It's different on each console.  Nintendo DS, PSP and PS3 are region free.  Certain 360 games are region free.  I believe pretty much everything else is region-locked, including the Wii, PS2, PS1 and more.

PC Games will play, but you usually have to install Japanese support, and sometimes even switch the OS's language to JP.

Take a look at PlayAsia and each game's page will tell you what region it's locked to, or if it's region-free.  Be aware that 'Asia' region is not the same as 'Japan' region - 1 might be locked and the other not.

Last edited by wccrawford (2008 October 22, 9:42 am)

Yes it is.

There are some mods that allow it.
Both my PS1 and PS2 are modded to accept region free disks and homebrew software.

Some gamesharks can do de job too.

From a pure legal standpoint, you can on PSP, but not on Wii and not on PS2. PS3 is like... 90% region free as well, so you can buy Japanese games for it and hope for the best, most of the time they will work.

I think there's a PS2 thing that's like that, Swapmagic. I think it involves a little tinkering to get started, something about a card to pull open the disk tray? I don't know much about it; I couldn't be bothered messing around with all that, I just bought a Japanese console.

PrettyKitty wrote:

Edit: I mean you can't just get a JP game and play it on the Wii, but you can get stuff that will allow you to play it.

Really? I put off buying a Wii, mostly because I don't have the money but also because you can't import with it. If you can do this without a lot of hassle, I might reconsider.

Oh, on the Dreamcast it was not required. Just boot the disc, then remove it and place the other disc in. It wouldn't work with 100% of the import games though.

albion wrote:

Really? I put off buying a Wii, mostly because I don't have the money but also because you can't import with it. If you can do this without a lot of hassle, I might reconsider.

If you don't have update 3.3 you can use freeloader for Wii. If you've updated beyond that, you can still play imports if you do the Twilight Princess hack.

I know how to play imports for NES, SNES, N64, PS, PS2, and Wii with no mod chips for any. PS3 automatically allows imports for PS3 games, but not PS2. The OP is in UK so he can't play older console imports. (Edit: I see you're in UK too. Bummer.) But if you have USA consoles, any of them can play imports. Although, technically, any method used to circumvent DRM violates the DMCA whether the circumvention is for a legal purpose or not.

Last edited by PrettyKitty (2008 October 22, 8:55 pm)

mentat_kgs wrote:

I dont know how the PS1 mod works, but it is very simple. For the PS2, you need a chip that runs some code before the bootloader. It costed about $ 50,00 a few years ago.

A PSX chip you solder a few wires on a couple points on the motherboard, then it bypasses the checks. Cost me about 25 bucks if I recall correctly.

Tobberoth wrote:

albion wrote:

I think there's a PS2 thing that's like that, Swapmagic. I think it involves a little tinkering to get started, something about a card to pull open the disk tray? I don't know much about it; I couldn't be bothered messing around with all that, I just bought a Japanese console.

PrettyKitty wrote:

Edit: I mean you can't just get a JP game and play it on the Wii, but you can get stuff that will allow you to play it.

Really? I put off buying a Wii, mostly because I don't have the money but also because you can't import with it. If you can do this without a lot of hassle, I might reconsider.

Yeah, SwapMagic is really easy to use, especially if you have an old "phat" PS2.

It's even easier to use on a slim one.  If you don't care about voiding your warrenty(or it's already expired) you just need some tape and a few minutes.  Then you don't need to fiddle with it again. 

The card to pull open the fat ps2 is not a great idea, it causes problems.  The best way to fix the old phat one is a flip top replacement.

Anyways swapmagic works great, and there is a huge selection of great japanese games on ps2.

Last edited by cracky (2008 October 22, 11:25 pm)

Japanese Wii can play USA games with either JP Freeloader for Wii (if you don't get online updates) or installing homebrew (updates don't matter). To install homebrew you just need a legit JP copy of Twilight Princess for your JP Wii, an SD card, an SD card reader so you can access the card from the computer, and some files you can find easily on the net. The homebrew method is better since the current online update has already disabled Freeloader, so to use it you'd have to disallow online updates. And you're probably going to buy Twilight Princess anyway so the only thing you're out is the SD card reader if you don't already have one.

There are mod chips, but I've never used one. Too scared of messing something up. Plus, Nintendo's updates can cause the Wii to cease functioning if it has a mod chip. And, they put their updates on every major Nintendo release. In other words, if you want to play Super Mario Galaxy, Smash Bros, etc it's going to force an update from the disc itself whether you go online or not.

i got a wiikey in my wii and it works just fine for copied games ^_^ wiikey has their own updates on their website that allow super mario galaxy and SSB to be played

Last edited by Hashiriya (2008 October 23, 11:51 am)

Mine is not even soldered. It is just attached. It already fell once, I had to buy a game for the guy in the shop fix it.

I've heard that has happened with the oldest kind of modchips. The new ones, that support online update still work fine.

Last edited by mentat_kgs (2008 October 23, 3:14 pm)