Super Game Boy - region locks?

[phreakindee]

New to the Super Game Boy for the SNES and I was wondering about how region-locked games work with it. For instance, I have an American NTSC SNES with an American SGB. Can I only play American games or would PAL GB games, such as Boulder Dash, work with it?

[buzz_n64]

It should, don't see why not.

[rbudrick]

Is should, don't see why not.

Iirc, the GB, GBC, SGB and GBA games are not region locked in any way. Some pirate games may not run though, like some Sachen games.

-Rob

[phreakindee]

Right-o then, that was my understanding but after reading some stuff about Space Invaders having some locks with the SGB, just making sure. Thanks

[A Black Falcon]

Right-o then, that was my understanding but after reading some stuff about Space Invaders having some locks with the SGB, just making sure. Thanks

Space Invaders, the one and only SGB game with a full-screen mode on the SGB, may indeed have some kind of lock, I don't know, but no other game should. The DSi is the first Nintendo handheld with a region lock.

[j_factor]

There's no such thing as a PAL GB game. But yes, Space Invaders is region locked when played on a Super Game Boy.

[A Black Falcon]

There's no such thing as a PAL GB game. But yes, Space Invaders is region locked when played on a Super Game Boy.

That would make sense actually, there's essentially a SNES game inside the cartridge... though I'd think that it'd only lock you out if you tried to access the fullscreen mode game, not the rest of it, but I've never tried so I wouldn't know.

Again though, that should be the one and only GB game with any kind of region lock.

[gamedude45]

The DSi is the first Nintendo handheld with a region lock.

Well that's not entirely true. The DSi can still play foreign DS game cards it's the DSi shop that's region locked. I don't think many people realize this so i thought I should point it out sorry for derailing the thread.

[Dr. Dib]

I can post a near confirmation that the Super Game Boy isn't region locked. I remember that years ago when I was reading someone's review of DBZ games, he mentioned a few Game Boy titles. He would mention that these titles could be played on any Game Boy and would show how they had borders on the Super Game Boy.

[A Black Falcon]

Well that's not entirely true. The DSi can still play foreign DS game cards it's the DSi shop that's region locked. I don't think many people realize this so i thought I should point it out sorry for derailing the thread.

I said DSi, not DS. Of course the DSi isn't region locked with DS games, DS games have no region locking. Maybe I should have been clearer, the DSi is locked and it's quite disappointing. No handheld had ever been region-locked before... a few had had regions, but none I can think of had ever locked out games from other areas! The Game Gear and PSP have regions, but all systems will play games from any region. On the DSi however, it's hard-locked. Sad.

Also, DSi-enhanced or DSi only game cards are region locked as well, not just games in the shop. The only reason that doesn't matter more is because very few card-based games in any region are DSi titles instead of standard DS. It's kind of interesting, I was expecting more of them, using the Game Boy Color model, but instead the DSi is almost only used for download titles, while almost everything on card is standard DS -- even though the more powerful DSi would allow for a bit better graphics and stuff in games, so there could be reason to want to use it.

[gamedude45]

Sorry about the misunderstanding I jumped to conclusions to soon. It's just that whenever I see people talking about the DSi the fact that it's region locked always comes up but they always make it sound like it locks out regular DS games aswell as DSi games and admittedly it annoys me.

I hate region locking aswell I was ok with the shop being region locked but it sucks that their adding it into the DSi enhanced games aswell.

[A Black Falcon]

I know, Nintendo is very much going in the wrong direction with region locking. They region locked a handheld for the first time ever, the Wii has internal region locking instead of easily bypassed stuff like their previous consoles (you can still bypass it, but it's a bit trickier and they keep trying to break the bypasses), etc... it's not very nice of them. I usually do not say much nice about Sony, but on region locking they're much, much better right now, their systems don't have any for current-gen games. That's awesome. Even Microsoft is a little better, at least they allow 360 games to have no region locking if the publisher goes through several extra hoops. Nintendo doesn't even do that. Sad. :(

[snes_collector]

I have a Super GameBoy 2 and NTSC games work on it fine. I'm pretty sure it works the same the other way around.

[ste022]

DS games are most definately region locked on DSi, I own a UK DS and have several US import games all of which run fine on my DS but will not load on my DSi.

[Leo_A]

All DSi enabled software is region locked, as has already been mentioned. That includes games like the Sonic Collection that are DSi enabled even though they didn't utilize any of the special functions of the hardware, just in order to get that region lock.

The region lock in that case also works with the software when played in a DS or DS Lite. So I really don't think it's correct to say that the DSi is the first Nintendo handheld with region locking since it is now also present in some software when played on the earlier models.

[Swamperon]

We should really get a list together of DS region locked games.

I'm only hoping the 3DS is not region locked. Nintendo have so far failed to mention whether it is. If it is I'm going to miss out on a lot of titles that never come to UK shores.