Bought some Dreamcast hardware, now some Problems!

Sonic-NKT · Post by **Sonic-NKT** » Sat Dec 24, 2005 6:19 am

Hi,
I bought a big pack of Dreamcast things at ebay (8 Controllers (6 Orginal), 2 Guns, 1 VGA Box, 2 Keyboards, 2 RumblePacks) Now it tried the hardware, the 2 Guns work, but only in my Japan Version of House of the Dead, in my EU Confidential Mission it says i cant use foreign guns, is there a way to fix this problem or do i have to buy NTSC Games now

.
Another problem is the VGA box, i doesnt work, then i looked inside of it and it seems very simple, perhaps there is a way to fix a broken vga box, what can it be?
Anyway hope some of you can help me.

Smurph · Post by **Smurph** » Sat Dec 24, 2005 8:40 am

VGA box: check for burnt out components with a multimeter, and check for cold solder/loose conenctions with cables etc. If the problem is the main chip, then you'd be better off getting a new VGA box. (<3 My Madness Gameware VGA box. [Got it for free, w00t!])

For the guns: they have a region lock, as you've noticed.

Pick up a madcatz gun (officially licensed by sega) to play your NTSC-U gun games. Again, if you know your hardware, you MIGHT be able to make the gun region-free.

Good luck!

Sonic-NKT · Post by **Sonic-NKT** » Sat Dec 24, 2005 9:38 am

region lock on guns

thats funny...
hmm i was so happy do pick up those, its really hard today to get those in germany.
it easier to find ntsc games than guns i think, will have a look at ebay for ntsc version.

about the vga box, i opened it and didnt found any part which looked bad or so, then i pressed some parts to look if something changes on the monitor and i found out that when you put the vga connector under pressure, it works. i think the connector is broken but i shouldnt be hard to solder a new one in.

Smurph · Post by **Smurph** » Sat Dec 24, 2005 9:47 am

Sonic-NKT wrote:region lock on guns thats funny...
hmm i was so happy do pick up those, its really hard today to get those in germany.
it easier to find ntsc games than guns i think, will have a look at ebay for ntsc version.

about the vga box, i opened it and didnt found any part which looked bad or so, then i pressed some parts to look if something changes on the monitor and i found out that when you put the vga connector under pressure, it works. i think the connector is broken but i shouldnt be hard to solder a new one in.

Glad I could be of help. Anyways, I think the region lock on the guns was, IIRC, that the JP ones looked somewhat like real guns, and the US is filled with anti-gun activists (That's putting it nicely).

Nick · Post by **Nick** » Mon Dec 26, 2005 6:14 pm

The region lock isn't on the guns themselves, per se. The software is actually what locks them out. So really there's no way you can bypass the protection, other than buying the correct set of games for the guns.

It looks like you have a set of Japanese guns. These will only work on Japanese software and the US version of Sega Smashpack Vol. 1. To use a light gun on the PAL version of Confidential Mission, you will need a PAL light gun -- either the official Sega one, or a Mad Catz one.

Hashmire420 · Post by **Hashmire420** » Mon Dec 26, 2005 6:43 pm

well technically it is in both the software and the hardware, see there is something in the firmware of the gun that the us or pal versions refuse to answar to. So if you were able to stop that region signature from ever leaving the gun then yes you could use the official light guns.

Sonic-NKT · Post by **Sonic-NKT** » Mon Dec 26, 2005 6:45 pm

the question now is how