Hello,
On one of my game collecting excursions I came across a Korean version of Super Mario Sunshine. The game ID number on the front of the box is GS-DOL-GMSE-KOR.
As far as I have read, Nintendo never released a Korean version Gamecube. Were these Korean-region Gamecube games intended to be played on Japanese Gamecubes imported into Korea? Any information on the Korean Gamecube region would be of interest to me.
I have attached some simple pictures of the front and back of the box.
Perhaps an interesting aside to other game collectors out there, I have recently purchased a Korean Hyundai Super Comboy, which is basically a Super Famicom shell with Korean writing printed on the shell casing. Even the controllers are the blue/red/yellow/green buttoned-super famicom controllers with just "Hyundai" printed on it, and Start and Select translated into Korean.
It was all manufactured in Japan and official Nintendo hardware, but I believe until maybe the early 90's in the post-Japanese occupied Korea (Japan left in 1945), there was a law in place prohibiting the import of Japanese goods into Korea that had obvious Japanese branding printed on it (e.g. Nintendo or Sega)
There were even Korean SNES games manufactured with a holographic Hyundai sticker affixed to each cartridge to assure its authenticity. After playing these games, I have realized that they are simply the USA versions of the games with Korean language stickers (in a super famicom-shaped cart, but interesting, the sticker art is from the US versions of the games-- for example, the original Street Fighter II from Japan had an almost black sticker on the front, while the Korean and American SFII have identical, more brightly-colored pictures). No actual modifications to the rom images were ever done to include the Korean script (i.e. all the menus are in 100% English).
I have purchased and tested Japanese, American (with use of an adapter) and of course Korean region games, and they all work. I will guess that there was never any hard-coded Korean region lockout on their SNES carts. (I'm not even sure if the SNES had region-lockout protection--perhaps just the differences in form factor of the carts was enough to deter most people).
Anyways, the main point of this post was to pass along this perhaps obscure information, and also to ask: was there an official Korean Gamecube region (by that I mean lockout parameters actually on Korean Gamecube games?)
I have tried out the Korean Super Mario Sunshine on my Wii with Gecko OS, and it boots, but it also appears to have only English, thus probably being the American version. (I can't go past the title screen because I don't have a GC controller at the moment).
Anyways, if anyone would like to see additional pictures of my rather obscure Korean Nintendo items, I would be more than happy to oblige.
Thanks~
On one of my game collecting excursions I came across a Korean version of Super Mario Sunshine. The game ID number on the front of the box is GS-DOL-GMSE-KOR.
As far as I have read, Nintendo never released a Korean version Gamecube. Were these Korean-region Gamecube games intended to be played on Japanese Gamecubes imported into Korea? Any information on the Korean Gamecube region would be of interest to me.
I have attached some simple pictures of the front and back of the box.
Perhaps an interesting aside to other game collectors out there, I have recently purchased a Korean Hyundai Super Comboy, which is basically a Super Famicom shell with Korean writing printed on the shell casing. Even the controllers are the blue/red/yellow/green buttoned-super famicom controllers with just "Hyundai" printed on it, and Start and Select translated into Korean.
It was all manufactured in Japan and official Nintendo hardware, but I believe until maybe the early 90's in the post-Japanese occupied Korea (Japan left in 1945), there was a law in place prohibiting the import of Japanese goods into Korea that had obvious Japanese branding printed on it (e.g. Nintendo or Sega)
There were even Korean SNES games manufactured with a holographic Hyundai sticker affixed to each cartridge to assure its authenticity. After playing these games, I have realized that they are simply the USA versions of the games with Korean language stickers (in a super famicom-shaped cart, but interesting, the sticker art is from the US versions of the games-- for example, the original Street Fighter II from Japan had an almost black sticker on the front, while the Korean and American SFII have identical, more brightly-colored pictures). No actual modifications to the rom images were ever done to include the Korean script (i.e. all the menus are in 100% English).
I have purchased and tested Japanese, American (with use of an adapter) and of course Korean region games, and they all work. I will guess that there was never any hard-coded Korean region lockout on their SNES carts. (I'm not even sure if the SNES had region-lockout protection--perhaps just the differences in form factor of the carts was enough to deter most people).
Anyways, the main point of this post was to pass along this perhaps obscure information, and also to ask: was there an official Korean Gamecube region (by that I mean lockout parameters actually on Korean Gamecube games?)
I have tried out the Korean Super Mario Sunshine on my Wii with Gecko OS, and it boots, but it also appears to have only English, thus probably being the American version. (I can't go past the title screen because I don't have a GC controller at the moment).
Anyways, if anyone would like to see additional pictures of my rather obscure Korean Nintendo items, I would be more than happy to oblige.
Thanks~
