The Nintendo 64 received a fair share of various cheat devices, mostly thanks to UK based Datel, who just kept pumping out cheat cartridges of all sorts to the poor N64 owners. Way back in 1997, in the Nintendo 64's
early years, Datel launched a product called "Game Killer" which actually was their first N64 cartridge to hit the market. While the title sounds like something that would be bad for your game cartridge, I think
it's safe to say that this thing will definately not kill your game, what it will do however is kill your save games, so make sure those are backed up elsewhere!

With a retail price of $39.99 (£24.99) the Game Killer was going to offer a unique use of "Smart Cards" with updates and it would offer built-in cheats that would enable for levels to be skipped, highscores to be
reached easily, assists in finding hidden characters and so on, at least that what IGN wrote back in January 1997. But fact is that the Game Killer is not really a cheat device like any other. What it does offer is a
preloaded number of actual save games, a grand total of six to be precise.
What the device will do is that it will copy its own save game onto your game cartridge, and thereby opening up levels and such, but the result is that it also will be removing your own save game, so yeah this thing
can be described as a (save) game killer!
You won't be able to add cheats such as invincibility and such to your game, you only get what Datel generated for you in the savegames. But what if your favourite game doesn't even feature saving on the actual
cartridge? well don't expect the Game Killer to offer anything for your game then. There's really not much else to do with the Game Killer than loading a save game and you're done, you won't even need the Game Killer
again for that specific game, unless you want to re-load the Datel save game of course.
As said the device only comes with 6 save games available. But unlike any other cheat device that i know of, the Game Killer includes a Smard Card port on the back which would allow Datel to release "Killer Cards"
with new save games on credit card like cards. With that said though I have never seen any of these Killer Cards anywere and I'm pretty sure the Game Killer itself had a very short life, cause the idea was crap
in my oppinion.
The device has no GUI that can be used to load the save games, instead a button has to be pressen from 1 to 6 times, maybe more if more games were available(?), and the save will then be written to the N64 cartridge
which piggybacks the Game Killer.
I managed to find my copy at an Italian website and the manual is therefore in Italian, but with a little help from a piece of OCR software and Google Translate I have been able to translate and rewrite the small
manual a little and it's available below along with some screenshots.

Please note that the following manual is a translation from Italian and there might be a few errors left.
INSTRUCTION MANUAL
Use of the Killer Game cartridge for the Nintendo 64 may not be easy for everyone, therefore please read the following instructions:
- Make sure your Nintendo 64 console is turned off.
- Place the Game Killer cartridge in the game cartridge slot and make sure the cart label is facing you.
- Insert the game cartridge for which you want to use the tricks on to the top of the Game Killer.
- Turn on the Nintendo 64.
- The LED on the Game Killer will flash once to indicate that the cartridge is awaiting instructions.
- Press the button on the Game Killer the number of times corresponding to the trick you want to use.
To do this you must refer to the table below.
SUPER MARIO 64 | Press 1 time |
MARIO KART 64 | Press 2 times |
PILOTWINGS 64 | Press 3 times |
WAVE RACE | Press 4 times |
CRUIS'N USA | Press 5 times |
STAR WARS | Press 6 times |
Wait until the red LED lights permanently. The waiting time is approximately 10-20 seconds.
TO ENABLE TRICKS PRESS THE RESET BUTTON ON THE NINTENDO 64.
At this point the tricks have been added, now simply activate or use the following the procedure on the individual games.
SUPER MARIO 64
In Mario 64 will simply press START and then choose which of the 2
tricks to use. The first starts with you the first 7 levels and the second with the complere game. Can you find Yoshi?

MARIO KART 64
First admire the new title screen!
Start the game and choose any mode Grand Prix. You will notice a new option, the "Extra" engine option. Choosing this option you'll be able to play the tracks in the mirror mode (reversed).


PILOTWINGS 64
Load the first saved game (File 1). Now you have the highest scores on each path and
moving the cursor to the right you can compete on additional routes.

WAVE RACE
With these tricks you can access all slopes including The Twilight City and Glacier Coast, you can also ride a dolphin.
To ride the dolphin you must choose the mode WARM UP in CHAMPIONSHIP and during the selection of the bike hold the stick pointing
down and press START.
The new routes will be selected by TIME TRIAL.


CRUIS'N USA
You can choose between 3 saved games called Game X, Y or Z. When one of the saves is chosen
you can get to drive either a Jeep, a bus or a police car.


STAR WARS: SHADOW OF THE EMPIRE
After pressing START to choose the game called "Force" and you have access to any level with 256 lives.

On the back of the Game Killer there expansion port which can be used for SMART CARDS containing new collections of tricks for the latest games.
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