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| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Video games |
| Genre | Third-partyvideo game accessories |
| Founded | 1980; 45 years ago (1980) (as Datel Electronics) |
| Headquarters | Stone,Staffordshire,England,U.K. |
Key people | Mike Connors |
| Products | Video game cheating devices Trainers |
| Brands | Action Replay |
| Website | www |
Datel (/ˈdeɪtɛl/DAY-tel; previouslyDatel Electronics) is a UK-based electronics andgame consoleperipherals manufacturer. The company is best known for producing a wide range of hardware and peripherals forhome computers in the 1980s, for example replacement keyboards for theZX Spectrum, thePlusD disk interface (originally designed and sold byMiles Gordon Technology) and theAction Replay series of video game cheating devices.
Datel was founded by Mike Connors, who still runs the company and was featured in theSunday Times Rich List as one of the UK's top thousand richest people.[1]
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Datel started off selling AMCB radio transceivers in the UK. These AM-band radios were made illegal in the UK and even the importing of them was deemedillegal until 1981. Datel then started to import the CB radios in component form and build them up.
The company started to manufacture products related to home computers that were popular in the 1980s such as theCommodore 64,Amstrad CPC andZX Spectrum. Such devices includedlight pens and memory expansion. One of their first commercial successes was joystick interfaces for the ZX Spectrum.
The greatest commercial success of Datel was theAction Replay, first for the Commodore 64 and then theAmiga. The Commodore 64 version was designed by Richard Bond, with six versions ultimately developed in all. The Amiga version was authored by two German students, Olaf Boehm and Joerg Zanger, who had been inspired by the Commodore 64 version.
The Commodore 64 and Amiga Action Replays included the ability to save the entire contents of ahome computer's memory tofloppy disk orcompact audio cassette, and then to reload very quickly. This proved extremely popular with people, especially when the Commodore 64 could take 20 minutes to load a game from notoriously unreliable tape. It also did not escape people's attention that they could use Action Replays to copy games. The nameAction Replay referred to the fact that could instantly restart a game from the position that had saved it.TheOCP Art Studio painting software was also successful, in part due to the bundledmouse, which was a novelty on 8-bit systems.
Another feature the Amiga and Commodore 64 versions had in common was the ability to addPOKEs, or cheats. They also had a system for finding pokes called a Pokefinder, or trainer.
The rise of theIBM PC and thex86 standard topersonal computer market dominance changed Datel's traditional PC clients' fortunes;Commodore International, maker of Amiga and Commodore 64 computers filed for bankruptcy in 1994,Sinclair was sold toAmstrad in a bid to save its market share, andMiles Gordon Technology, a ZX Spectrum aftermarketaccessory manufacturer sold theirPlusD drive to Datel to finance their strugglingSAM Coupé project.
By the mid-1990s,desktop computers —until then the exclusive medium of3D games— were giving way to anew generation ofpolygon-capable,CD-basedhome consoles. Datel took the Pokes and Pokefinder features of the earlier Action Replays and created Action Replay for the SegaMega Drive. This was followed shortly after by the Action Replay Pro, which used a superior system sometimes referred to as RAM stuffing. This, combined with a built-in Trainer, allowed users to easily find their own codes.
The Action Replay was in competition for some time withCodemasters'Game Genie, which was distributed byGaloob. At first, Codemasters tried to protect the Game Genie as they had filed a patent on cartridge cheat devices. Datel defended this by saying that they had been cheating at games since long before the Game Genie existed. Action Replay improved on the Game Genie's functionality by adding an enable/disable switch. The cheat codes, at the time, were published in a more logical hexadecimal format compared with Codemasters' obfuscated system. This meant that users, along with the trainer, could make their own cheat codes.
Ultimately Codemasters and Galoob dropped the Game Genie entirely leaving Datel as the only cheat device manufacturer in the world.[citation needed]
Datel initially struggled to maintain a presence in the North American market, but in late 1995 they signed a deal with InterAct Accessories. InterAct acquired the rights to production and distribution of Datel's new cheat devices for theSega Saturn andSony PlayStation in North America, allowing Datel's products to reach the major retail chains for the first time.[2]
After numerous unsuccessful attempts at breaking into the sizable US market, Datel found an American partner, InterAct Accessories that was willing to distribute their products under a new name,GameShark. InterAct Accessories madecheat devices for most major consoles from thethird throughseventh generations. The GameShark's success helped InterAct dominate the video game accessory market with 70 percent share,[3] the most successful being the ones for theGame Boy, and thePlayStation 1 and2.
When InterAct's parent company, Recoton was going through financial difficulties, it decided to discontinue the GameShark name and website by the end of September 2002.[4] In January 2003Mad Catz acquired the GameShark brand for $5 million after Recoton went bankrupt. As a result, Datel started sellingAction Replay products directly to the North American market.
In 2003, Datel released theAdvance Game Port as an alternative to theGame Boy Player.[5] In 2004, Datel releasedMaxPlay Classic Games Volume 1, a compilation of games for the GameCube, to negative reception.[6]
In addition to theMax Media Dock line, Datel also makes hard drive add-ons and wireless adapters forPSP,Nintendo DS andWii. There is an activehomebrew community surrounding theMax Media Dock forNintendo DS.
In 2008, the company released the Wii Freeloader, which allowed users to circumventregional lockout on the Wii.[7] However, it was rendered inoperable shortly thereafter on any Wii running firmware 3.3 or later, which targeted unauthorized modifications of the system.[8]
In 2009 the TurboFire was released for the PS3. It has a modified design and offers turbo functions for the buttons. Unlike most aftermarket controllers the TurboFire uses Bluetooth and connects wirelessly to the PS3 without the need for an adapter.
Datel operated the TV station Max TV, on Sky Digital, Channel 675 until its closure in 2010.
In the 1990s,Sony filed a lawsuit inCalifornia court against Datel Electronics and Interact Accessories. Datel had allegedly logged on using Interact Accessories' Sony developer user name and password and accessed official developer software from an IP that resolved to datel.co.uk. The case was settled out of court.
In early 2009, Sony filed a suit against Datel for its Lite Blue Tool. The product was a sequel to the Datel Tool battery, which acted like a Pandora battery which caused a SonyPlayStation Portable (PSP) to enter into Jigkick or Factory programming mode, allowing the execution of the boot code from a removable storage. The Lite Blue Tool compensated for the fact that the new factory mode was encrypted. Datel withdrew this product shortly after action was announced.
On 20 November 2009, Datel filed a legal complaint againstMicrosoft in the Northern District of California for violations of §§1–2 of theSherman Antitrust Act and §3 of theClayton Antitrust Act; for unfair competition; and for tortious interference with prospective economic advantage. In response, Microsoft has filed patent infringement suits over the styling of their wildfire controllers.
In 2012, Sony took Datel to court, claiming that the Action Replay cheat software sold by Datel infringed its copyright. The claim was dismissed by the European Court of Justice on 17 October 2024, who claims that "Datel’s add-ons don't alter source code, but merely changed variables running in the working memory".[9]
