Homebrew DSi Regions?

nocash123 · Sep 10, 2017

Bringing up an old question: What are the DSi regions? I had originally asked that on http://ngemu.com/threads/dsi-regions.166777/ three years ago, and so far three regions have been identified, and another three regions are "known to exist" but without knowing which countries/languages they are covering exactly:

Code:

Japan Region     - unknown (believed to be 1 country, 1 language by most people)
Chinese Region   - unknown
Korean Region    - unknown
Australia Region - 2 countries, 1 language (as of DSi Firmware Ver 1.4.5A)
US Region        - 47 countries, 3 languages (as of DSi Firmware Ver 1.3U)
Europe Region    - 47 countries, 5 languages (as of DSi Firmware Ver 1.4E)

The console region can be found in System Settings, the firmware version & region is shown on upper screen (for example 1.4.5E for EURopean v1.4.5). And the lower screen consists of four pages, with Language/Country options shown in the 4th page. In english language, the four pages are looking as so:

Code:

System Settings, page 1/4
  Data Managment         <-- only if console was connected to dsi shop
  Wireless Communications
  Brightness Settings
System Settings, page 2/4
  Profile
  Date
  Time
  Alarm
System Settings, page 3/4
  Parental Controls
  Touch Screen
  Mic Test
  Internet
System Settings, page 4/4
  Language               <-- in US/EUR (not AUS)  (JAP/CHN/KOR=?)
  Country                <-- in US/EUR/AUS        (JAP/CHN/KOR=?)
  System Update
  Format System Memory

And, here's the complete list of known languages & countries. The language is important for the firmware's user interface (and some games are sharing the firmware option for the game language). The country is mostly used for parental controls (age ratings).

Code:

JP Region
Languages: Unknown (most people think it's japanese only)
Contries: Unknown (most people think it's japan only)

Chinese Region
Languages: Unknown (supposedly Chinese/Mandarin?, and maybe English or so)
Contries: Unknown (supposedly including China or Taiwan and maybe Hong Kong)

Korean Region
Languages: Unknown (supposedly Korean, and maybe English or so)
Contries: Unknown (supposedly including North or South Korea)

Australia Region - 2 countries, 1 language (as of DSi Firmware Ver 1.4.5A)
Languages:
  English (only english, there is no language option at all)
Countries:
  Australia
  New Zealand

US Region - 47 countries, 3 languages (as of DSi Firmware Ver 1.3U)
Languages:
  English
  Francais (=French)
  Espanol  (=Spanish)
Countries:
  Anguilla
  Antigua and Barbuda
  Argentina
  Aruba
  Barbados
  Belize
  Bolivia
  Brazil
  British Virgin Islands
  Canada
  Cayman Islands
  Chile
  Columbia
  Costa Rica
  Dominica
  Dominican Republic
  Ecuador
  El Salvador
  French Guiana
  Grenada
  Guadeloupe
  Guatemala
  Guyana
  Haiti
  Honduras
  Jamaica
  Martinique
  Mexico
  Montserrat
  Netherlands Antilles
  Nicaragua
  Panama
  Paraguay
  Peru
  Saint Kitts and Nevis
  Saint Lucia
  Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  Singapore
  Suriname
  The Bahamas
  Trinidad and Tobago
  Turks and Caicos Islands
  United Arab Emirates
  United States
  Uruguay
  US Virgin Islands
  Venezuela

Europe Region - 47 countries, 5 languages (as of DSi Firmware Ver 1.4E)
Languages:
  English
  Francais (=French)
  Deutsch  (=German)
  Espanol  (=Spanish)
  Italiano (=Italian)
Countries:
  Albania
  Austria
  Belgium
  Bosnia and Herzegovnia
  Botswana
  Bulgaria
  Croatia
  Cyprus
  Czech Republic
  Denmark
  Estonia
  Finland
  France
  Germany
  Greece
  Hungary
  Iceland
  Ireland
  Italy
  Latvia
  Lesotho
  Liechtenstein
  Lithuania
  Luxembourg
  Macedonia
  Malta
  Montenegro
  Mozambique
  Namibia
  Netherlands
  Norway
  Poland
  Portugal
  Romania
  Russia
  Serbia
  Slovakia
  Slovenia
  South Africa
  Spain
  Swaziland
  Sweden
  Switzerland
  Turkey
  United Kindgom
  Zambia
  Zimbabwe

CatmanFan · Sep 10, 2017

Wow! This is very interesting!
BTW, Japan region supports Japanese language only. Language and Country are also not available on a Japanese console.

nocash123 · Sep 10, 2017

Thanks! Added the info about japan. Do you have the firmware version number, too? (just for curiosity, I doubt that they have added/removed countries or languages in different versions, especially not in japan).

