The Complete GameShark Print Advertisement Archive

January 1996: Debuting in January 1996, the first GameShark advert pays homage to Jaws with a playful underwater shot right before tragedy strikes the beach. Although Sony would go on to outsell Sega's 32-bitter by a rate of 10 to 1, this ad mostly focused on Saturn games like Virtua Fighter, Bug and Panzer Dragoon. Note: This is one of the few advertisements that spells “Game Shark” as two words.

February 1996: One month later, Game Shark (still two words) asked an important question: “Can you still call it a game if you can never lose?” InterAct accurately predicted that Daytona USA and Ridge Racer were going to be the big 32-bit launch games, basing their the whole advert around these two iconic racing games. For what it's worth, the answer is yes, you can still call it a game if you can't lose. There are plenty of games you can't lose.

March 1996: One month later, Game Shark (still two words) asked an important question: “Can you still call it a game if you can never lose?” InterAct accurately predicted that Daytona USA and Ridge Racer were going to be the big 32-bit launch games, basing their the whole advert around these two iconic racing games. For what it's worth, the answer is yes, you can still call it a game if you can't lose. There are plenty of games you can't lose.

May 1996: After spending months trying to convince gamers that they'll win more with the Game Shark, InterAct opted for a different approach – eye-catching comedy. Here is a funny ad that compares owning the Game Shark to a dog peeing on a fire hydrant. Is it crude? Absolutely, but it's also memorable. Game Shark promised that, much like the dog with the hydrant, you could do anything you wanted to your favorite game. That's a convincing argument.

June 1996: This is one of the very few single-page Game Shark adverts. While not a particularly interesting nor eye-catching ad, it does list a wider selection of games, including Street Fighter Alpha, Mortal Kombat 3, Road Rash, Alien Trilogy and even unexpected gems like D and X-COM. Once again, this ad shares space with InterAct's other accessories. It also lacks the humor of the previous commercial.

September 1996: Master the game! This is the final ad in what I would consider to be the early days of the Game Shark. This is also the last time InterAct spelled Game Shark as two words. The good news is that it is focused on the cheat device and nothing else, even going as far as to tease a Nintendo 64 accessory and give away a free Game Shark T-shirt. Unfortunately, the layout is boring and the wall full of game titles is simultaneously hard to read and distracting.

January 1997: Forget the dog and fire hydrant, this is InterAct's first great GameShark ad. It's also the first time they spelled GameShark as one word. It's the kind of ad that makes the reader do a double take. Is that a condom ad? No, it's InterAct using the word “unprotected” in a very cheeky way. Honestly, the whole thing is a hilarious send-up of those old condom commercials, right down to a dick joke slogan – “play hard, you're covered.”

April 1997: Three months after taking aim at condom advertisements, GameShark went after ... mental health? This is making a Rorschach test joke, with a very obvious shark blotted in ink. “Stop the insanity,” it screams, arguing that difficult games are driving you crazy enough to see spots. It's the same layout as January's condom ad, but doesn't quite hit as hard. This approach was immediately abandoned in favor of a brand-new campaign.

June 1997: First published in June of 1997, this was the introduction of the Shark People. At first glance, this is a fairly simple ad. It's a picture of a boy with shark teeth clutching a controller. But while it doesn't promise codes for hundreds of games, you'll be hard pressed to get that imagery out of your head. I promise, it will haunt your dreams. There's tiny text that is hard to read, complete with the temporary slogan, “Abuse the Power.”

August 1997: The second Shark People advert takes the concept to the real world, where a family is getting their pictures taken at Sears. Still with the “Abuse the Power” slogan, this commercial is surprisingly dark once you realize that Andy just took a big bite out of Colleen's arm. This is a funny concept, through I'm not sure how effective it was as a GameShark advertisement. It also employs cursive, which means that nobody will be able to read it in 2026.

