Ebay idiots.

That really sucks, man - half the games you can get in PAL land are multi-language, usually including Spanish and sometimes also Portugese! Though you're not the only one - most PAL games are only released in 3-5 languages, so there's many countries in Europe who also never get games in their own languages. I have a scandinavian version of Ridge Racer Type 4, for example - the only things that are in any scandinavian languages are the manual and the text on the back of the box - the game itself is only in English, French, German, Spanish and Italian - no Swedish, Finnish, or Danish to be found! OK, there's not really much text in the game, but with RPGs this is a much greater problem as there's usually no space on the discs for multiple languages, not to mention they are much harder to translate. I'm sure WolverineDK, AntiPasta and many others are in the same annoying situation you are!

Let's just be thankful that the British Empire pretty much killed the Irish language. According to our Constitution, it may say:

But they were a bit optimistic back in 1937, and the truth is about 5%-10% of the country speak Irish primarily, and 5-10% of 4 million isn't a lot! Though despite all this, this year - amazingly - Microsoft released Windows XP in Irish.

 

Right ON, Eva01!

Then again, many of us learned English from american TV shows and Games.

... but , also, Everything is legal in Mexico if you know the right person.

Hell, the PSX is mod-chipped from the store (unless you buy from the "legitimate" stores, where you'll get it for like 150 dollars, and pay 60 dollars for every crap game, and NOT get any RPGs because "nobody buys them")

I chipped my PSX when they told me the legitimate stores would never carry any RPGs because they don't sell, but I could buy Fifa or Army Men. For like 70 dollars.

I chipped my PS2 when the lady at the black market tried to sell me "Harry Potter" for the XBox when I asked for Disgaea for PS2

And Paying 90 dollars for every dreamcast game back in 2000... no can do, my friends.

You try to be legal, but maybe the retail indsutry should be "legal" to consumers too, shouldn't it?

 

Are there people in Mexico who import games from Spain?

 

nah, we do get japanese games tho "original and backups" on the black market, i remember that my friend had japanese dino crissis and we didnt know anything, but we finished the game xD. then again, most people in mexico know english "not good english, but we understand" so english games are sometimes irritating for the average gamer, but we get through it

 

[quote="Zilog Jones]Though despite all this, this year - amazingly - Microsoft released Windows XP in Irish.[/quote]

Probably to stop people importing their software from Ireland to the UK, which I believe makes it cheaper for us somehow. I've seen a LOT of software with Irish customs labels or whatever on it.

 

But all Windows XP CDs are multi-lingual, from what I can see - about 3 people would buy an Irish-only Windows XP!

Maybe those labels you're seeing are because Microsoft stuff is packaged in Ireland? I think some of their CDs might be pressed here too, I'm not sure.

 

Plus Spain is PAL territory and they NEVER get games on time.

We're close to the US, and we get all other "imports" from Hong Kong, Taiwan or China.

Or someone downloads ISOs and burns them to sell on the black market, which is possible because few people actually have enough broadband access to get them for themselves.

SO most consoles come pre-modded for our "convenience".

You know... I used to be Anti-Piracy, completely. I paid for a non-modded PSX that cost the same than the modded version. I never ever ever thought about getting copies, until I got tired of getting screwed over.

When I get a first-world salary and become able to buy in first-world game stores, I will pay first-world prices for first-world games.

Until then, I'll get only the games I CAN'T live without and are available in "original" and any other crap in copies.

(Also: Originals in Mexico are almost always smuggled. My dreamcast has a "best buy" sticker, crossed out poorly with blue ink.)

 

Well with a mod chip PAL won't be a problem, and you'll be able to play games in Spanish! I don't know how many RPGs or other high-text games get translated to Spanish though - probably not a lot, and probably very late. I'll say popular stuff like Pokemon get translated (I know it's available in French, German and Italian, at least), but I couldn't say for other RPGs.

 

but why would we? we already know english, so it doesnt really matter any more :angry

 

Yes. Plus people from spain speak really funny spanish, and Spain is infamous for disastrous dubs and very crappy translations.

It's easier in English.

And cheaper, and faster.

