Freeloader questions

BrianC · Post by **BrianC** » Sat Sep 10, 2005 8:37 pm

The freeloader I oredered from play-asia says "play any region game on any region gamecube" on the front, but has "only works on PAL televisions and pal GameCubes" in small letters on the back. Will it still work on my NTSC TV and US Cube? The copyright on the back says 2002-2004. It's v. 1.06B, right? I have to wait two days to use it (birthday present), so I can't try it out now.

Post by **Dave_K.** » Sat Sep 10, 2005 8:40 pm

I bought mine from playasai and works fine on my US gamecube. Unfortunally I can't find the box right now to confirm if mine says the same thing in small letters on the back.

Also be aware that some import games will attempt to erase your entire memory card when using freeloader. If you search the forum here you will see the list of offernding games. Just make a backup of your saves on another ard first.

Ganelon · Post by **Ganelon** » Sat Sep 10, 2005 10:31 pm

You're talking about the back of the manual, right? Disregard that; it's just a European manual, that's all. The disc itself works for the US GC.

BrianC · Post by **BrianC** » Sat Sep 10, 2005 10:37 pm

Ganelon wrote:You're talking about the back of the manual, right? Disregard that; it's just a European manual, that's all. The disc itself works for the US GC.

Back of the case, but thanks for the help. It sounds like it should work fine. I'm more worried about it saving with Drill Land since I read that it's one of the problem games. oh well, at least I'll be able to play it. Maybe I should look in to modding the system. Can the Action Replay (which I don't have) bypass save problems? If so where can I find the codes to do that?

japtor · Post by **japtor** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 6:41 am

im not sure the freeloader discs are region free, are any gc discs region free?

and to answer your question about the action replay, it doesnt fix the save problems with drill land unfortunately. i havent seen any codes for making it work, though i havent looked so who knows (id like to know if you find a way).

theres one guy on the gaming age forums that will mod cubes for free (you pay for shipping both ways) for people that want to play drill land. i havent taken him up on it (cause im lazy about shipping the cube). if you want to try that, his name on there is bobbyconover.

Tychom · Post by **Tychom** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 7:38 am

Do any of the modchips actually cure the saving issue? I've heard no confirmation that they do so but obviously it would be great if they did.

BrianC · Post by **BrianC** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 7:43 am

Tychom wrote:Do any of the modchips actually cure the saving issue? I've heard no confirmation that they do so but obviously it would be great if they did.

I wasn't talking about modchips. I heard that the GCN is very easy to make a region mod switch for. I also heard that there are no saving problems with a region switch. My dad knows a lot about electronics and saudering, so he should be able to make the switch. I just need to get one of those gamebit things so we can open up the cube.

I don't see why the Freeloder wouldn't be region free since it is supposed to work on systems for all regions. I'll try the freeloader out to make sure it doesn't save with the unused card before thinking about modding the cube, though.

The import option in the Action Replay is the same as the freeloader without codes used, but I heard that there are codes for it that can solve the graphics issue with some games like F-Zero GX. However, it seems like most sites don't seem to have those codes and have mostly the ones I don't want to use. It's kind of obvius that the Action Replay by itself would probably have the same problems that Freeloader has. Has it been confirmed that all versions of the freeloader have the save problems with Drill Land? You would expect some things to be fixed by now.

Accutron · Post by **Accutron** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 3:15 pm

Yeah, the GCN is super easy to mod. All you need is a gamebit, SPST switch, a couple inches of wire, a drill and soldering stuff.

Specineff · Post by **Specineff** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 9:14 pm

I thought the Cube's memory cards did have region lock in them. Meaning, if you save an american game, you can't save japanese games until you format it.

*mumbles* Racists.

BrianC · Post by **BrianC** » Mon Sep 12, 2005 7:12 am

Specineff wrote:I thought the Cube's memory cards did have region lock in them. Meaning, if you save an american game, you can't save japanese games until you format it.

*mumbles* Racists.

