So my Dreamcast has a region free bios installed, but many of my japanese games still run in 50hz with borders. Is there a hardware mod I can do to force all games to run in 60hz? or am I forced to use a disc to force it? Im really not interested in playing anything in 50hz.
I've seen that behavior when running an NTSC copy of Bangai-O via scart, it will run in 288p 50hz. Using the PAL release you get a 50/60hz selection screen. When using VGA output that obviously never happens since to the system VGA equals 60hz. What game are you trying to play?
I guess this is what happens with games that technically support 50hz but don't have a 50/60hz selector built in, it just probes for the system region in the consoles flash. Most people use VGA so they never encounter it. There is some old method to solder a jumper on the back of the motherboard, change the region using a burned disc and removing the jumper after. Changes the swirl colour on startup too. That's probably your ticket but i don't have any experience with it. Edit: here it is, try at your own risk http://www.mmmonkey.co.uk/dreamcast-region-change/ What we learn from this is that the region free bios isn't actually region free, it just disables region lockout. System region is defined in what i assume is the same flash memory that holds PSO serials and network settings.
That method works well for va1 boards(pal only got va1 and va2 as far as I know), but be sure to unhook the jumper after flashing or you risk bricking your dreamcast. If you reboot after flashing and have a black swirl, do everything you can to try to get it to boot the disc again and reflash. In some cases if you set the internal date of your system as far back as it will go, it will let you boot. Good luck.
Tried the region changing disc method. Worked absolutely perfectly! I get the orange swirl at startup now and my Japanese games all start in 60hz as they should with no boot discs required. Exactly what I wanted. I installed a switch so I could enable the jumper and disable it easily. So much more convenient that disassembling the Dreamcast.
Awesome From what i've read it seems you can change the video standard and keep the region alone since the region-free bios already takes care of it. Just a matter of swirl colour now.
FWIW, default refresh rate is controlled by software on the game and the console itself. Depending on how the game has the flag set, the following will happen: PAL specified: 50hz only or 50/60hz prompted NTSC specified: 60hz only Nothing specified: Goes back to the default standard set in the system Note - PAL/NTSC is used in a general sense, all the system does is change the refresh rate between 50hz and 60hz. Thus RGBS behaviour is unaffected in terms of colour encoding but the refresh rate carries over, VGA is unaffected as IIRC the DC will only do 60hz over 31K/VGA. If you want to change the video encoder settings for composite and s-video this is dealt with separately - look for the mods for R422, bridging or unbridging this point tells the video encoder to set colour burst to 3.56mhz or 4.43mhz. This comes in handy if you want to push PAL colour on an NTSC machine, or force NTSC colour on a PAL console. This mod comes in handy on launch PAL DCs that suffer from colour flickering at the top of the screen in 60hz mode, shift the video encoder to NTSC mode and you’re all set, albeit without the technical advantages of PAL colour standards. Mind, you should install a switch so you can go back to PAL colour when running 50hz gear. Patching the flash memory as you’ve done effectively changes the system default. The BIOS itself (even the region free one) does not touch the flash memory. Fun tip - if you flash a PAL DC’s default refresh rate settings to 60hz you generally lose all the 50/60hz prompts in PAL games and they default to 60hz. Mind, it can also break some PAL games - Skies of Arcadia, which is PAL50-optimised, glitches out if you’ve flashed your PAL DC to default to 60hz. HotD2 is also PAL50-optimised, can’t remember if this glitches out or not. Remember to only activate the system flashing when using the system (DC Swirl?) disc, leaving it open can brick your console with some games that temporarily write to that portion of the system (such as HotD2).
Yeah, I installed a switch to enable/disable system flashing. I'm fine with leaving my system flashed to NTSC as I really have no desire to play anything in 50hz. If I ever do play a PAL game that only runs in 50hz, I'll simply boot it using a DC-X disc or something to force 50hz (as I used to do to force 60hz before I flashed it)
