Unlock your Japanese Gamecube!!

[@zardthedragon1896]

Ah yes, if you simply bridge the doohicky under the thingamagig and then layer that under the cobobber, the system will finally be able to recombobulate and play english games. (just a joke cuz im dumb and don't know the mechanics)

[@JayBoyModz]

This mfer spittin 😎🔥

[@PanoptesDreams]

Dude. It's bridging a contact. No different to you turning on a light switch.

[@Ma-kf3fg]

@@PanoptesDreamsDude. Not everyone knows how to do that shit.

[@PanoptesDreams]

@@Ma-kf3fg it's a simple concept to wrap your head around, I literally just explained it like a light switch. And you can see him doing it in the video. You don't need to understand how the underlying electronics works you just need to understand it's like a switch and can be treated like one. What is not to get?

[@johnkramer2144]

@@PanoptesDreamsdude, it’s almost like people just don’t get electronics sometimes and don’t understand things that you might think are simple. No need to be so passive aggressive.

[@Rottyn]

Region lock was definitely the worst thing ever invented

[@skyzflxshy]

It really was. Long story short, I was trying to look for a Wii U on eBay, and I found one for about $100, but then I found out that it was a Japanese only console. I have only 3 North American Wii U games, and if I was going to be able to play those on there, I would have to mod it and then region unlock it, but then I don’t have an SD card or a USB flash drive. But luckily I ended up finding a Wii U that was NA for $110 and I was able to play 2 of the 3 NA games I had

[@akaCol1987]

Region locking was the predecessor to DRM.

[@dorf7219]

@@skyzflxshyif you can afford a wii u im sure you could afford an sd card n flash drive. to get both together is probably cheaper than $20

[@antiquefuturistic]

Common sense would tell you that corporations specially like Nintendo usually do not give a damn about their fans. They use region lock as a means to control piracy and boost sales for software for a specific region. Money is the factor behind it.

[@skyzflxshy]

@@dorf7219 I have 2 SD cards and 1 usb drive, but I’m using 1 of the SD cards for a second Wii I have and the usb drive is being used for that as well, and then the other SD card is being used for my 3DS. But I just need to get another SD card if I want to mod my Wii U and get other things

[@PoutingTrevor]

It was a weird time in gaming. Sony basically destroyed a reseller called Lik Sang because they sold PSPs for the Asian market in Europe.

[@meric12131415]

Wait really?

[@PoutingTrevor]

@meric12131415 Yep. Their website is gone now (I think), but for years it just hosted the letter Sony had sent them about their intention to sue them into oblivion. There's a Wiki article about it.

[@aceofspades001]

And it was Sony who removed the region lock from PS3s 🤷‍♂️

[@SupaidaFan]

When you said “Sony basically destroyed a reseller” I think of The CEO beating him in COD lobby

[@sc76399]

Oh man I remember them

[@diabloO5O189]

For anyone confused about why region locking became a thing in the first place, it has to do with the difference of value of money across the world. If a game is $40 USD in America and $2 USD in India then every one is just going to buy a $2 USD copy from India. With region lock you can only play a game purchased in the same region as your console.

[@misterfox7210]

So its money reasons that they ruined the fun for us....

[@sergejgrauberger6732]

This is a pretty dumb explanation...if games cost only 2$ in India and it is sooo easy to buy games in US from India, then just buy all games from India and the GameCube aswell (I assume, the GameCube from India would be 40$, right??)

[@thelittleoleme5323]

​@@sergejgrauberger6732 the hell you talking about.

[@indepth6mobile-official]

And also due to Europe and America/Japan having different composite video standards (PAL/NTSC) meaning the image would look wrong and the game would run slower/faster

[@Edoorardo]

​@@misterfox7210 might ruin the fun for you. But not region locking is a way bigger problem to 3rd world countries than region locking is to 1st world countries, that's why steam is so prevalent all over the world

[@kbhasi]

Yep! For those who are wondering, the relay switch thing he mentioned was present on development consoles, particularly the NR Reader and NPDP Reader, but of course was removed on retail consoles.

[@JayBoyModz]

Very cool! 😁

[@BennyFromThaNawf]

So if I add one myself I can easily switch between both 👌🏽

[@nightwing179]

The reason they had both BIOS on the motherboard was to save on manufacturing. Just connect R5 or R6 depending on what region they wanted to sell it in.

