Hong Kong Product & Game News

04/05/2002

Worlds first Xbox ISO files released to the internet - will the next step be an Xbox Mod Chip?

38 XBox ISO files have been released to the internet by an illegal release and cracker group called "Project X" today. Regarding the info files they have attached to the 38 releases, the games work on developer Xboxes only, but not on standard Xbox consoles:
"We tested this game on a developer XBOX, and it works. Since there is no mod chip yet, we have no idea if this release will work on retail XBOXes when/if a mod comes out. However, now that there is a release, a modchip developer will be inclined to get our releases to work, so we think a future mod will work with this release."

Furthermore the group says:

"If a game is small enough to be burned to a CD, you can burn it to either a CD or DVD, at your option, using the same ISO file. The Xbox does not use media checks like the PS2.
When burning to a CD, if your CD burning program has an option, choose "MODE1/2048", exactly as if you were burning a PC CD-ROM. We recommend PrimoDVD for burning Xbox for both CD and DVD, but all CD writing software besides Clone CD should work fine.
From our experience, the retail Xbox can only read DVD-RWs and CD-RWs, so if you want to be sure that these will work with a future mod, we recommend burning them to Rewritable discs. We have heard reports of the retail Xbox reading some types of DVD-R discs, but we have been unable to verify this."

01/05/2002

The Neo4.1 price now tumbled down to a very affordable US$ 44 retail (or from US$ 38 wholesale).
If you have the time and don't mind the hassle of attaching 44 wires the Neo 4.1 might still be a great way to go.

Feature list:

-Play PSX imports and backups without disc swapping
-Play PS2 CD backups without disc swapping
-Play PS2 DVD backups with single swap and original DVD based game
-Removes MacroVision (record DVD movies to VCR)
-Multi Region DVD playback
-RGB DVD Green Screen Fixed by intelligent code injection
-Now includes support for the new v2.10E and v2.10U DVD Drivers
-Compatible with V1-4 US/PAL consoles

27/03/2002

We would like to inform all customers that our company remains closed during the following Easter holidays which are taking place from Friday (March 29th) until coming Monday (April 1st). Business will return back to normal on Tuesday, April 2nd.
Please note that no parcels can be shipped during this short public holiday period as well as no e-mails will be replied.

We wish all our customers and visitors a pleasant and enjoyable Easter weekend.

15/03/2002

We have received stock of the PS2 No Solder Mod Chip V6 end of last week. All pre-orders have been shipped already and we have plenty of stock for new orders. The product usually ships within 24h after placing an order.

If you are looking for the V5 version of this so-called "No Solder R-Mod", please click here.

01/03/2002

Xbox Japan Console Inside , There will be more pictures posted later date, so check back often!

26/02/2002

2 new titles got released, one is Grandia II, which is out in the US for a while already, the second one is a pinball, named after and designed around the 1988 Akira anime theme. Akira Psycho Ball plays good, the ball physics are very realistic and the tables quite challenging. The game features lots of scenes from the movie. Of course it can't beat the all-time classic pinball simulations Jaki Crush (SNES/SFC) or Pinball Dreams/Pinball Fantasies (Amiga).

24/02/2002

Oh boy it's so sad. The XBox has been officially released now in Japan, and no one really cared. Same situation today here in Hong Kong. While some years ago on the launch day of the PS2, the console itself was hiked to over US$ 650.00 and people lined up 2 days outside the shops, even the limited smoke-clear edition of the XBox just sells for around US$ 400.00 - 450.00 (US$ 399.00 from us) now. All preorders will be shipped out on Monday (yes, we are talking to both of you). We must admit, DOA3 looks amazing, and I'm not (only) talking about the girls. The snow, the water, and stuff like that looks fabulous. The other games are average, with JSRF looking quite special. We have tested US games on the JPN console - they do not work. Same goes for JP games on USA machines. The accessories, such as joypads, memory cards and DVD remote units are fully compatible to both versions of the machine though. Some new Japanese games also arrived, they are DOA3, Genma Onimusha, Project Gotham Racing and Tenku. The XBox needs a strong RPG title to overcome the hurdles of the Japanese market - time will tell, and it will be an interesting year for videogamers once again.

22/02/2002

Although the Japanese console itself is not available yet, the first titles made it to the shelves today. They are: Hypersports Winter 2002, Airforce Delta II, Jet Set Radio Future, Silent Hill 2 and X Snowboarding. Don't you just hate it to look at the boxart but can't play the game itself?!

15/02/2002

The Japanese Xbox release is coming close, so we updated the appropriate sections with some new products, especially the software section.

