Cheaters never prosper
Back in 1990 the toy manufacturing company Galoob, invented the Game Genie
cheating device for the Nintendo Entertainment System. The Game Genie
basically looked like a standard Nintendo cartridge chopped in half. A game could
be inserted inside on one end of the device, and the other could be placed into
the Nintendo. The Game Genie came with a book of codes for many of the
great Nintendo games, giving players the ability to play with infinite lives,
unlimited time, and even be invincible.
Obsessed Nintendo players could now reach almost orgasmic plateaus with the
new power they were given. Finally, game players could defeat the evil shredder
in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, lead Link to his Princess in Legend of Zelda,
and pass the final finish line in Rad Racer. Pre-pubescent Nintendo maniacs no
longer had to throw their cartridges against the wall in frustration, and the
gaming world was at ease.
But all was not well in toy town. No, in fact it was downight ugly. Instead
of embracing the Game Genie as an innovative gaming device, game makers
felt it was harmful to their games. They claimed the Game Genie gave players
an unfair advantage with their games (duh), and that it would turn the players
away from their games. (Actually the opposite is true, the faster you beat games,
the faster you buy newer ones.) The game makers even went as far as calling it
a copyright violation and started paying lawyers. To make a long story short,
harsh words were said, a trial ensued, the Galoob people won, and the Game
Genie went on to sell many units.
Nine years later, another company, Blaze has developed a new cheating device
for the Playstation called the Xplorer. Other cheating devices have already
been released for the Playstation, namely Pro Action Replay and Game
Shark, but the Xplorer has a key advantage over both: it’s cheaper.
The Xplorer comes with a slew of pre-set codes for about 100 games, and
any code for Pro Action Replay/Game Shark (up to versions 2.0), will work
for the Xplorer.
The Xplorer is very simple to set up and use. It hooks into the Playstation’s
parallel port on the back of the machine. Turn the Xplorer‘s switch on
while the Playstation’s power is on, and the start up screen pops up. Everything
about the screen appears normal upon first glance. But a closer examination reveals
that the language wasn’t error checked. Instead of Xplorer, the title reads,
“Xploder.” While this has no effect on the product’s value, it’s strange that
a company would spend so much time designing and programming, only to make a crazy
spelling error. For options, you can check pre-set game codes, enter your own,
or use the screen view–a weird and useless option where you can scroll around
the area of your game picture. Entering codes is a breeze, and while the display
isn’t pretty, it gets the job done.
The most interesting feature of the Xplorer, is unfortunately sold
separately. The Xplorer can be hooked to a PC through the Printer’s parallel
port. To do this, you must buy Blaze’s X-Link. The X-Link comes
with software designed to search out new codes for your Playstation games, and
also has the ability to save screen shots from your games. On top of this, the
manual claims the Xplorer is fully upgradeable, with improvements sent
to the purchasers via a special memory card.
Although the Xplorer has many interesting features and is priced less
than other cheat devices on the market, nothing is revolutionary. It’s still a
standard cheating device. If you like that sort of thing, and you don’t already
have one, then the Xplorer is a great deal. However, if you already have
Pro Action Replay or Game Shark, then use your money for more games.
Personally, I see little value for cheating devices today, because games are
designed differently than ten years ago. There are relatively few games for the
Playstation that are devastatingly hard. The Game Genie was needed for
the original Nintendo because many of those games used freakin’ cheap tactics,
bordering on the line of impossible to beat. Besides, in the days of Nintendo,
there were no memory cards.
The main question that must be asked is: why do you need to spend an “X’tra
30 bucks, when tons of cheats
are available free online, and can be accessed with nothing more than a controller
and a game? If you have no problem answering that question, go get an Xplorer
right away.
