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"NEO 4 chip looks in trouble"

Just paid a visit to www.playstationmods.com to see if they have any info and the page opens with this statment:

Due to recent legal proceedings by Sony towards our sale of the NEO4 chip we have decided to close down all our modchip operations indefinitely.
At the end of the day we work hard on our main games and repairs businesses and it is simply not worth jeopardizing our staffs futures just to do modchips. This is the first time we've been asked to stop supplying modchips by Sony and we will comply without reservation and without prejudice.

Our new online Console Spares & Repair / DVD Player / Games & Gadgets shops will be open in the new year.

Thank you for your support and we hope you have a Happy Christmas and a Prosperous New Year.




oh dear although i can't see how sony can do anything as it's just another mod which is no different to changing a sound card in a PC.

Nice comments there Adrian i agree totaly although dunno where you get your dvd's but i get region 1 for a few quid cheaper than that but hey how cares.

WòókieeMøn§†€® wrote:
>We tend to get films after the USbecause they want to >save money on master copies of the film. Rather than >produce specific masters for the UK, Europe and so on, >they often wait until the movie finishes its run in the >US cinema and then ship the 2nd-hand tapes to the rest of >the world - which is why you always see flecks and >scratches on a film at the cinema. (When I saw Tomb >Raider in the US in June, there was none of this.)


The films that are shown in the US can actually come out over here really quickly. Tomb Raider and Final Fantasy had only been out a few weeks before they came out over here. But other films like Rock Star, Hard Ball, The Glass House, 13 Ghosts e.t.c arent out over here, or have only just been released over here. These films have been out for months over in America.

I have a Action Replay V2 which has a Region changer. I bought Tomb Raider and Final Fantasy before the UK release. Final Fantasy still isnt out here yet and I got it on Region 1 for £16.99. I am also getting Shrek for christmas on Region 1 which is a 2 disc edition for £15.99. The Fast And The Furious is out on Region 1 release on the 2nd Jan, and I have ordered that for £15.99.

For me I buy DVD's from Region 1 as I will have 4 DVD's and all Region 1. But I would buy a Region 2 DVD if it had better extras than the Region 1 release. Region 1 DVD's normally have better extras.e.g Shrek is 1 disc on Region 2 while 2 discs for Region 1.

But games are different, the UK games can be better than the US or Jap versions. What about Silent Hill 2, we had a special edition pack the US or Jap copy didnt.

I dont import games as I dont have any means of playing them. I would never get my PS2 chipped. Importing is ok as at least the developers are actually getting there money for the game.

Hehe. you forget this forum is for PS1 too!
I don't think the new Action Replay on PS2 can play imports. But I might check the web just incase....

oh the PS1 i was talking about the PS2 really i had a cart on mine cost about a tenner same thing as yours it had a spring to hold the button in the lid down. i only got 1 import and that was tekken 3 as the us was faster plus had anna's uncut ending.

the reason i bought it up is that i want to be able to play metal gear on import as 3 more months is stupid

Yeah. I got an old PS with the serial port on the back, you plug the action replay cartridge into this. (I think there is one that is disk only for the new PS1 and new PS too). I got it a few years ago now, so I don't know if you can get these ones anymore.

You have to wedge a little button under the cd lid so it is constantly pressed (i.e. the machine doesn't turn off when you open the lid).

Put a UK game in, then when it has stopped spinning open the lid and put a Jap, US game in.

From the action replay menu, select 'Start Game'. It's as easy as that. no wires or fuss.

This method is much better than getting your playstation chipped. Aside from the fact you could break your machine getting it chipped, you can enter action replay codes which break the new region coding protections (which render older old chips useless). They really don't want people to play imported games!!!! Although this could be part of the copy protection - not sure.

You seen the Gutar Freaks review?? I put the link below. It's brilliant. There's a couple of places in the UK that sell it online. It only costs £30 - guitars are £20.

i know it wouldn't let me say but anyway we are sorta getting to the same POV.


Does the action reply really let you play imports how does it work?

and have you tried it is it version 2 ect blah blah

I wrote a.s.s.e.s in the post below, which isn't a rude word in the context I used! I swapped it for the word 'butts', just to show it makes no sense if I was intending to be rude.
Sort it out SR. This is beyond reasonalble censorship.

You know, we are actually arguing exactly the same thing.

The only difference being that I would buy a swap-disk (not an internal mod-chip though - I agree some things shouldn't be tampered with) because I can play imported games with it. Whereas you wouldn't buy them because you feel very strongly about the associated piracy issues, and don't want to fund their development. A point which I see much clearer now than before.

If, apart from buying 2 new consoles from abroad, it's the only way I can play games like guitar freaks (did you see the review guys? It's truely a classic game). Then I will use one, not because I'm not willing to buy Japanese hardware, but because an Action Replay is designed and sold legally to play it for me at £20.

