One man's fight to play Sapphire! - Lots of pics

[BlueBMW]

Rumors told me that there was a great game out there.  But there were a few catches... one it was very expensive, and the other was that it required a Japanese Arcade system card to play...

That game of course is Sapphire!

So what do I do if I have a US Duo and I want to play it?  That has been my quest over the last several weeks!

Step 1: Bought a cheap copy of Sapphire from Tobias...



Step 2: Bought an Arcade Pro card from Henrycsc... (and later an arcade duo card from Opethian!)



Step 3: Sourced region mod parts from Digikey, Radio Shack and a local electronics store. Also bought some nice shiny new tools!



Step 4: Construct region mod chip as per http://babelfish.yahoo.com/translate_url?doit=done&tt=url&intl=1&fr=bf-home&trurl=http%3A%2F%2Fplayoffline.wordpress.com%2Fmod%2Fpceswitch%2F&lp=de_en&btnTrUrl=Translate



Step 5: Opened my precious US Duo and hacked away!



Step 6: Switch the region mod to JP region!



Step 7: Insert Arcade system card AND Sapphire CDROM.....



Step 8: The moment of truth....

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[nat]

Sapphire lose:

Playing 4:3 games in a 16:9 aspect ratio is.... ridiculous.

[BlueBMW]

Sapphire lose:

Playing 4:3 games in a 16:9 aspect ratio is.... ridiculous.

I hadn't got that far yet!  I was just glad the whole thing worked at all.

[Mathius]

Congrats! She definitely is a pretty Duo.

[MotherGunner]

Good deal man, is that a bootleg/care4data version?

[turbogrfxfan]

great work blue!!!! 

[Mathius]

Good deal man, is that a bootleg/care4data version?

I'll answer that question-Yes. We happened to both buy ours the same week from Tobias who runs the anime4ever service. I already checked my disc and sure enough it says "care4data."

[henrycsc]

Congrats on the Region Mod BMW!  Now is this a switch system where you can go back and forth between the regions?

Very subtle little switch there!  Bravo!   

[SignOfZeta]

Sapphire lose:

Playing 4:3 games in a 16:9 aspect ratio is.... ridiculous.

Dang...beat me to it.

[BlueBMW]

Congrats on the Region Mod BMW!  Now is this a switch system where you can go back and forth between the regions?

Very subtle little switch there!  Bravo!  

Yep, just a quick flip back and forth.

[Tatsujin]

The swisslers counterfeight tools: http://www.care4data.ch/index2.php

[BlueBMW]

The swisslers counterfeight tools: http://www.care4data.ch/index2.php

While I don't normally care much for counterfeit copies, in the case of this game I just dont have the $300 (or maybe more now) that it would cost to own a legit copy.  I hope the community can forgive me for this evil deed!

[Joe Redifer]

Sapphire lose:

Playing 4:3 games in a 16:9 aspect ratio is.... ridiculous.

Dang...beat me to it.

Me, too.

[BlueBMW]

Sapphire lose:

Playing 4:3 games in a 16:9 aspect ratio is.... ridiculous.

Dang...beat me to it.

Me, too.

I guess I should mention... that duo's connected via composite! 

So 16:9 + Composite means double fail

[SignOfZeta]

Not really. Switching to 4:3 requires a simple settings change. Switching to RGB requires a a ton of soldering and extra parts. While the image is muddy in composite, it isn't just out right wrong and fat and distorted like it is when its stretched in the funhouse mirror that is a modern wide TV.