October 1997: Still with the Shark People campaign, here we see that even senior citizens can be GameShark users. Of the many advertisements that came out during this campaign, this is the most eye-catching and the one that sticks with you. The shark teeth dentures is a funny bit and there are a lot of small details to get fixated on. Note that the shark boy from the August 1997 advert shows up in the background, adding a small bit of continuity.

February 1998: The first new advertisement of 1998 took a short break from the Shark People campaign in order to bring us a girl fight. Knowing the direction GameShark would take later in the year, this feels like a trial run for InterAct's next campaign, featuring cheat codes brought to life. Not just a striking image, this advert attempts to tell a story, albeit simple. It's a bit of a misfit between the Shark People spreads, but still uses the “Abuse the Power” slogan.

April 1998: And we're right back to the Shark People campaign. This is arguably GameShark's worst advertisement so far, and definitely sends the wrong message. Not even cheat codes can make jumping off of a bridge look cool. The colorless New York City skyline doesn't help, nor does the weird shark boy who appears to be lunging right at the reader. Cheat codes and devices are supposed to be fun, but that's not the word I would use for this weirdly morose advert.

July 1998: Only three months after suggesting that kids should jump off of bridges, InterAct returned with a brand new GameShark campaign. This is a fun series where we see common video game cheats recreated in the real world. The first one, which debuted in July 1998, revolved around invincibility. This is demonstrated by a guy with a steel umbrella in a swimming pool during a lightning storm. This gets the point across in a fun and cheeky way.

Auguest 1998: The second cheat code brought to life was inconceivable velocity, which was relatively rare to find as a cheat code, but does make for a fun advert. This time we shift the perspective to somebody who was affected by your reckless cheating. That poor cop just wanted to enjoy his donut, but you speed by at a million miles per hour and ruin his day. This is probably the least interesting of the adverts in this new campaign, but also the most visually striking.

October 1998: Now here's a duo you probably didn't expect to see in a GameShark ad – Richard Nixon and Carmen Miranda. Okay, so they're just Halloween costumes, but what a weird pairing. Perhaps they are there to distract you from the fact that “The Brazilian Bombshell” is handing out bullets to trick ‘r treaters. Note that the kids are dressed up as both Lara Croft and Duke Nukem. This won't be the last time Lara pops up in one of these commercials.

December 1998: Two months after dressing up as Richard Nixon and Carmen Miranda, GameShark gave us real superheroes. This is a fun two-pager that shows how useful having “quick level gain” would be. It's worth mentioning that the wording has changed slightly during this campaign, as the GameShark is now referred to as a “video game enhancer.” This commercial is a little confused about what “quick level gain” means, but that doesn't take anything away from the fun visual.

February 1999: InterAct kicked of the new year with two very true observations – “money is power” and “money runs the world.” In the case of the bank robber, that money proved to be his downfall. But one man's crushing disappointment is somebody else's winning lottery ticket, because here we see a woman (and her adorable pooch) swoop in to steal as much of it as possible. Was she the one who used the cheat or was this some terrible monkey paw scenario where the robber cheating caused his downfall? I guess it's up to interpretation.

April 1999: The final advertisement in this particular campaign brings us ... Elvis? And you thought Richard Nixon and Carmen Miranda were a weird pull. This is advertising the “I See You” cheat, which is supposed to make it easier to find enemies and targets in game. This is probably the funniest of the six ads, playing into the lore that Elvis loved peanut butter and banana sandwiches. I like the idea that The King of Rock ‘n Roll was just hiding out behind a bush, still sporting his iconic sunglasses. This particular campaign ended far too early for my taste. It should have been renewed for another year.

May 1999: As the 1990s drew to a close, GameShark decided to jettison the comedy in favor of sex appeal. This advert from May 1999 suggests that if you ride the GameShark elevator, you're probably going to get laid. You can see it right there on the panel – we start with a big head and move up to unlimited stamina, quick level gain, hidden characters and then, as the picture suggests, the home team scores. This type of elevator probably doesn't need an attendant, but I suppose two attractive women is better than one.