Yes, you have to use seperate cards for different regions, but some games still won't recongize the memory card when using the freeloader, even when it's set for the right region. I heard that some games do a memory card region check and if the region doesn't match, it won't save or load a game. However, since a region switch changes the region settings to the proper one for the card, there are no saving problems with a region switch. Of course, you still can't use a US formatted card with US saved games for Japanese saves or vice versa, though.

zaphod · Post by **zaphod** » Mon Sep 12, 2005 5:38 pm

You need a seperate card for japanese games and for other games, as I recall. you can't mix the two. you can mis us and european saves just fine though. japanese games will reformat the card if they have non jap saves on it.
Also soem games seem to deliberately detect the ffreeloader, and will kll your card. wiring in a region change switch makes the freeloader uneeded, and gets around that problem.

BrianC · Post by **BrianC** » Mon Sep 12, 2005 11:03 pm

zaphod wrote:You need a seperate card for japanese games and for other games, as I recall. you can't mix the two. you can mis us and european saves just fine though. japanese games will reformat the card if they have non jap saves on it.
Also soem games seem to deliberately detect the ffreeloader, and will kll your card. wiring in a region change switch makes the freeloader uneeded, and gets around that problem.

In the case of Mr. Driller Drill Land, even when using a brand new blank card, the game does save, but it won't load the save. It seems like the game may not even be able to read the save. I think it has something to do with the formatting. I definatly plan to go the region switch root. It will make importing much easier without worries about compatibility. I heard that the faq at phosphors.com is extremely good. I'm still going to keep the freeloader in case I go to my uncle's again so I can take the imports with me on the go.

Post by **Dave_K.** » Thu Sep 22, 2005 7:14 am

BrianC wrote: I heard that the faq at phosphors.com is extremely good.

I finally modded my gamecube with the instructions mentioned above and it was indeed pretty simple. The hardest part was just getting off my butt and ordering the gamebit screwdriver off ebay. I ordered this one and it only took a week to arrive at my house:
http://cgi.ebay.com/4-5mm-GAMEBIT-SCREW ... dZViewItem

I used the holes on top method without soldering to the board, and it worked like a charm. I didn't have nano wiretapping wire, but did have 28 gague stranded wire, and just cut all strands but 1 and it fit just fine in the holes pictured. I did have to solder the wires to the SPST switch and then drilled a hole in the back plate to mount it (just under the gamecube handel). I can finally save my drill land progress (on a seperate card of course)!

BrianC · Post by **BrianC** » Thu Sep 22, 2005 12:34 pm

I got my 4.5 MM gamebit from NCSX. Probably not as good of a deal as a full screwdriver, but they have them for cheaper than Play-Asia or lik-sang.

http://www.ncsxshop.com/cgi-bin/shop/NUS-45MM.html

kidneythief · Post by **kidneythief** » Thu Sep 22, 2005 12:38 pm

Anybody know why region protection is so important to these people? Asside from copyright (as Nintendo of Japan and Nintendo of America are not actually the same, and that goes for a lot of companies) and wanting to give the USA releases a shot at being purchased rather than often cheaper japanese games ( the ones that got released in both regions are often cheap!)

plus, most americans wouldn't buy a game in japanese even if they knew it was cheaper, which most probably don't. It's madness, I tell you.

I'll tell you what. Lets design a console, but without use of a region code. Come on it will be fun! I got dibs on naming it. GameSquareee

BrianC · Post by **BrianC** » Sat Oct 01, 2005 5:01 pm

Darn. I didn't realize the componets inside the cube were so tiny. My dad decided not to mod it using the solder method and he wants to wait until we find one at a yardsale before trying the hole method. I might just get a Japanese Cube. The procedure may be simple, but I don't think a procedure with holes or components that tiny that could be easily messed up should be labelled as "easy". It might just be easier to send the cube in to get it modded. Where is a reliable place for this?

Post by **Dave_K.** » Sat Oct 01, 2005 6:48 pm

BrianC wrote:Darn. I didn't realize the componets inside the cube were so tiny. My dad decided not to mod it using the solder method and he wants to wait until we find one at a yardsale before trying the hole method. I might just get a Japanese Cube. The procedure may be simple, but I don't think a procedure with holes or components that tiny that could be easily messed up should be labelled as "easy". It might just be easier to send the cube in to get it modded. Where is a reliable place for this?

I agree soldering to the points on the board looked way to difficult too. But simply stripping the wire down to 1 strand, 1mm in length, putting into the holes and putting lots of electrical tape over it to secure it so it doesn't move did the trick for me.