What's new
By:

Chihiro Change Region GD USA - GDROM dump

Finisterre

Finisterre

Professional
Joined
May 31, 2018
Messages
646
Reaction score
654
Location
Midwest
I had been looking for a copy of this for a while, and wanted to share before It is lost in the ether. Please archive it...
https://mega.nz/#!kMR21apL!-3TkQ4rAi1b5NIQzsLHoutUVaol4xeDSn1aiFVQzX1g

The IC for this image (when encrypted) is located in MAME, but the corresponding image is no where to be found...
https://bda.retroroms.info/downloads/mame/mame-0206/cregchg.zip

On CityLan the disk is described as "Chihiro Change Region GD USA" and "Chihiro Change Region GD USA (Rev A)"

It is mentioned in Mame here: https://github.com/mamedev/mame/blob/master/src/mame/drivers/chihiro.cpp#L71
"GDROM | 611-0028A | 317-0351-EXP"

After some looking I was able to come up on the binary and the following bit of advice.
"If you want to change it to Export or Japan...change the token USA at offset 0xA5000 from USA to EXP or JPN"

For what ever reason my TOP-3000 refused to play along with this thread... so this is easier for me.
How to Create a Zero Key (PIC) For Net Booting and CF on NAOMI Chihiro and Triforce

Enjoy.
 
welp, we preserved this disk (I was involved), I've added this disc dump to MAME, so it will not be lost, there is no reason to worry.
but... there is nothing to talk about - this disk is useless at practice.

anyone may change Chihiro region in much simpler way - plug "Zero key PIC" in Chihiro (if its not), go to BIOS System Information, press Service button 45 times, change region in menu.
here is nothing new, this little Sega's secret is known during 10 or so years.
 
Last edited:
The technique above has never worked for me... no instructions have worked, no key purchased has worked for me either. Hardly “useless” in that regard :)

Seems quite useful to not have to pay for a piece of hardware when you can change something in software.

I concur... nothing to “talk about”, just making sure others that need it can find it much easier. There’s no reason it should have been readily available in discussions when people asked to change regions over the years, as opposed to railroading people toward a zero key that they usually have to purchase from someone.
 
lets do it again:
normally you need a net-key for netboot something to Chihiro, including this region change tool.
you need a net-key for region change via BIOS, and it works, various people successfully did it countless number of times.
so, you need that key in both cases.

anyway, it is interesting as a piece of history.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8PL6R9N4sY
notice - the video is back from 2010 :)
 
I had meant to include that video in the original post... I'm guessing you know who's son that is. I'll leave it for the rest of the audience to figure out. ;)
 
So riddle me this batman....I have a Chirhiro that has a PIC in it that allows me to netboot, but not change the region via System Information page in the BIOS.

Also, if this was known about 10 years ago, where the image at 10 years ago.
 
@fsckewe that is unpossible and you are spreading misinformation ;)

We all know everyone is afraid of Sega, and other manufacturers. That is why everything here has to be done in secrecy, or by finding the proper person to pay in private.
 
I just really wish people would stop posting things that have already been discovered. I mean, how dumb are you. We've known this for YEARS. Oh, where's it at you ask? Nevermind that, it's not public so don't worry about it. Just stop posting stuff we already know about. Mmmkay.
 
Last edited:
Finisterre said:
I had meant to include that video in the original post... I'm guessing you know who's son that is. I'll leave it for the rest of the audience to figure out.
Click to expand...
the whole story is even more interesting.

about 10 years ago, one smart person (and it was not A.G.S.) noticed what Sega's site with replacement parts have quite predictable URL format, so he kind of brute-forced range of URLs and dl'ed pages via wget.
then grep-ed these data for known Naomi/Triforce/Chihiro/Lindbergh game media ID patterns (GDS-, GDL-, GDT-, DVP-, CDV- etc), and got valid Sega part numbers list.
next - he contacted Sega and ordered these part numbers, as you may imagine - there was invested huge amount of money.
later, these games was dumped for private use (i.e. hoarded), and discs/keys was resold to other arcade-scene folks, most of them got in MAME-friendly hands and was dumped and shared, but not all..

few months ago I've accidentally spotted this person, and he was kindly to share information and dumps he have. so, there was found about dozen of discs, which was not in MAME at that moment, including this one "Chihiro Change Region GD"...
 
“Definition for the gd Rom image”... you missed the point. If you all had said image for a decade, why were you keeping it to yourself? Does it make it easier to charge $50 for region changes? Or to sell NetBoot PICS?

Why did it take me sharing the image file is what @fsckewe is asking. Waving your hands around and saying look here in the name source for the definition was absolutely not the point lol.
 
The image for the GD ROM was added to MAME in January 2019; as MetalliC mentioned above. fsckwere asked where this information was shared, I pointed directly to it. I'm not sure if you understand that when a definition is added to the source, that means the image has been added to the CHD collection?

Nobody here claimed to have the disc or image in their possession for 10 years; MetalliC stated it was known about via the SEGA support network website.

I'm rather confused why you guys think there is some conspiracy happening here when the details in question are clearly published in an open source project.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top