Legit Mod Chip question

[evildead2099]

I was just wondering how far back we can trace the history of mod chips with respect to consoles. What was the first system to receive the mod treatment?

I never even heard of mod chips until the Sony Playstation was in the middle of its life span (By that time, CD burners finially started to become affordable).

[SoulBlazer]

Mod chips did'nt become needed until region lockouts were introduced into systems. So I'd say the NES was the first one to qualify for the 'mod chip' treatment, although I'm not sure one was actually made.

The SNES just had two tabs that could be filed away.

But yeah the first major mod chip I can think off was for the PlayStation in 1995 or 96.

[stuffedmonkey]

Yeah - I think you have to seperate the history into the two functions of a mod. One is to play import games, the other - to play pirate games. The first pirate game player I remember seeing was for the SNES - but I would not be suprised to hear they go back farther. Those were the days when you would would have to dump a rom to a floppy or series of floppies.

As far as a solder-on chip to defeat region lockout, or anything having to deal with CDR copies, the Playstation was the first that I know of. The Turbografx CD system had no real copy protection to defeat. I don't know about the SegaCD though.

[evildead2099]

From what I hear, the Sega CD / MEga CD didn't either.

[DeputyMoniker]

The SNES just had two tabs that could be filed away.

That's the N64.

Good question. I also had never heard of a mod chip until the Playstation. I guess it wasn't needed until then. It isn't like your neighbor could burn you a copy of his Duck Hunt. Does anybody know enough about the history to say if the Saturn was hacked before the Playstation?

[slownerveaction]

The SNES just had two tabs that could be filed away.

That's the N64.

It's the same for both, pretty much. Nintendo has never done much in the way of region protection.

I'm almost positive the first "mod chips," as we think of them, were for the PlayStation. Both the PS1 and Saturn did have protection against CD-Rs, and there are mod chips available for both (it's important to note the region mod switch for the Saturn is completely different and shouldn't really count as a mod chip). But the PS1, with its massive popularity worldwide (i.e. areas where piracy was rampant), was probably modded first.

[evildead2099]

What's the sense in having region-encoded games/movies, anyway?

[rayearthknight]

What's the sense in having region-encoded games/movies, anyway?


Usually it's money--publishers and distributors in one country have the right to produce such and such game/movie for a specific country--and not have someone else's attempt (such as Capcom of Japan) take a prospective sale away from them. Take for example when Myst came for the Playstation, 3do and Saturn. Sunsoft had the rights to release it for all of the consoles in the US except for the Playstation: that right was sold to Psygnosis/Sony. You'll notice that the US game is not legal to sell in Japan....
Not that I think anyone here really loves Myst enough to own it on all of these systems.

[Flack]

I'm 99% sure the evolution of mod chips went:

Playstation
Saturn
Dreamcast
PS2
Xbox
Gamecube

[SoulBlazer]

Also has to do with licencing agreements. Companies will make a game and then allow companies to publish it for sound countries also. If you know the history of Tetris and THAT whole story, it's a perfect example. ;)

And yeah, I forgot the N64 had tabs you could file away to play import games as well.

No CD based sysem before the Saturn and PS1 had any kind of protection -- because who needed it? Importing was rare until the mid 90's and CD-R's did'nt exist, or at least the drives were nowhere affordable.