Xbox and Playstation 2 games

[21stcenturygal]

This may be a really silly question but if we buy Xbox or Playstation 2 games in the US, will there be any problem with our consoles playing them?

 

[Red-Snapper]

No there shouldnt be but I have to say Orlando has always seemed to me to have less choice of games and not really any cheaper than online sites over here.

 

[tartangirl]

Hmm - I think I disagree - I reckon there will be problems.

 

[Miffy2003]

No idea about Xbox but I didn;t think PS2 games would work over here unless you have done something (possibly not legal ) to your console to make them work??? I may be totally wrong though.

 

[gkjones]

This may be a really silly question but if we buy Xbox or Playstation 2 games in the US, will there be any problem with our consoles playing them?

UK Xbox games and UK PS 2 games will not play on US consoles and vice versa!

 

[paulh]

games are region coded for xbox and ps only ones that work is gameboy games dont now if they work on chiped machines
Paulh

 

[Funky_dino]

PS2, xbobx and gamecube games wont work back home here as they are NTSC encoded not PAL. Just like videos DVD's etc. You can get ur console modified to play them but its not worth the hassle/money etc, as games are now only delayed by about a month until the come out here. also have machines modified cancels out your warranty and does not alough you to use the consoles online abilities. And also when i was browsing last year some were up to $80! which is alot of money. although Gameboy ones are fine they run on english handhelds etc

 

[Tron[ADS]]

OK, here's the facts....I am an expert in this field, so you can take this answer as final

1. PS2 - Region locked machine full stop. No US games will work on an unmodified UK PS2. Hardware does work (controlers etc). US games are cheaper (if bought from the right place), and typicaly some 3 months earlier released.
Getting games working on a UK machine depends on the age of the PS2. The traditional PS2 requires a mod chip fitting. Its a bit of a nasty job, and requires around 15 wires to be soldered, and a bit of a fiddly dissasembly of the console itself. I don't touch them myself, far too long a job time for me. Warranty is voided due to a tamperproof sticker. Chip fitting service is around £80 at our local computer fairs (although ive not seen the bloke there for some time now).
Slimline PS2 is considerably easier, whilst it can be chipped in a similar way, it is now incredibly easy for an amateur to modify themselves, and simply requires the top half of the machine removing, 2 bits of insulation tape (yes, you read that correctly) sticking over 2 latch switches (this stops them telling the machine when the lid is opened), then the use of a boot disk which enables you to open the lid and swap to your import disk.
With regard to DVD playback, a multiregion product is available and was given free on the cover of a PS2 magazine a couple of years ago.

2. XBOX (my specialist subject) - NOT Region locked by default. Microsoft left it up to the games companies to decide if they wanted to lock out the games, so technicaly, the machine is not region locked. However, most of the games companies did want their games region locked, so they implement machine region checks on boot up and prevent their titles from loading. There are a small number of US games that will work on a UK machine, but they are very few and far between, so much so, that I cant even think of an example.
Again, hardware like extra controllers is compatible.
DVD playback is locked to the first region you use on it, so if you were to purchase the dvd kit in the US, and used it on your UK machine, it would be locked to region 1 and you wouldnt be able to change it (in an unmodified machine).
To play import games, a mod chip is required : Mod chips are considerably cheaper for the xbox, partly due to the dissasembly of the machine being easier, and partly because the unit cost of the chips tend to be lower. Expect to pay around £40 (thats what I charge) and upwards. Once chipped theres a whole load of "homebrew" software available such as emulators and media players. You can connect it to the pc wirelessly and play divx, mp3 etc that are stored on the PC remotely. It becomes so much better a machine once chipped its untrue....but of course the warranty is voided. There are alternative methods to modifying the xbox. There is a software explot mod, which isnt much use to be honest, and also a "tsop flash", which again isnt much use, especialy if you still want to use xbox live (in which your chip must be able to be switched off - something not possible on these methods of modification).

3. Gamecube - The easiest of the 3 main consoles to get playing imports. Simply pop in a easly obtainable boot disk called "freeloader", wait for the prompt, and then put in the import disk. Simple as that. The price and release margins are more significant on this console, which has been poorly supported in Europe.
Alternativley, if you have a US or Jap machine, they can be fairly easily modified to be switchable between the 2 regions, but not to UK.
On the horizon.....there has recently been a mod chip released for the Gamecube, but details are hard to come by, and ive not done any research into it yet.

4. Gameboy Advance / DS - Not region locked whatsoever.

5. Sony PSP - region locked....no more details known at this time.


Personaly, I have a UK PS2, with just a couple of games....I dont like it whatsoever, very dissapointing machine. I also have a UK and a US Gamecube, and a US Gameboy Advance SP. The machine most used in our house is the chipped XBox.

 

[21stcenturygal]

Wow ...... that's sorted me out. Thanks for the advice - DS has got a lot to think about.

 

[tartangirl]

Tron - you are obviously the master

 

[steve_woodward]

Excellent reply Tron

The only thing you didn't mention is that PC games will work just fine in the UK as they have no region protection like consoles.

 

[AndRu]

The machine most used in our house is the chipped XBox.

Me too! I used to have a networked PC in my living room next to my TV. Big, 'orrible and noisy it was! Replaced it with a modified X-Box and now use it soley as a machine to stream movies / music / videos / pictures from my home network into my living room. I never play any games on the X-Box, we just use the GameCube as in my opinion, Nintendo know how to make good, playable games.

Oh, and the controllers aren't the size of breeze blocks!

 

[paulh]

would a wirles set from us work on uk as we are still waiting for one to be released in the uk we got one xbox upstairs coneted to broardband via lan but as DS has just won a x-box (plus 22inch lcd and suround sound system from the xbox web site )would like to put that one on a wireless system for the broardband
Paulh
PS DHL have lost the speakers for the suround sound system

 

[Funky_dino]

Im pretty sure that hardware bought in the states won't work as it runs on their power settings not ours, but i maybe wrong. Best place however to look for wireless equipment would be dabs.co.uk thats where i am looking at gettign a wireless router/modem from so i can use xbox live when i coem back from holiday. yay!

 

[Tron[ADS]]

Excellent reply Tron

The only thing you didn't mention is that PC games will work just fine in the UK as they have no region protection like consoles.

On the whole, that is true, but not absolutely 100% accurate....There are problems with Quake 2 (defintely) and (i seem to remember also) Quake 3, in which you had to change the "region" of the PC or they refused to install. This was as simple as setting the time zone to one of the US zones though !

Ive never heard of anything else causing problems, just thought i'd mention those 2 as a kind of related trivia.

 

[Cochise]

Whatever he said

 

[jjpenguin]

From experience: we bought a couple of PS2 games in Orlando and they didn't work on our PS2!!

 

[Red-Snapper]

Sorry yes I am stupid dont know why I said it was ok.

Looked at PS2 games but now I think about it never actually bought any (for the reason I mentioned) - I did in fact buy Gameboy advance games and as stated they work fine.

PC games usually work but I also remember the issue with the region setting on 1 of the quake releases. Have bought many PC games in the US since that and all have worked fine. However dont buy any now as once again I find them cheaper and quite often released earlier in the UK.