later games were secured and very hard to crack with memory editor, ie game could store life value in two bytes, with one of them in reversed order. You can imagine how this simple trick made nightmare for me as a child :) But yes, it required some little more work for developers.

[@korndogz69]

Nice! It's basically a hardware version of Cheat Engine from 1993! I had a 386 33MHz PC in 1993, and I never heard of this! It's really cool!

[@jeffmaesar]

Reminds me also hours spent with hex editor to change stats in save :-)

[@MaxReckless99]

its just crazy. your too young to know all that stuff about DOS. nothing but love and respect

[@youtubeuser1039]

Lol !!!! Your face when you start to say: "it... plugs in your computer.. and..." Amazing !

[@rendurai]

Finally my monthly ASMR with LGR. love your work dude!