« Sony MADE Me Do It!! | Main | Review : Coke C2 »
Review : GameShark2 V4 for Playstation2
Cheat codes have always been a part of videogames. It was not since after some of the first games made that designers put secret stuff in the game. Most built in codes are left over from the testing and development stage of the game that the designers have left in. These codes are by the design of the game's developers The Game Genie for the 8-bit Nintendo changed everything in the late 80s. Nintendo spent lots of money on trying to stop the Game Genie but to no avail.
The way the Game Genie worked is that it acted as a hardware loader that changed the in variables in the game's RAM by a series of codes. It also worked to sniff out new potential codes by watching the available variables in RAM at the given time. This was was at times crude but very effective in totally changing the game play experience in ways that the game's designers never intended. It let you unlock items, skip levels, never die and almost change the very fabric of The Matrix Neo-style. Since the Game Genie there have been similar devices on just about every major game system to hit the market place.
The GameShark2 is a spiritual descendant of the Game Genie. I first owned the GameShark2 Version 2 but I just upgraded to version 4. The first versions of the GameShark2 used a special Memory card device and a boot disk. One would select their appropriate codes for the game that they want to change from the CD boot disk. Then the memory card like Gameshark2 hardware would implement the changes to the games variables. One of the problem is that the card was super fragile and it became unreliable over time. It ended up working only about a quarter of the time towards the end.
Version 4 of the Gameshark2 is just a Playstation2 CD. The codes are then loaded in to some low level RAM on the PS2 and then the game starts with out having to use any special hardware plugged into the PS2. This version also can use a PS2 Memory card to save new codes for new games. It can compress memory card data for archiving and it can boot international DVDs. It can not let you play a PAL DVD on a NTSC PS2 but with one of these babies you can play Japanese Region 2 DVDs on a US PS2 like it aint no big deal. Each version has had more codes and you can get new codes from Gameshark.com for newer games. You can then enter them using the controller or a USB keyboard and save them to your memory card. There are codes for about 85% of my PS2 game library included in version 4 and there are codes available online for 12% more. There are only a handful of PS2 games in my library that have no codes. It would be really cool if they used an online service so you could download new codes directly using the PS2 Network adapter.
However one thing that sucks about the Gameshark2 and similar products is that there is the potential that they can be used on online PS2 games to enable cheating in what is supposed to be a closed un-hackable online game nirvana. That just plain sucks but they no longer make new codes for online specific games. It did ruin my online Tony Hawk 4 experience.
There is also the serious ethical issues around the Gameshark2 in that since is allows you to radically change the gameplay experience in a way that the game designer did not intend it will mis-represent the work and intentions of the designers. They can take a game that should take a month to beat and you can get through it in a weekend if you cheat and make it impossible to loose. So there is a dark side.
I rarely use my Gameshark2 for playing games but it rules for playing import DVDs and it is nice to know that if I ever did want to use it to really cheat at a PS2 game I could.
Jake at June 23, 2004 
Reviews
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.8bitjoystick.com/cgi-bin/mtype/mt-tb.cgi/649
Comments
Due to experience on Socom online, I will never give the company that makes Gameshark the respect of buying their product. The world would be a much better place if Nintendo had successfully sued Game Genie a long time ago.
Posted by: Matt Jakel at June 23, 2004 8:53 AM
firstly, i have no idea what the above post is talking about.
secondly, gameshark doesn't carry over for xbox does it?
Posted by: gringo at June 23, 2004 11:58 AM
Socom (a game for PS2) was ruined by cheaters using their Gamesharks to walk through walls as if they were air, fly, make sniper rifles automatic, etc. It's just not fun anymore when you have absolutely no chance of surviving more than 5 seconds.
Posted by: Matt Jakel at June 23, 2004 12:51 PM
I agree. I think that such devices should be off-line only and that their makers should not publish codes for online games.
Posted by: Jake of 8bitjoystick.com at June 23, 2004 10:22 PM
Yeah, I'm for offline only, too! Now, you mentioned import DVDs, but can it play import PS2 games?
Posted by: Berklee at June 24, 2004 2:59 PM
No you can't play imported games with it but is still cool
Posted by: Jake of 8bitjoystick.com at June 24, 2004 5:47 PM
Ok, thanks.
Posted by: Berklee at June 27, 2004 3:41 PM
my new Sony Playstation SCPH-70000 PStwo im byeing & play i used gameshark v.3 but code activate after insert game cd booting now warning can not lode game what the problem .
Posted by: shushant at September 29, 2005 10:36 PM
I just bought a gameshark2 and im still new to it. I have a PS2 slim/silver, if that makes a difference. idk if anyone will reply to this, but it's not working for me, I read online that I need all this other crap to make it work, but is there a way i can just update it, you said something about V4... how do i update!
Posted by: kelly at July 15, 2007 12:27 PM
Yes they do make a Xbox gameshark and you update the disk by well go by the version disk higher you have a gameshark version 2 or 1.3 wich will not work properly in a ps2 slim why??? because ps2 slim was made after gamesharks first versions and dosen't like playing them at all the best I can say is look as hard as you can for version 3 4 or some other ones at ebay amazon or any other site because you have no luck getting a 100% load all the time maybie a 15% load if you keep reseting and no you don't need fancy ware for game shark discs (I request not buying broad band enabled edition gameshark) I myself havew only a gameshark v1.3 and a silver slim and boy am I haveing problems
Posted by: Jake at March 26, 2008 9:02 AM
yeah. you shouldn't use them online. just through single player modes or single player only games. the one thing i hate about a gameshark other then that is that you eventually have to get a new one because they get so outdated so fast.
i just got one for christmas and now i find that i need a new one for the games i want to use it on
Posted by: Knight Rider Jacobs at April 10, 2008 10:06 AM
