Someone just did a search on this site for "regional restrictions". I assume they were inquiring about DVD and video game restrictions.
The easiest way to play DVDs in other regions is to use a GameShark2 on the PS2 and boot other region DVDs. However this only works with the same format of TV so you can't play PAL DVDs on an NTSC TV but that does let me play Japanese DVDs on my PS2. I am still pissed at Gameshark for screwing up online PS2 games but oh well.
Here is my brief guide on how to get around regional restrictions on video games.
PSOne: Get a boot disk
Gameboy and GBA: There are no regional restrictions.
PS2: You will have to get it modded with a chip and I suggest you go to a professional unless you have a degree in electrical engineering.
Gamecube: They just released a boot disk WOO!
Xbox: There is no reason due to the fact that there are no good Japanese only Xbox games.
Dreamcast: use a boot disk.
SNES: Break of the tabs in your cartridge port to "circumsize it". Needle-nose pliers work great.
NES: Have to use an adaptor,
N64: Have to get an extender board adaptor.
Saturn: Use a GameShark or GS clone
Genesis: use a rounded file to widen the cartridge slot so that the Japanese Mega Drive game will fit.
The more you know and knowing is half the battle. Yo Joe
And all of these methods of modifying the systems void any warranty you may have had...
And you can be pissed off at GS all you want, since they are no longer making them. Active Replay by Datel has taken over, and so far, are far more superior in their product.
Do boot disks void your warranty? I don't think so but then again the warranty on my Sega Genesis has expired here in 2003. The only risky thing is getting your PS2 implanted with a Mod chip and I am not going to take that chance. The rest is pretty benign.
hey mervyns called me back for a second interview today at 4 i should be back here by 6 *with any luck* and we can go i'll definitly be back here by 7 the fam will be home so go ahead and come by. and i guess wait for me i gotta run i'll talk to you later....
Any form of non-licensed software or hardware will void your warranty. Of course, I am not sure how they could prove you used a boot disk if you didn't outright say so.
In a closed architecture system it is almost impossible for a software product to damage hardware. Bootleg cartridges sure but not a boot disk or a import CD. One of the problems is that imported games are a casulity of efforts to stamp out mod chips that also enable piracy.
The funny thing is, mod chips are not illegal. Yes, they void your warranty. Yes, pirating is illegal, but the mod chip itself is not. If you choose to back up every game you own and only play the 'burned' versions, this is not illegal. If you have a mod chip and use it to play import games, this is not illegal. It's the idiots out there who choose to not pay their own way in the world and want to steal what the rest of us have worked hard to get. That's illegal.
Mod chips USED to be legal
Actually under the Digital Media Copyright law (DMCA) the sale, creation and distribution of devices and techniques that can defeat copy protection securities is a crime under law.
http://www.anti-dmca.org/faq_local.html
The DMCA makes is a crime to "circumvent" copyright protection systems. Here is the language:
Sec. 1201. Circumvention of copyright protection systems
(2) No person shall manufacture, import, offer to the public, provide, or otherwise traffic in any technology, product, service, device, component, or part thereof, that--
Also straight from today's nerd headlines
Feds seize web site selling mod chips
http://www.salon.com/tech/wire/2003/02/27/feds/index.html
My buddy recently got me a video on DVD from Japan, but when I try to watch it on my PS2, its sez that I have the wrong region. Is there a way I can watch it? I do have a GamneShark 2--will that help? Help!
BTK
Yes you can use the Gameshark to boot the Japanese DVD and play it on a US PS2. I think it is called Disk player.