Curiously, I'm having a hard time finding answers to the following questions anywhere, so I hope (no, I'm sure!) you guys can help me 1) How does the region coding work? Is it software-sided (e.g. software can, but doesn't have to, check the systems region information and block accordingly) or is it hardware-sided (e.g. similar to DVD region codes, the region information is stored on the disc, and the console checks if it can run that region). 2) If it is hardware-sided, is each game encoded to ONE specific region or, as with movie DVDs, can it be encoded to multiple codes at once. 3) Either way, what are the possible codes? 4) Are there CD-ROM games for the Xbox, and if so, how does their region lock differ from the DVD-ROM games? Thanks in advance!
I think it's software if I'm not mistaken because debug/development kits and softmod consoles can play all regions without hardware modifications. Debug kits just have more ram. But that's just based on software stuff. Tsop and chipped consoles have region free capabilities but that obviously taints the issue at hand since those are hardware related. It's no different to how a debug or softmod can play backups without hardware modifications.
1) It's part of each XBE's header. More at http://www.caustik.com/cxbx/download/xbe.htm The kernel examines this when loading the file, just like the signature. 3) Available regions: XBEIMAGE_GAME_REGION_NA 0x00000001 XBEIMAGE_GAME_REGION_JAPAN 0x00000002 XBEIMAGE_GAME_REGION_RESTOFWORLD 0x00000004 XBEIMAGE_GAME_REGION_MANUFACTURING 0x80000000 2) The values above were chosen to be able to be xored together nicely, so you can mix-and-match as you like. 4) Again, follow the link above. It's just XBE flags exactly like on DVDs, but with different media flags. One could also just set all teh mediah flagz and press both DVDs and CDs containing exactly the same files, but I don't really see the point in doing that tbh.