CatmanFan · Sep 10, 2017

nocash123 said:
Thanks! Added the info about japan. Do you have the firmware version number, too? (just for curiosity, I doubt that they have added/removed countries or languages in different versions, especially not in japan).

I don't have a Japanese system, but I think Japanese consoles never had the Country or Language option available regardless of version number.

JimmyZ · Sep 10, 2017

iQue(Nintendo's China mainland subsidiary or something like that) devices are very unpopular in China, usually they came in too late, most gamers already bought imported, situation got worse for 3DS since region lock.

As for country and language support, I suppose it's 1 country and 1 language.
reference:
http://price.zol.com.cn/161/1613957_all.html
there're only two options in the 4th page, namely "console update" and "console initialize":

And iQue is Chinese mainland only, Nintendo Hong Kong and Taiwan usually sells region J consoles, except for 3DS they have a Traditional Chinese version AFAIK. (BTW things got really funny after that, but it's off topic I suppose)

As for region J, I don't have a Japanese DSi, but from experiences with Wii and 3DS, I suppose it's also 1 country and 1 language.

CatmanFan · Sep 10, 2017

I might say that Korean consoles don't have any country/language option as well but I'm still not sure.

marine5422 · Sep 13, 2017

I had korean console before, but it has no pros to collect it because lack of contents.
It can't be long last. I sell it

But I can tell that what I know (remember).
Based on compare with 3ds korean console, it(korean dsi) has fixed language(korean),
fixed country(south korea only, never include north korea. WE ARE DIFFERENT COUNTRY).
So there is no 'language/country' options. Just 1 language, 1 country.
And if i'm remember correctly, launch firmware with korean console was Ver 1.4.1K.
(it means it can't be exploitable due to lack of ver 1.4.0, well actually we don't have any exploitable dsiware anyway

)

Edit. I never heard of that nintendo has service on north korea. Literally, 'Korea' in the nintendo console country means 'South Korea(The republic of Korea) ONLY'. I hope you guys don't confuse with that.

nocash123 · Sep 14, 2017

JimmyZ said:
iQue(Nintendo's China mainland subsidiary or something like that) devices are very unpopular in China, usually they came in too late, most gamers already bought imported, situation got worse for 3DS since region lock.
And iQue is Chinese mainland only, Nintendo Hong Kong and Taiwan usually sells region J consoles

Okay, that's confusing. If I got it right...
GUI: So people in hong kong and taiwan are having japanese firmware user interfaces. And most people in china mainland also don't have chinese firmwares because they imported DSi's from these or that regions.
Games: And then, as the DSi is region locked, almost nobody on earth could play chinese games, making it rather ridiculous to produce/sell custom or localized chinese titles? One thing that might work would be producing DS games (without DSi features; but I think even the DS did have some sort of region locking in china/korea). Or producing chinese DSi games that are unlocked to work in all regions would also work (at least for cartridges (for DSiware titles, nintendo would have needed to sell chinese games via EUR/AUS/US/JAP dsi shop, and they probably didn't wanted to do that)).

And alltogether... looks as if nobody has recently seen a real DSi console from CHN/KOR/JP... so it isn't really 100.0% confirmed that they are all 1 country, 1 language. I guess it's as so, but it would be better if somebody could verify it on real hardware.

JimmyZ · Sep 14, 2017

nocash123 said:
Okay, that's confusing. If I got it right...
GUI: So people in hong kong and taiwan are having japanese firmware user interfaces. And most people in china mainland also don't have chinese firmwares because they imported DSi's from these or that regions.
Games: And then, as the DSi is region locked, almost nobody on earth could play chinese games, making it rather ridiculous to produce/sell custom or localized chinese titles? One thing that might work would be producing DS games (without DSi features; but I think even the DS did have some sort of region locking in china/korea). Or producing chinese DSi games that are unlocked to work in all regions would also work (at least for cartridges (for DSiware titles, nintendo would have needed to sell chinese games via EUR/AUS/US/JAP dsi shop, and they probably didn't wanted to do that)).

And alltogether... looks as if nobody has recently seen a real DSi console from CHN/KOR/JP... so it isn't really 100.0% confirmed that they are all 1 country, 1 language. I guess it's as so, but it would be better if somebody could verify it on real hardware.

Yeah you got it right, lots of gamers got a region J console can't read the menu, they just pop a cart in and start playing.

On the other hand learning Japanese is not so hard for Chinese since they already knew Kanji, especially Taiwan and northeastern regions for been occupied by Japanese during WWII era for quite a while.

