Gaming Sharploder ?!??!

[skagon]

Can anyone knowledgeable please tell me, for the love of God, what is this thing in the photos?



Looks like Xploder, has an Xploder box, but... inside... there's a shark lurking.
So... did they buy out Gameshark? Or is it just some kid that decided to play a prank?
Any info would be most welcome!

 

[bobmcjr]

That appears to be a regular GBA gameshark. Unless it has any places to plug in the included cables, it is most likely identical to mine and not a GBA Xploder.

 

[skagon]

...the thing that baffles me, though, is that the plastic insert is also shaped like the Gameshark "doughnut"; it does not look like someone just got an Xploder box and threw in a Gameshark...
Now, I have no idea about the history of these two companies, but... could it be that, say, the creators of Xploder bought Gameshark and re-branded their remaining stock? Or the opposite?

 

[bobmcjr]

Xploder=CodeBreaker apparently which is not gameshark.

The foam case that fits the gameshark should not exist. That style gameshark was always sold in clear plastic packaging. No idea.

 

[syrusch]

Gameshark was the name for Datel Action Replay in the US. It was a brand from Interact. Now it's a a Mad Catz brand. So Gameshark GBA is an Action Raplay.

 

[skagon]

My question was not "what is gameshark", but what is that thing I see in the photos.
In any case, I bought it and even though it's a GameShark doughnut-shaped cartridge, its ROM has "Xploder" logos all over. Obviously, the box is "Xploder"-branded as well, as the photos show.
I still have no idea how that happened. Maybe the creators of Xploder got their hands on some surplus GameShark cartridges and decided to reprogram the ROM?

 

[Foxi4]

It's most definitely a repurposed Gameshark shell, how that came to be is anyone's guess. You're not the first to come across this, I found this thread with a dongle identical to yours that also came in an XPLODER case:

Spoiler

 

[tbgtbg]

Didn't MadCatz's Gameshark use Xploder instead of Action Replay as a base the way Interact's Gameshark did?