My PC - import PC games any problem?

[shai hulud]

are there any kind of region restrictions on PC games, i am looking to buy some korean titles

[hydr0x]

no, i've never heard of a pc game that would look up what language version of windows you have and then not let you play because of that, so, all pc games should run

[shai hulud]

ok, thanks for the answer

[evilmess]

I have a Korean PC import of Samurai Showdown 4 and I've run Japanese games on both Win98 and Win2K without a hitch.

[thegreatescape]

no, i've never heard of a pc game that would look up what language version of windows you have and then not let you play because of that

Ive got a few games like that- Quake 2, Baldurs Gate and another that i cant remember.Wouldnt let me install it because my windows region was set to "English (America)" instead of "English (Australia)". All I had to do was change it in control panel, but it was still kinda annoying

I wouldnt expect that sort of thing happens to many american/europe games though.

[Ed Oscuro]

Yep, and if you ever try to play a Japanese game, you can pretty much expect that to happen. :(

[SoulBlazer]

You can get language fonts for Windows for Japanese and most other languages. Also, you can change the regional settings as already mentioned. With that, you can play pretty much any game in the world.

[calthaer]

I have had problems running and installing Mercedes Benz Truck Racing from Germany on my PC...and Die Sternenfahrer, but that may be due to the fact that they're 9x games and I'm running XP.

[robotriot]

Afaik you can't run games whose original versions are banned in Germany (like Commandos for example) on German Windows systems - and if I'm not mistaken, you can't change the language of your OS (like all the standard 'File, Edit, Help' etc. menus) because there's only one language version on each installation CD - and that's probably how the game detects on which machine/in which country it's being run. But this should apply to only very few games, and there's probably a crack to fix that anyway :)

[hydr0x]

Afaik you can't run games whose original versions are banned in Germany (like Commandos for example) on German Windows systems - and if I'm not mistaken, you can't change the language of your OS (like all the standard 'File, Edit, Help' etc. menus) because there's only one language version on each installation CD - and that's probably how the game detects on which machine/in which country it's being run. But this should apply to only very few games, and there's probably a crack to fix that anyway

uh, the whole post is not true, everyone forget what he said

1) of course you can run forbidden games like Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Wolfenstein 3D, Crusader- No Remorse or whatever on a german windows system

2) you can of course change the language version of your windows installation any time you want to, not all languages are included on the installation-disc but you can get most others from the ms homepage

[robotriot]

I was sepcifically refering to Commandos, not to any of the other games you mentioned - and Wolfenstein 3D is a DOS game anyway :P It still might be not true of course, I read it in some magazine I think.

Edit: Ok, I should have written "certain banned games MIGHT have this protection" in my original post - anyway, here's what I found:

Beim Starten erhalte ich die Fehlermeldung, dass dies die internationale Version sei.
Dies ist ein grosses Problem von Commandos. Die einzig zur Zeit bekannte Möglichkeit ist es, die Ländereinstellung von Windows NICHT auf Deutsch einstellen. Empfohlen: Schweiz oder Österreich.

That's what I meant - although this is of course not a 'hard' protection, the game doesn't recognize the language your Windows is in but only the regional setting which of course can be altered on the fly. And Commandos is probably the only game using this 'feature'. So never mind then ^^

[Daria]

I've played Japanese PC games without any problems. Since PC games aren't controled my any one company or format, unlike say making a game for a PS2 where sony sets all the rules, it's pretty much up to the developers whether they want to code in regional lock outs or not.

[Ed Oscuro]

You can get language fonts for Windows for Japanese and most other languages. Also, you can change the regional settings as already mentioned. With that, you can play pretty much any game in the world. :D

This is true. It's not intended "lock-out."

Have to make sure your OS is running in Unicode mode, that sort of thing. Not a lot to it really. Personally I hate not being able to view Japanese text in Notepad, gotta fix that on my recently rebuilt PC (not this one though :)

[brykasch]

I think the more important question is what import games are you getting and where? I have been looking for a decent place to get the rare japanese pc game.

[evilmess]

Brykasch,

Lookie Lookie

http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-14-71-7s.html