Table of Contents
Backward Compatibility, Regional Restrictions, and System Language on Nintendo Portable Consoles
Backward Compatibility, Regional Restrictions, and System Language on Nintendo Portable Consoles
Backward Compatibility, Regional Restrictions, and System Language on iQue Portable Consoles
Long gone are the days when Nintendo truly competed with anyone. Now Nintendo is the undisputed leader in portable gaming, and it is unlikely that any competitor will emerge in the near future. This is largely because Nintendo has not forgotten its old consoles. Almost always, newer Nintendo consoles retained compatibility with older cartridges. It is even more surprising that everything changed drastically with the Nintendo Switch.
If you started your journey with Nintendo games on the Nintendo Switch, you will be very surprised to learn that retro consoles worked quite differently.
When buying a Switch, you don't need to worry about the region of the console, the region of the cartridge, or whether it has Russian (or even English) language support. You can safely buy, for example, a Chinese console and a European cartridge – everything will work together. But not so long ago, this was not the case.
In this article, I will show you: what regional restrictions were on consoles, what backward compatibility they had, and which consoles didn't even have English in the menu. We will also talk about whether it can be fixed.
Game Boy (Pocket, Light)
In the fourth generation of Nintendo consoles, there were 3 devices:
Game Boy;
Game Boy Pocket;
Game Boy Light.
All these consoles were primarily designed to run standard Game Boy cartridges.
System Language
These were the times when consoles did not have any built-in menu, and the differences were only in appearance and various minor details (for example, the Game Boy Light had a built-in backlight).
The language in the games depended solely on the cartridge. For example, if you bought a Japanese cartridge, there was a 99% chance that it would only have Japanese. English could only be found in some basic text (for example, "Press Start" might be written in English).
Regional Restrictions
There were no regional restrictions on these consoles. For example, a Game Boy released for the Japanese market could run American games.
It is important to understand that often, all regional restrictions on such consoles ended with different chargers and legal text on the labels (for example, in Germany, products had to pass mandatory certification to indicate that they could be used by children, and this had to be stated on the packaging).
Backward Compatibility
Since these were the first portable consoles from Nintendo, there could be no backward compatibility.
However, a little later, after the launch of the Game Boy Color, special cartridges in black cases were released.
As you can see, the label says Game Boy Color, but the case itself remained the same as before. These cartridges can be run on both Game Boy family consoles and Game Boy Color. On GBC, this cartridge will work in color, while on older consoles, it will work in monochrome.
Game Boy Color
The Game Boy Color is the only fifth-generation console from Nintendo. This may seem a bit strange, as in any other generation, Nintendo released at least three devices (not to mention the Nintendo 3DS family, which had as many as six variations). This console was an intermediate link between the Game Boy and Game Boy Advance families and was released solely to compete with rivals.
Wonderswan on the left (the competitor that led to the release of the Game Boy Color) and Game Boy Color on the right.
The GBC console is primarily designed to run Game Boy Color cartridges.
System Language
Like the first Nintendo consoles, the Game Boy Color had no system language. The language in the game depended solely on the cartridge.
Regional Restrictions
There were no regional restrictions on this console.
Backward Compatibility
The Game Boy Color fully supports all old games from the Game Boy family of consoles. That is, you can run all these cartridges:
However, there are rare exceptions, which we will not discuss further. For example, there is a game called Road Rash.
It will only work on the first three Game Boy family consoles. This game uses undocumented processor features, and on the Game Boy Color, the game will start (you can get to the menu), but the gameplay will freeze.
And since we touched on exceptions, let's stop at another feature of this console. It (and only it) has a built-in infrared sensor. It opens up additional possibilities in some games (character exchange, network play, result exchange, etc.). As you understand, these features will not work on other console families, even though, for example, the Game Boy Advance can run Game Boy Color cartridges.
Game Boy Advance (SP, Micro)
The Game Boy Advance is the fifth generation of Nintendo consoles. It includes:
Game Boy Advance
Game Boy Advance SP AGS-001
Game Boy Micro
Game Boy Advance SP AGS-101
The Game Boy Advance consoles completely redesigned the cartridge form factor, reducing the size by almost half.
Game Boy on the left, Game Boy Advance cartridge on the right.
These consoles were designed for GBA cartridges.
System Language
The Game Boy Advance consoles had no system language. The language in the game depended solely on the cartridge.
Regional Restrictions
There were no regional restrictions in this family of consoles.
Backward Compatibility
However, backward compatibility is not so straightforward. On the one hand, the Game Boy Advance, Game Boy Advance SP AGS-001, and Game Boy Advance SP AGS-101 could run all old cartridges from previous console families:
On the other hand, the Game Boy Micro could only run standard Game Boy Advance cartridges. That is, it had no backward compatibility. This was due to the small size of the console.
However, you should understand:
1. This is not emulation, but native game execution (all GBA consoles had the old processor built-in);
2. The console's screen changed (from square to rectangular), so there will be black bars on the sides during gameplay.
It is also worth noting that some GBC cartridges (for example, The Legend of Zelda – Oracles of Season / Ages), when run on the Game Boy Advance, unlocked additional gameplay features.
