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First , i want to say that Pro Action Replay is equivalent to Game Shark .

1.   GETTING STARTED AND INSTALLATION

2.   USING THE CHEAT CODE SEARCHER - CREATING NEW CODES

3.   BEGINNING A CODE SEARCH

4.   SEARCHING FOR CHEAT CODES, AN EXAMPLE.

5.   ADVANCED FEATURES - TIPS

6.   Reduce With Care

7.   Finding Codes - Invulnerability

8.   Finding Codes - Items

9.   Codes Which Only Work On 1 Level

10. ADVANCED FEATURES - CODE TYPES

11. THE GAME SAVE MEMORY MANAGER (SATURN)

12. THE GAME SAVE MEMORY CARD MANAGER (PSX)

13. THE MEMORY EDITOR

14. UPGRADING AN ACTION REPLAY CARTRIDGE TO THE LATEST
      VERSION

15. OPTIMIZING YOUR PC

16. TROUBLE SHOOTING

1.Getting Started and Installation

  1. Turn off your PC and Games console before installing or connecting any hardware.
  2. Insert the PC Comms board into any ISA slot in your PC (a 386 or above required).
  3. Connect the supplied parallel cable to the Comms board (now in your PC).
  4. Remove the Action Replay Cartridge from the console and connect the free end of the parallel cable to the Action Replay Cartridge. PSX owners will find the slot on the back of the Action Replay. Saturn owners will find the slot on top of the cartridge.
  5. Insert the Action Replay into your console as described in the Action Replays manual.
  6. Ensure the cable is fully inserted into the PC board and the Action Replay. Ensure the PC board is fully inserted into the PC. Ensure the Action Replay Cartridge is fully inserted into the PSX console.
  7. Switch on both the Console and the PC (in any order - you can also switch off either unit without effecting the other at any time).
  8. On your PC : When at the DOS prompt, insert the supplied floppy disk in the PC's disk drive.
  9. On your PC : Select the disk drive containing the install disk (type 'A: <RETURN>' or 'B: <RETURN>' ).
  10. On your PC : Type "INSTALL A: C:" and press RETURN to install the software. If the disk is in your second floppy drive you will need to type "INSTALL B: C:" instead.
  11. On your PC : Now, in the PSX/SATURN directory type ACTION and press RETURN to execute the main shell program.

    When you first install the program you will be offered the chance to upgrade your Action Replay to the latest version, you will need the latest version to use the Comms software. If you decline to upgrade at this time or you wish to upgrade another Action Replay cartridge you can use the UPGRADE.BAT program.

    If the comms software fails to upgrade your Action Replay or communicate see the "Trouble Shooting" section of this manual.

    You will now be presented with the main menu which consists of
    these options :

    PSX
            1. Begin Code Search (in game).
            2. View / Test Found Codes (test in game).
            3. Edit, Upload and Download Memory (in game).
            4. Upload and Download Game Saves.
            5. Change Settings (IO Port 320)
            6. Exit.

    Saturn
            1. Begin Code Search (in game).
            2. View / Test Found Codes (test in game).
            3. Upload and Download Game Saves.
            4. Edit, Upload and Download Memory (in game).
            5. Settings (IO Port 320)
            6. Exit.

2.Using the Cheat Code Searcher
(Creating New Codes)

Your Console contains 2 megabytes of RAM (Random Access Memory), it is this RAM that holds such things as lives, time, energy etc. There are over 2 million possible places in the RAM to store the values and each of these places can keep a value from 0 to 65535 (0 to FFFF in hexadecimal). It is the Code Searchers task to search through these locations to find your cheat codes.

3.Beginning a Code Search

PlayStation

  1. Switch on you PSX and get to the Action Replay's main menu.
  2. Start the game simply by selecting the START GAME menu option and then the START GAME WITHOUT CODES option.
    NOTES :
    (a) If you do not start the game by going through the Action Replay the Comms will not be active.
    (b) You can start the game with codes active if you already have some codes.
    (c) The Comms will only function whilst the Action Replay's switch is in the up position.
  3. On the PC, start the ACTION.EXE program and select option 1 "Begin Code Search".