I agree that removing region coding on games shouldn't effect the industry. The gameboy has had no problems. And the gameboy advance has no problems either.
I guess that the developers like to butts the impact of thier game in one territory before negotiating with publishers and manufacturers in another. The process just annoys the hell out of people like us.

I remember you mentioning the reason for DVD encoding before. I can see how this would be the case, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's partially for the same reason as I proposed for games. Checking the US for demand first.

you said that mod chips should be banned but disk swaps are ok. but what about the new USB device?

Also one of the reasons i started this post is beacause i really want to play Metal Gear solid so i'm really considering the USB option. i mean i hate the way are games can get delayed by months and months why the American's get it first.


I also hate the way they get films first as well. also over half my DVD collection are region 1 mainly due to how cheap they are but also because it takes so damn long for them to come out.

I bought pitch black while it wasn't even at the cinema's LOL.

I see no harm in imports and if someone wants to play imports then fine but if they start buying pirates i am dead against it nor matter how cheap it is.

also no one registers win zip anyway microsoft are stupid for not making it time out (mines on day 780 something)


in all the consoles i've had the Amiga was the only system which had loads of pirates (i was young)

Don't want to start a war just my POV (point of view)

Tellah wrote:
> I'm planning on posting more often round here, and should leave the import/copying
> forums alone because I can be quite outspoken on the subject.

I don't think you should - strong differences of opinion make the threads worth reading, I reckon - as long as people can express themselves strongly but fairly and without resorting to insults. Though I admit that I have trouble restraining myself on occasion.


> Did you buy an American PS2/DVD player to play
> American DVDs? I remember you (as well as I) bought a swap-disk.

I did indeed buy DVD Region X - however, I don't own any DVD's from regions other than 2. I bought it simply to watch PSM2's DVDs in colour on my PS2, as neither my dedicated player nor my PC seem to want to run them!


> Made by the same people that made my import game swap-disk. There's no difference, except
> that you care about the games industry more than you do about the movie
> industry.

I wouldn't say that was *strictly* true. Although I don't agree with it, I understand the reasons why the movie industry wants to impose regions on the DVD market. For those that don't know the reasons, I'll explain...

We tend to get films after the US because they want to save money on master copies of the film. Rather than produce specific masters for the UK, Europe and so on, they often wait until the movie finishes its run in the US cinema and then ship the 2nd-hand tapes to the rest of the world - which is why you always see flecks and scratches on a film at the cinema. (When I saw Tomb Raider in the US in June, there was none of this.)

So consequently, the US get their DVD's before us, often before the film hits cinemas here. And they don't want you buying the film on R1 DVD before that, as you then won't pay to see it at the cinema. In other words, they want to get as much money out of you as possible.

Anyway, this is where it differs from games, in my opinion.

A game sale is a game sale. I don't know for sure, but I'd guess that few if any people will buy a game twice, once from each region - so the softco's aren't gaining any financial benefit, unlike the movie companies.

I believe there will always be more people who will wait for their own region's release, rather than - for example - buying a game full of Japanese text that they can't read. So I don't believe that the market will be greatly affected.

Okay, this isn't a problem with US games as far as the UK is concerned, but even so there are many games which are enhanced, improved or added to during the period between US and European launch - Sony's forthcoming ICO is just one such example.

So I don't see why regional sales of games are imposed. I know that there are NTSC/PAL conversion issues, but game companies have been producing software long enough to know exactly what is required, and there's no reason why a PAL version of a game can't be developed alongside the NTSC version and released at more or less the same time. The simple inclusion of a 50Hz/60Hz option solves most of the problems anyway.


> The Action Replay plays Japanese games with a
> simple swap-trick. It also plays copies - the man in HMV told me when I bought
> it.

As already discussed, I've no problem with the cheat devices, but if they allow the playing of copies, they should not be alowed on the market. I have to say I think it was highly irresponsible of HMV staff to tell customers that they can play pirate games with the Action Replay!

In a way, you could compare these devices to guns. You can use either for legal or illegal means, but as long as there is a legitimate use for something, you can't stop people buying them.

Modchips, I think, should be illegal no matter what - they make illegal modifications to copyrighted hardware, and piracy is pretty much the sole reason to have one installed. Swap-discs are another matter - as they use software, they don't strictly modify the machine, and so are harder to legislate against.

Of course, if console manufacturers built in the ability to play a game from any region, they could eliminate a lot of piracy in one go. Datel and co could remove all offending swap-code from their products, making it cheat-only; the honest people would have no need for swap discs or modchips, and therefore wouldn't have any temptation to get hold of pirate games. Of course this won't make any difference to the 'hardcore' pirates, but I think it could well reduce the number of 'casual' pirates who get pirate software simply because their AR product lets them.

Hope I've explained all that well enough!