Famicom Dojo Podcast: A History of Console Region Locking

by Sean "TheOrange" Corse, filed in Famicom Dojo Podcast, Podcasts on Jul.15, 2011

Region locking is nothing new. It hasn’t taken many different forms, but wasn’t always deliberate either. Many handhelds were exempt from this scheme for the longest time (including the Game Boy and DS series), but with time all things change. SeanOrange and Vinnk discuss the very state of affairs that necessitates the existence of organizations like Operation Rainfall, how they came to be, and where they might go from here.

Direct Link: Famicom Dojo Podcast 09: A History of Console Region Locking

Get a complete rundown of console region lockouts in the show notes:
http://famicomdojo.tv/podcast/9

Also, another Rebel in Japan! “An Open Letter to Nintendo” is only available on
http://famicomdojo.tv. Why not head over there now and take a listen?

Get a sweet discount on the Famicom Dojo Season 1 DVD if you use promo code “NOSHAME”!
http://famicomdojo.tv/store/fdojos1.php

Tags: 3DO, Atari, CD-I, Famicom, Genesis, Jaguar, Lynx, Master System, Mega CD, Mega Drive, Neo Geo, Neo Geo CD, NES, Nintendo, Nintendo 64, Operation Rainfall, PC Engine, Pippin, Playdia, PS3, Sega, Sega CD, SNES, Super Famicom, TurboGrafx-16, Wii, Wii U, Xbox, Xbox 360

http://www.famicomdojo.tv/ Sean “TheOrange” Corse

Sorry that comments weren’t working for the first few days this podcast was up. All fixed now! 😀
Juliuscaesar444

Genesis model 2 can not play megadrive games due to inclusion of lockout chip(which locks out older Genesis games as well)

I figure from what you say model 3 are similar to model 1

Neo-geo AES are region free, and code for all three regions is included
on all consoles as well as the code for the MVS version, and the other
way around as well.� By replacing the bios with a UniBios(which can be
easy or hard depending if you AES has a socketed Bios or one soldered to
the board), you can set your aes to act as any region as well as a
MVS.� As for the cartridge there are form adapter, but are only
captiable with 90-95% of mvs games(mostly latter snk-playmore titles
don’t work). Also ealier(and cheaper) adapters can also damage the
cartridge if care is not given.�

http://www.famicomdojo.tv/ Sean “TheOrange” Corse

The Genesis 3 has a lot of removed hardware from the previous two models — which includes any lockout chips, as well as the backwards-compatible hardware that allows you to use the Sega Power Base Converter to play Master System games. Sad, but true! (Check out our video about it: http://famicomdojo.tv/season2/sega-power-base-converter).

I hear ya on the Model 1, though — but you need to widen the cart slot. That’s not so much complicated as it is time-consuming and damaging to the console.

On the other hand, the Model 1 has the best sound chip, and I believe the only one capable of stereo sound without something like the 32x or Sega CD hooked up.

Juliuscaesar444

oops, didn’t add the beginning of� my post:

Genesis model 1 can play megadrive games with physical modification to
the system, with the exception of games that poll the processor on
software side(Shining Force 2 is a good example)
http://twitter.com/silverstaripper Josh

You forgot the PS2 in the notes as well. It’s region locked :[ but fixed with physical mods, softmods with boot disks, and I’ve seen USB mods but I think that only works with the original disk tray model and has to use a HDD.

Anonymous

Yeah, I knew we forgot something. �That was a hard system to mod.

Crade Lit

In otherwords, we can’t have good games from 20 years ago�here because copyright laws are retarded.

Even if you view retarded copyright laws as a “reason”, I still think�many of the�”reasons for region locks” may be a “chicken�or the egg” type deal anyway.

Sony�has made it pretty obvious they want to�make themselves as hated as possible and DRM themselves into the ground.� Most likely the Vita will look like it’s region free and when they have sold a bunch of them they will release an update that will automatically install and region lock them.� People will cry foul and Sony will go “what?� the hackers made me do it”

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Famicom Dojo Podcast: A History of Console Region Locking

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