Just how powerful is a gameshark?

[Cronic]

For instance... Would a Gameshark allow you to replace one character model with another? Or can it control such things as character models themselves? I've seen some impressive stuff from it (FF7's Debug mode is the shit ;) ) but would it be capable of replacing Raiden with Snake on the Plant chapter of Substance?

[Lone Wolf]

Uumm, hrm, I doubt it, but maybe....Usually Gameshark can tap things that were previuosly suppose to be in the game or your common cheats to help you beat it, or unlock hidden things, ect.

[Dark Nation]

It might be possible to do that. There is probably a variable in MGS2 that determines what character plays in each episode. Change that variable and you can change the character.

[AtmaWeapon]

The only problem I would see with that is there may be a large portion of code in the initialization of each level that loads all of the character animations. It would certainly be possible to have a different character, but it may be necessary to put in something like 200 different codes.

[MottZilla]

All gameshark does is change memory addresses. It would be possible, if you prehacked your own code in, to make codes to have the same effect, but it would be alot of lines to enter.

Gameshark is really meant for small things. Unlocking parts of code that were disabled (FF7 Debug) and tweaking things (making sephiroth playable in FF7), and plain out cheating (infinite hp).

You'd be better off disasembling the game and hacking it, then reburning it. And actually, you could do JUST that fairly easy to MGS2 Substance on Xbox, as it's all x86 code. Anyways. What were you hoping for DC?

[Cronic]

I was just more or less hoping to switch "costumes" more or less. For instance instead of being stuck as Raiden in the plant chapter I could be Snake... which is a variable seeing as how Snake appears in the shell during the extra missions... or at the very least being able to play Snake's part on the Tanker with say the Tuxedo or replacing Raiden's skin with the Ninja Raiden.

[MottZilla]

Yes I'm most certain that is possible. Check any gameshark code site. I bet it's all over. It's fairly easy to make a character code cheat. Look at resident evil. ;p

Anyways, I don't know if they make gameshark for Xbox yet, so you may have to use your ps2 and get a shark.

[El Oso Verde]

Yeah, the only next gen system that has a gameshark right now is the PS2.
Unfortunately MGS2:substance isn't out yet for it, so you're out of luck for now.
I don't anticipate a gameshark being made for X-box due to Microsoft's outlook on such things. They seem to be pretty strict when it comes to modding and hacking when it comes to the X-box.

[MottZilla]

Yup. But that doesn't mean they can't make one. I believe Gameshark for PS is totally unlicensed.

[El Oso Verde]

I just think Microsoft might go ballistic if they do make one. The sh** sure hit the fan when MS found out about X-box mod chips, and they'll probably consider the Gameshark a threat as well for god knows what reason.

[Tygore]

Nintendo sued over Game Genie (remember those?) a long time ago. The Genie stayed in, though left later for some reason.

[KJAZZ]

I have a Game Genie for my SNES still..ahh, the fun of messing with Super Mario World..;)

[MottZilla]

Game Genie stopped probably because it wasn't paying off after competition started, i.e. pro action replay.