Taito F3 Q's

[neorichieb1971]

Hi there,

I have a Bubble Bobble memories I picked up years ago but just found it again in the back of the cupboard. It doesn't have a motherboard with it. The game is Asian (I think).

I can find a UK/Europe motherboard online for £40, but the seller doesn't say its region free. Then I read that region is controlled just through plastic tabs that can be melted with a soldering iron. And then I read that there is a language setting set by the motherboard as well.


I am only going to play this one game on my F3 if I ever get it going. So is language an issue on BB memories?

Where can I get an F3 MB for a decent price that will play this game?

My wife is going Seoul at the end of the month, any shops near that way that sell this MB?


Thanks,

Richie.

[Sumez]

It's true that the only region protection is the plastic tabs on the cartridge connectors. It's not too difficult to remove, so if you can find a board from one region much cheaper than the other, just go with that.
There's absolutely no text in Bubble Memories that is "required" for what you read, and as far as I remember, all ingame text is in English in the Asian version, too. I'm almost certain that's the one I have.

F3 boards should be very easy to find, I've sold a few myself because I ended up with so many as I bought games, so I'm sure they shouldn't set you back too far, no matter the region.

[_rm_]

The language will depend on the PCB you have, not the motherboard. Besides, you can burn a new eprom with the desired language if you wish.

[neorichieb1971]

thanks guys.

Will buy the UK one then.

[andy251203]

The in-game region on F3 games is actually set by a single byte on one of the program EPROMs. Otherwise, the ROM data is identical for all regions. You'll need to burn a new EPROM to change the region.

[neorichieb1971]

Do you need to change the region on the eprom though?

Most folks are saying you only need to remove the tabs.

[_rm_]

Removing the tabs allow you to use different region motherboards, but you still have to burn a new eprom (last byte changed) to change the actual region of the game.