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X-terminator for Game Gear (Game Genie/ Action Replay like device)
Posted: Fri Aug 28, 2020 1:58 pm
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Just bought this device on eBay, but I can't find any info about the Game Gear version.
Nothing on Sega Retro or here, or anywhere. Does somebody know more about this device and if it is a clone of the ActionReplay or GameGenie or a different device. All info is welcome |
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Posted: Fri Aug 28, 2020 8:22 pm |
It looks a lot like an Action Replay clone. Bock will need to buy this from you :) | |
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Posted: Fri Aug 28, 2020 9:38 pm |
Very nice find. I managed to borrow one from a Japanese collector to dump it but couldn't find another one and somehow I assumed it was Japanese (not that I have been looking very thoroughly).
When you receive it could you post information about it? (As mentioned by Maxim I would humbly really love to buy it from you, hey one can dream) PS: If people who to help debug / reverse engineer its content I'll share the dump with hackers, been sitting on it for a while and haven't got around to analyse it for emulation yet, |
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Posted: Sat Aug 29, 2020 3:14 pm |
The box is quite a mixture.
An Italian? sticker on a box with some random Chinese text and a US purple-stripe-styled logo. :D |
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Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2020 2:52 pm |
Received it, here are some more pics and scans. for some reason the scans showing upside down.
Tested it really short on my Mega SG, it shows version 2.1. Don't know if there are any other. Manual seems to be English and a form Chinese with screenshot and contains screenshot from non Game Gear games. A fun device t own, but the lack of codes |
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Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2020 3:35 pm |
It mentions "Contra Spirits" so the manual text was likely copy-pasted from a similar device on another console. | |
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Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2020 3:55 pm |
I love the Parodius screenshots with the Cat Battleship stage 1 sub-boss, a game that AFAIK never existed on Game Gear, though maybe it's possible to get the MSX version working there somehow in TMS video modes with palette set-up? | |
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Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2020 4:02 pm |
Also the manual instructs us to use the "reset" button, is this feature of the X-Terminator? Or just a reference to some other system entirely? | |
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Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2020 5:57 pm |
Normally there’s a button on the device to trigger a reset.
The codes seem to be reordered from PAR codes, a PAR code 00ABCDEF can be converted to 00EFCDAB. Technically, ABCD is the RAM address in hex, EF is the value it’s set to. I think this may be a different firmware from the Japanese version - I haven’t got far enough in the disassembly to be sure. It doesn’t seem to be a software clone of the Action Replay. |
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Posted: Fri Sep 11, 2020 5:38 am |
Some codes have that first byte a non-zero value.
Does that maybe mean it is a two-byte write? |
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Posted: Fri Sep 11, 2020 10:26 am |
The first byte does nothing on SMS PAR codes. The patching code reads only the 16-bit address and 8-bit value. | |
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Posted: Sat Sep 12, 2020 11:46 am |
For what it's worth, I can confirm that the sticker is indeed Italian, it's probably the name of the shop that first sold it back in the day, complete with its address and phone number. It apparently still exists to this day, in case someone feels like trying to investigate this further.
The 39900 sticker would also make sense if it referred to the pre-euro Italian currency (it would convert to roughly 20.6€). |
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Posted: Thu Nov 19, 2020 9:46 am |
FYI I obtained another X-Terminator and discovered there are two versions, the 2.1 one in English and the 2.1J one in Japanese. | |
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Posted: Sat Dec 26, 2020 10:28 am |
Some old pictures showing the Japanese version.
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Posted: Tue Dec 29, 2020 3:55 pm |
It is indeed an italian sticker of an already active shop even if at another address on the same road and with a different phone number. EDIT: Or better it seems to be for rent now (image from google street view): |
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Posted: Sun Jan 17, 2021 9:26 am |
What are those 2 buttons/switches at the top of the X-Terminator? | |
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Posted: Sun Jan 17, 2021 10:59 am |
They are used to enable or disable cheats and to enter the cheat menu. It’s the same as an Action Replay device, for which there are many YouTube videos. | |
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Posted: Sun Jan 17, 2021 12:51 pm |
From the manual scans I thought there would be one switch to switch between NORMAL and ACTION.
Is the other one a reset button? (I am trying to figure out how to add this to mame btw) |
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Posted: Sun Jan 17, 2021 1:34 pm |
Then maybe https://www.smspower.org/Development/XTerminator-GG is helpful. | |
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Posted: Sun Jan 17, 2021 1:45 pm |
Forgot to explicitly mention it in this thread,
We released the two dumps on December 27 https://www.smspower.org/forums/18246 And we created a page for this: https://www.smspower.org/Games/XTerminator-GG Along with the development page which Maxim just linked above: https://www.smspower.org/Development/XTerminator-GG |
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Posted: Sun Jan 17, 2021 1:57 pm |
Thanks, that development page has the bits I missed. That should be enough information to get this working.
Edit: and it works :) |
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Posted: Sun Jan 17, 2021 3:38 pm |
X-Terminator was the original name for the well established Xplorer/Xploder brand of cheat cartridges made by the company Blaze in the late-1990s and early-2000s for many consoles but probably most famously PS1.
They were originally advertised in magazines as X-Terminator (though whether they were ever actually sold under this name I don't know), soon rebranded Xplorer, and in the later years were rebranded again as Xploder. There were various sub-versions such as FX, Professional, etc. Perhaps it's the same company? |
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Posted: Sun Jan 17, 2021 6:30 pm |
The brand seems to have started as SNES and Game Boy cheat devices, particularly in Japan. | |