Thank you for the warm messages from all over the world.
Espgaluda II Black Label Normal Edition is region free.
But I'm afraid new games after Espgaluda II Black Label won't be region free.
I assure you that Espgaluda II Black Label Normal Edition will be the last region free game for the time being.
X360 Release List (stolen from Wikipedia): Guwange (1999) - Arcade (Japan), with a port to be released for the Xbox 360 (Xbox Live - Japan)
DoDonPachi Dai Ou Jou Black Label (2002) - Arcade, with a port released for the Xbox 360 by 5pb (Japan)
Do-Don-Pachi Dai-Fukkatsu (2008) - Arcade (Japan), with a port to be released for the Xbox 360 (Japan) on November 25th, 2010
Ketsui - Kizuna Jigoku Tachi (2003) - Arcade, with a (boss-attack only) port for Nintendo DS by Arika (Japan). A port was released for the Xbox 360 on April 22, 2010 (Japan).
Espgaluda II (2005) - Arcade (Japan), with a port released for the Xbox 360 (Japan) February 25, 2010.
Mushihime-sama Futari (2006) - Arcade (Japan), with a region-free port released for the Xbox 360 by M2 (Japan)
Mushihime-sama Futari Black Label (2007) - Arcade (Japan), with a port released for the Xbox 360 in the form of downloadable content for Mushihime-sama Futari ver 1.5 (Japan)
DeathSmiles (2007) - Arcade (Japan), with a port released for the Xbox 360 in Japan (in 2009) and in North America (in 2010)
DeathSmiles Mega Black Label (2008) - Arcade (Japan), with a port released for the Xbox 360 in the form of downloadable content for DeathSmiles (Japan), and also included in the DeathSmiles Platinum Collection for the Xbox 360 (Japan)
TBC.
Last edited by moshpit on December 2nd, 2010, 12:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Shame this, but understandable; it costs THEM money to get it region free - each region has to pass testing seperately, and the publishers/devs have to pay for the privelege.
Mushi was region free and sold less than Death Smiles which wasn't, so it seems like it's just not worth their while.
Don't think anyone else has the rights, I believe the decision is purely financial.
Still, it sucks :/ I don't want to jtag a 360 to be able to play foreign games... BTW, all the PS3 games are RF, loads of 360 games are too, I'm not that sure it's a financial thing.
Edit : Even though Mushi sold less than other cave games I'm quite sure it would have sold even less if it would'nt have been RF. I bought the game and lend it to a couple of friends, they loved it and asked me if others games like this one were planned, the shooting genre is making a comeback
Last edited by baddy on February 19th, 2010, 4:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Surely it wouldn't be too hard to rip the code from a disc, remove the JP region lock, paste in a Euro one and burn? I guess the disc drive may not like a burned disc though...
*Not suggesting bootlegging - I'd expect everyone to have a legit Japanese copy too*
You cannot change anything on a 360 disk, 360 backups are made so that the console will think it's 100% legit, not 1 bit on the disc differs from the original, that's why a custom fw has to be flashed on the dvd drive to make the 360 think its running a DVD-rom instead of a DVD-R DL. If you were to modify the region code the 360's hypervisor will see it and would prevent the disc from running as it recognised un-signed code.
I already bought most original 360 Japanese. shmups but could never play them
I was still thinking about ordering a Japanese 360 from playasia but instead i ordered a region free new Jtag 360 Arcade which i will receive this week at much lower cost .
I'm not sure what to expect but the seller said i even could put mame on there which would be a great bonus !
I know it's not the greatest game in the world but i am really looking forward to Otomedius Gorgeous ...and Deathsmiles ..damn . i have it for a long time now but never played it , Shooting Love 200X and Mamoru-kun ...oh yes