June 1999: Make no mistake about it, this GameShark ad is sending a message. “You're a player,” it says. “Smooth, suave and skilled.” But apparently not skilled in upgrading a car, because a sexy lady needs to be doing something in the commercial. Clearly developed after somebody watched a James Bond marathon, this ad wants you to feel like you're in the shoes of an international man of mystery. But watch out, super spy, because I've seen enough Bond movies to know that you can't trust that raven-haired lady working on your car. She has a missile in her hand, and you don't want to know what's in that drink.

August 1999: The third and final entry in this particular campaign, here we see a spa scenario where a couple of attractive women service our suave hero. The most interesting (and relevant) bit is the mixologist, creating the perfect cocktail out of bottles marked with various types of cheat codes, like invisibility, health restore and bulletproof mode. This is clearly targeting a slightly older audience that wants a more adult experience.

October 1999: After using attractive women and comedy to sell their “video game enhancer,” InterAct opted for something far simpler – a $10 coupon. That's it. There's no funny wordplay or wish fulfillment here, just a coupon you can cut out and redeem at Kmart. With no actors or sets (or shark teeth), this is easily the most straight-forward advertisement we're going to be looking at. Boring? Absolutely, but also effective. Everybody loves a coupon.

October 1999: In the same month that gave players a $10 off coupon for GameShark, InterAct also introduced us to the first of four SharkWire Online advertisements. This was a GameShark that you could hook into the internet, giving you email, game saves, codes, strategies and even music news, for some reason. It also gave us a new slogan: “Suddenly, you know too much.” The more interesting element of this advert is the bit where they say the SharkWire is “not approved, endorsed or sponsored by Nintendo,” a clear nod to the first-party interference we saw with not only the Game Genie and Pro Action Replay, but also the GameShark.

January 2000: InterAct started the year 2000 by making sure that everybody knew they saw the 1991 blockbuster, Terminator 2: Judgment Day. That's the movie they're describing in this second SharkWire Online advertisement. The layout is largely the same, only now with a movie reference. Given that it's January 2000, you would think that The Matrix would have been a more recent (and relevant) movie to reference when talking about the internet-ready SharkWire, especially since Neo literally uses cheats to defeat an army of Agent Smiths. Missed opportunity.

February 2000: Playing into the paranoia of hackers, this third advert in the “Suddenly, you know too much” campaign feels like it was thrown together at the very last second, after a night full of rejected ideas. So far, InterAct has compared their Shark brand new spies, superheroes and even bank robbers, so it was only a matter of time before they landed on hacker. The idea that you're using a Nintendo 64 to “hack” is clever, but is this advertisement funny? I'll let you be the judge of that.

March 2000: The fourth and final SharkWire Online advertisement features the beautiful Lara Croft. More importantly, this is the first Shark-related advertisement to use a cheat code as a punchline. Is it the world's funniest joke? No, of course not. But after the blanks the SharkWire ads have been shooting, this Tomb Raider bit hits hard. It's also worth noting that InterAct was no stranger to Lara, having already released an official line of Tomb Raider memory cards.

May 2000: This two-pager doesn't fit into any of InterAct's previous campaigns. In fact, it really looks like two completely different advertisements. The one on the left is announcing a GameShark variation for the just-released Dreamcast, while the one on the right uses comic book imagery to sell people on GameShark's brand-new website. To make matters more confusing, InterAct has reverted back to the “Abuse the Power” slogan, something we hadn't seen since August 1999. They even worked the “abuse the power” phrasing into the fake pull quote. This ad is disjointed and unfocused, which may explain why we never saw it again.

June 2000: Another advertisement for the GameShark website, this time with a new slogan – “Explore Uncharted Waters.” This is one of the few slogans that actually leans into the shark-theme, but don't get too attached, because this is the only time InterAct uses it. Visually, this is a big departure from all of GameShark's prior advertising, though I like the way the cheat code ocean looks and feel that it does a good job of setting up future GameShark 2 campaigns. Let's see how they follow this up.

