Action Replay (Mega Drive)
From Sega Retro
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| Made for: Sega Mega Drive | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Manufacturer: Datel | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Type: Cheat tool | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Action Replay is a cheat device created for the Sega Mega Drive. It was originally released by Datel in the United Kingdom in late 1991, and was the latest in a line of cheat devices which continue to this day.
The Mega Drive Action Replay was the first cheat device to be released for the console, pre-dating the Game Genie by the best part of a year. Unlike the Game Genie, however, no Action Replay cartridges were ever licensed or endorsed by Sega, though unlike rivals Nintendo, the company did not actively seek to prevent such devices from being sold.
Contents
Hardware
All Mega Drive Action Replays are cheat cartridges that act as a passthrough between the Mega Drive console and game cartridge, and when activated, can permanently set memory addresses to specified values, thus potentially altering gameplay. As a side-effect of this design, Action Replays also act as region converters, allowing Japanese games to be played on Western systems (likely a key part of its success in Europe).
All cartridges have a three-way switch on the left hand side. In the middle position, the device is effectively turned off, the bottom position activates the menu and the top position turns on any inputted codes. As this switch is external, users can switch between the three settings at any time (unlike the Game Genie which requires the user to input codes prior to booting the game).
The original Action Replay cartridge allows for up to four codes to be enabled at a time, however Datel would later release the Pro Version Action Replay (later Pro Action Replay) which introduced a "trainer", which can be used monitor changes in RAM and to "find" compatible Action Replay codes. Following this, the Pro Action Replay 2 was released, which contains "built-in" cheats for popular games. Datel also provided cheat books containing game codes.
Unlike its Game Gear and Master System counterparts the Mega Drive Action Replay was released in North America, though was unable to find the same level of success as the Game Genie.
Code list scans
Magazine articles
- Main article: Action Replay (Mega Drive)/Magazine articles.
Promotional material
- Main article: Action Replay (Mega Drive)/Promotional material.
Photo gallery
Action Replay
Pro Version Action Replay
Pro Action Replay
Pro Action Replay 2
Physical scans
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| Mega Drive, US (Pro Version) |
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| Mega Drive, UK (Pro Version) |
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| Mega Drive, UK (Pro Version) (alt) |
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| Mega Drive, UK (Pro) (alt) |
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| Mega Drive, UK (Pro 2) |
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| Mega Drive, DE (Pro) |
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| Mega Drive, DE (Pro 2) |
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References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 GamePro, "June 1992" (US; 1992-xx-xx), page 16
- ↑ Sega Power, "November 1991" (UK; 1991-10-04), page 18
- ↑ Mean Machines, "October 1991" (UK; 1991-09-27), page 12
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Sega Power, "January 1992" (UK; 1991-12-05), page 65
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 MegaTech, "July 1992" (UK; 1992-06-20), page 15
- ↑ Sega Magazin, "November/Dezember 1993" (DE; 1993-11-03), page 73
| Sega Mega Drive cheat code devices |
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| (Pro) Action Replay | Game Genie | Game Wizard | Genipak | Magicard | Vzlomshchik Kodov |