Author Topic: dreamcast region switch? (Read 3875 times)

phreak97 · « **on:** April 25, 2005, 06:27:53 pm »

i have a pal dreamcast, everything is blue, red looks cooler, when gameshark cdx (us) cant load the disc, it goes back to the bios. but because the gameshark runs 60hz, it for some reason keeps the 60hz and the dreamcast suddenly thinks it's american. everything is red. it does the red swirly logo, then comes up with a red dreamcast disc in the cd player. the back button also highlights red. you get the idea. but if all this is in every dreamcast, shouldnt there be some pin somewhere inside to tell it which one to start in? i mean, if there was a different bios for each region, why have the other region bios there in the background?

basically, i want a dreamcast region switch, no matter how useless it is for playing games.

dj898 · « **Reply #1 on:** April 25, 2005, 08:45:06 pm »

with 4 wire chip frankly who want to bother with the region switch... o_O

phreak97 · « **Reply #2 on:** April 26, 2005, 02:09:22 am »

i do.
i dont need a chip to play imports or whatever, i just like the red logo. it'd be a cosmetic thing rather than a useful one.

Endymion · « **Reply #3 on:** April 26, 2005, 07:53:12 am »

I'm about to hijack your thread phreak. Are you ready? Here goes.

Where can one buy the Dreamcast mod chip these days? NCS is sold out.

dj898 · « **Reply #4 on:** April 26, 2005, 12:04:54 pm »

google search mate...
I got handful of chips that way for modding mates DC last year...

atom · « **Reply #5 on:** April 26, 2005, 01:48:32 pm »

Quote

with 4 wire chip frankly who want to bother with the region switch... o_O

Because a switch mod is free. Phreak I am going to look over the motherboard as close as I can you do the same and lets see what we can come up with, I am grabbing my screwdriver right now.

Edit: After looking over the motherboard i can not find any type of jumper that would select a certain signal going into the boot rom. After doing some googling it appears that all modchips do however mess with pin 28 which I believe is D6. While I think it would be possible to still come up with a switch mod, I think it would consist of allowing games to be booted, not accessing the other parts of the system menu you have mentioned. It may be that the actual switch of the regions is a single byte within the code of the rom, not an external signal. This would be even cheaper manufacturing then the NGC's jumpers. It would also explain why with software you would be able to access the locked parts.

Still, lets keep a look out for this.

phreak97 · « **Reply #6 on:** May 01, 2005, 02:34:09 am »

hmm.. i dont know much about the dc's internals at all.. im gonna google a bit and see what i can find on the ic's etc on the motherboard.

Aidan · « **Reply #7 on:** May 03, 2005, 09:05:58 pm »

Given the mod chip is a PLD, it sounds like the chip watches for a particular sequence of operations to occur before yanking the line high or low for whatever period of time. That means there's no simple switch line. I suspect that Sega may have used a different BIOS chip for each of the regions, with the lockout code implemented in software.

ducktapevoodoo · « **Reply #8 on:** May 11, 2005, 11:03:30 am »

somone on teh dreamcast pawnshop site has chips for sale in the us and uk

TJ_Kat · « **Reply #9 on:** May 11, 2005, 01:41:19 pm »

Wait, the swirly on the pal dreamcast is blue instead of red??? /me wants...

phreak97 · « **Reply #10 on:** May 12, 2005, 12:34:51 am »

yeah, it's blue. same with the logo on the box, and on the top of the console, and everywhere else. basically, the red logo doesnt exist here.

TJ_Kat, we should trade dreamcasts:P dont they play all region games anyway? the only difference would be the color and the 50/60 in the bios wouldnt it?

atom · « **Reply #11 on:** May 12, 2005, 01:21:16 am »

No they play all cdr's, not all regions. However someone could probably whip up a converter like for sega cd. Id even do it myself as its actually a pretty easy coding project, only the dreamcast disk is fricken crazy with all its different tracks and wierd offsets.

Well now im considering making one for Sega CD, since the other two only have limited results... I will look into it. Sorry if this makes anyone mad since im talking about PROGRAMMING and not soldering some crazy something into somewhere it doesnt belong.

TJ_Kat · « **Reply #12 on:** May 12, 2005, 02:05:24 am »

Okay, so where can I get the region mod chip these days at a reasonable price?

phreak97 · « **Reply #13 on:** May 12, 2005, 02:06:43 am »

atom, sega cd's will boot cdr's with no modification? that's good news for me, as i am getting a sega cd, and was wanting to play mega cd games on it. if you have made, or know of a working boot disc for the purpose, would you mind sending me an iso of it?

thanks

ducktapevoodoo · « **Reply #14 on:** May 12, 2005, 03:53:03 am »

dreamcast modchips yay

http://forums.dcpawnshop.com/viewforum.php...72f5733139eaa53

atom · « **Reply #15 on:** May 12, 2005, 04:19:20 am »

In your post about the sega cd I linked to an older forum post. In that post it discusses several utilities that will take your iso image of a sega cd game, and convert it to any of the 3 regions. I do not know of any boot discs, and I dont program in ASM so no plans for making that one. My program will be like the one below except it will have a windows gui and I will try working with .bin files as well as .iso. I might add saturn support (even though ive never played a saturn in my life.)

http://retrodev.com/ConvSCD110.zip

phreak97 · « **Reply #16 on:** May 12, 2005, 02:05:58 pm »

alright, this is like the saturn one then? i assume so.. ill look at it when i get my sega cd. thanks