[@hipkiddo1252]

Oh sick, my dads an old game dev so I have a few gamecube devkits I could try this on. Neat!

[@nirgunawish]

video on those???

[@lirolo8343]

I still remember going on a vacation with my family when i was 15 , I was miserable the entire time until i found a pokemon game on the gamecube that I wanted to play but never was able to find, after that i wanted to go home asap to play! (Didn't know that region-lock was a thing) so yeah , i cried

[@ABigNUT69]

Soo.. you just stayed miserable

[@doomoftheend]

You cried at that age about that?

[@euphoriangold3677]

​@@doomoftheend??? 15 is still pretty young, plus what's wrong with Crying?

[@doomoftheend]

@@euphoriangold3677 How about growing up?

[@euphoriangold3677]

@@doomoftheend sheeesh somebody abandoned you at birth Must suck not having proper parents

[@merkthederk3593]

The shot of the gc intro on the reflection of the plastic was really nice

[@jamesmoore8815]

Why is no one else talking about this?

[@maskednil]

Exactly, I seriously thought it was an LCD screen on the cover itself showing the logo.

[@AllieRX]

"Pretty easy way to get around this" Proceeds to open the GameCube to solder something.

[@Vittrich]

at this point just fucking emulate it...

[@AllieRX]

@@Vittrich Emulate or use a hacked Wii or hacked Wii U.

[@hefywefy5331]

It's actually pretty easy

[@Jayxroberts]

I promise you it’s easier than it looks. The only hard part is remembering which screw goes where

[@Akusick]

@@Jayxroberts and that is easily solved by taking pictures, or labeling your screws as you go, or both.

[@CreativityNull]

Region locks had a LOT to do with licensing deals with publishers. That eventually went away though.

[@Mavendow]

Nope, it didn't. Now we have DRM.

[@CreativityNull]

@@Mavendow yes, the region locks/versions went away for the most part. DRM is what replaced it since that became a lot easier to implement rather than implementing region specific versioning.

[@Mavendow]

​@@CreativityNull Again, no, they didn't go away. MANY modern series are region locked.

[@CreativityNull]

@@Mavendow Name a modern game that does this. Switch, PS5, PS4 disc games, Switch, Xbox Series X/S, and Xbox one do not support region locking. PC might only do it by the platform it's being sold on and whether it's able to be sold there, but that's not quite the same since if you get the game it still works and it's not hard to get around regions on most stores. Region specific versions don't really count because that was being done for different reasons and again, that has to do with where it was sold, but nothing prevents you from playing that region's game in another region once you get it. Usually these have more to do with making sure the game abides with local laws (like Australia.)

[@Mavendow]

​@@CreativityNull PS and Xbox aren't region-locked, but the account is, and that's where ALL PS/Xbox games are region-locked by default. Whether some games can opt out of this region locking, I don't know, but I do know the majority don't opt out. ALL Steam games are region-locked in a similar way. Phone games, again, region-lock. There are of course DRM-free platforms but they're not the majority.

[@_KITE]

I remember I had Magic Swap for my PlayStation in order to get around this. They used to sell it in Chinatown. That was a such an amazing era for gaming in general.

[@station428]

“You can do it pretty easily” “First, take apart the whole thing”

[@hefywefy5331]

I really don't get it It's basically unscrewing a few screws and using a hot knife

[@dazcarrr]

have you ever like made an ikea chair

[@arolimarcellinus8541]

​@@hefywefy5331if it's not as easy as building and disassembling a Lego without any additional toolkit, it's not easy

[@Boiledpumpkinsoup]

​@@dazcarrras someone who has built a lot of furniture and disassembled electronics, they're not really comparable. Electronic parts are a lot smaller and require more dexterity and attention to detail, as well as being easier to damage accidentally

[@turbojurpo]

And?

[@thomasmohn8151]

This is basically my Game Cube, Black and originally from Japan.

[@tedankhamenbonnah4848]

As a former media prof in Japan, I'd say it was to follow copyright laws. Japanese are made about them.

[@hikaru9624]

That explains their love for copyright claiming and dmcas other than the fact they're within their right to protect their ips.

[@Pendarr]

@@hikaru9624They’re also a greedy company that’s been out of touch with the internet since it started, and they don’t give a flying crap about the western audience beyond wanting to take our money.

