New Retro GBA SP doesn't play imports! Weird!?!

M

meteors

CAGiversary!
I just got my GBA retro SP yesterday - it rocks, the system is well made and the details are very good. But I'm really annoyed because none of my Japanese GBA carts boot on it! And before any of you holier-than-thou CAGers start bitching about how I shouldn't be able to play imports anyway: save your breath, I don't wanna hear it.

They still work on my standard GBA but I wonder if the retro GBA has some area check in it or something? Anybody else notice this or hear about this??

.m
 
Thats news to me. Can anyone else confirm this? If so, I'm not going anywhere near that thing! (wait, thats what she said)
 
[quote name='meteors']I just got my GBA retro SP yesterday - it rocks, the system is well made and the details are very good. But I'm really annoyed because none of my Japanese GBA carts boot on it! And before any of you holier-than-thou CAGers start bitching about how I shouldn't be able to play imports anyway: save your breath, I don't wanna hear it.

They still work on my standard GBA but I wonder if the retro GBA has some area check in it or something? Anybody else notice this or hear about this??

.m[/quote]

I don't think anyone is against having the ability to play imports. Hell, even a lot of gaming mags promote the ability to play imports. Importing isn't illegal, it's how you choose to play imports is what some people may have a problem with.

But to me, what ever way you take to play imports is okay.
 
Does anyone know if it has a lockout against bootlegs? I know ebay is a notorious haven for bootleggers (causing me to only buy GBA games from stores where I can personally examine the chip). If there's a lockout against the foreign bootlegs as well, then that could lead to a lot of unknowing ebayers being fucked.
 
I've gotten crap for talking about imports on the forums here before, glad to hear you guys aren't like that.

I can't explain it - they work on my old regular GBA but nada on the new retro SP. I tried my friends GBA SP (just plain black) and they work on it so there's obviously something up with this new GBA....
 
I DID get all the imports from Ebay so I guess they could be bootlegs but I can't really tell... Maybe it's not region thing like BigHow said but rather a bootleg thing?
 
I just got a Classic SP and I have a platinum. It will be here in couple days. I have some imports to test. You got me curious.
 
Hey, I have a question to anyone who owns the Retro NES SP:

The NES themed thumbguard that's on the face that surrounds the buttons...is it "inset" like on the original NES controller? I guess what I mean is, does it sit in a groove (where it can't be shifted or peeled up) or is it just on top like a surface sticker?
 
Well, I can't confirm anything for any Japanese imports, But my European imports of Shining Soul and Shining Force both work flawlessly. They play in all 5 languages (English, German, French, Spanish, and Italian) and don't lock up or anything like that.

So who knows, maybe your carts are bootlegs or maybe your NES SP is faulty.
 
How can they do that? No hacker has found any reference at all to the region code.


I seriously how the PSP does not have a regional lockout, they promised it wouldn't. I'm thinnin of buying one from Japan so I have it FIRST!!!
 
Even if the hardware has a lockout, the game itself still has to support region encoding as well. We know that Japanese games don't have region encoding, so it wouldn't matter if the retro sp did, it would only affect new games that also had it. It very well could be a bootleg thing though. If the hardware was programed to verify some piece of the legitimate chipset, and you have bootleg chipsets in your carts, that would do it . Given Nintendo's track record on piracy, it wouldn't surprise me.
 
just called NOA.

no memos or updates on anything regarding bootleg OR regional lock out.

maybe they'll give mroe info in a month or two... but two reps confirmed that even witha bootleg... they have no info on any new lockout chips for bootleg or import...

strange.
 
I have no idea how to tell if the imports I got from Ebay are bootlegs or not. They LOOK good I guess - that's all I can say. But they still don't work on the retro GBA! Grrrrr....
 
Sadly your only real way to figure out for sure is to get one of those special screwdrivers for GBA carts, pop it open and see if it's got that Nintendo copyright and serial number on the chipset... unless the outside has an obvious market like "Nintondo" or something.
 
You can supposedly hold the cartridge under a good light and see the nintendo emblem and a serial number stamped on the chipset at the connector end.. without having to open the cartridge up.
 
[quote name='b3b0p']I'll test late tonight and post. I have japanese imports of GBA games and a Retro in coming in mere hours.[/quote]

what are the results?
 
look at the lable with light reflecting off of it . if the nintendo seal dosent reflect light and if theres a number carved into it it should be legit.... this works if they're american games but japanese games dont all have the seal, so look for the carved in number.
 
I hope this doesn't become standard with GBA's now. I have some import Gameboy Color games and still bring them with my GBA because I like them more than any of my GBA games and if I do get the Retro SP or even the DS in the future, I want to be able to use those Japanese Gameboy Color games.
 
I wonder if there is some sort of detection to attempt and make those flash cards sold from asia to not work?
 
[quote name='Gameboy415']Why are you talking about the PSP? Try to stay on-topic.[/quote]

Its lumped in with GBA, GBASP, and DS because so far no handheld has region lockout (if the TG or gamegear did...wel, dont care) so having it implemented would be a new bad thing. Also, considering the PSP will play movies, and GBA is even starting to have video, im starting to wonder when the movie industry will step in.
 
UPDATE:

I picked up a retro "classic" GBA yesterday. Popped in my imports and both played without a hitch.

So yes, the new Classic GBA plays imports! :D
 
AFAIK, GBA games don't even have a region associated with them for the machine to check against.

I know damned well there isn't a region byte on the GB/GBC, I wouldn't see why they'd add one for GBA games when they originally had no intention of making the systems region specific.
 
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