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3DO FZ-10 BIOS swap to change region ( & Sanyo )

Posted: Sun Aug 28, 2016 3:35 am
by CasetheCorvetteman
Has anyone done this before? I have 3 consoles here that are all Japan models, and want to swap one to a US BIOS.

Re: 3DO FZ-10 BIOS swap to change region

Posted: Thu Sep 01, 2016 3:37 am
by BryWI
I remember seeing someone doing some sort of bios switch in a youtube video. I think it can be swapped if it's just a region change. I think it would be fun to completely change the bios to see what would happen. I bet it would still work. I only have a US FZ-1 so I don't have any other bios chips to try and swap in.

Re: 3DO FZ-10 BIOS swap to change region

Posted: Thu Sep 01, 2016 2:40 pm
by CasetheCorvetteman
Yeah with all mine being Japan FZ-10 and a Japan Sanyo, i cant run a couple games i have here.

Return Fire works, but Maps 'O Death wont run on the Japan machine. It will run from that disc with a US machine.

If i knew which EEPROM to use for the BIOS i could just burn a new one and solder it in, but i cant find enough info to see which chip to use.

Re: 3DO FZ-10 BIOS swap to change region

Posted: Thu Sep 01, 2016 4:33 pm
by CasetheCorvetteman
With a bit more looking it seems that if i remove ROM2 it may be all that is needed to change the system to US region, so i might give that a go and see what happens.

Re: 3DO FZ-10 BIOS swap to change region

Posted: Fri Sep 02, 2016 2:38 pm
by CasetheCorvetteman
Got a bit of an update, i opened up my new boxed FZ-10 and its a bloody ANVIL model.

The Japan ANVIL has no chip in ROM1 at all, and there is a chip in ROM2. With that chip removed, nothing works at all. Soldered it back in and its away, so no go changing it from Japan region.

Ive got another 2 FZ-10s here, one is a normal Japan region and doesnt work, the other is an FZ-10-E and it is also an ANVIL, so its even more useless.

I need a working non ANVIL console.

Re: 3DO FZ-10 BIOS swap to change region

Posted: Fri Sep 02, 2016 6:30 pm
by CasetheCorvetteman
Success!

I now have a US region Sanyo 3DO.

The main chips inside the Sanyo are the same CLIO and MADAM, and the video chip is the same 536 chip as the early FZ-10 Panasonics have.

The 240p mod works, but needs a switch so the console boots in 480i.

RGB mod should be pretty easy to do by soldering straight to the video encoder chip.

Removing the Kanji chip from the board changed the region from Japan to US.

Return Fire Maps 'O Death now works, which it didnt before.

Re: 3DO FZ-10 BIOS swap to change region

Posted: Fri Sep 02, 2016 10:47 pm
by Retrofanatic83
Good job. I do want to play it so will likely get a cheap pal machine if I can come across one. Wish it would just play on anything, like the first game... :twisted:

Re: 3DO FZ-10 BIOS swap to change region

Posted: Sat Sep 03, 2016 4:46 am
by CasetheCorvetteman
Retrofanatic83 wrote:Good job. I do want to play it so will likely get a cheap pal machine if I can come across one. Wish it would just play on anything, like the first game... :twisted:
I have an FZ-10-E here and it wont work on that console either, so unless youre planning on buying a PAL copy of the game, im not sure if there is one!

I would STRONGLY recomend against any PAL 3DO console, i have not compared the game speeds between those and NTSC and to be honest they seem identical, but there is just no good reason to get a PAL version in the first place. They do f*** the picture up in a way i could never understand.

Re: 3DO FZ-10 BIOS swap to change region

Posted: Sat Sep 03, 2016 7:34 pm
by Retrofanatic83
I am in UK so cheap pal one is more likely to be found easily than an American one. Only other pal game I have which won't run on my japanese machine is alone in the dark. All my games are pal or jap except hell...I think soccer kid might be another region locked game as was Wolfy. Odd that only certain games and in maps o death's case, later successor to a brilliant game were locked. Why no Japanese release wonder if return fire sold badly there :?

Re: 3DO FZ-10 BIOS swap to change region ( & Sanyo )

Posted: Sun Sep 04, 2016 1:04 am
by CasetheCorvetteman
Yeah but all PALs are also ANVILs, so yeah, id go the extra mile and get a better one! Unless you dont care about boarders around the whole image and no RGB i spose.

Re: 3DO FZ-10 BIOS swap to change region ( & Sanyo )

Posted: Sun Sep 04, 2016 9:58 am
by Retrofanatic83
It would just be easier to find and run one (no stepdown required) and less costly as it would literally only be to play the odd game, and possibly mean less wear and tear for my beloved FZ1 :) I doubt I would modify one for RGB, if a machine can do it natively I get the cables, ps1 saturn jag snes neo geo I have cables and I even copped the gamecube component cables and have my dreamcast over vga....but I wouldn't modify it to output if it can't already. Only mods I have on machines are removal of cart tabs on my snes and n64 which I did myself with a small drill. I had my japNese cube modded to play USA games shortly after it launched in USA so I could play Star Wars etc and it's a really discreet switch on back and my playstation has a chip to play any region/disc but since then I have become really into keeping things as they were. Love my original neo geo cd front loader even tho the cdz is "better".

Re: 3DO FZ-10 BIOS swap to change region ( & Sanyo )

Posted: Tue Sep 06, 2016 11:16 am
by CasetheCorvetteman
Im an electrician by trade so i have a few outlets wired up for 100v for anything Japan or US, a lot of the consoles i have here are 100v and 110v, and so is one of my CRT projectors.

Re: 3DO FZ-10 BIOS swap to change region ( & Sanyo )

Posted: Tue Sep 06, 2016 10:55 pm
by Retrofanatic83
Wish I had more skills: basics like changing a playstation laser I can do but not much more :P
If I could fix stuff I would. Need someone to fix some broken mega cd consoles and a faulty neo geo cd I have did open them myself but both beyond my skills. Think both used same laser assembly.

Re: 3DO FZ-10 BIOS swap to change region ( & Sanyo )

Posted: Wed Sep 07, 2016 6:36 am
by CasetheCorvetteman
Retrofanatic83 wrote:Wish I had more skills: basics like changing a playstation laser I can do but not much more :P
If I could fix stuff I would. Need someone to fix some broken mega cd consoles and a faulty neo geo cd I have did open them myself but both beyond my skills. Think both used same laser assembly.
The front loaders do yeah, its very simular.