Region Coding: Yea or Nay?

This afternoon I had my first encounter with the infamous Region Coding. I've heard plenty of talk about how much of a shame region coding is, but I've never had the chance (or rather the need) to deal with it myself before today.

What is Region Coding?

Region Coding is basically what kept Americans from playing Harvest Moon: Magical Melody on their American Gamecube until Natsume released the game in America. To be more concise, and for the sake of just making sense, region coding means you can't play a Japanese game on your American bought console and vice versa. If I buy a PS2 in America, and I decide I want to play Thunder Force 6 (which didn't have an American release), that means I have to first buy a Japanese model PS2.

What does this have to do with anything?

Good question! It just so happens that I picked up a copy of Dragon Ball Z: Super Saiya Densetsu for the Super Famicom at a local game store. Back in 1992, Nintendo had their own version of Region Coding. As it turns out, Super Famicom games work like a charm on any normal American SNES. There's a small catch though. Nintendo molded the casing for the SNES and SFC differently. A normal SNES cartridge fits fine because of two little notches in the case, while the SFC cartridges have no such nicks.

Who cares?

Basically you can play any Japanese SFC game cartridge in a SNES, you just have to tear out the two little plastic pieces inside the cartridge bay. It's pretty easy to do, and there's a lot of videos on Youtube to help you out if you have any other questions.



P.S. The game sucks. Don't buy it.