american pc games

[rh072003]

i live in england and im going on holiday to florida next month and i was thinking of getting some cheap pc games but i dont know if they'll work once ive bought them back to england can somebody please help

[ck3k]

A computer running windows in America, is the exact same as a computer running in the UK. I didn't think this was really a question one needed to bring up.

[noid]

Ya..you're probably thinking of DVDs and their regional encoding. Buy all the video games you want, you probably want to give our DVDs a miss though (unless you've hax0red your DVD player and made it region free).

[skroo]

Ya..you're probably thinking of DVDs and their regional encoding.

Though I do believe that console (Playstation / Nintendo / XBox) games have something analogous to region encoding on them, so probably best to figure out what hoops you'd have to jump through to get them to work in the UK before bringing them back with you. I'm not an authority on the subject, though - this is all from my memory's dim recollection of things I've read elsewhere.

Trivia fact: Nintendo UK used to convert US-format cartridges to UK format for nine quid. I somehow doubt they offer the service anymore, though.

[Shatter]

Though I do believe that console (Playstation / Nintendo / XBox) games have something analogous to region encoding on them, so probably best to figure out what hoops you'd have to jump through to get them to work in the UK before bringing them back with you. I'm not an authority on the subject, though - this is all from my memory's dim recollection of things I've read elsewhere.

Trivia fact: Nintendo UK used to convert US-format cartridges to UK format for nine quid. I somehow doubt they offer the service anymore, though.

UK and most EU console games are PAL encoded. Thats' the only difference. Might have region codeing. Can't remember off hand. Usually the PAL encoding is enough to bugger up teh whole system.

PC titles could give a shit. They're just localised for language.

[bascule]

UK and most EU console games are PAL encoded. Thats' the only difference. Might have region codeing. Can't remember off hand. Usually the PAL encoding is enough to bugger up teh whole system.

Fortunately most games aren't NTSC/PAL specific, but when they are it's certainly a bitch. Jet Set Radio Future refuses to work through component output, and only works with NTSC output (although to be fair, it does say NTSC on the front)

[jesse]

All console games are region protected, with the exception of the gameboy and GBA. PC games are not.

Back in the cartridge days, nintendo's brilliant idea to prevent idea to prevent using japanese carts on an american system was to make these plastic tabs on the american system's cartridge slot that prevented inserting a japanese shaped cartridge. However, you could take a screwdriver and snap off the tabs and user your japanese cartridges just fine.

With the Sony Playstation on up, manufacturers started using disc protection schemes that required a modchip to boot foreign/copied games.