Playing games from other regions (AKA software piracy)

[toblix]

I have this friend who wants to play this DS game called 999, but he lives in Europe and the game hasn't been translated to the Pan-European All-tongue, so he can't buy it. So he asks me «how can I play this game? Is there a legal way? If not, what's the easiest/cheapest way around whatever restrictions are in place? Do I have to buy an American DS? Can I get an American DS here, or are they blocking that as well?»

I tell him «stay right here, and I'll fix everything.» I then call Europol and tell them everything, and within minutes they're there, black bagging him and setting charges to demolish his house. Did I do the right thing?

[Nappi]

I tell him «stay right here, and I'll fix everything.» I then call Europol and tell them everything, and within minutes they're there, black bagging him and setting charges to demolish his house. Did I do the right thing?

Why would you do something like that to yourself?

[Roderick]

I assume he wants to play it on a 3DS instead of a DS? In the latter case there's no problem whatsoever: the DS is region free and there has just been a rerelease of 999 (which you all should play in any case) for a mere 20 US dollars. Import that fucker and gogogo. If he has a 3DS I'm not entirely sure about the region lock... I have a few imported DS games myself that I believe still work fine on the 3DS, so the odds are he'll be good.

In both cases, no need for piracy!

[toblix]

I'm caught in this web of lies, and the only way out is to confess: I am that friend. I bought 999 from Ebay for almost nothing, so we'll see how it goes.

[Sno]

There's no region locking on DS games, so it'll be fine.

3DS games are another matter, so hope and wish for a domestic release of Virtue's Last Reward.

[shammack]

What Sno said. I've played the Japanese Ouendan games with no problems on an American DS as well as 3DS. It's only when you want to play imported 3DS games that you're going to have problems.

[toblix]

There's no region locking on DS games, so it'll be fine.

3DS games are another matter, so hope and wish for a domestic release of Virtue's Last Reward.

How hard is it to get a US 3DS, though?

[Sno]

Actually, hold on just a second.

I'm reading that VLR does have a european release, it came out at the end of november, so you're good with a european 3DS.

It's just 999 that was never released in Europe.

[Yasawas]

VLR is out on 3DS here in Europe but that version apparently features a random save-devouring bug which doesn't seem to afflict the Vita version. Shame, as I'll probably never play it with the knowledge I could lose 20 hours.

Coincidentally my copy of 999 turned up this morning! Amazon.co.uk have had it as low as £12, that's where I got it.

[syntheticgerbil]

There's no way to play another region game on a 3DS or DSi. The non internet enabled models will do a cartridge from any region just fine. I still keep my old fat grey DS around just for a couple of games.

999 is just a normal DS game, does your friend only own a 3DS?

Also is buying games from another region considered piracy? I mean, I often have to buy something used when importing because the easiest way to do that would be using Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.co.jp in my case, but they block all software sales to other countries, which is completely idiotic, especially in cases like PS3 being region free as a feature. PC games having this restriction is even more idiotic. So I can't even give my money directly to certain companies and instead use UK Ebay to get around it. Why does this restriction exist for video games when I can easily import DVDs and Blu-rays from Amazons for other countries just fine?

[toblix]

Yeah, the thread title was really bad. I was thinking of piracy as the last, terrible resort if doing it legally (or semi-legally) was impossible. I would never resort to piracy to play a game I was unable to buy legally, but my friend probably would.

[Sno]

There's no way to play another region game on a 3DS or DSi. The non internet enabled models will do a cartridge from any region just fine. I still keep my old fat grey DS around just for a couple of games.

999 is just a normal DS game, does your friend only own a 3DS?

Hold on, hold on. DS games are not region locked, and they will not magically become region locked on a 3DS or DSi. I believe that there are, however, some DS games with DSi-specific functionality that may enable region locks on the newer systems. Old-school DS carts won't run into any issues though, regardless of the platform. 3DS games, however, will always be region-locked.

I think that's how it all shakes out, at least.

