Game Genie lives?!

I didn't ask for this. But apparently, there's a company preparing a PS3 cheat device under the Game Genie branding. And, well, it's not your old Game Genie in the least.

It will apparently come in the form of a USB device that plugs into the console and will only activate cheats that are on servers belonging to the Game Genie's maker, Galo--er, Hyperkin. Also, the device cannot be used during online play, and it can't touch on-disc DLC for legal reasons. It also can't be used as a means to unlock trophies. What the device does do is edit your save files with the cheats you select.

Man, I don't even know what to think about this. I guess it's cool that they won't allow the device's use to tinker with online play, but at the same time, cheat devices are pretty stupid. And even when I did use one (I had the SNES Game Genie), it was hit or miss as to whether any of the cheat codes actually worked.

No word on where in E3 this was shown, but this feels like some Kentia Hall-level garbage.

I think in this generation players have learned to live without various cheats and devices and I feel that's made us better. However if you want unlimited lives, invincibility just for the fun of it, that's about the only reason I can imagine anyone wanting something like this in today's console world.

i haven't heard of game genie in a long time. i use to have one for the nes. i enjoyed that thing a lot for the games.

i thought if it did come out people might hack it.

@Atary77: I kinda want cheats just to see the stupid things that can occur. And while that area has now moved to the modding scene, I would like to see it on consoles to affect gameplay when replaying it (or just using it to tinker difficulty to make either easier - such as making you invincible - or harder - such as making all the enemies massive and more powerful). I always found the use of cheat devices to mess with the difficulty or make the game super crazy more interesting than the basic idea of "cheating".

I don't believe it. I refuse to believe it. Also, if it's not this goofy-ass thing that you have to stick a cartridge into, then what's the point? That was half the appeal (at least as someone who got a Game Genie and a NES in the mid 00s).

It's not gameshark so I'm not interested.

For some reason, I'm imagining it like this. Anybody else that way?

I fucking loved my Game Genie when I was a kid. I don't think I would've beaten half of the shitty NES games (matter of fact they were all pretty shit by today's standards) without one.

Especially Battletoads.

Does it lock you out of getting trophies? I played through Atelier Meruru 4 times and still miss some trophies, I'd give me 9999 development points to make my start easier, but it would be pointless if it would keep me from getting trophies... any experiences?

@Morrow said:

Does it lock you out of getting trophies? I played through Atelier Meruru 4 times and still miss some trophies, I'd give me 9999 development points to make my start easier, but it would be pointless if it would keep me from getting trophies... any experiences?

From the OP:

It also can't be used as a means to unlock trophies.

My dad used to work at Game Genie in the early 90's. Wild.

@believer258 said:

@Morrow said:

Does it lock you out of getting trophies? I played through Atelier Meruru 4 times and still miss some trophies, I'd give me 9999 development points to make my start easier, but it would be pointless if it would keep me from getting trophies... any experiences?

From the OP:

It also can't be used as a means to unlock trophies.

Yeah, but that info lacks some details. If I just give myself development points, that's an advantage in building but is not directly affecting a trophy. It'll just speed up the game process and eventually make trophy hunting less time consuming. So I wonder if the game genie corrupts your save file so you won't be able to get any trophies...

The only cool use of the game genie I ever had was on PSone you could hack smackdown vs Raw to basically create your own matches which was neat. You could also hack final fantasy tactics and edit stuff to basically create custom classes which was also neat.

Well Action Replay is still around. The DS one sells great at the store that I work at to the Pokemon kids.

So how does these work, I never quite got it. Does it work with all games or with a select few?

EA 'Cease and Desist' incoming.

@Hizang said:

So how does these work, I never quite got it. Does it work with all games or with a select few?

Game Genie works by altering binary in a game's code. I don't know how newer ones would function, but the old ones' codes were basically locations of binary and what to intercept that binary with. Whenever the game would try to return a result for bytes of data located in binary x game genie would return data found in binary y.

IM-MVP is the only Game Genie we need.

Aww memories. I remember the day when my brother and I fried his PSX with a GameShark.

@A_Talking_Donkey said:

@Hizang said:

So how does these work, I never quite got it. Does it work with all games or with a select few?

Game Genie works by altering binary in a game's code. I don't know how newer ones would function, but the old ones' codes were basically locations of binary and what to intercept that binary with. Whenever the game would try to return a result for bytes of data located in binary x game genie would return data found in binary y.

GameShark worked by modifying the system's memory since it couldn't actually change the code that was being executed off the disc. You would feed it memory addresses and it would go in and change the data the address was pointed to. Since this method can easily bypass any restrictions they outlined for the PS3, I would assume that the USB is just a stupid flash drive to temporarily house the save while the application that is ran just modifies the data on the USB stick. It probably also acts as a cheap security dongle so you can't just use any flash drive if you have the application installed on the PS3.

Game cheat devices were awesome back on PS1 and PS2. Games were getting open enough and the codes were getting complex enough that you could do some pretty crazy things from time to time. Before it was basic stuff like infinite health or moon jump or whatever. Nowadays I play on PC and there are trainers for that kind of stuff. Saint's Row 3 feels like the developers played GTA4 with the Simple Native Trainer and said, "let's make a game that allows you to do all this insane shit without requiring you to use a third party code injector."

Game Genie, meh. Bring back pokes I say. (one for us old timers)

Cheat Codes are really cool. Any word on when this things comes out? This is a fun little thing that I've missed during this generation.

I used to use Action Replay all the time on PS2/GC to add replay value after beating games.