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General discussionDoes Dreamcast Import Enabler work with PAL Dreamcasts?(14 posts)solved(14 posts)solved
(14 posts)solved
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This is my favourite topic
Posted October 09, 2018
I was thinking of getting a physical Dreamcast to go with my Saturn (I have Null DC but I only got that ages ago because I wanted the real thing but couldn't find one) but I want to be able to play NTSC-J games on it and I live in the PAL regions. Specifically Shenmue Undub 1 and 2, Sonic Adventure 1 1998, and Sonic Adventure 2. Other games can either be PAL or NTSC-US e.g. Rayman 2, Revolt and Half Life.

Import Enabler may be my answer (as the region free Dreamcast I found on Ebay is too expensive and looks dodgy) but I want to know if besides allowing NTSC-US Dreamcasts to play NTSC-J games, it allows PAL Dreamcasts to do the same. I also need a way to import my Null DC save data for SA2 onto the physical machine so I can play Green Hill without the tedious A rank, side mission and chao raising bollocks required to unlock it.
This question / problem has been solved by chevkochimage
Posted October 09, 2018
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darkredshift: I was thinking of getting a physical Dreamcast to go with my Saturn (I have Null DC but I only got that ages ago because I wanted the real thing but couldn't find one) but I want to be able to play NTSC-J games on it and I live in the PAL regions. Specifically Shenmue Undub 1 and 2, Sonic Adventure 1 1998, and Sonic Adventure 2. Other games can either be PAL or NTSC-US e.g. Rayman 2, Revolt and Half Life.

Import Enabler may be my answer (as the region free Dreamcast I found on Ebay is too expensive and looks dodgy) but I want to know if besides allowing NTSC-US Dreamcasts to play NTSC-J games, it allows PAL Dreamcasts to do the same. I also need a way to import my Null DC save data for SA2 onto the physical machine so I can play Green Hill without the tedious A rank, side mission and chao raising bollocks required to unlock it.
I would guess without a hardware mod a PAL machine might struggle with NTSC games... although the PAL versions of other consoles in this generation supported PAL60 (which is basically NTSC but with superior colour encoding) so there's a chance the Dreamcast might also.
Google is your friend really.
Posted October 09, 2018
My setup consisted of a modded machine and a PAL Dreamcast with a DC-X boot disc for those games the modded DC didn't accept. The DC-X stupidly disables VGA though, but I wasn't bothered by that back then, I was content with what my Sony Black Trinitron CRT displayed.

Don't know about IE, but I watched this video and apparently, Code Breaker works best and on anything. Good luck.
Posted October 09, 2018
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SirPrimalform: Google is your friend really.
No, google is an asshole that will waste most of your time.
Posted October 09, 2018
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Spectre: No, google is an asshole that will waste most of your time.
Are you deliberately misunderstanding?
Posted October 10, 2018
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SirPrimalform: Are you deliberately misunderstanding?
Some people just have a beef with Google in general, other people have no idea how to search, and some further people don't want to admit that Google can solve most problems as it would ruin their job security/relevance.

Even still, there are valid alternatives such as DuckDuckGo, but who the heck wants to type that out?
Posted October 10, 2018
Huh, I thought the Dreamcast didn't have region restrictions. I have a PAL Dreamcast and I'm pretty sure I have some US games for it. Or did they only block Japanese releases on the PAL and US consoles? A shame that so many Dreamcast games were never released outside of Japan/ Asia.
Posted October 10, 2018
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Darvond: Some people just have a beef with Google in general, other people have no idea how to search, and some further people don't want to admit that Google can solve most problems as it would ruin their job security/relevance.

Even still, there are valid alternatives such as DuckDuckGo, but who the heck wants to type that out?
My point was that "Google is your friend" is an idiom for "you should probably do some searching with a search engine on the internet". I can't tell if Spectre genuinely misunderstood or is just being a dick. :P
Posted October 10, 2018
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CharlesGrey: Huh, I thought the Dreamcast didn't have region restrictions. I have a PAL Dreamcast and I'm pretty sure I have some US games for it. Or did they only block Japanese releases on the PAL and US consoles? A shame that so many Dreamcast games were never released outside of Japan/ Asia.
The Dreamcast is region-restricted. There might be some titles that came out after SEGA ended official support where developers opted for a region-free release. That's the only reason I can think of where a US game would work on a PAL machine without a mod-chip or boot disc.
Posted October 11, 2018
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CharlesGrey: Huh, I thought the Dreamcast didn't have region restrictions. I have a PAL Dreamcast and I'm pretty sure I have some US games for it. Or did they only block Japanese releases on the PAL and US consoles? A shame that so many Dreamcast games were never released outside of Japan/ Asia.
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chevkoch: The Dreamcast is region-restricted. There might be some titles that came out after SEGA ended official support where developers opted for a region-free release. That's the only reason I can think of where a US game would work on a PAL machine without a mod-chip or boot disc.
Maybe I got something mixed up. Or I bought some US versions of games at some point and never actually got around to try them. Hah!

I do know the PS3 is region-free, because I bought the US version of Demon's Souls, before it was released in Europe. And I remember the Nintendo DS ( or Advance? ) was region-free, as well.
Posted October 11, 2018
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chevkoch: The Dreamcast is region-restricted. There might be some titles that came out after SEGA ended official support where developers opted for a region-free release. That's the only reason I can think of where a US game would work on a PAL machine without a mod-chip or boot disc.
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CharlesGrey: Maybe I got something mixed up. Or I bought some US versions of games at some point and never actually got around to try them. Hah!