[@Irfan-pr1lu]

so that's why.... thanks for your comment,. Now I know why many good japanese song AMV/AMVS videos got taken downs.

[@jmurray1110]

Yeah Japan needs to chill with that 5 years fir kids in unacceptable and I already despise copyright

[@Blackafternoon]

@@jmurray1110Japanese will not tolerate any other race ruining their reputation. They are some of the most racist people you will find. And they are not planning on changing. We as Americans get second class selection to their titles and they could care less about their profits. Their reputation to other Japanese dealers is more important to their ‘egosystem’

[@markbeshay]

That reflection setup was so cool to see🔥🔥imagine if it was made like that

[@costby1105]

There were a few reasons for region locking. Enforcing the purchase of same region games for the price the Local Publisher put it at. Some game being too risque for one region uncensored; the Gamecube predates CERO. It really was just a whole lot of work for something that not a whole lot of people were doing and most games that release worldwide are nearly identical these days.

[@Plumtopia]

Funny part is when Canadian movies/games have different publishers/distributors than US ones, since they're the same region code. So in those cases region locking doesn't actually prevent cross competition (at least in those 2 countries)

[@hikaru9624]

Then there is the herts from tvs back then too. While pal region tvs could display images at 60 hrtz it wasn't that common I assume. I know my system would ask if I wanted the game in 60 hrtz as it detected my tv was capable of displaying it.

[@jmurray1110]

Still cuntish It also definitely encouraged piracy

[@freelancerthe2561]

@@hikaru9624 I don't think the scan rate was as much a problem as the color encoding format. There were a few fringe cases with the connectors that accidentally worked around it; but doesn't seem like it was particularly useful.

[@freelancerthe2561]

Tell that to the HDCP people. This is what replaced earlier schemes to lock down playback to specific markets. I think the real reason region coding went away, is that everyone started getting a better handle on International distribution, surrounding laws, and agreements that gave a path to go after major boot leggers (the reason for a lot of it in the first place) in places like China.

[@NK-Repairs]

Man, the startup sequence reflection on top of the GameCube was a great shot!

[@Mohammed1000real]

Fun fact: You can emulate any N64 with the emulator that used for Master Quest like for example, Smash Remix on Gamecube is dreamy.

[@SuperRetro64]

I would’ve never guessed. My childhood dream of Mario 64 on GameCube can finally come true!

[@SECONDQUEST]

Sounds doubtful, even the Wii doesnt have perfect compatibility of n64 games.

[@abloogywoogywoo]

They butchered Majora's Mask emulation for the Cube. It always crashes.

[@MakeItAme]

​@@abloogywoogywootry disabling Vibration, it makes it a whole lot more stable

[@abloogywoogywoo]

@@MakeItAme tried that, can’t tell you how many times it crashed on Snowhead, thank goodness for Owl statue saves.

[@timothy_17]

I'm so so glad they didn't region lock the Switch. I can buy other region's games, no matter if physical or digital, without any hassle. And look at their software (and hardware) sales now

[@Luigi_bros4321]

New skill acquired: know how the region lock works on a GameCube

[@nicholasgarrett9696]

Is that really a skill though or just random knowledge? if you said "breaking down and rebuilding a gamecube" or something i would agree more :O

[@Luigi_bros4321]

@@nicholasgarrett9696 Bro, don’t you get it?

[@nicholasgarrett9696]

@@Luigi_bros4321 obviously not lol.

[@Luigi_bros4321]

@@nicholasgarrett9696 it’s a skill that is acquired by watching the video

[@CZ2746isback]

It basically checks the disc's region, and compares the title id to the system. J - Japanese E - USA (Stands for "English") P - Europe (Stands for "PAL") K - Korea

[@joshwilson1346]

Thanks!

[@Soulintent95]

Never seen japanese gc cases. I like how they are like switch cases. Thats pretty cool actually.

[@Theepieguy]

What's also cool is the cases have a slipcover with a lot of nice art compared to the English cases. (I for one enjoy the art a lot more on Japanese titles usually.)

[@DengueBurger]

@@Theepieguywhat’s cool is that you really don’t need all that empty space in the case when the disk is small. Smaller case, more shelf/space-saving. Probably more saving for the company across millions of game copies. I’m sure they just didn’t do that because it was a time of ooh macho man, big case, bloody games, not wanting to look childish, etc. Essentially appealing to toxic masculinity, I don’t give a damn if you hate that term, it is what it is and it’s a useful concept.

