Ultimate Dreamcast (Part 1/3) - Region Change Mod

***UPDATE***

This is part 1 of a short series about the Sega Dreamcast.
Part 2 can be watched here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0INCy1zOIG8
Part 3 can be watched here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_WJuvbLwP4

***UPDATE***

Now this is one of the coolest and also easiest mods for the Dreamcast. It allows you to change not only the region of your console to whatever region you want it to be, you can also change the display mode (e.g. from 50Hz to 60Hz).
The benefits of this mod are obvious: you can play imports and you can also force games to be displayed in a certain display mode - even games that do not offer this in the first place (e.g. Power Stone PAL).

You will need:
Soldering Iron
Solder
Screwdriver
Wire
CD-R with region change software (check links below)

Basically you just have to disassemble your Dreamcast and connect two spots on the motherboard by soldering a short wire to it. As soon as these specific spots are connected, you can change the region and display mode permanently. After you are done with the mod, you should remove the wire again, otherwise some games might overwrite your BIOS and render your console useless as it would no longer read games.
I decided to do it differently by connecting two wires and routing them through the console so that I would not have to disassemble the whole console when I was finished with the region change.

Again, I strongly recommend to remove the wire when you have changed the region, just to make sure that the flash cannot be overwritten by a game.

I apologize for the poor video quality, it was a spontaneous video that I recorded with my crappy digicam - looks like I really need some equipment. Plus, my English was not the best because I was a bit nervous.^^

I hope you enjoy the video anyway!

Find the detailed tutorials here:

http://www.lyris-lite.net/fu_archives/000601.html
http://www.mmmonkey.co.uk/console/sega/dc-region.htm

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• sega
• dreamcast
• region
• mod
• disassembling
• tutorial
• diy
• hardware
• bios
• flash
• modding
• console
• gaming
• 50hz
• 60hz
• hz
• pal
• ntsc
• soldering
• wire

[2011member]

Nice vid!

About the disc;

Is there a Pal60 alternative for the scanrate or only NTSC 60hz?

I've heard NTSC colors end up wierd trough a RGB scart here in europe?

[TheronInc]

@2011member Well, the 60hz output of a PAL Dreamcast is already PAL60, which isn't the best way to go with modern TV sets and scart cables. That's why I recommend changing the display output to NTSC with the region change disc. =)

[kingryan3000]

can i make it completely region free?

[TheronInc]

@kingryan3000 Only if you throw in a mod chip!

[julianmartan]

there are region flash limiter?? or i can flash it many times as i want?

[TheronInc]

@julianmartan You can flash as many times as you want as long as the system's flash memory is intact.

[vxbinaca]

@shomosnicholas5 ebay

[hellstudios]

your xbox? wtf lol.... this is about dreamcasts..... xD

[medwardl]

do you recommend a specific gauge wire?

[Bylga]

Amazing!

[SuperAlex112]

can u put a swich so it can go from PAL to NTSC???

[SPHER1]

can I perform the region change mod AFTER I install a modchip or won't that work?

Also, if I change the video mode to NTSC, but keep the location to "Europe" and language to "english", will the swirl still be blue?

[tempestavenger]

@LightDarkSonic in europe there was a company that had a red swirl as their logo, so sega had to have a different colour for that region.

[91231comenzingstar]

that works well with a ntcs usa ?