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GameCube (Games) Entertainment Games

F-Zero Breaks Freeloader - Intentionally? 44

Posted by simoniker from the doorknob-came-off-in-my-hands dept.
Thanks to Gamers.com for their article pointing out that the Japanese release of Nintendo's hotly-awaited F-Zero GX is partially incompatible with the Datel Freeloader region-free disc for the GameCube, which "normally allows players to run Japanese games on American or European Cubes without difficulty", as it "refuses to display the select screens or the in-game interface overlays (such as the speedometer, placing indicator, and so forth)." Since this a major Nintendo-developed title, and one of the first to sport notable incompatibilities with Freeloader, could it be that Nintendo are deliberately releasing games to break region-free circumvention, or is this just a coincidence?
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F-Zero Breaks Freeloader - Intentionally? More

F-Zero Breaks Freeloader - Intentionally?

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  • What did you expect? (Score:5, Informative)

    by D.A. Zollinger ( 549301 ) on Wednesday July 23, 2003 @08:06PM (#6517062) Homepage Journal
    It is probably just coincidence [slashdot.org].

  • Intentional? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Eluding Reality ( 691589 ) on Wednesday July 23, 2003 @08:08PM (#6517078)
    I would say Yes. There were systems built into cartridges on the N64 at least that would stop you playing import games( on the N64 you had to have a joining cart, which you plugged the import and a home cart into) As the import devices started appearing, I believe later carts blocked them forcing you to either buy games when they were released in your home country or buy a new import converter cart that got around the new measures, so in other words if it is intentional, expect freeloader v2 in a month

    Anyway, had my Japanese GC since launch day and had it modded a couple of days after the mod was discovered so I'll be enjoying F-Zero in a couple of days!

    Another article on it here [planetgamecube.com]
    • I am almost 100% positive that the N64's only import protection was the shape of the cartridge.

      The N64 itself was able to be modified to cut off a little tab that prevented the Japanese games from fitting inside the slot. This was also the same for the GameBoys if my memory still serves me.

      To the topic of the Freeloader I would say great more power to Nintendo and let them do their thing. I would say that a better option though would be for Nintendo itself to release a Freeloader type disc and charge $50
      • Should have mentioned that I'm from the UK so thats the way we had to do it here :)

        But I do remember now that you could just cut off the tab in the states, still got my n64 carts downstairs and the cart is just a different shape, the gameboy though is region free as it doesn't have to comply to any local standards like NTSC or PAL.
      • It wasn't the Gameboy that was like this, it was the Super Nintendo.
    • No buddy, not intentional. If Nintendo has one thing going for them, is that they spend more time fighting piracy than an idiotic business trend.

      1. The GB-everything is free-region.
      2. The SNES and N64 were region-protected by physical limitations. (Tho I think the N64 went a few steps further, the SNES's mod chip remains a sharp razor.)
      3. The GameCube is MINIMALLY region-protecting. Three solder points, a couple of wires and a switch, costing you an astounding $3 in supplies at Radio Shack ($11 if you don'
      • It may be intentional, but only because of the link up features with the arcade version of F-Zero. I imagine there will be hardware differences in the arcade machines, and that the save data would not be compatible.

  • Sound like a localization bug... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by jordanda ( 160179 ) on Wednesday July 23, 2003 @08:25PM (#6517205) Homepage
    It sounds to me that they were trying to do language detection for the interface so they could release the same disc to several regions. Freeloader probably sets some language flag incorrectly which caused the text display to fail. Isn't it curious that the failure occurs just in the menus and in the speedometers? I would speculate that you can't see a single character of text. If they were purposely trying to break compatability then the failure would have been a lot more dramatic.

    • Re:Sound like a localization bug... (Score:3, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Sorry, that's far too logical and un-conspiracy like. If you keep saying things like that, the /.ers mights just take thier tinfoil hats off. ...and we can't have that. There's an entire industry built on manufacturing foil for them! Do you want to be responsible for an industry crash?
    • That's possible, or it's possible that they couldn't figure out a better way to break Freeloader. They build region encoding into their systems for a reason. (It's an evil reason, IMO, but still a reason.)
    • "It sounds to me that they were trying to do language detection for the interface so they could release the same disc to several regions. Freeloader probably sets some language flag incorrectly which caused the text display to fail. Isn't it curious that the failure occurs just in the menus and in the speedometers?"

      We *all* know this post wouldn't have been taken seriously if this was about the X-BOX.

  • Why region-lock? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by DarkVein ( 5418 ) on Wednesday July 23, 2003 @09:40PM (#6517707) Journal

    Why do companies even try to region lock? What are they trying to do? They only seem to create a useless business niche dedicated to bypassing it.