I do know the PS3 is region-free, because I bought the US version of Demon's Souls, before it was released in Europe. And I remember the Nintendo DS ( or Advance? ) was region-free, as well.
Both the GameBoy and DS series were region free, but not the 3DS/2DS series.
Post edited October 11, 2018 by Maighstir
Posted October 11, 2018
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CharlesGrey: I do know the PS3 is region-free, because I bought the US version of Demon's Souls, before it was released in Europe. And I remember the Nintendo DS ( or Advance? ) was region-free, as well.
and in the UK a lot of game importers wouldn't sell there due to a suspect court decision.

In August 2005, the company was once again in legal trouble, this time from Sony. Lik-Sang had imported PSPs from areas where they were available, and re-exported them to UK customers before the UK release date, which Sony alleged was a breach of their trademark rights.[5] Lik-Sang continued shipping PSPs, claiming Hong Kong's trademark law follows the principle of international exhaustion of trademark rights and therefore allows an item to be traded freely once it appears in a market anywhere in the world.

On October 18, 2006, the High Court in London (Patents Court) ruled the shipments were indeed in breach of Sony's rights.[6] The following day, Lik-Sang posted a message on their website claiming they had been forced out of business due to Sony's legal action. Sony responded in a statement[7] saying that Lik-Sang had not contested the case, thus incurring no legal fees, and had not paid any damages or costs to Sony. However, Lik-Sang replied once more that their legal representatives spent over a year to contest the UK's court jurisdiction and tried to defend against Sony's allegations of parallel importation and copyright infringement, and that Sony launched duplicate actions in different countries. According to Lik-Sang's final statements,[8][9] two different judges expressed their surprise about the high legal expenses claimed by Sony.
Post edited October 11, 2018 by Spectre
Posted October 11, 2018
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chevkoch: My setup consisted of a modded machine and a PAL Dreamcast with a DC-X boot disc for those games the modded DC didn't accept. The DC-X stupidly disables VGA though, but I wasn't bothered by that back then, I was content with what my Sony Black Trinitron CRT displayed.

Don't know about IE, but I watched this video and apparently, Code Breaker works best and on anything. Good luck.
Thanks. I don't know if DC-IE is the newer version of DCX but I do remember reading somewhere that it doesn't require the hard drive shaped dongle that went in one of the controller ports whereas DCX does.

I tried looking for code breaker just now but I couldn't find it in a physical format including on amazon so I've been forced to download a CDI image of it. I don't know if finding a way to burn it to a CD will work or if I need to hunt down an actual GD in case a CD damages the Dreamcast disk drive. Once I actually get the Dreamcast I should try these solutions out.
Post edited October 11, 2018 by darkredshift
Posted October 12, 2018
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chevkoch: My setup consisted of a modded machine and a PAL Dreamcast with a DC-X boot disc for those games the modded DC didn't accept. The DC-X stupidly disables VGA though, but I wasn't bothered by that back then, I was content with what my Sony Black Trinitron CRT displayed.

Don't know about IE, but I watched this video and apparently, Code Breaker works best and on anything. Good luck.
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darkredshift: Thanks. I don't know if DC-IE is the newer version of DCX but I do remember reading somewhere that it doesn't require the hard drive shaped dongle that went in one of the controller ports whereas DCX does.

I tried looking for code breaker just now but I couldn't find it in a physical format including on amazon so I've been forced to download a CDI image of it. I don't know if finding a way to burn it to a CD will work or if I need to hunt down an actual GD in case a CD damages the Dreamcast disk drive. Once I actually get the Dreamcast I should try these solutions out.
DC-X doesn't require a dongle (Gameshark does, see video mentioned). Burned CDs work fine and won't damage your Dreamcast.

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CharlesGrey: I do know the PS3 is region-free, because I bought the US version of Demon's Souls, before it was released in Europe. And I remember the Nintendo DS ( or Advance? ) was region-free, as well.
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Spectre: and in the UK a lot of game importers wouldn't sell there due to a suspect court decision.

In August 2005, the company was once again in legal trouble, this time from Sony. Lik-Sang had imported PSPs from areas where they were available, and re-exported them to UK customers before the UK release date, which Sony alleged was a breach of their trademark rights.[5] Lik-Sang continued shipping PSPs, claiming Hong Kong's trademark law follows the principle of international exhaustion of trademark rights and therefore allows an item to be traded freely once it appears in a market anywhere in the world.

On October 18, 2006, the High Court in London (Patents Court) ruled the shipments were indeed in breach of Sony's rights.[6] The following day, Lik-Sang posted a message on their website claiming they had been forced out of business due to Sony's legal action. Sony responded in a statement[7] saying that Lik-Sang had not contested the case, thus incurring no legal fees, and had not paid any damages or costs to Sony. However, Lik-Sang replied once more that their legal representatives spent over a year to contest the UK's court jurisdiction and tried to defend against Sony's allegations of parallel importation and copyright infringement, and that Sony launched duplicate actions in different countries. According to Lik-Sang's final statements,[8][9] two different judges expressed their surprise about the high legal expenses claimed by Sony.
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Spectre:
Lik Sang folding due to this, the import scene lost something significant at the time.
Post edited October 13, 2018 by chevkoch
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General discussionDoes Dreamcast Import Enabler work with PAL Dreamcasts?(14 posts)solved(14 posts)solved
(14 posts)solved