Language barrier is a huge factor, official releases in China is very limited or more accurately near non-existant, fan translations are very popular in China, also pirated games, as you can see most if not all flashcarts are originated from China.

And Nintendo did sell some games in Chinese in region J, like fire emblem echoes and of cause Pokemon sun/moon, these games are never released in China.

And yes even iQue DS had region lock, it only had 8 official games according to Wikipedia. On the other hand most flashcarts work with it.

Region lock was introduced with iQue GBA, as a selling point actually, only iQue GBA can play official iQue games with official Chinese localization(I might be wrong with this), but also compatible with normal GBA games. I have an iQue GBA SP since launch, all iQue GBA SP comes with backlight. but I haven't bought another iQue product since then.

Not 100% sure yeah but I don't see why would that change after launch. AFAIK China hasn't been divided since then.

marine5422 · Sep 14, 2017

nocash123 said:
Okay, that's confusing. If I got it right...
GUI: So people in hong kong and taiwan are having japanese firmware user interfaces. And most people in china mainland also don't have chinese firmwares because they imported DSi's from these or that regions.
Games: And then, as the DSi is region locked, almost nobody on earth could play chinese games, making it rather ridiculous to produce/sell custom or localized chinese titles? One thing that might work would be producing DS games (without DSi features; but I think even the DS did have some sort of region locking in china/korea). Or producing chinese DSi games that are unlocked to work in all regions would also work (at least for cartridges (for DSiware titles, nintendo would have needed to sell chinese games via EUR/AUS/US/JAP dsi shop, and they probably didn't wanted to do that)).

And alltogether... looks as if nobody has recently seen a real DSi console from CHN/KOR/JP... so it isn't really 100.0% confirmed that they are all 1 country, 1 language. I guess it's as so, but it would be better if somebody could verify it on real hardware.

Like I said, I had korean console before and I confirm that because we korean never use other language except the korean in normal conversation. (and 'korean' language using country is South Korea only (Yea, there is North korea also, but we and they are have slightly different language, so nowdays "korean" means mostly for 'South Korea'). As I said that I had sell it before, but I'm 100% for sure.

Edit: proof - https://m.blog.naver.com/PostView.nhn?blogId=shining8543&logNo=60105529359 see 48th of 59 picture. There are only 2 options on 4th setting page. One is Firmware Update and the other is Factory Reset.

Edit2: And Maybe this information is also useful for you to clarification. Unlike the Wii/DSi/3DS, the DS Lite model in Korea has a 6 different language (Engish, Deutsch, French, Espanol, Korean, Japanese). I don't know why NoK (Nintendo of Korea) added other 5 language, because we never use other language excpet the korean. lol

but anyway it's a some kind of exception. All other consoles that after the NDSL, has only 1 language / 1 country that I can say clarify for sure.

GerbilSoft · Sep 14, 2017

JimmyZ said:
Region lock was introduced with iQue GBA, as a selling point actually, only iQue GBA can play official iQue games with official Chinese localization(I might be wrong with this), but also compatible with normal GBA games. I have an iQue GBA SP since launch, all iQue GBA SP comes with backlight. but I haven't bought another iQue product since then.

Do you happen to know of any technical information on this? As far as I know, GBA never had region lock, but the iQue DS did.

GBATEK lists region lock for iQue DS but not GBA: http://problemkaputt.de/gbatek.htm
It also lists a region code for South Korean DSes, but says that region lock wasn't enforced for those systems.

(Interestingly, iQue DS games work fine on any-region 3DS.)

GBATEK also lists the following region-lock flags for DSi-enhanced/exclusive titles:

Code:

  1B0h 4    Region flags (bit0=JPN, bit1=USA, bit2=EUR, bit3=AUS, bit4=CHN,
              bit5=KOR, bit6-31=Reserved) (FFFFFFFFh=Region Free)

Ryccardo · Sep 14, 2017

Japanese version is also 1 country 1 language

JimmyZ · Sep 15, 2017

GerbilSoft said:
Do you happen to know of any technical information on this? As far as I know, GBA never had region lock, but the iQue DS did.

GBATEK lists region lock for iQue DS but not GBA: http://problemkaputt.de/gbatek.htm
It also lists a region code for South Korean DSes, but says that region lock wasn't enforced for those systems.

(Interestingly, iQue DS games work fine on any-region 3DS.)

GBATEK also lists the following region-lock flags for DSi-enhanced/exclusive titles:

Code:

1B0h 4 Region flags (bit0=JPN, bit1=USA, bit2=EUR, bit3=AUS, bit4=CHN, bit5=KOR, bit6-31=Reserved) (FFFFFFFFh=Region Free)

I guess I was wrong on that, maybe my memory confused that with iQue DS.

Homebrew DSi Regions?

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