The company is best known for producing a wide range of hardware and peripherals for home computers in the 1980s, for example replacement keyboards for the ZX Spectrum, the PlusD disk interface (originally designed and sold by Miles Gordon Technology) and the Action Replay series of video game cheating devices.

Datel was founded by Mike Connors, who still runs the company and was featured in the Sunday Times Rich List as one of the UK's top thousand richest people.

The company started to manufacture products related to home computers that were popular in the 1980s such as the Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC and ZX Spectrum.

The Commodore 64 and Amiga Action Replays included the ability to save the entire contents of a home computer's memory to floppy disk or compact audio cassette, and then to reload very quickly.

The OCP Art Studio painting software was also successful, in part due to the bundled mouse, which was a novelty on 8-bit systems.

The rise of the IBM PC and the x86 standard to personal 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 to Amstrad in a bid to save its market share, and Miles Gordon Technology, a ZX Spectrum aftermarket accessory manufacturer sold their PlusD drive to Datel to finance their struggling SAM Coupé project.

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.

[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.

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.

As a result, Datel started selling Action Replay products directly to the North American market.

[6] In addition to the Max Media Dock line, Datel also makes hard drive add-ons and wireless adapters for PSP, Nintendo DS and Wii.