Queries about Dreamcast region changing

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Re: Queries about Dreamcast region changing

Post#1 » Sat Jul 02, 2016 2:47 pm

I'll try answering this to the best of my ability. If anyone else could chime and and criticise me why I am wrong, please don't hesitate.

g8terg8 wrote:
    1. Am I able to just change the broadcast settings to NTSC for example, and not anything concerning regions?

I'm I'm not mistaken the Dreamcast VGA signal is neither NTSC or PAL/SECAM to everything is outputted at 640x480. I have played a few PAL games myself on a NTSC tv like Headhunter and Rez and they both worked flawlessly in composite so I would see a difference in VGA and it's nothing to worry about.
g8terg8 wrote:
    2. If I get a PAL game (for instance, Sonic Adventure) and select 50Hz but with the broadcast settings set to NTSC, would it play at 50Hz or 60Hz or not at all?

Sonic Adventure isn't a game that would take advantage of a 60htz refresh rate since it is locked at half the video standards (30htz NTSC/25htz PAL/SECAM) so once again I wouldn't worry about it unless your TV decides to throw a fit.
g8terg8 wrote:
    3. What does the black swirl option do? (I understand it's probably just a swirl color mod, but I want to make sure it's just that

I really don't know that that is either and I wouldn't even touch it period. Just stick with what you feel is best without crewing around too much. Remember that you can keep the blue swirl after you do that since it's only cosmetic.
g8terg8 wrote:
    4. Is it OK if you keep the region change mod in? I have not done any modification to my Dreamcast apart from this one.

That mod is supposed to alter the region code and only that. After doing the soldering to the bios and modding it with the burnt CD-R of the tool it really isn't considered modded for how the hardware is concerned. The saturn works similar since it has 2 different settings to determine the region it came from. That being said you can change the area code on how it boots the games but it is still domestic untill you decide to change the region code too since the bios on that isn't region specific. I assumed the Dreamcast works similar with a more simplified setup.
g8terg8 wrote:
    5. Would it also be OK if I did a region change many times (for example, 5 times in one day)

from what I have read up the mod isn't supposed to be designed to switch the region as many times as you would like. It is designed to change it and keep it like that indefinitely until you want to change it again. If you would like to do that without switching the region I would subject installing a region-free bios which will piggyback on the dreamcast's bios chip. Be aware that there are rumors that some games will not function properly or will not work at all after doing the region-free mod.

g8terg8 wrote:I'm also looking forward to having a "Real Mode" Dreamcast in 30fps and not the crappy 25fps that PAL machines have got :D

As a person who is loyal to the PC master race, the less screen flicker the better. I honestly can barely tell the difference between 50htz and 60htz, but 25hhz and 30htz is like night and day.

Hopefully I have answered your questions as accurately as possible. Once again I may not be 100% correct and I will take to criticism for this if my knowledge isn't up to par.
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