Official NTSC-U Region Light Gun Discovered

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powervr

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Greetings,

Sega of America canceled the North American release of the official light gun due to the Columbine tragedy. NTSC-U light gun games are coded to reject the official gun and will display an error message,"PERIPHERAL AT PORT A IS NOT SUPPORTED IN NORTH AMERICA", if you attempted to use one.

I recently acquired two official light guns with "US-MODEL" stickers attached. I tested them on the NTSC-U version of House of the Dead 2. Sure enough the games and light guns work without issues. The Dreamcast used for testing is a completely stock NTSC-U V0, there is no region or bios mod installed.

The source of the guns originated in San Francisco, HQ location of Sega of America. I suspect these were used at SoA for testing before they were canceled. I'm excited to have these, because I remember being really disappointed back in the day when it was announced that they would not be releasing the official light guns in North America. I had to settle for a crappy 3rd party gun.

Below is a video I recorded of the testing. Not a fan of youtube, so archive.org.





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So bad ass! It really was a shame these were cancled. I was 15 when that happened. I was so pissed about how much it affected their descision to have them in North America. Amazing to see these indeed do exist in a prototype form. I am sure it is only the firmware on the perephrial that is different. As pretty much all other perephrials are region free on the system. I wonder if there could be a way to mod the European or Jpanese guns to work on the official US games? I know it makes more sense to just play the other region versions but still interesting thought exercise.
 
Anthony817 said:
So bad ass! It really was a shame these were cancled. I was 15 when that happened. I was so pissed about how much it affected their descision to have them in North America. Amazing to see these indeed do exist in a prototype form. I am sure it is only the firmware on the perephrial that is different. As pretty much all other perephrials are region free on the system. I wonder if there could be a way to mod the European or Jpanese guns to work on the official US games? I know it makes more sense to just play the other region versions but still interesting thought exercise.
Click to expand...

That's what I feel like makes these special, they represent a new era in America. The atmosphere of the country started to change around 1999.
I saved all summer working a part time job to buy the Dreamcast. I had a copy of Dreamcast Magazine Vol 0 and I remember marking down all the accessories I wanted with it, and I especially wanted the official light gun. When I heard they were canceling the North American release, I regretfully bought the interact gun and could never get it to work right, it ruined Dreamcast light gun games for me.

Sure it's easy to fire up a Japanese version, but playing the US version House of the Dead with these feels like I went back in time and captured a canceled piece of my childhood.
 
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Oh I bet it must feel so strange lol. At least we couldn't ask for a better person to get them and show us how they look with a teardown! You did good by sharing this. So thanks for sharing.
 
Neat!

Ps. I personally always prefered the chinese Saturn clone guns, they look way cooler than any other Dreamcast guns.
 
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