The Xplorer FX adds a multitude of enhancements to your PSX. It allows you to use cheat cartridge -- type game codes, hold up to 10,000 of them, and it comes with hundreds already pre-loaded. The Xplorer FX also allows you to interact with your PSX using a computer. With a printer cable and the free downloadable software, you can save screenshots and your saved games to your hard drive. However, if you?re not interested in saving screen shots, you might not even need to hook it up to your computer -- for backing up your saved games, there?s a utility that acts like a ?vault? and will store copies of your saved games inside the FX. When you want to use it again, just dump it back to a memory card and Voila! -- reconstituted ?save game.? Want to make your OWN cheat codes? No problem! The Xplorer FX lets you stop a game IN PROGRESS and use the game trainer to hunt down possible code locations, and then lets you set the value to whatever you choose and return to the game in progress. Whereas the Xploder Professional has the ?X-Assist? which is used to search for codes, the Xplorer FX lets you use a controller to select options from on-screen menus while the game is frozen in the background. This (by definition) is ?sweet.?
That?s it, right? Nope -- the FX also grabs sound samples. You play a game for a while, then reset and go back to the Xplorer FX multimedia menu and choose sound playback, and you can listen to various sounds captured from the game. You can even change their pitch! There?s also a feature which allows you to view stationary image files from a PSX game. Music CDs? Yep, the FX has an audio player that looks great and allows you to choose different types of display you want for the output. Furthermore, the Xplorer FX also has the ability to be upgraded at a later date, via upgrade CDs or memory cards from Blaze, so they might improve it even AFTER you get it... and you won?t miss out!!! My suggestion? If you have a serial port on your PlayStation, you need to have an Xplorer FX.