Dear Future Gamer

I'd just like to respond to some of the inaccuracies in the article "Cheat Cheat Cheat!" (FG 67/68). Quote: "...it's a short step between hacking and piracy". Your correspondent makes this comment but fails to back it up with anything of substance. In fact, none of Datel's "cheatware" products have ever been designed to play pirated games, and Datel totally condemn illegal software use. If your correspondent visited the busy discussion board at the official Action Replay website (www.codejunkies.com), he would see that anyone who posts messages condoning piracy is banned (this has only happened a couple of times in the past year), and is often flamed by the regular users for good measure.

At Datel, we take a very dim view of software piracy. People have tried to rip off our Action Replay cheat cartridge brand name (see below), so believe me, we know how software companies feel. Quote: "Sony recently removed the serial port on the back of the PS because of the advent of a device for chipping the machine that used it, dooming the Action Replays that used this port to the bin." "Action Replay" is a registered trademark of Datel, and we took legal action last year against UK mail order firms that were illegally selling imported cartridges that abused our brand name. These illegal cartridges from the Far East were often programmed to play copied games. Datel's official Action Replay products are not designed to play imported or pirated games, so I'd rather that your correspondent did not tar us with the same brush by using our Action Replay brand name in the same breath.

As for "dooming... to the bin", is your correspondent not aware of Action Replay CDX for PlayStation? Released in December '99 (and advertised every month in Official PlayStation Magazine), this Datel product is the only videogame enhancer compatible with all PlayStation consoles, including the portless Series 9000 he refers to. Anyone interested in the real world of Action Replay should pay a visit to www.codejunkies.com - newbies are always welcome on the discussion board. Thanks for allowing me to put the record straight.

Grant Hughes, Marketing Manager, Datel Design & Development Ltd

FG: I'm sure Michael Foster in no way meant to associate Datel and its cheatware with piracy or pirated games. Future Gamer understand that the Action Replay is in no way connected with software piracy.