Dreamcast Region Issues

Entry posted by satan165 July 25, 2010

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So being the obsessive collector that I am, many eons ago I took it upon myself to collect all light guns I considered relevant to my own dusty video game museum and historically, in general.

The Dreamcast has a contentious background when it comes to light guns. Some have theorized it was due to the Columbine massacre occurring sometime around the Dreamcast release, but they only released their light gun overseas. As a result, the gun (if you can source one from outside North America) will only work with PAL or NTSC-J games. Later, Mad Catz and other third-party suppliers released their own guns, compatible with the North American software.

The problem is this: I have long played the PAL versions as ripped, pirated and quite illegal copies of the original game. Well this does not jive with the Twin Galaxies standards for game submissions, nor should it. Honestly, I could probably sneak them by the referee's but I encountered a real roadblock with 'Confidential Mission' in which the pirates put their stupid IRC channel name into the splash screen. Otherwise the game is identical. I wasn't going to try and slip it past the ref so I put down some more cash to buy a used, retail version of the game. While I was at it, I went for House of the Dead II as well since I plan to submit on that title as well.

I had forgotten the complicated background on the region lockout for the European light gun - which I own. I finally sat down to record my submissions tonight and found that the software locked me out and refused to even boot with the Europe light gun plugged into the console.

So what now? My console would likely be compatible with the PAL software, if I were going to buy a second copy of each of the aforementioned games. Certainly a waste of money! I could modify my console which I am open to, espically since I actually have two working DC units.

Or I could buy yet another light gun, one of the cheap US knockoffs found on ebay. I have my eye on this gem right now, lets hope I can pull it off for somewhere around the opening bid....