Saturn

  1. With the Saturn Action Replay go into the "Select Cheats" menu.
  2. If you are creating codes for a new game (a game which is not in the list) then you will need to enter the new games details. Select "--- New Game ---" with button A, enter its name and its MASTER CODE as :
    F6000914 C305
    B6002800 0000
    Once you have finished press B to exit this screen and you will now be in the 'Select
    Cheats' screen for your new game. There will not be any cheat codes listed as you
    haven't entered any yet.Now skip point 3 below and go to point 4.
  3. If you are creating cheats for an existing game simply select that game in the list and enter the 'Select Cheats' screen.
  4. In the 'Select Cheats' screen note the option 'X:START GAME WITH COMMS'. Press the X button on your controller pad and start the game as normal. Note :- If you don't start the game using the X button in this way the Comms software will not work.
  5. On the PC, start the ACTION.EXE program and select option 1 "Begin Code Search".

4.Searching for cheat codes, an example.

To find a code for infinite health or lives.
Say you start a game with 3 lives or an energy bar which is full.

  1. Start the code search at a point in the game when you have a number of lives (say 3) or full energy. Start the search by selecting 'Begin Code Search' in the ACTION program.Press SPACE.
  2. Wait for the memory dump to finish - the game will pause as this happens. Now lose a life or some energy. Select the "less than" search by pressing L and press space to continue the search. At the end of this pass the program will tell you how many possibilities there are - there will be quite a few at this time.
  3. Lose another life or some energy and repeat step 2. You will find the more times you do this the fewer possibilities remain.
  4. Now restart the game so you have full energy or 3 lives again and do a search for a greater than value by pressing 'G'. If you have less than about 40 possibilities left, finish the search by pressing 'F' and skip to point 6.
  5. Don't lose a life or any energy and play the game for about 10 seconds or more. Do an equal to search by pressing 'E'. You might now have less than 40 possibilities, if not continue searching for codes with the various methods. If you can't get the number of possibilities down any further then finish the search by pressing 'F'.
  6. You will now be presented with a list of addresses and values, one of these lines will probably contain the code for infinite lives/health - whatever you were searching for.The list will look something like this :
                0604268D     0003      0002     0001     0003
                06067824      FFEE     FDE2    4FFE     FFFE
    There will be a line for each possibility. You will now need to determine which line is the code for your infinite lives/energy.
    You could test every code but some will probably cause the game to stop (if this happens you will need to reset the console and re-load the game with the Action Replay Comms enabled, you can remain in the code list on the PC as you do this).

    It is much quicker to just look at the list and try the most likely values in the list first.Each line consists of a memory address (the eight digit value e.g. :- '0604268D'), and a number of values that the address contained as you did the code search (the 4 digit values following e.g. '0003 0002 0001 0003'). The values are listed in order - the first 4 digit value ( e.g. The '0003' following the address '0604268D' above ) represents the value held in the memory location when you first pressed space. This might have been when you had 3 lives - in which case the line ...
            '0604268D    0003     0002     0001     0003'
    ...would be a likely candidate for an infinite lives cheat code.

    If you were searching for energy and all you could see in the game was an energy bar decreasing then the values in the list may not be so easy to see as with a lives value. An energy bar is often represented with a value of 100 when it is full - this would be a value
    0063 in the list as the values are displayed as hexadecimal numbers (63 hex is equal to 100 decimal). So if you had full energy when you took the first sample you MAY find a '0063' in the first column.

    If you have found a likely value for your cheat code you can test it in the game simply by highlighting the code and pressing SPACE. You can select the code with any of its values using the left and right cursor keys.

    The line in the list will now have the text 'ON:' next to it. It is now active in the game.See if the code has worked by losing a life or some energy in the game. If your lives/energy don't go down then this is the cheat code you need. If the code has had no effect turn the code off by pressing space again and try another. If the game has stopped or the Saturn isn't responding then the code was not valid and you will need to re-start the game (you can remain in the codes list to try different codes when the game has re-loaded, ensure you enable the comms when you re-load the game).

    If you have found the cheat code then you will need to enter it into the Action Replay. It is a good idea to keep a copy of the code on paper for safe keeping.

    The cheat code you need consists of the address and a value.

    SATURN OWNERS ONLY:
    IMPORTANT : When you take the address you will to amend the      leading '0' to a '1' or the cheat code will not work in the Action Replay (e.g. '060784A4' becomes.'160784A4').

    To enter the code in the Action Replay reset the machine and go to the Action Replay main menu. Select the 'Select Cheats' option and then select the game the cheat code is for. In the 'Select Cheat' menu highlight "--- new cheat ---" and press the 'C' button on your controller pad to edit a new cheat. Select an empty slot in the blue list box and enter the address and value for your code ensuring to amend the leading '0' in the address value to a '1' as described earlier. Enter a name for the cheat by pressing up and selecting"--- New Cheat Description ---". Select the "DEFAULT OFF" button and change it to "DEFAULT ON" if you wish the cheat to be on every time you enter the 'Select Cheats' screen. Press B to exit the screen and SAVE the new cheat. You will now be back in the 'Select Cheats' screen. Switch the cheat ON with button A and start the game as normal to test the cheat if you wish.