    • I would say that the main reason a company would want to region lock is so that they have much more precise control over the global market. Most companies will say that they use region locks in order to deliver different experiences to different users - depending upon their local customs and environments. (i.e. no Nazi symbols in French games). But I would imagine a more likely reason is that release dates can be stretched out, allowing the company's resources to be focused on a single region during that re
      • It also allows them to control the pricing. This means they can sell it cheaply in regions where people would otherwise not buy it, and then raise the price in other regions to earn more profit.
        The region coding just enforces this control
        • This is VERY true, especially for Nintendo games. As a point of reference, Viewtiful Joe for Gamecube was on store shelves selling for 6800 yen (~$60) when I was in Tokyo last week, compared to the $40 pre-order price here in the U.S.

      • Re:Why region-lock? (Score:3, Informative)

        by JazFresh ( 146585 )
        Region locks exist to increase the value of the exclusive rights sold to a publisher for a region.

        If you were the publisher for a game in Europe, you'd sure as hell want to make sure that the Japan/US versions of the game (which might be out months before yours due to localization delay) can't be bulk imported by retailers and sold - cos that money won't go to you, it'll go to the overseas publisher.

        Likewise, the original publishers that sell the rights to overseas publishers want region locks so that the

      • Re:Why region-lock? (Score:2, Insightful)

        by Godai ( 104143 ) *

        They'll spin you every which yarn they can think of to convince you otherwise. But in the end, it simply boils down to one of the oldest tricks in the book: divide and conquer.

        From what I remember of economics theory, it has to do with something called market specialization. In other word, divide up the market and charge each piece whatever it can bear.

        Take Asia and, say, the UK or example. Try to sell the same game for the same price in both regions and you will see substandard income in one of them; ei

    • Re:Why region-lock? (Score:4, Interesting)

      by bigbigbison ( 104532 ) * on Wednesday July 23, 2003 @10:44PM (#6518044) Homepage
      As I understand it, generally it is because a subsidiary of a company in another country is basically a seperate company. Nintendo of America has their own production schedual and own profit margins and whatnot. If Nintendo of Japan released a game that wasn't region locked, it would hurt Nintendo of America's bottom line.

  • Uhm, and? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Reality_X ( 23422 ) on Wednesday July 23, 2003 @10:33PM (#6517974) Homepage
    Having my very own Freeloader, I can say that incompatibilities with it are nothing worth writing a slashdot news story about. I've had a success rate of 1/5 games so far. Using 3 different boot methods.

    The thing doesn't work properly.
    007 Nightfire doesn't go past the start screen.
    Harry Potter, Chamber of Secrets is in black and white.
    Luigis Mansion is in black and white.
    Zelda doesn't load.
    Super Monkey Ball 2 works perfectly!

    So yeah, if there's anything to blame for not working as advertisied, it's the Freeloader itself.

    Probably cheaper to buy a different region cube anyway :-)
    • I've also had problems with the Freeloader loading with some games. My copy of Luigi's Mansion was also in black & white and Zelda didn't load. There where a few other game I had that also didn't load but I'm spacing on them right now.

      I think the blame here should be placed on the Freeloader and Not Nintendo. Think about it if they wanted to block people from importing games don't you think they would have made it allot harder to mod your Cube? its only 4 wires and a switch to mod it.

      I also personal

    • Re:Uhm, and? (Score:2, Informative)

      by saintm ( 142527 )
      The most common reason for the games appearing in black and white seem to be that your TV does not support NTSC (or PAL60).

      If you are sure your TV does support that, have you tried holding 'B' when the game boots up? You usually get a 60mHz option appearing.

      Of course this is assuming you have a PAL console.
      • Yeah, I know. I have a compatible TV (a year old Panasonic widescreen HDTV which happily runs all my Dreamcast NTSC/PAL60 games, Region 1 DVDs and so on.)

        I've tried everything, it just doesn't work.

        Anyway, if Super Monkey Ball 2 worked, and that was NTSC, then the rest should work also.

  • Pansies (Score:4, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 24, 2003 @12:17AM (#6518511)
    Boot discs are for non-modding pussies anyways. Crack that shit open and get out the solder- warranty be damned.
  • ...just like that coincidence when Nvidia tweaked its drivers and got a better 3dmark score... wait a sec.
  • No offense or anything, but I don't see much point in importing a game that is guaranteed to be released in North American anyways. Instead of spending twice the price and sitting through japanese menus and cutscenes, you could just wait the month or so and get a copy that has no compatibility issues whatsoever.

    Of course, in Europe where everything seems to take forever to come out, I can understand it a little better.
  • There are probably business reasons behind this decision. I remember that a few years ago (8/16 bit era) Sega and Nintendo had different models. Since Sega was managed more as a distributed company (Sega of America/Sega of Japan were kinda different entities) there was a need to better define the source of revenue -hence the multiple territorial lockouts on Genesis games- whereas Nintendo was more centralized and flexible regarding revenue sourcing

    Lately, the weakness of the dollar (compared to the Eur

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