Can a US Games on a PAL GC use my PAL saves?

[johnkiddier]

I've recently sold my PAL copy of Ikaruga and I'm waiting for DVDBO to send me the US version so that I can enjoy full 60Hz on my PAL machine with freeloader.

Will the US version of Ikaruga recognise my PAL game save and load them up? I'd hate to lose my highscores.....

A bit obscure but I'm hoping someone might know.

Many thanks.

[SuperBrother]

No, in fact IIRC you'll have to re-format your Pal memory card to enable the saving of US games.

[Mayhem]

Well that's completely wrong... US and PAL saves will happily sit on the same memory card (though naturally you could only have one save for each game, you couldn't for instance have a US and a PAL save from Mario Sunshine there, just one or the other) as the format is the same. However US games cannot use PAL saves, and vice versa (as I've tried it with a number of titles). So the answer to your Q is no sadly...

[SuperBrother]

Interesting...............how about Jap saves? I'm sure I've read somewhere that it's best to have seperate cards for each region. Probably on IGN though so a good handfull of salt applies...

[C']

Interesting...............how about Jap saves? I'm sure I've read somewhere that it's best to have seperate cards for each region. Probably on IGN though so a good handfull of salt applies...

Japanese and western (PAL/US) saves have to be kept on seperate cards

[Papercut]

Yeah... GCN memory cards aren't so much region encoded, as language encoded (English/European or Japanese).

[Lebowski]

and if you start up a jap game with freeloader and have a pal memory card in it will auto format it for that region, so keep that in mind if you dont want to lose your saves

[Taka]

Well that's completely wrong... US and PAL saves will happily sit on the same memory card (though naturally you could only have one save for each game, you couldn't for instance have a US and a PAL save from Mario Sunshine there, just one or the other) as the format is the same. However US games cannot use PAL saves, and vice versa (as I've tried it with a number of titles). So the answer to your Q is no sadly...

I'm sure I've had PAL and US Resident Evil remake saves on the same card before. I remember being surprised that I couldn't use my PAL save with a US copy of the game so I went and played for about 30 minutes before saving. Didn't have a problem at all, no reports of conflicts etc.

[Xexex]

Interesting...............how about Jap saves? I'm sure I've read somewhere that it's best to have seperate cards for each region. Probably on IGN though so a good handfull of salt applies...

Japanese and western (PAL/US) saves have to be kept on seperate cards

Nobody seems to know the full story here.

There are two answers, depending on your setup. If you have a switched US/Jap cube, then yes, you must have seperate memory cards for both regions.

If you are using Freeloader on any cube, then you do not have to have seperate memory cards - Freeloader does not save Japanese games in Japanese, but in converted ASCII, meaning it's the same format as UK/US games. So you only need one memory card.

The exception is Mr Driller: Drill Land, which won't save properly on a Freeloader and won't recognise the memory card at all - so will always ask about formatting it, from what I understand.

Tim (tm)

[johnkiddier]

Thanks Tim.

I can now confirm that Jap saves made with freeloader and PAL saves can exist happily on the same card. My Ikaruga save is on the same card as my P.N.03 and Viewtiful Joe saves without any problems.

I found this out after deleting all my PAL saves on one card so that I could use it for my shiny new import games. I can't be bothered to play through Eternal Darkness or Pikmin again so they're just gathering dust.....

Thanks for all the help folks.

[Papercut]

The exception is Mr Driller: Drill Land, which won't save properly on a Freeloader and won't recognise the memory card at all - so will always ask about formatting it, from what I understand.

Drill Land seems to do something the Freeloader doesn't expect to determine whether the memory card is formatted or not.

It will attempt to format the card, then appear to save the game during play, but on next boot will not be able to read the save file.