Modifying Sega Brand Jap NTSC dreamcast lightgun for US game

[Angeldusthunter]

The sega brand jap dreamcast light guns are supposed to be more accurate than the third party light guns available in the US, but have hardware built in to prevent it's use in US games, even though both are NTSC. Is there any info on how to disable this in the gun or console? Any info would be appreciated. I won't be holding my breath , but would like be able to fix this problem. Haven't tried a regular console mod chip yet, but can try if that works.


... I added the poll so that members could show how many people actually want to modify japanese sega brand light guns to work with us consoles.

[game_player_s]

Hmm, not sure if it's possible or not.

I have one of those official Sega light guns. I'll play around with it this weekend and post whatever I can figure out.
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[game_player_s]

Due to delays over the weekend I just played with the light gun today. Here are my findings.

I tested the lightgun on one of my US systems with three games; The House of the Dead 2 (Japanese version), The House of the Dead 2 (US version), and Sega Smash Pack Volume 1 (Virtua Cop 2).

It worked fine with the Japanese version of The House of the Dead 2.

It worked fine with Virtua Cop 2 on Sega Smash Pack Vol. 1.

It would not work with the US version of The House of the Dead 2. I was able to get by the message about the hardware not being compatible with a North American system, which is clearly a lie, by connecting the light gun after start up. All the buttons on the gun functioned correctly, but the actual light gun was not aimable. I noticed that, not only do the US and JP versions of this game load differently at startup, but the US version does not list that it is light gun compatible on the back of the case.

I only have the official Japanese Sega light gun. Can anyone confirm if the US version of The House of the Dead 2 works with a US released light gun?
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[emptythought]

I can confirm. I had HotD2 and a US light gun when it first came out, and they played fine together.

[Angeldusthunter]

Yeah,I can confirm that third party light guns work on the us version because i've seen my friends play us hotd2 with a third party gun on a non modded console. My attempt to get the sega brand light gun to work was done on a us console, non modded, with confidential mission, and i tried to use a regular controller to start the game up, but when I plugged in the light gun it came up with a message saying that foreign light guns were not supported, and the message displayed as long as the gun was inserted.
I figure since any third party guns work with every us released light gun game there has to be a chip inside the light gun that identifies it's model or something, and the us releases of the software are designed to read that model number and disable themselves from working.
If anyone has any experience with circuitry, and has the sega brand gun and a us light gun game, maybe they can figure out which chip it is in the gun and how to disable it, or how to make an adapter to go between the light gun connection and the dreamcast that lies about the model number.
I do appreciate the help, and maybe if it can be figured out, I won't have to buy another light gun just to play my us light gun games (i hate using the regular controller, it's not the same, and i don't want to buy an off brand light gun for it because I hear their accuracy isn't near as good as the sega brand one)
This appears to be one way sega shot themselves in the foot and another proverbial straw involved in breaking the camels back that got sega out of the console business. ( making games that refuse to support your own hardware but let other companies hardware work seems more than slightly retarded )

[game_player_s]

That ID chip theory makes a lot of sense.

US games that don't work with the official light gun:
Confidential Mision
The House of the Dead 2

US game that does work:
Sega Smash Pack Vol.1


That only leaves two US games to test the Sega gun with:
Death Crimson OX and Demolition Racer - No Exit

Oh yeah, like I said previously, the US version of The House of the Dead 2 has a longer start up period than the JP version. It's probably using that extra time to run a system scan program that checks for the Sega gun and then disables it if it's found.
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[Angeldusthunter]

I don't know how relevant this is, since I have no electronics know how other than assembling electronic things(like computers), and computer programming, but when i try to fool the game into allowing me to use the gun, the error message does not pop up while i allow the bottom 4 connections to contact on the controller plug, only when i allow the metal strip at the top to connect. The light on my memory card comes on when the bottom 4 are connected but since I don't know the breakdown of what the controllers connections are for I'm not aware of how significant that is.
I'm presuming the metal strip at the top supplies power to the chips of the gun, and possibly reads the chips id. i think the bottom 4 connections are for the data the gun/controller would transmit such as arrowpad buttons etc. if anyone has a breakdown on how to wire a controller from a different system to work on a dreamcast(once saw how to take a dreamcasts insides and put it into a NES case, complete with wiring a nes controller for use with nesterdc, i just can't remember where), that information may prove very fruitful in finding out how to disable the chip id, or build a 'spacer' to keep the console from knowing it's not a third party light gun. If there is any info or people who are into that expansive dreamcast modification scene, maybe I can be pointed to some kind of modification guru who is aware of the dreamcast/controller interface.

[Hurray Banana]

Just registered, searching for this exact problem.

I can confirm that Death crimson OX (us) on my jap dc moans about the light guns.

I have had no problem with the UK version of confidential misson on my jap dc, it played with my jap light guns perfectly.

I might try Death Crimson in my UK dc to see if that makes a difference.

I'll post my results

[Hurray Banana]

Ok, just tried it on my uk dc, same problem.

I decided to try it through my VGA adapter, but again same problem occured.

I did notice that if you unplug the gun to get past the message and then plug it in again on the main menu (the one that shows options, bullet mode etc...) you get a gun setting option, when selected a simple menu says

Start button to start game
B button to cancel

Pressing Start does nothing
pressing B cancels, as does unplugging the gun.

This is a bit of a pain cause the game looks good, crud with a pad tho'

[game_player_s]

Well, four years have passed and I've still not gotten around to testing out Demolition Racer - No Exit with the Sega Lightgun. Sorry to be such a let down everyone. This time four years ago I was finishing up what would be my last semester of college. Shortly thereafter I began job hunting and this research has been on a backburner ever since then. Hopefully I'll get around to doing this sometime this year... unless one of you would like to beat me to it, I won't mind.
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