5.Advanced Features - Tips

When searching for your codes consider what you are looking for. If you are looking for a value such as "3 lives" then renember that the value may actually be a 2 as programs often count from 0 and not 1. For example the program may consider you to have 2 lives left and you are using one at the moment.

6.Reduce With Care

This "counting from zero" should be considered when using the "reduce possibility list" option. It is worth reducing to values between say 2 and 3 even though the game says you have 3 lives remaining.

7.Finding Codes - Invulnerability

In some games you may become invulnerable for a short time when you get a power-up or when you start a life. Invulnerability is usually represented by a counter decreasing in memory 50/60 times a second until it is zero and your invulnerability stops.

8.Finding Codes - Items
Items like keys, guns, etc. are usually represented by a 0 or a 1 value. A 1 in a location somewhere in memory will mean you have a key/gun. When searching for these values you can "reduce" the possibilities to only include values of 0 and 1.

9.Codes Which Only Work On 1 Level
Some codes, in some games may "move" in memory when you change levels. The only way round this problem is to create a new code for each level. Luckily if you have a number of codes (say lives and bullets) you should only need to find one of them for each level (say lives on each level and bullets only on the first), then calculate the address difference between the lives and bullets on the first level and add this to the addresses of the lives address for each level to find the matching bullets code.

A side effect of multiple codes for a game in different levels may be you make it crash or do strange things with codes on which are for different levels. To solve this you will need to create a D code for each level (see "Advanced Features - Code Types").

10.Advanced Features - Code Types

As you will now know, a code consists of an 8 digit address like "80146244" and a 4 digit value like "0063".

The Action Replay will treat the code in different ways depending on the leading digit of the address. Different leading digits will cause the code to be updated in different ways.

On the PSX the following are the allowed leading digits.

8??????? abcd = Continuous 16 bit word write.
This is the type of code you will use most often.
Repeatedly write the value 'abcd' to the memory location 8???????.

3??????? 00ab = Continuous 8 bit byte write.
If you find that the code seems to do two things this may be because you only need to update half of the memory location.
Using a 3 to lead the address will cause only a byte at that address to be
updated.

D??????? abcd = Enable the FOLLOWING code only when                address 8??????? contains the value 'abcd' Works on low word addresses  only (NNNNYYYY).

Example: if you only wanted to have the memory location 80123456 set to  0001 when memory location 80024240 equals 0040 then the code pair :
D0024240 0040
80123456 0001
Would have the desired effect.

C??????? abcd = As with the D??????? code. This will enable the FOLLOWING code only when address C??????? contains the value 'abcd'. This works on high word addresses only (YYYYNNNN).
e.g. C0024242 0040
      80123456 0001

D??????? abcd = Special case. If in the MASTER CODE,Enable ALL codes only when address 8??????? contains the value 'abcd'. If a game will not load with codes you have made active. Then you will need to tell the Action Replay only to activate the codes during a certain part of the game.

On the Saturn the following are the allowed leading digits.

1??????? abcd = Continuous 16 bit word write. This is the type of code you will use most often. Repeatedly write the value 'abcd' to the memory location 0???????.

3??????? 00ab = Continuous 8 bit byte write. If you find that the code seems to do two things this may be because you only need to update half of the memory location. Using a 3 to lead the address will cause only a byte at that address to be updated.

D??????? abcd = This applies to all cheat codes for the game. Activate the codes only when address 0??????? contains the value 'abcd'

For example, if you only wanted to have the codes active when memory location 80123456 set to 0001 then the code :
D0123456 0001
Would have the desired effect.

0??????? abcd = 16 bit word write at bootup. Not very useful to the average user. Write the value 'abcd' to the memory location 0??????? once at bootup. Bootup being when the game is first loaded into memory. This load will contain the 'boot block' of the game and any code/data it loads at this time.

Saturn Users Only
Some games may 'hang' or stop after the Comms package is used. You should still be able to create cheat codes by re-loading the game for each search pass. The problem is with pausing the game for a length of time. The game looses its 'fly back' position and hence stops. Unfortunately there is nothing that can be done about this at present.

