GC games compatibility?

[sloggy]

Im wondering about whether gamecube games are internationally compatible. i.e. could I order games from the US and expect them to work on my system?

reason i ask is that here in aus we seem to get games released like a good few months after the rest of the world... :(

[Hyperion72]

No, Nintendo uses a form of regional encoding. As far as I am aware, there are only three regions (Japan, N. America, Europe) but I may be wrong. I'm not sure what region Aus is compatible with.

You can use a bootdisk like Freeloader or have your Cube modded to play other regions. You can find Freeloader and some Freeloader packages at Lik-Sang (http://www.lik-sang.com/list.php?category=81&). Hope that helps.

[Cooolcorey]

Also keep in mind the differences between NTSC and PAL, but you only have to worry about that if you live in Europe buying from Japan/US/anywhere else.

[Messiah]

Yeah thats the trouble living here, the games take that damn long to come out.

[sloggy]

Is there any way that i can find out what region my cube is coded for?? i assume its not japan and theres a good chance itd be north america, but is it written anywhere? or does anyone know what regional code australian cubes use?

and whats PAL and NTSC? u sure i dont need to worry about that?

[Hyperion72]

I'm not sure, but my bet guess would be that Australian Cubes are the same "region" as UK Cubes, but I may be wrong. Anyone from Aus here that can help out?

PAL and NTSC are TV display standards. PAL displays at 720x576 and refreshes @ 50 Hz while NTSC displays at 720x480 @ 60 Hz, both interlaced. Read the Freeloader FAQ (http://www.lik-sang.com/faq.php?browse=1&products_id=1964&categories_id=81&#answer3569) at Lik-Sang or Codejunkies' Q&A (http://uk.codejunkies.com/support.asp?c=GB&cr=GBP&cs=£&r=1&l=1&prod=freeloadtxt_7&p=7).

Judging from those, if you're playing NTSC on a PAL Cube, you're fine. It's playing PAL games on a NTSC Cube that you have to be sure your TV can display at 50Hz.

[Robert-AMN]

Being in Australia, you have the same region as Europe and are normally on the PAL system. Some of the newer tv sets down there can do both NTSC and PAL. You would have to check either the manual, web site, or call the company that made youre tv to find out for sure. Unless you want to import form Europe, you will need to either get your GameCube modded which sounds way more than you want to get into, or you will have to buy a freeloader. I have some friends who live in Australia and they sometimes get some of their games from DVD Crave (http://www.dvdcrave.com). They are Australian based but do import some from Europe so you can get games faster.

[Eddz]

He's right, Australian Gamecubes are PAL compatible.

England got an English-version Mario Kart first, as well as a 1080, Zelda Collectable Disc #2 and various other titles so it may be worthwhile just sticking with your un-modded PAL 'Cube for the moment and importing from the UK if you are that desperate.

[Santo]

Yeah, pretty much what they said.

Plain and simple, if you have to plain other region games, simply buy a mod for your Cube.