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I had a GameShark for the N64. It persisted cheat codes you'd entered in-between sessions and it came with a built-in debugger which was surprisingly good. I e

I had a GameShark for the N64. It persisted cheat codes you'd entered in-between sessions and it came with a built-in debugger which was surprisingly good. I especially liked its variable search function. When you started the variable search you could choose whether you knew the value of the variable you were looking for or not. Then, at any time, you could pause the game and tell the game either what exact value the variable should have now or simply that it was the same, different, greater or lower than the previous value. The GameShark itself then kept track of all memory positions which matched those constraints. This made it really easy to find where in memory something was stored. Playing around with this little toy taught me a few valuable lessons in debugging. The coolest thing I managed to pull off was playing the Single Player levels of Perfect Dark in Multiplayer. It took a while, since the current level wasn't stored in the same place for Single Player and Multiplayer. I seem to remember there being some difference in the level numbering, as well.

fl0wenol 10y ago
Wow, I'm sad now that I never tried to get one for my N64. I would have had so much fun with a debug mode for the console; I didn't know it could do stuff like that before emulators. I think I would have been more into assembler-level stuff in CS earlier in my education and career; enough to have made it my focus. That would have been the thing to totally jazz me and change my thinking.
- Agentlien 10y ago
  I understand what you mean. As a 13 year old aspiring game programmer, the GameShark was the perfect toy to sink countless hours into.
HoppedUpMenace 10y ago
I remember a friend of mine and I did co-op in Turok 2: Seeds of Evil with the help of a Gameshark. The only problem was that the portals in the game that teleported you to different areas would cause the player's screen who used it to freeze. The exciting part though was being able to go straight to the last boss in co-op mode and have that work without any issue.

fl0wenol 10y ago

Wow, I'm sad now that I never tried to get one for my N64. I would have had so much fun with a debug mode for the console; I didn't know it could do stuff like that before emulators. I think I would have been more into assembler-level stuff in CS earlier in my education and career; enough to have made it my focus. That would have been the thing to totally jazz me and change my thinking.

Agentlien 10y ago
I understand what you mean. As a 13 year old aspiring game programmer, the GameShark was the perfect toy to sink countless hours into.

HoppedUpMenace 10y ago

I remember a friend of mine and I did co-op in Turok 2: Seeds of Evil with the help of a Gameshark. The only problem was that the portals in the game that teleported you to different areas would cause the player's screen who used it to freeze. The exciting part though was being able to go straight to the last boss in co-op mode and have that work without any issue.