VLR is out on 3DS here in Europe but that version apparently features a random save-devouring bug which doesn't seem to afflict the Vita version. Shame, as I'll probably never play it with the knowledge I could lose 20 hours.

Coincidentally my copy of 999 turned up this morning! Amazon.co.uk have had it as low as £12, that's where I got it.

The save bug apparently affects all versions of VLR, the issue is just that the 3DS version has only one save slot, so you're totally hosed if you're hit by it. Just don't save during puzzle rooms and you're fine.

There's actually only a few rooms in the game that are even affected by the bug, and even fewer that will fault every time, but it's a nasty bug. My first playthrough on VLR, i made a save in one of the most seriously affected puzzle rooms without knowing about the bug, saw the game lock up, and then saw my save refusing to load.

Did reading online, found out about the bug, and started the game over. The second time through, i avoided saving in the puzzle rooms and played through to 100% completion. (If you need to save while you're in a puzzle room, you can use the story flow chart to back out of the puzzle room and safely save during a preceding visual novel sequence.)

So it's a really, really bad issue, but it's easy to avoid when you know about it.

It's such a great game that i would still encourage people to play it, but it's very important that people be aware of the issue.

[Yasawas]

If I can definitely work around it that's not so bad, thanks for clarifying.

[syntheticgerbil]

Hold on, hold on. DS games are not region locked, and they will not magically become region locked on a 3DS or DSi. I believe that there are, however, some DS games with DSi-specific functionality that may enable region locks on the newer systems.

Are you sure though? I have both Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland, UK version, and Tingle's Balloon fight, a Japan only release, and neither will even show up as a cartridge I can play on the 3DS menu. However they are fine when playing on my old DS.

[Sno]

Are you sure those aren't actually newer DSi carts with the embedded region information? (Original DS carts have the NTR prefix on the serial number, DSi carts have a... I think it's a TWL prefix?)

What you're saying makes sense if they're DSi carts, and the older hardware is simply ignoring the extra region information.

Otherwise i've been misinformed, or else the 3DS is doing something funky.

[Roderick]

That reminds me, I bought Tingle's Rosy Rupee Land fifty years ago and still need to play it thoroughly.

Yasawas: yeah, totally get VLR. The savegame bug is easily avoided once you know of its existence (which is no excuse for it being there ofc, but knowing is half the battle).

[syntheticgerbil]

I meant to double check last night, but I forgot. Will get back to you Sno.

[Sno]

That reminds me, I bought Tingle's Rosy Rupee Land fifty years ago and still need to play it thoroughly.

Along with Last Window, that is one of those precious few DS games that got completely localized and released in Europe without actually being released in North America, and they're both games i would have really liked to play. I should probably just go ahead and import them or something.

I am also seriously disheartened by the lack of Tingle in the last several Zelda games.

[syntheticgerbil]

There's a second Tingle (not counting Balloon Fight) that's never been released in English anywhere and it makes me sad.

[syntheticgerbil]

Oh yeah, so I checked my foreign carts again in the 3DS, and I was wrong, Sno. They both work correctly. It took a few times of pushing them in and out to make them recognized by the 3DS menu, so I think the issue was that I tried only once before and figured that they didn't work. I think my cartridge slot is just dirty since I constantly walk around with my 3DS without a game inside.

[Yasawas]

Since I last posted in this thread I have finished 999 twice and am close to a third, it is a good game.

[Sno]

Oh yeah, so I checked my foreign carts again in the 3DS, and I was wrong, Sno. They both work correctly. It took a few times of pushing them in and out to make them recognized by the 3DS menu, so I think the issue was that I tried only once before and figured that they didn't work. I think my cartridge slot is just dirty since I constantly walk around with my 3DS without a game inside.

Yaaaay, I was right!

Additionally, i wish the 3DS came with a dummy cartridge like the DS Lite had for its GBA slot. With the 3DS's huge emphasis on digital distribution, having a way to protect an empty cartridge slot would be nice.