Nintendo DS (DS Lite, DSi, DSi XL)
Nintendo DS is the sixth generation of consoles. It included:
Nintendo DS;
Nintendo DS Lite;
Nintendo DSi;
Nintendo DSi XL.
With these consoles, things became much more complicated.
All Nintendo DS family cartridges can be divided into three parts:
Nintendo DS – cartridges without additional features.
Nintendo DS enhanced – cartridges with additional features for Nintendo DSi.
Nintendo DSi exclusive – exclusive cartridges for Nintendo DSi.
From left to right: Nintendo DS, Nintendo DS enhanced, Nintendo DSi exclusive.
Accordingly, Nintendo DS and DS Lite were designed to run regular Nintendo DS games and could run Nintendo DS enhanced cartridges (but the additional features didn't work). Nintendo DSi exclusive cartridges do not run on these consoles at all.
Nintendo DSi and DSi XL could run all three types of cartridges.
It's worth noting separately that 99.9% of flash cartridges for Nintendo DS cannot run Nintendo DSi games even on the Nintendo DSi console itself. You can only play them if you mod the Nintendo DSi.
The main array of Nintendo DSi games was distributed through the DSiWare electronic store. Fewer than ten physical cartridges (what I called Nintendo DSi exclusive above) were released. If you find DSi game ROMs online, they will essentially be no different from regular DS ROMs, but they won't work on DS flash cartridges.
System Language
In any Nintendo DS or DS Lite console, you can change the system language to English (there is no Russian).
That is, in a Japanese Nintendo DS, you can easily set the language to English.
If we talk about Nintendo DSi and DSi XL, for example, in a Japanese console, there was only Japanese. You can't change it to another language. If you don't want to mod the console and you need an English menu, buy an American or European version.
You can change the region by modding (you can install TWiLight Menu++).
Regional Restrictions
In Nintendo DS and Nintendo DS Lite consoles, there were no regional restrictions. There is only one exception - iQue DS games only run on iQue consoles.
With Nintendo DSi and DSi XL, things are a bit more complicated.
Nintendo DS and Nintendo DS enhanced games run on any Nintendo DSi and DSi XL. However, Nintendo DSi exclusive games only run on a console with a specific region. For example, a European Nintendo DSi exclusive game will only run on a European console.
Backward Compatibility
Nintendo DS and DS Lite can run any Game Boy Advance cartridges. Note - only GBA cartridges. There is no support for GB and GBC cartridges.
In Nintendo DSi and DSi XL, the slot for Game Boy Advance cartridges was removed, meaning there is no support for GBA games. However, as I mentioned above, this console could run Nintendo DS and Nintendo DS enhanced cartridges.
Nintendo 3DS (2DS, 3DS XL, New 3DS, New 3DS XL, New 2DS XL)
Nintendo 3DS is the seventh generation of Nintendo consoles. It includes:
Nintendo 3DS;
Nintendo 3DS XL;
Nintendo 2DS;
New Nintendo 3DS;
New Nintendo 3DS XL;
New Nintendo 2DS XL.
From now on, when I write "3DS," understand that this also includes 2DS consoles, as the only difference is the lack of 3D mode.
These consoles are designed to run 3DS cartridges.
But there were also NEW Nintendo 3DS cartridges. There were very few of them, and they only ran on NEW versions of the consoles.
If you insert such a cartridge into an OLD version of the 3DS, the following notification will appear:
System Language
In all 3DS consoles, the system language could only be changed within a given range. For example, on American versions of the 3DS, the following languages are available: English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese. On the Japanese version of the console, only Japanese is available. In the European version of the 3DS, even Russian is available.
You can change the system language, for example, to Russian, by changing the region to European. This is done by modding the console.
Backward Compatibility
3DS consoles are backward compatible with the following cartridges: DS, DS enhanced, and DSi exclusive.
Regional Restrictions
In the 3DS family, perhaps the strictest regional restrictions among all consoles:
1. 3DS games only run on consoles of their own region;
2. DS and DS enhanced cartridges, as in the case of Nintendo DS and DS Lite, have no regional restrictions;
3. DSi exclusive, in turn, have the same restrictions as on DSi consoles, meaning the cartridge must match the region of the console.
All regional restrictions are removed after modding the console.
Epilogue
As you can see, compared to the Nintendo Switch, the situation was drastically different. You no longer need to worry much about regional restrictions. The most challenging thing might be changing the region in the eShop online store.
The overall situation is even stranger because none of this was intuitively clear. For example, an iQue DS cartridge could not be launched on a Nintendo DS, but it could be launched on a Nintendo DSi. A Nintendo DS enhanced cartridge should easily launch on an iQue DSi, but it doesn't. In the Nintendo DS, you could change the language to any language, but in the Nintendo DSi, you couldn't.
All these artificial restrictions only harmed the consoles. And it's good that none of this exists in the Nintendo Switch anymore.
