The Game Shark
by InterAct Accessories, Inc
Rating: *** out of 5

I could hardly contain my excitement when the Game Shark finally hit the
store shelf. I snatched up the only copy for $64.99. The Game Shark is a
menu driven game enhancer that will make life easier on those who want to
get at all the cheats, or "enhancements" without going through all the
magazines from month to month looking for the latest offerings. The
excitement died down as soon as I got home and plugged it in. It came
preinstalled with several dozen codes, which is nice, but there are various
problems that I'll mention later. You can store up to 9999 codes and that
should take care of the most die-hard gamer for awhile. The unit itself
plugs into the parallel port on the back of the PlayStation and has a
25-pin D-shell connector on it's back side as if it can be used as a
pass-thru device for future add-ons. Who knows why you would have a
different type parallel port connection than what's built into the
PlayStation and why the manual makes no mention of it.

On to the problems.

My PlayStation freezes on the black PlayStation screen about 1 in every 6
or 7 starts with the Game Shark in but rarely without it. When it does
work, the Game Shark screen pops up with the bottom line cut off on my 19"
TV. The menu is pretty simple and using the Game Shark is somewhat tedious
but it is straight forward. The box says "Easily programmable with new
codes" but doesn't say that only Game Shark codes will work. If you're
hoping to add your own codes, forget it. And of course the only way to get
their codes is to pay for it (for the most part). You have four choices: A
900 line at $1.29 per minute, an 8 issue subscription to their tipsheet
newsletter for $12 a year, a one year membership to their WWW site for $17,
or they will randomly place codes in different gaming magazines every
month. Obviously, the last option isn't really much of an option if you're
looking for specific codes. To top it off, I went through the latest issues
of EGM, EGM2, Next Generation, GamePro, Gamefan, PC Entertainment,
Cybersports, P.S.X., and Dimension PS-X without finding a single code,
although most had an ad for the Game Shark. Hopefully, the code campaign
really starts next month. I had heard rumors that you could use the Game
Shark as a second memory card as well, but the directions make no mention
of this and I can't get any game to acknowledge it as such. I've also read
of problems on the net where entering the wrong code will screw up the unit
requiring a memory erase but I've been unable to confirm that. Going to
their WWW site, they don't even tease you with a few codes to encourage you
to join up and furthermore, I had connection problems with the site itself.
E mail to them bounced back to me. I only attribute these problems to
growing pains just because I want this thing to succeed.

The bottom line is that I think the Game Shark is something that has huge
potential and that's why I bought it. The newsletter deal isn't that bad
and it offers some other goodies, but I hope that InterAct has ALL the
codes you would find normally in your favorite mag as well as those
developer exclusives. And I'm sure someone will be posting a code or two
somewhere on the net. I feel InterAct is serious about providing the best
for us gamers and I hope to turn this bittersweet taste in my mouth to pure
sugar once my first newsletter lands in the mailbox.

Mike
worm@burgoyne.com