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Joe Randel
91th Post

Occasional Customer

"Dreamcast question..." , posted Thu 12 Feb 08:07

I while back I was in the position to buy a european or a japanese DC. My question is this. What are the localization lockouts like on these DC's? Could I play Japanese games on the euro one or vise versa? Can I play euro games on the the north american one?

Replies:

Radish

2225th Post

Platinum Carpet V.I.P- Board Master

"Re(1):Dreamcast question..." , posted Thu 12 Feb 08:18

quote:
I while back I was in the position to buy a european or a japanese DC. My question is this. What are the localization lockouts like on these DC's? Could I play Japanese games on the euro one or vise versa? Can I play euro games on the the north american one?

My advise would be to buy a cheap Dreamcast from Babbages then get one of those discs that let's you do the swap trick.

You can't play euro games on the US dreamcast, but I'm fairly sure you can use the generic import disc to get those to work,.

OmegaDog

1081th Post

Red Carpet Premium Member

"Re(1):Dreamcast question..." , posted Thu 12 Feb 08:33:

[EDIT: Gah -- Radish beat me to it.]

There are free homebrew boot disks on the 'net that very-easily allows people to play most games from different regions. Been a while since I grabbed one, so I wouldn't exactly remember where. [EDIT: Yeah, so you boot that disc, wait for a screen, then open the cover and swap it for the import you wanna play.]

You might have to worry about NTSC/PAL TV-standard (even electronics-standard?) compatibility; though at least the European Shenmue II and Rez play fine on North American consoles (and I would assume Japanese consoles too). Folks here who actually own European hardware/software might be able to elaborate.

[Really] off to class!

"I must pay for my past sins... Let's fight!""I have no choice. You will lose!" | CCT: NEXT STAGE IS 16 |

[this message was edited by OmegaDog on Thu 12 Feb 08:42]

Ammadeau

721th Post

Red Carpet Regular Member

"Re(2):Dreamcast question..." , posted Thu 12 Feb 20:38

quote:
[EDIT: Gah -- Radish beat me to it.]
You might have to worry about NTSC/PAL TV-standard (even electronics-standard?) compatibility;

There's very few DC titles that you have to worry about this. The only one I know of is the PAL version of Skies of Arcadia, which doesn't support NTSC. All European exclusive titles support NTSC.

Both of my DCs are modded so no boot discs for me. :)

Kaepora

297th Post

Copper Customer

"Re:Dreamcast question..." , posted Thu 12 Feb 20:58

Did Utopia (or whatever the big one is now) ever add VGA support? I was looking for a replacement for my flaky DC-X last year and was disappointed that I couldn't find one that supported high-res video display.

(The DC-X seemed to sense that I was about to toss it out and has worked perfectly since, oddly enough...)

Jigsaw
106th Post

Regular Customer

"Re(1):Re:Dreamcast question..." , posted Fri 13 Feb 05:50

Keep in mind that PAL DCs can force some NTSC games (and even 60Hz compatible PAL games, I think) to run in 50Hz... which is sort of strange, seeing as those games weren't supposed to even run on 50Hz consoles to begin with. Anyway, the result is that the games run like 17% slower than they should. This doesn't apply to all NTSC games, but it's good to know. So, if you're planning to play Japanese or American games, I wouldn't recommend getting a European DC.

tweleve
135th Post

Regular Customer

"Re(2):Re:Dreamcast question..." , posted Sat 14 Feb 06:04

To get the best game compatibility:

a) You're better off with an NTSC (US or Japanese) DC than a PAL DC.
b) Use a boot disc like DC-X or XPloder.
c) Use a VGA monitor, RGB TV or both.

00100.01001.00101

Joe Randel
92th Post

Occasional Customer

"Re(3):Re:Dreamcast question..." , posted Sat 14 Feb 11:55

wow... this is all great info. I actually have a US DC right now but I'm interested in getting Shenmue 2 and/or Vampire Chronicles so I was just wondering what direction to take but if I can just use my current DC with a boot disk then all the better. Thanks everyone :)