Games with region protections

Hi everyone,

I would to create a list of games that embed region protection checks.

I know that PAL protections in some US/JP games (the game does not boot if you use a RGB/SCART cable), NTSC protection in some EURO games (also based on a cable check) and some other protections based on the system broadcast configuration. Am I missing some other region protections? (I am not talking about others protections, like LBA checks, file size checks, etc. Thank you)

Also, do you have any example involving any of the protections I mentioned? Like on a PAL Dreamcast, NBA Hoopz NTSC/US (NTSC/JP) does not boot. And if you are going to make some tests, please use your Dreamcast default region settings (i.e. no region mod), GDROM or unmodified GDI dumps (specify it), mention also the cable you use and the game region.

Thank you!

 

San Francisco Rush 2049 PAL: boots only on PAL Dreamcast
San Francisco Rush 2049 NTSC-US: boots only on NTSC-US Dreamcast
That game has thus a region check. The game region must match the system one.

MTV Skateboarding featuring Andy McDonald PAL: boots only with a SCART cable. I am pretty sure the NTSC-US version does the opposite, it boots only with the composite cable (or the rf-box, it's considered as the same cable type by the DC). Can someone try that out: does the NTSC-US version boot with a composite cable?

Thanks

 

Just in case people are wondering why I'm asking to pitch in to create a game list with region protection it's just because I probably can fix all of those region problem with a custom bios. Thanks

 

I have a PAL Dreamcast with video output changed to NTSC/60Hz and using GDEMU SuperRunabout PAL give me black screen after SEGA logo screen. NTSC version works just fine. I connect my console by RGB to my CRT TV.

Edit.

I tested SuperRunabout PAL with your latest BIOS and still black screen.

 

custom bios = region mod ??? also if you use the dev bios i think most of the games boot normally or not?

 

The "dev BIOS" you're talking about is not really the dev BIOS, it's just the retail BIOS with 2 patches applied, one to skip the region check on the disc and two, the devkit intro is patched in instead of the normal retail intro.

All this does though is skip the BIOS's check on the disc before booting it; once the game is booted the game itself can still have additional region protections to check which region the console is and refuse to proceed. If I am understanding japanese_cake correctly, he seems to have a method to add additional code to the BIOS that would trick these games into passing their region checks?

japanese_cake, if I may be so bold to request a feature for your custom BIOS, could you possibly remove the VGA cable check? That is, a lot of games work in VGA mode, but they have the flag set to make the BIOS disallow booting of them if the VGA cable is connected.

EDIT: Whoops! I downloaded the current version of your custom BIOS from your website and you've already implemented that as a feature! Awesome work!

 

I tried to boot an NTSC-J copy of Shenmue on a US Dreamcast using a Utopia boot disc. It didn't work for me. I think this is what you mean by region protection right?

 

Games that comes to my mind are the El Dorado Gate series from Capcom.
OK, everytime I mention them, I am the only one caring, but still, pretty good games are still pretty good even if your Japanese sucks. ;-)

 

about year ago I was able to bypass Holly's BIOS CRC protection, using some magic data from HotD2 NAOMI prototype BIOS. as well as made BIOSes for Holly-based systems (Dreamcast, Naomi, etc) which can be freely moddable. I guess japanese_cake uses one of them

 

What do you mean by copy? A backup or a retail copy of the Gdrom? If you are using a backup so no it is not what I mean. Otherwise it means that yes the game has some sort of a region protection.

Thanks, I just need to get any of them as I suppose they are all coded the same way. It's a good start.

Good to have someone talking about the holly thing. So even if I am aware of that beta bios that, if I recall correctly, passes only the first 1kb to the holly controller, I haven't used it yet. I might have discovered something but it is a bit empirical; I cannot be 100% sure that the bios is going to pass the protection... Perhaps someday someone will leak some intel about all that!

 

I meant a retail NTSC-J copy of Shenmue.. I've got more than one NTSC-J retail copy at my disposal.

 

I was thinking about this today. I bought a stock of JAP original games and some doesn t boot on my PAL console with utopia bootloader .I have a scart RGB cable. I could boot Every game with gameshark CDX,but sega rally JAP screen is not centered even if my LCD supporto 60hz. I could not boot it, virtuale fighter 3 and project Berkeley demo with utopia just a black screen after the GD loading

 

That is fine then. The only issue here is that as I don't know in details what the utopia boot disc does, it is hard to address the problem when a game does not boot up. Could you give a try with the action replay or gameshark instead? Thank you. Also make sure that the game also boots with the rgb cable.

Ok I see, thank you. Could you use the gameshark as boot disc instead and also use another analog video cable like the rf or composite cable?

 

As for El Dorado Gate, keep in mind that region checks are the same for the whole series. But, with each volume released, they added protection checks and I think some of them are new region checks.
If you need them, I have all 7 GDIs of the series, drop me a PM if needed.
There is the Echelon scene releases, which had informations about the multiple protections used by the game and there was another release which fixed many problems Echelon's releases had, with lots of explanations too. I should have the Echelon releases, but as for the later one, I know the nfo files were somewhere on the net, but haven't been able to get them back.

Edit: I finally found them back:

 

Sadly I have no other analogue or composite cable. I had an rf cable but I don't know where it is and I doubt that it will work on a digital TV . Can I help you with other tests? I have many pal and some jap and USA original games. I have a little idea why virtua fighters and Sega rally have problems... Could it be due to the fact that they are both developed with windows CE ? Because if I remember correctly I used utopia to boot other import games without problems, but I don't remember if originals or backups

 

The Utopia bootdisc is definitely the weakest link in this one. Back in the day I ran into many imports that refused to boot with the Utopia disc, but that worked perfectly when using the DC Xploder demo disc.

 

I can confirm that Shenmue boots fine with a Gameshark and a Codebreaker.
This is because of how Utopia works, not a region patch.
Tested with a JNTSC Shenmue on a NTSC console model 1 with a backup gshark and codebreaker.

 

But I m sure I can boot import games with utopia bootloader at least 1.2 version. I used utopia for import for many times,original games and backup. I noticed only now the problem with some new games I bought for my collection

 

As others have noted while the Utopia Boot Loader "can" be used as a region bypass to a certain extent it wasn't originally made with region bypass functionality in mind, its primary function was for DC piracy and the region bypass that it does have is only an extra byproduct of how the disc works and nothing more, it also needs to be mentioned that the Utopia Boot Loader was also released earlier on in the DC's life cycle compared to later region bypass discs and as such more advanced protections that came after the boot loader make it virtually useless for newer games that have said protections in them.

 

you can read some details about its functioning there , sadly checksumm algorithm itself is not (yet) known.
but it doesn't matter how much data will be transferred, the only required then "end address" offset will be read - checksum must match correct one.

I don't get about "cannot be 100% sure", there two options only - 0% (wrong sum, G1 ATA is locked) and 100% (correct sum, ATA registers unlocked)...