 

yeah those spanish dubs :smt096 :-( :no :smt071 :smt022 :smt009, you get the idea? COÑO,MIERDA,TIO, and that SSS sound.... err... and they are pal so no.... all tv's in latin america are ntsc and no pal support, only argentinian and brasilian tv's are pal or multi format. They also hate our dubs, i remember seeing them arguing on a spanish forum about the mexican halo 2 dub xD they were all mad and shit xD,also, the great game "beyond good and evil" has shitty spanish dub... i almost puke and drown with my own puke. Hope companys do what m$ did with halo 2, since that is what we call neutral spanish and 90% of hispanics "which means spanish speaking.... is not only latinos for you people out there that dont know, you know who you are" like. :-D

 

OK, I see your point. I know nothing about Spanish, and couldn't say how good their dubs are as I've never seen any nor would I understand them.

But regardless of this - from a technical point of view for playing PAL games anyway, wouldn't a modded console be able to output PAL games in 50Hz NTSC?

I know a PAL Dreamcast will output PAL in either 50 or 60Hz regardless of what the region of the game is (with a boot disc of course), so I assume the NTSC version would be able to play PAL games in NTSC-50, but what are other consoles liek when it comes to the colour system they output? The Gamecube seems to be the same as the DC.

I know the older PS2s would always output 50Hz in PAL and 60Hz in NTSC, so that could be a problem, unless you're playing a PAL game that has a 60Hz option. Are the new ones the same?

 

i dont really know about that, but i doubt there is such thing as ntsc 50, since i am able to play pal 60 on my tv "some pal dreamcast games".

 

There definately is such a thing as NTSC-50. Modern TV sets with computer-controlled vertical and horizontal hold all have an acceptable range of scanrates they can display, usually around 50-60Hz. I have an old Pong clone, and there's some thing inside I can adjust with a screwdriver (a trimmer or varicap or something), and it appears to change the vertical (and possibly the horizontal as well) frequency of the picture. The TV would work fine for a range of frequencies (somewhere around 50-60Hz or larger - I have nothing to measure it exactly), but only if it went too high or too low would the TV go into "overload" mode (it will switch itself off and the power light would flash - it's happened when I plugged in RCA cables while turned on before as well).

Maybe I should steal a oscilloscope from college some day and do some more testing... ;-)

I've seen TV sets from the late 80's which can display 50 and 60Hz signals no prob's.

NTSC DVD players and VCRs which can play PAL video must be able to output NTSC-50, and my capture card in my PC has support for it, so I don't see why no console couldn't do it either.

 

well, most tv's cant display pal, my friends old tv "about 20 years" can display pal in black and white, but mine which is like 3 years old cant, the screen just moves really fast from up down

 

To be honest I'm quite happy the amount of Dutch language games is minimal... it's always cheesy as hell (Earth 2149 in Dutch :smt043 )

 

Actually, my telly can display PAL, but only in black and white... and with a weird displacement in some rare cases of Dreamcast software.
The only way to get a colour transmission is to set games to 60hz.
Good thing most Euro DC software has the option. Shenmue 2, for example, or the Euro version of Bangai-O.

But having experienced UT2003 for the PC spoken in "Spanish" on the PC (Shoy la PUTA Ama! Besha mi Culo!) - I really prefer american NTSC versions of console games.

Most of my teachers while finishing college were from Spain, though, so I'm used to the accent to a certain degree - but I'll be damned before I can play a game spoken with that accent and not laugh myself to death.

That would SO ruin the "serious" aspects of several games, would it not?

 

imagin playing metal gear solid with irish accent xD

 

I know this discussion is a bit old, but....

In the US, it is 100% completely legal to import games. If you hear otherwise, it's bullshit.

It's possible that in certain EU countries, content restrictions and the like will restrict certain games (say, games with Nazis in Germany can still be illegal), but WTO rules would frown upon wholesale limits on importation. That said, the game companies aren't stupid - they practice what's called regional pricing or third-degree price discrimination. What usually happens is that more competitive entertainment markets and/or poorer nations will have lower prices on an item. Since you could take advantage of this with homogenous products by arbitrage (buy X number of games in cheap country,ship them to more expensive country, laugh from your gold-paved driveway), the game companies make the games different in each region (i.e., don't include English translation on Japanese games, etc.).

In any case, imports are not illegal in the US.

One last thing: My sympathy for the game companies complaining about piracy is quite low. They could get rid of import locks on the consoles, which would leave no legitimate reason to install a mod chip, which would make taking out mod chip installers much much easier. But, hey, regional pricing makes them a lot of money, and they try to pretend they have no way to stop the pirates so the ol' government has to intervene. That's BS.

 

Just to add to this user agreements are not enforcable by law. For example, some games make you agree to not resell the game in the EULA you have to agree to to install the game. Basically it's total BS that companies throw in just because they can, it has no legal backbone.