Seibu SPI Country Codes


If you try to load a new game cartridge on your SPI motherboard, the board checks the cartridge for a specific country code. If that code differs from the one the boards expects, the game is from a different country than the board. An error message will be displayed and the game refuses to work.

By comparing the different revisions we collected so far, Silvio Samadelli found the country code located in the last line of the first eprom. If you change it to the one that fits to your motherboard, the cartridge should work.

The differences between games of different regions are more than that code in most cases. So always dump the first eprom of YOUR cartridge, hack it with new country code and write it back to the chip! If you use a different SEIBU-1 or PRG0 file to hack, the program might not fit to the other eproms in your cartridge, and the game will probably not work.

Obviously there are motherboards, not accepting the hacked codes for whatever reason. The game starts up, but instead of the correct region, COUNTRY CODE NOT RECOGNIZED is displayed on the title screen. Furthermore, some kind of protection will be unlocked to make the game unplayable in different ways. We try to find out what causes this problem, and whenever we find a solution, you can read about it here.

 The following table shows all country codes we know so far:

Japan
Seibu Kaihatsu
01
USA
Fabtek
10
Asia
The Metrotainment Network
22
Asia
Dream Island
24
Europe
German Tuning Licensee
80
Switzerland
Seibu Kaihatsu
9C
Australia
Seibu Kaihatsu
9E
unknown
Seibu Kaihatsu
BE

There are 22 licenses in total. If you have one not listed here, please dump all socketeed eproms of your cartridge before you make any modifications, and send the files to sheep@world-of-arcades.com. We appreciate your support.

special thanks to Silvio,Tormod, Guru and Arttu who made this possible by their continuous support.


Example:
You have a japanese SPI motherboard. Unfortunately the Raiden Fighters cartridge you ordered from Hong-Kong does not work on your board. It is probably a Dream Island version, licensed for the asian market only. In fact you don't even have to know which country version the game is. It is sufficient enough to know the origin of the motherboard.

First open the cartridge with a screwdriver. Locate the first socketeed eprom (probably labeled SEIBU-1 or PRG0) and remove it carefully from the socket.

Inside the game cartridge

Read the chip with an eprom programmer and save the file to your harddrive. The next step is to open the file in a hex editor. If you don't have such a program, you can download the excellent freeware tool Hexedit V.1.03 from here. That's the one I prefer to use. When we open the file of our unknown cartridge from Hong Kong and scroll down to the last line, it looks like this:

PRG0 of a Raiden Fighters, Dream Island version
The last byte in the last line (I have highlighted them in the picture above) is the number 24. We check the table and there it is : 24 = Dream Island, Asia. So that's the valid region for our Raiden Fighters game cartridge.

Now we have to change the code in order to fit to our motherboard which is a japanese origin. The appropriate code is 01.
Highlight the 24 as shown on the picture above, change it to 01 and save everything to a new file.

Dream Island Raiden Fighters, hacked to japanese version

Now remove the label of the eprom, and erase the chip with a strong UV lamp. Then use your eprom programmer and burn the modified file to the blank eprom. (You could also burn it to a new eprom of the same type, if you don't want to recycle the old one). Thats' all. Plug the eprom back into the socket of the cartridge, close the case and enjoy the game.

Disclaimer:
Although we are positive that all cartridges can be converted by the method above, there is no guarantee that it really works. We had only a small number of motherboards and games at hand to validate it, but it's an easy and somewhat safe modification. If it doesn't work you can simply reburn your eprom with the old program.

Remember, you do all modifications on your own risc. Don't make anybody else responsible if you damage your game !