[@telerye]

yea but if the cardboard sleeve gets ruined there’s no art on the spine to say what game it is.

[@Theepieguy]

@@telerye You could literally argue that with the cover inside the plastic on the other cases for any other game. If it gets removed or damaged then you can't tell there either.

[@Unverified_User]

​@@DengueBurgerwhat's not cool is how much wasted space there are in the switch game cases. i have never seen a manual or anything in that part of the case.

[@EvanLeConey]

That is actually so cool, hardware modding is so fascinating to me

[@Nightcaat]

That Mario Party 4 box is actually pretty interesting, I’ve never really seen Japanese GameCube packaging. Smaller :)

[@Ybby999]

Yeah the case kind of looks like a Switch case, pretty cool!

[@regis_c]

Meanwhile PlayStation 1 jewel cases in Japan and Europe are THICC 💀

[@roflBeck]

It's case they put the Gameboy Player disc in, but they use it for all games lol. Interesting.

[@Nsix4]

Yo, that shot of the gamecube intro reflecting off the top was 👌👌👌

[@nhlvan]

thats the first thing i did with a japanese gamecube i found in a thrift store

[@PolarBlairTech]

That shot with the GameCube start up in the reflection of the cube. Chef kissssssss. 🧑‍🍳💋

[@BrettJ2010]

I got a modded orange spice Japanese variant from my local game store. Complete in box. Love the region switch

[@jonnymac1505]

For those of us old enough to remember, the first dvd players we bought were also region locked

[@Raija1980s]

I bet they'd make a lot more sales if they had a region lock switch to flip back and forth for them to convert it proper.

[@feralwarriors1005]

Im just sitting here in awe that moving around some metal changed what games it could play. This stuffs crazy man I love it

[@frogz]

its a switch with less moving parts

[@PsychwardCaptive]

I love people that can do this. I’ve always been interested in learning how to do things like this.

[@traphousegamer1906]

My gamecube growing up had a switch in the back that allowed me to go between. REGIONS

[@RPG_Guy-fx8ns]

That reflection shot off the gamecube lid, was great cinematography.

[@coyotecom]

There used to be companies you could send your console to and they'd set up the relay switch, or you could buy them from them pre-modified. Then Sony sued them out of existence. The funny thing is they had no case, so they'd sue them in Denmark, where you have 24 hours to respond to the summons, or you automatically lose the civil case.

[@royareyzabal823]

It was a win or win situation for Nintendo. Damn..

[@heoioh]

This reminds me of the first Sega Genesis region lock. It’s similar in that you short circuit the region you need, but people have made bypass for it as well so they can switch between regions. I’m so glad researchers found this part on the GC motherboard

[@tagsby81]

There's so many licensing concerns that region locking was/is the easiest way to navigate international copyright law. JP, EU, NA, all have slightly different laws

[@SendPie42069]

Thank you for making quality short form content for these kids.

[@turdles1999]

Jay boy I see you have a lot of games could we see a collection tour?

[@JayBoyModz]

Great idea! 😁

[@igp899]

the shot with the startup logo refleced on the badging of the console was really clever

[@ItachiRyu]

you dont have to remove the R5 resistor just doing the bridge on the R6 pads will get the job done. ive flipped plently of Orange Spice cubes over time

[@NKOWZeroRenegade]

The relay switch idea is actually a really cool idea for a mod

[@PrinceRemnant21]

Love this, clearly explained, accurate information 🤓😎

[@enricohepner]

I'm so happy that region locks stopped being used last gen

[@D3V1L4NC3]

Lots of Japanese games like ninja storm insert number came out in Japan way before English release. This was also on track with rhe anime at the time being released later in English in then U.S. but there was a white disk we purchased that would allow region locked games to be played, just had to put it in before even load of a foreign title. Much better than dismantling a game cube lol.

[@heatsink_]

Taking me back in time here. I did this mod, adding a switch instead of a solder bridge, nearly 20 years ago.

