I recently ordered a Japanese Sega Dreamcast (I wasn't really looking to buy one, but I found a boxed one on eBay for cheap in really good condition, so I thought why not?), and naturally, since it's a Japanese model, I'm going to need to replace the BIOS with a region free one so I can play American games on it. I was reading on mmmonkey's site that there's a region free BIOS which you can either piggy-back on the original BIOS, or replace entirely if I'm reading this correctly. I'd probably do the latter, since I don't see any reason why I would want to go back to the region-locked BIOS, and the 'replace' mod is simpler and neater.

Are any of you fine gentlemen burning region-free Sega Dreamcast BIOS chips? How much for such a service? Also, I notice that the new BIOS changes the boot screen, I'm kinda fond of the original version, is it possible to keep it? And does anyone have more detailed instructions on how to do the installation?

Mmmonkey's guide only has the 'replace the original' as a footnote, there's not many detailed photos and instructions. Or perhaps one of the BIOS flashers disks would be a better idea? At the moment, I can't think of any Japanese-exclusive titles I would want, so I'd probably be buying all American games for now. Psx download for pc. Ah, you're right! You got a shoutout on mmmonkey's site, nice!

But I am intrigued by the mod APE mentioned, the idea of simply reprogramming the original BIOS to make it region free sounds quick and simple. Though now that I re-read his post, I think he's talking about burning a re-programmed version of the original BIOS to a new chip and soldering that in. My original impression was that you could flash the new BIOS to the original chip, but I have a feeling I've got the wrong idea Clarification maybe? Bumping this thread! I'm currently installing the region-free BIOS, I've managed to get the original chip off (VERY fiddely!) but it would appear I've managed to take off one of the pads in the process: As you can see, where pad 7 should be, there's no shiny silver pad.

I take it the next step would be to run a wire from from leg 7 on the replacement BIOS to one of the legs on the IC502 chip above like mmmonkey did on his site (I take consolation in the fact that he broke 2 pads while I only broke one!) but which one? I'm trying to follow the trace from the broken pad, but I'm getting lost where the text starts to cover it up.

Turn your Sega Dreamcast into a fully region free console. No more fiddling around with boot disks or other unreliable methods. After this mod is installed, your console will boot games from any region just by placing the disk in the console. Customer Reviews. ROM downloads for free, all the classics! ROMs: 57623 Downloads: 35423797. Like us on Facebook! 450 Sega CD ISOs added! 2014/12/31 Happy holidays! ROMs / Sega Dreamcast ISOs / ROMs / Dreamcast BIOS.7z. ROM Information Name: Dreamcast BIOS.7z Download: Dreamcast BIOS.7z System: Sega Dreamcast ISOs / ROMs Size: 973.30 kb DL Count.

But I was also thinking, see there's that little hole on the trace that runs along the trace from the broken pad? What if I were to run a single strand of wire into the hole, solder it from the back of the board, then solder the other end of the wire to the replacement BIOS? That sounds simpler and easier to me.

So I figured this should be posted as it is an amazing BIOS MOD for an amazing system. Comes with or without devkit intro.

It is really useful for Dreamcast ODE users as it allows images to have any LBA of the 1ST_READ.BIN (aka the Dreamcast EXE) to make games much smaller, see README below. Also disabled the VGA check so no more need to force VGA for games that work normally but only with the 'VGA trick' and has all the normal mods like region free. A newer BIOS is also on the way.