Dreamcast - how easy is it to make region-free?

[gaz@manc]

I'm definately gonna buy myself a Dreamcast (i was foolish enough to ignore it first time round in favour of PS2 ) but I want to be able to play PAL and NTSC games... PAL games are fairly cheap and in steady supply over ebay and in my local GameStation, but there are a few JPN releases, mainly the various schmups, that I want to play.

In short, which is easier - getting a PAL machine to play JPN titles or vice-versa?

[crazymadone]

best way is to get a pal machine to be honest.

just get a boot disc like dcX, and all your jap games can be played

[Lyris]

I'd say the best way is to get any NTSC version and install a 4-wire mod chip. That will play any game worldwide in 60hz video (which includes most PAL ones).

If you want to buy a lot of PAL games then get a PAL console and use a DC-X on it when you want to play an NTSC game. DC-X reinforces the 60hz video mode setting. A mod-chipped PAL Dreamcast will play some NTSC games at 50hz, unless the code at the start of the program forces 60hz (some don't).

[nightstalker100]

am i mistaken in thinking the games will still have borders depsite running at 60hz or do they lose it. my pal dc when using utopia boot disc runs the jp games with borders and it plain sucks which is goading me into purchasing a jap console

[gossi the dog]

If you use an NTSC Dreamcast all games which should run at 60Hz will run at 60Hz. With a PAL Dreamcast (either modded or using utopia) some games which should run at 60Hz will run at 50Hz eg the Japanese Dead or Alive 2. Unless of course you use a VGA box in which case all games will run at 60Hz including stuff with dodgy PAL conversions such as Sega Rally 2.

[nightstalker100]

yeah well i have a vga box unfortuantly the punk who's auction i recently won for an iiyama 21" crt pulled out. teh bastard sent me an email pitching how he didn't notice anyone had put a bid on the monitor and then had sold it elsewhere. Doesn't ebay send you emails of notification? Person was probably bitter i won it for 20quid!

[jethro jazz]

how easy is a 4 wire modchip to install?

bearing in mind ive not soldered anything since i did dt.

[guiddruid]

how easy is a 4 wire modchip to install?

i found it easy. you might not. judge for yourself:
install instructions: http://www.lan-kwei.com/installE/#dcwired
for this chip: http://www.videogameimports.com/get_hw.php?product=499

hardest part was finding somewhere tidy to fit the board after wiring it up.

[mmmonkey]

nightstalker - nope ebay doesn't send you an email to say someone has placed a bid on your auction, but you're right - he's just annoyed you got a bargain!

I decided to go down the NTSC machine route because of the 60Hz issue, not wanting to use a VGA box and not being able to get a DCx bootdisk at the time. The install is quite easy, I mounted the chip on top of the casing for the GD-ROM.

If you do fit a chip, make sure you remember which screw came from where, there are some longer ones which when put in the wrong place can damage the motherboard.

Pete