[@ConcordiaJedi]

"And its actually a pretty easy fix." *proceeds to confuse me within seconds*

[@Boatameuh]

the start up logo reflecting on top of the game cube was a nice touch

[@jvdjevovdhe7613]

"There's an easy fix" "But we need to dissamble the game cube"

[@robinsalud6404]

Cool, the relay switch is the best choice for it.

[@904funny]

It’s easy! You just open it up, risk breaking parts, and get totally lost

[@InVaZiOnAzN]

of course its easy, just take pictures of every step you are doing, make an excel and keep track of all the screws and edit the photos of where the screws are, make sure you got the right screw drivers, video record just in case you forget a step and make sure you dont miss a screw and then after all that. throw it in the trash cuz you messed it up somehow lol

[@turbojurpo]

It really not that hard

[@Draftgon]

Fun fact, There was a disc called preloader, later included as part of „action replay“ (for cheats), that allows to play any game without any modification.

[@yqafree]

I think Japanese nationalism was more important to the executives of Nintendo of Japan back then is why

[@JoducusKwak]

there is also a PAL region Gamecube and it cant play Amercian titles either besides the only difference being the video signal they output (50 hz rather than 60) i think there is even a region lock between Australian Pal and European Pal

[@pcharl01]

​@@blumaiyomakes sense. Also made sense considering release dates since Japanese companies usually released their games locally first, then NA then Europe/Australia.

[@Shlooomth]

Good job KZbin making the concept of region locking seem new and novel

[@Jearrohawk]

Highly suggest having the tray lid open when you put the top shell on. You can break the gear teeth or the tray sensor buy installing it with the lid closed

[@FriedrichGroh]

Seeing the animated gamecubelogo beeing reflected from the GameCube Logo on the top oft the GameCube was so satisfying

[@bastian_5975]

anyone else start thinking for a moment that the reflection was actually another screen, and how cool that would be

[@ramirocastro4828]

Love the reflection from the TV

[@Shinycelebi]

The ESRB ratings weren't compatible at the time since they kept things separate. That's why you see slight costume changes in games per region. We definitely came a long way and they finally understand where the money is.

[@happily_blue]

that shot of the start up screen reflection was sick

[@colinftp3288]

Ahhh man manually inserting the games & the start up so nostalgic

[@JAMESMANHUNT9]

You could also do this with four wires, a polarity switch and two resistors On the switch solder a wire to top left pin and another wire to the top middle pin Solder a wire to the bottom middle pin and anothet to the bottom right pin Connect resistor to top middle or top left pin Conmrct other end of resistor to board

[@meatbunftw]

I did this to my Spice Orange GameCube years ago and it's been running perfectly even with the Gameboy Player(matching colors, of course).

[@CarlosHasAIdea]

That soldering job xD (thanks for the video man, just good vibes here)

[@corrado]

region lock maximizes profits, since you can charge more depending on the market, and helped the manufacturers from copyright issues. Also places like Europe had different power source that does not match North America so would require additional hardware to be able to play both (that's additional cost)

[@DERTHIX]

I still have my silver one from when I was a kid, great console, loved Pikmin

[@zushiba]

I bought a used gamecube at GameStop back in the day. It had a switch on the back and I had always assumed it was a Channel 3/4 switch like back in the day on older consoles. It took me longer than I would like to admit to realize that the GameCube doesn't have a Coaxial output, therefore, there would be no channel 3/4 switch. So I flipped the switch, turned on my GameCube and BAM, Japanese. My Gamecube was premodded! I was pretty stoked. Best buy ever!

[@ordinaryk]

The Sega Saturn used the same setup for region locking. I bought a switch at Radio Shack and modded mine to flip between NA and JP games.

[@creaturedanaaaaa]

the startup reflection on the gamecube went hard

[@caseyrsummers]

That torque selector Dremel screwdriver is a godsend

[@NAYR-kd7lo]

Had an accident ordering a replacement back in the day and got a region locked game cube. Company sent me 2 game boys a whole deck of games for them and an English copy of the game cube. I to this day still have the region locked game cube in its box as it was sent out brand new. A collectors piece for sure. 👍🏼

[@smikuswag]

Idk if meant to do that relflection in the gamecube start up but it is very worth mentioning.

[@KingOfDepravity]

That reflection angle was clean lol

[@fcohex6148]

Logo in the reflection was a nice shot.

[@TheAtomicdust]

Back when the GameCube was released, the Japanese units were released before American units by about 2 weeks. I was doing these region mods, with a toggle switch so you could play both regions.