11.The Game Save Memory Manager (Saturn)

This utility allows you to upload and download game saves too and
from your PC's hard disk, Saturn's system memory and the Action
Replay's own game save memory.

The interface emulates the Action Replay's own memory manager so
user's should be familiar with its operation. The key's to use are
displayed at the bottom of the screen and their use is quite self
explanatory.

When a game save is copied to the PC it is stored as a file in the
directory SATSAVES (inside the SATURN directory). These files can
be transferred to other directories or computers (take a save around
to a friends house for example) but must be in the SATSAVES directory
to be accessed by the Game Save Memory Manager.

12.The Game Save MemoryCard Manager(PSX)

A new feature of the PSX Action Replay is the Memory Card Manager. Version 1.7 and above Action Replay Pro Carts support a memory card manager which allows you to copy, delete, format memory cards as with the PSX's internal memory card manager. Where the Action Replay's differs however is with the ability to compress individual saves into a backup form so you can fit many more saves on a card than the standard 15. For more information on this feature see your Action Replay Pro manual - or if your manual doesn't contain the information on this feature (you may have an old manual if you just upgraded) then see the file PSX_PRO.DOC or PSX_PRO.TXT included with the comms software.

A new feature on the Comms software for the Action Replay PSX is memory card support "Upload & Download Game Saves". This feature is simply a memory card manager which lets you copy game saves too and from your PC and a memory card in card port 1 on your PSX.

The key's to use are displayed at the bottom of the screen and their use is quite self explanatory.

When a game save is copied to the PC it is stored as a file in the
directory PSXSAVES (inside the PSX directory). These files can
be transferred to other directories or computers (take a save around
to a friends house for example) but must be in the PSXSAVES directory
to be accessed by the game save manager.

For those of you who are interested (and technically minded) - A save file on the PC has a 54 byte header before the actual save data. The header simply contains a 21 byte ASCIIZ filename followed by the saves 33 byte character ASCIIZ internal name.

13.The Memory Editor

The memory editor allows the user to view and edit the Consoles memory as a game is running. Also from inside the memory editor the user can download sections of memory to the PC and store them a files. It is also possible to upload files from the PC into the Saturn's memory, and even execute the memory if the file is valid program code.

The average user will probably not be interested in the memory editor
aspect of the Comms package. However some fun can be had by doing
simple things like changing text inside a game. High score tables are
an obvious target. Functions to search for text or values are available in the memory editor.

Some useful memory locations :-

Saturn Users
06000000 to 060FFFFF The first megabyte of RAM.
00200000 to 002FFFFF The second megabyte of RAM.
00018000 to 00018FFF The Battery Backup / System Memory RAM.
                                       (Where the game saves are stored)
00000000 to 0007FFFF  The Saturn ROM.
20100000 to 201FFFFF  Hardware locations.

PSX Users
00000000 to 00200000  Two Megabytes of RAM (uncached area)
80000000 to 80200000  Two Megabytes of RAM
                                        (cached area - use this in favour of 00000000).
1F000000 to 1F0?????     External ROM port address.
BFC00000 to BFC?????    ROM address.


PSX Users
You may notice this version is a lot more advanced than the Saturn
version. This is because we had NO development system for the PSX (not even a disassemble!) and so had to develop our own tools from scratch.

14.Upgrading An Action Replay Cartridge to the latest Version

Install and connect the PC, your games console and the Action Replay Cartridge. In the PSX/SATURN directory type UPGRADE at the DOS prompt and follow the on screen prompts. If the upgrade fails have a look at the Trouble Shooting section of this manual.

15.Optimizing your PC

To get the best performance with the Comms software you may wish to try the following.

1. The comms software uses disk access a lot when searching for codes, a disk cache will speed this process up considerably. Ensure you have some form of disk cache running. If in DOS mode (i.e. Not in a Windows DOS shell) then install SMARTDRIVE. If you are in Windows 95 then you will find a disk cache is already on.

2. If in Windows, run the ACTION program full screen and not in a window. Although the program does work perfectly OK in a window it is considerably faster full screen.

3. If you want to scroll faster in the memory editor then try increasing you keyboards repeat and delay rates. To do this either increase then in the Windows 95 keyboard setup (in your systems settings) or type the command "MODE CON RATE=32 DELAY=1" at the DOS prompt before running "ACTION.EXE".

4. Ensure your ISA bus speed is set to its fastest in your machines BIOS. (Some machines do not have this setting).

16.Trouble Shooting

by Leo (Creator of AGSCC)
updated 19/8/98.