July 2000: Only one month after telling us to “Explore Uncharted Waters,” GameShark takes a hard right turn and uses celebrities to sell their “video game enhancer.” At least, I think Gina Savage and Nikki Sharpe are celebrities. It honestly doesn't matter, because they are really here to trot out not only the new “Play With Us” slogan, but also the fact that “somebody's about to get lucky.” Not exactly subtle.

September 2000: Of all the famous movie actors I expected to see in a GameShark ad, I have to admit that Michael Clarke Duncan was low on the list. Hot off of The Green Mile and The Whole Nine Yards, MCD took time out of his busy schedule to hawk a cheat device. Weird, but then again, he lent his voice to two different video games in 2000 -- Soldier of Fortune and Star Trek: Klingon Academy. In case you're wondering, Michael is 6'5” tall. Yes, that's “big,” but wouldn't it have made more sense to make that point with a 7-foot-tall basketball player?

October 2000: The final advert in the “Play With Us” campaign brings together six of the most extreme athletes this side of the X-Games. We have Todd Richards, Carey Hart, Dave Mirra and Barrett Christy, who is referred to here as one of the “guys” we want to crush. This third iteration on the campaign adds the EXTREME (!) phrase “Go Big or Go Home,” which got a big groan out of me when I first saw it. It's worth noting that GameShark stuck with this advertisement throughout the 2000 holiday season, waiting six months to come up with a new campaign.

April 2001: Technically speaking, this is not a GameShark ad. InterAct kept the “Play With Us” slogan, but ditched basically everything else. Here we see an urban neighborhood where everybody is playing games with InterAct accessories, like the Game Boy Advance light or the PlayLine link cables. This is one of two InterAct commercials where the GameShark is practically hidden, like a Where's Waldo book. Can you find the tiny Shark?

August 2001: When it came to selling people on the GameShark 2, InterAct went back to their first great advertisement – the infamous condom commercial. Now, four years later, the follow-up advert takes aim at Viagra commercials, promising the ability to “take control of the world around you.” They make the usual E.D. jokes, like “premature annihilation,” “arsenal dysfunction” and “stunted progression,” before eventually tying it into cheating with the GameShark 2. It's not as funny as the condom spot, but I do appreciate the attempt.

October 2001: The second in the Where's Waldo-style InterAct advertisement. This one juxtaposes a police line-up with a football team. The criminals are holding up Xbox accessories, while the clean-cut athletes are Team GameCube. Let's not read too much into that. Similar to the April 2001 advert, the only mention of the GameShark is a tiny logo hidden within the artwork. Can you find it?

January 2002: No jokes, celebrities or sex appeal, this January 2002 spot goes back to the basics. The GameShark 2 promises to “unlock hidden characters,” “dominate with infinite health,” “demolish with infinite ammo” and allow you to “buy anything.” All it wants to do is help you beat the game. That's it. Also, while you're getting a GameShark 2, consider the SharkPort, the SharkBoard, the SharkDrive and the SharkHub.

May 2002: And we're back to the “Play With Us” slogan, something we haven't seen since October 2000. Now, two years later, it's being used in a much different way. In fact, this is a darker, more somber advertisement than we're used to. It's part of a muli-page spread that highlighted some of InterAct's other products. “We are one with the game,” the advertisement posits, giving you the briefest of glimpses of the GameShark. I miss the days when the GameShark was pretending to be a condom.

October 2002: The final GameShark advertisement may have come out in 2002, but it feels like a relic of 1997. That's right, it's another one of those Shark People. If not for the boy clutching a GameCube controller, I would have guessed this came from the 1997 photo shoot. This is still part of the Play With Us campaign, though the advert asks if you “Wanna Beat the Game?” so much that you might mistake that for being the slogan. This final advertisement shows a company that had run out of ideas. It truly was the end of an era.