DS hackers get tooled up by Datel

Only a cup of coffee ago we told you about Datel's Action Replay DS device, which will enable you to cheat your way to victory.

Now we've news of a potentially more potent piece of technology coming from Datel – its 'Trainer Toolkit'. This will enable tech-savvy DS owners to create their own Action Replay DS codes – and also, we suspect, much more.

The trainer toolkit is basically a commercial version of Datel's own software that it uses to create arm the Action Replays with the latest cheat codes. Datel claims it will be shipping the trainers toolkit with all such professional features in place.

The company has not yet announced a price or even a release date – it says it doesn't want to 'disappoint' customers, although if the software is already being used in-house it wouldn't seem a great leap to make it more widely-available. What's perhaps more interesting is whether putting such technology into the public domain will re-invigorate the DS homebrew scene, which is arguably lagging behind that of PSP.

Here are some other questions and answers to keep our hackier readers frothing until we hear more – as given by Datel's Ian Osborne.

Does Action Replay DS include any game-training features?

No. For reasons obvious to anyone who's been involved in hacking over the last few years, game-training functionality is not something that the majority of Action Replay DS users will want or need. Additionally, because the trainer requires another piece of hardware (known as the Dev board) which runs in the GBA port on the DS, inclusion in Action Replay DS would have pushed the price up considerably and meant that we could not offer Action Replay DS at the fantastic value £19.99/$24.99 price point

What features will Trainer Toolkit include?

The Trainer Toolkit will be available as a boxed product including:

• 'Dev-board' card which inserts into the GBA port on the DS – including a high-speed USB 2.0 port for rapid dumping of memory (a full 4Mb dump takes around 20 seconds, subsequent searches can take only a couple of seconds).
• 'Game Trainer' PC software CD.
• Action Replay DS 'Trainer Card' which inserts into the DS cartridge.

Action Replay DS Game Trainer features:

• Intelligent search with all standard expressions (equal to, not equal to, greater than, less than, inside range, outside range, incremented by etc) against previous values or a defined value.
• Limit search to specified memory range.
• Multiple search types (8, 16, 32, 64bit and floating point).
• Search history window with full 'rollback' to any search result.
• Text search, find & replace.
• Add and save search areas.
• Whole projects can be saved and reloaded.
• Add codes to the 'Run-list' - a built in Action Replay engine so that you can test your codes real-time.
• 'Poke' values 'one time' to addresses in RAM.
• All code types (16, 32bit etc.) can be run simultaneously in the Run-list.
• 'Watch locations' window.
• Disassembly view.
• Hex view (with real time auto-refresh).
• Upload and download binaries.
• Update trainer firmware.
• Wizard based 'Beginner Mode' for people new to the scene.

How hard is it to hack Action Replay DS codes using Trainer Toolkit?

Those new to hacking will obviously find the learning curve a lot steeper but not inaccessible. The official release of Trainer Toolkit will include full documentation and tutorials on how to get into this fascinating scene and as ever, forums and websites around the world will be available to offer support to newcomer hackers.

The 'Trainer Toolkit' software even includes a 'Beginner Mode' wizard which performs intuitive step-by-step comparison searches Having read the tutorial documentation a first-time 'hacker' is likely to be able produce their first basic codes like 'Infinite Ammo' or 'Infinite Lives' within a few minutes. Of course, creating those 'killer' codes is a totally different story requiring an in depth understanding of how games work and can be hacked that can only come from years of experience. The road is long but it certainly starts with Trainer Toolkit.

Do Action Replay DS codes require an (m) code?

The Action Replay DS code engine has been designed to work without an (m) code being required and the vast majority of games will not need one. There may be exceptions but essentially (m) codes are not required.

Are Action Replay DS codes encrypted?

No. Action Replay DS uses codes in a completely open 'address and value' format, even the distribution format for the codes, XML, is unencrypted and not protected (using # / CRC etc) so codes and codelists can be modified in a text editor like Notepad and so on, and they will work perfectly when copied across to the Action Replay DS cartridge using the Action Replay Code Manager PC application.

How can I share my Action Replay DS codes?

Action Replay DS was designed with the existence of Trainer Toolkit in mind and as such features the most flexible and robust functionality for using codes from a wide range of sources. Action Replay Code Manager PC software includes the ability for users to drag-and-drop Action Replay codes (as XML files) into the application and even subscribe to code providers as 'RSS' style code 'feeds'.

You can use the Game Trainer PC software to automatically generate codelists in this XML format which you can host on your website. Visitors can download these XML files and drag-and-drop them into their Action Replay Code Manager and straight onto their DS cartridge.

Action Replay DS codes and codelists are un-encrypted and make sense to the naked eye, therefore the codelist XML can easily be generated by hand in Notepad if desired.

For prolific hackers or groups of hackers, create 'top level' XML feeds and provide a link to the feed on your site. Visitors can then add the link to their Action Replay Code Manager software (subscribing to your feed) and they will be able to always access your most up to data codelists from inside Action Replay Code Manager.