Retro Shops/Bargains/Auction Links

Retr0gamer wrote: »

It could be built into the anti piracy protection or else be a hardware thing so is probably a lot more complex than a firmware update. Then there's security isues they will have to test for. We probably won't see it until the next full consoles.

I doubt it's a hardware thing, it wouldn't make sense from a production point of view. It's without doubt a firmware thing, something they could very easily change via an update I imagine.

Retr0gamer wrote: »

I'd put money on it being a hardware thing. Historically nintendo have used hardware to lock out piracy and any time software has been used it's been a disaster, see the 360. Pretty sure the anti piracy stuff is on a chip and bypasing it is really not an easy thing. It makes the most sense from a security point of view to have security embedded on a chip. Look how well it worked for Sony whose anti piracy was only broken through the incompetence when it came to the security codes they used meaning once the hackers got that one key the entire system was open.

Historically, yes. I think in more recent times though, it's been software that controls the region of a console. Look at the Wii, the PS3, the 360, the PS2, the Xbox...all of these can be made region free via software, no hardware modification is necessary. All of these, like the 3DS, have operating systems that control & limit what the hardware does. You'd have to go back quite a way to find consoles where the hardware determined what the software could do. Regardless, with the resources of Nintendo, I don't think making the 3DS is such a big deal. I suppose it could be a hardware thing, but I very much doubt it. The next generation of flash carts will undoubtedly prove that a PAL console can quite easily play an NTSC game & vice versa.