[@PortCityBalrog]

Region locking exists because back when vhs tapes and dvds and so forth company's only get the license to release media for a specific region so the manufacturers can get liscene fees from all the different regions. Money usually is the answer when questions like this come up

[@HornedSerpent86]

yeah I remember there was a store in Irving Mall that went from selling Japanese Dragon Ball PlayStation games to selling Japanese Yu-Gi-Oh cards

[@GlitchSystem-xf7jb]

Sweet. Now i can get that Gundam custom GameCube and esly mod it myself. Thanks 🙏

[@wwazman]

In 2002 in Japan I modified my GameCube with a physical switch on that bridge. Brought it home to America

[@1987martyn]

Region locking was common for that the era of consoles, it was to combat duplication and sales of games that were either prohibited in certain region (there is a list of different games banned in countries on wikipedia) but also it stops you buying a game (legally or otherwise) from a country that released the game earlier - back in a time when some games released day or weeks earlier

[@sum8601]

im just fascinated how melting a tiny blob of metal onto another dried blob of metal, unlocks a whole digital language and settings.

[@Pksociety.]

Since I bought my GameCube last week all I see is GameCube videos🤣😂 my KZbin is just pure nostalgia everyday now

[@ZulqarnainAidil]

Region locking was pretty much DRM for back then. For Nintendo, it was mainly to protect protect foreign publishers, ie if EA wanted to officially publish a Japanese game in North America, discourage independent grey area sales and to potentially avoid any legal liability when an IP is licensed or Copyright protected in one region but not in another. It came in handy when censorship laws came into place. Although most publishers will target ESRB ratings, regions like Australia or Germany will have specific laws.

[@spencer3752]

Region locks serve a few purposes. One important one is regional pricing for the console itself as well as all of its titles. This way, currency exchange rates and other regional pricing factors in one region don't undermine the market in another region. You can charge someone less for a console or game sold in a poor country (because they couldn't afford the price charged, say, in a USA market) and be assured it won't be resold in a rich country undercutting the local prices which may be much higher.

[@1234fakerstreet]

The main reason why is because nintendo likes to competitively keep their price low. Their model is always family first so they try to make all their systems under the competitor's price as well as affordable. The region lock comes in is the drastically different prices per country at that time.

[@Alex-vj7ly]

someone else thought that this gamecube had a little screen on top to show the gameuibe logo when starting? that would be pretty nice 😄

[@mountain-roots]

It is incredible you know this and can make it work. Very cool talent

[@Aliothale]

Only the OG's will remember the Toys R' Us exclusive Black edition Nintendo consoles. I remember buying two of the Game Boy Advances in black.

[@Bmxrkid]

Why are so many people criticizing this? This is something really simple, this can be done with basic knowledge after a youtube video and is very quick. Old devices come apart very simply. Also the point of the video is to show the dumbness of region locking as well.

[@Rafielo]

You could also try running Swiss Custom Firmware on the console (using a save from one of the supported games), Run it, change the disc to your US disc, and run the disc through there.

[@damlatorun6756]

“There’s an easy way to get around this” *proceeds to take the entire system apart to solder something*

[@robertzieg3893]

I soldered in a switch, it works well. But solder pads are really small and fiddly to solder. Also has lead free solder and melts at a higher temp.

[@payton5759]

You can also get the freeloader disc to play games from different regions. I bought LoZ: Wind Waker and Ocarina of Time, but i didn't realize they were in PAL and not NTSC format. Thats how i got by

[@storyspice974]

Idk what you just did but it looked like magic to me.

[@kylewilliams8644]

My brother has a blue one to this day with a relay switch installed on the back of it. Pretty cool

[@leonardpayne8795]

Thanks to the homebrew guide.

[@skr33nsav3r]

Yooo, that reflection was slick.

[@crayzcubing]

That’s really cool and interesting!

[@punkinnonstop]

Didn't have to flame them about the special editions at the end LOL 🔥

[@Michael1Nightmare]

Considering the differences between jpn, use, europe, etc with changes, censoring and other things that are different between regions, including some that might be for legal reasons. It makes sense that a lot of consoles were region locked

[@zetropad4671]

Mod chip was common thing on that generation,not only unlocking region lock and ofcourse defeating copy protection