Dreamcast Gun lockout-bypass?

[Macabre]

Are you sure its the official sega one, or the licensed one? The mad katz phasor thing i think even had a sega dreamcast logo on its side. There were two very common light guns in the states, and basically all others (including official sega) were released elsewhere.

(u.k. got a sort of mini gun, a desert eagle mock up, and a hiat white with kickback & orange detail, japan got a few of those, + a dcx gun which was basicaly a black rounded version of the official one, and malasian areas got src guns, 2 wired versions and a wireless version, that sort of look like the enforcers from the sega saturn)



edit; i do recall reading in a topic somewhere along time ago that a mere boot-disc was all it took to get around the lockout on some games, but iirc only two games had the lockout? (house of the dead being the obvioius popular one)



edit edit; if you found a gun at the shop (be it any used game shop) for $10...its a good chance its broken.

[revolution-128]

Are you sure its the official sega one, or the licensed one?

edit; i do recall reading in a topic somewhere along time ago that a mere boot-disc was all it took to get around the lockout on some games, but iirc only two games had the lockout? (house of the dead being the obvioius popular one)



edit edit; if you found a gun at the shop (be it any used game shop) for $10...its a good chance its broken.

I know what the official one looks like, and it's the official one. It also says import on the price sticker.

I've read that a boot disc doesn't solve this.

The store offers returns, so I'm not concerned.

[alex]

One user on the emu-land.net tried to unlock it
http://www.emu-land.net/forum/index.php ... 300.0.html

English via google
http://translate.google.ru/translate?js ... l=ru&tl=en

[revolution-128]

One user on the emu-land.net tried to unlock it

http://translate.google.ru/translate?js ... l=ru&tl=en

First off, thanks for the link. But oh my god, that seems really complicated and technical. I had a bit of trouble understanding since google translation is only so good, but what I got from it was that first there was something about swapping resistors, which led to reflashing the chips, which led to I don't know what.

But I can't help but think, that all the region information must be stored on a single chip, which could be disabled just like the NES lockout chip. Is there something keeping it from being so simple?

[game_player_s]

To qutoe a cryptic message from BSG; "All this has happened before and will happen again/. Welcome to 2006.:
http://dchelp.dcemulation.org/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=626

[revolution-128]

To qutoe a cryptic message from BSG; "All this has happened before and will happen again/. Welcome to 2006.:
http://dchelp.dcemulation.org/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=626

What they were discussing was exactly what I was looking for. Shame they didn't come to a conclusion. Maybe we can. It would be great if someone could post a shot of the circuitry inside the gun. Then maybe someone with some tech experience could figure out what to do with it.

[TeamXlink]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreamcast_ ... ishing_Rod

Sega also produced a light gun for the system, although this was not sold in the United States, possibly because Sega did not want its name on a gun in light of recent school shootings (the Columbine High School massacre). American versions of light gun games even blocked out using the official gun. However, several third parties made compatible guns for the American Dreamcast. One of them was Mad Catz's Dream Blaster which became the official Dreamcast light gun for use in the United States. The games that did not work in United States with the official Dreamcast light gun were The House of the Dead 2 and Confidential Mission. Other light gun compatible games were Death Crimson OX and its Japanese prequel Death Crimson 2, Virtua Cop 2 on the Sega Smash Pack, and a light gun minigame in Demolition Racer No Exit.
See also: Dreamcast light guns

[AdamKoralik]

So...I figured this out..

Turns out the lockout is in the software.

I popped in my American copy of House of the Dead 2 with my European official Dreamcast lightgun on my AMERICAN DREAMCAST and it didn't work.

Then I popped in my European copy of House of the Dead 2 with my European official Dreamcast lightgun on my AMERICAN DREAMCAST and it worked.

Problem solved. Just get the European (or possibly the Japanese) copy of the game and you're fine.

However, I tested the reverse.

Playing the American copy of the game on a European or Japanese console will NOT make the controller work.

Its all in the software ladies and gentlemen.

[revolution-128]

So...I figured this out..

Turns out the lockout is in the software.

I popped in my American copy of House of the Dead 2 with my European official Dreamcast lightgun on my AMERICAN DREAMCAST and it didn't work.

Then I popped in my European copy of House of the Dead 2 with my European official Dreamcast lightgun on my AMERICAN DREAMCAST and it worked.

Its all in the software ladies and gentlemen.

For this to make sense, it must be in both the hardware and the software. The software needs to be programmed to request the lockout information from the hardware. Where does the hardware get this information? It must be stored in some kind of chip. The only reason that we're talking about modifying the hardware instead of software is because the official software can't be modified, however the official hardware can.

[AdamKoralik]

Perhaps, but all I'm saying is, to get around this, you just need the European or Japanese copy of X game and you don't have to tinker with the light gun itself.

And to be honest, I have the official light gun, the Mad Cats Dream Blaster, and the Interact Light Gun. And frankly the best one is the Dream Blaster. While the worst is the official gun.

Now thats personal preference, but I stand by it.