Gaming Pre owned region free ds games

MichaelB

Well-Known Member
OP
Member
Joined
Jul 9, 2017
Messages
122
Trophies
0
Age
19
Location
Sweden
XP
328
Country
Sweden
I find pre owned ds games online claiming the games are region free. This also happens with consoles? Are they telling the truth? How do they do it?
 
  • Like
Reactions: Alexander1970
D

Deleted-236924

Guest
This is true, but region-lock is up to the developer (although perhaps there is/was pressure from Nintendo who may not have accepted region-free games onto their system without a good reason.)

Most notably, the English versions of Pokémon Black/White and Black 2/White 2 are region-free (on DSi/3DS), the other languages are not. They did it this way because they needed the game to run on both American and European systems, but didn't want to bother making separate American and European versions.

This is also possible for 3DS games, although I don't know of any games which take advantage of that. Pokémon are technically region-free, but the update partition on the cartridge is not, so the update check fails and the game can't load.
 
D

Deleted-236924

Guest
Also, as far as I know, these are the only DSi-enhanced games which happen to be region-free. So if you were looking into buying those online, you can safely get an American or European copy and they'll work fine regardless of the region of your DSi/3DS.

Of course, if you're planning on playing the games on an original DS or Lite, then you don't have to worry about region locks at all, as mentioned earlier.
 
  • Like
Reactions: MichaelB

Ryccardo

Penguin accelerator
Member
Joined
Feb 13, 2015
Messages
7,675
Trophies
1
Age
28
Location
Imola
XP
6,881
Country
Italy
This is also possible for 3DS games, although I don't know of any games which take advantage of that.
"An Allegedly Free Game is a game you can play for free, for widely variable definitions of the words Game, Play, and Free"
The first and only* physical commercial region free 3DS title is the Louvre guide (I guess you could call it region locked using an atypical definition of region free, since it's only sold there, lol)

* ironically, it has 5 or 6 monolingual editions
 

MichaelB

Well-Known Member
OP
Member
Joined
Jul 9, 2017
Messages
122
Trophies
0
Age
19
Location
Sweden
XP
328
Country
Sweden
Do you think you can modify that partition in any way to make these games region free? It wouldn't be that useful I'm just interested to know.
 

Ryccardo

Penguin accelerator
Member
Joined
Feb 13, 2015
Messages
7,675
Trophies
1
Age
28
Location
Imola
XP
6,881
Country
Italy
What if you solder to the chip?
Most (card1) games are made of hard ROM or PROM, so nothing to gain (since the GBA, the roms also have "smarts" for supporting sequential access, hardware encryption since the DS, etc)

card2 games are on a rewritable chip but the largest related achievement was erasing one with an early 3DS save manager, lol

But why bother rewriting anything when there are actual flashcards like the Sky and Stargate?
Of course you would still need signature patches since we can't sign gamecard headers...
 
  • Like
Reactions: MichaelB

Ryccardo

Penguin accelerator
Member
Joined
Feb 13, 2015
Messages
7,675
Trophies
1
Age
28
Location
Imola
XP
6,881
Country
Italy
By the way, for completeness, while DS games (NTR-????-???) are region free as far as all DS-compatible consoles care, Korean and Chinese DS games are individually rigged to identify the region of the console and not run on foreign ones (a limitation that's easy to remove from a backup, if you want to try them)
 
  • Like
Reactions: MichaelB

Site & Scene News

Popular threads in this forum

General chit-chat
Help Users
  • No one is chatting at the moment.
  • Psionic Roshambo @ Psionic Roshambo:
    Batman joined the Trans Justice League
    +2
  • Sicklyboy @ Sicklyboy:
    based af
    +2
  • Sonic Angel Knight @ Sonic Angel Knight:
    Forget the base, get on the roof.
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    Is that a bat in your buckle or are you just happy to have me
  • Psionic Roshambo @ Psionic Roshambo:
    Wonder "Woman" lol you wonder if they are a woman?
  • Psionic Roshambo @ Psionic Roshambo:
    The Riddler has questions...
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    Played a little of snow day glad I didn't spend $30
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    It's asthetic is okay maybe a good $10 grab
  • Psionic Roshambo @ Psionic Roshambo:
    Lol is it a game about doing cocaine?
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    Probably in pvp
  • Psionic Roshambo @ Psionic Roshambo:
    I tried Balders Gate II on the PS2 a few minutes ago, not bad lol
  • Psionic Roshambo @ Psionic Roshambo:
    My back catalog of games is like that scene at the end of Indiana Jones where the arc of the covenant is being stored in a giant ass warehouse
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    At least I can will my game catalog to family members
    +1
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    It's your problem now bitches
  • Psionic Roshambo @ Psionic Roshambo:
    Put it in your will that in order to receive any money they have to beat certain games, hard games and super shitty games...
  • Psionic Roshambo @ Psionic Roshambo:
    Say 20 bucks per Ninja Gaiden on the NES lol 60 bucks for all 3
  • Psionic Roshambo @ Psionic Roshambo:
    People you like "Beat level 1 of Ms Pacman" lol
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    Hello kitty ds is required
    +1
  • Psionic Roshambo @ Psionic Roshambo:
    Beat Celebrity Death Match on the PS1 omg tried it earlier today .... Absolutely trash
  • Psionic Roshambo @ Psionic Roshambo:
    Like -37 out of 10
  • Psionic Roshambo @ Psionic Roshambo:
    One of the worst games I have ever played
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    Make them rank up every cod game out
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    "Now I know why he took his own life"
    K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2: "Now I know why he took his own life"