10/02/2002

The Chinese New Year is on it's way, from February 12th to 14th. We will add two more days to this, and are closed from February 10th to 14th. Everything will be normal on Friday, the 15th again. On a side note, many manufacturers and suppliers will close down for at least 3 days, some even for weeks, starting from February 12th. We advise all our wholesalers to e-mail or fax us their orders before this Wednesday, so that a supply is still guaranteed. Also, our drop ship and eBay sellers should advise their customers that ending bids in the period of our holidays will be send out on the 15th. We have learnt through the years and stocked many goods in advance to avoid running out of stock during this festive season, but one never knows. We are also preparing something neat for you, if time allows it, so be on the look-out :)

01/02/2002

Japan Nintendo suddenly announced that the price of the GBA console in Japan will drop from 9,800yen to 8,800yen on 1st, of February. I am sure that this will attract much more people to buy the GBA console!!!

31/01/2002

PS2 R-Mod - first 100% no solder Mod Chip A new Mod Chip Board for the Version 5 Playstation 2 models SCPH-3000xR has been released in Hong Kong. It first seemed that this Mod Chip is working for the Asian V5 model SCPH 30006R only, due to the misleading instruction manual (see product info).

Due to the following facts we believe that this model is supposed to work with ALL V5 models, also the V5 consoles recently sold in Europe and the USA (unfortunately we have older V3 and V4 USA + PAL consoles only, so there is no way for us to test apart from using a HK V5 PS2):

- The mod board comes with jumpers to configure it to work with 220V and 110V consoles
- The manufacturer confirmed, but is unable to supply a V5 Playstation 2 console to us
- Several other local Hong Kong dealers claim it is working with USA, PAL and JAP V5 consoles

The installation procedure is very easy: simply use the ribbon cables of your PS2 to plug it in. After the modification the PS2 is able to play PS1 and PS2 (CD-R + DVD-R) backups with help of an Action Replay or Game Shark V1.7 or above.

The product is in stock and retails for USD 20.

29/01/2002

Again, we added yet another model of the PS2. It is model number SCPH 30006R. This is the official Asian version, sold in Hong Kong, Malaysia etc. You probably ask yourself, what is the use of this machine, I can also buy a Japanese one if I like. Well, this machine is especially interesting for customers living in countries or areas which use 220V or more, such as Europe or Australia. Why? Because although this model plays all Japanese NTSC games, the power output is 220V, not 110V, as all the other machines we offer. So the benefits are obvious:
- no need for a stepdown connerter (save on shipping costs)
- playback of Japanese NTSC games (and local HK games) without having your console modified, which makes it the perfect PS2 for import game fanatics.

28/01/2002

A little reminder here for Square's upcoming PS2 Final Fantasy X International US$ 64 (due January 28) Crazy Sale Link .All infos taken from Magic-Box: It will feature a new side story called FFX Another Story: The Forever Nagi Festival, which will take place 2 years after the original story, so far it is confirmed that Yuna, Wakka and Rikku will be showing up in this new story, but will Titus? (Note: "Nagi Festival" is the time between Sin's defeat and revival, in which people celebrate for the true peace.) Other than the side story, the international version will also feature:
FFX promotion movies
FFX TV commercials
FFX Theme Songs (in Dolby 5.1)

16/01/2002

Although SEGA GT 2002 for Xbox is not a real car. SEGA has joint the TOKYO AUTO SALON with AUTO ASIA 2002 show. Moreover, Sega has placed five sets of that game for the visitors to play. I think that it will be the best car racing game for the Xbox.

15/01/2002

Some guys in Germany has developed a Xbox emulator. It only supported few games. However, it is closed today. I think that they are forced to closed by Microsoft!!!!

15/01/2002

Microsoft has finally announced the released date of the XBOX Japanese version. It will be on 22nd, February. The retail price is 34,800 yen. Moreover, there will be a special limited edition that comes with more key chain (with serial no.) and a component cable. The case of the console is also different. It is in very attractive clear smoke color!!! It will be limited to 50,000 sets only. Therefore, I think that the price of the ltd. version must be hiked!!!!

12/01/2002

A news source reported that the great PSX2 game Final Fantasy XI had to play with the Hard Disc. If it is real, the PSX2 Hard Disk must be hiked a lot!!!!
A very interesting game for PSX2 will be released next week. The name is call "Love Smash". It is a tennis game and the characters are very sexy girls. Moreover, those girls are very likely to the girls of the famous game Dead or Alive. However, the price is extra cheap for 2,000yen only.

11/01/2002

A new source reported that a Japanese company would release a video converter for the game consoles. It will convert the component video signal to VGA signal. It is quite expensive for around US$200. However, I think that it will be very popular.

10/01/2002

The Panasonic Q can play all region PAL DVDs, but what it does, is play PAL DVD backups only. We received a bunch of french original PAL DVDs today, but tests resulted in a black screen. We are currently working on a new modchip which allows exactly to playback these, apart from the all region NTSC only. So, here are the playback facts again, to stop all confusion:

- any region (1 - 6) japanese and american NTSC DVD

- any region (1 - 6) japanese and american NTSC DVD silvers

- any region PAL DVD silvers

- any DVD-R

- any VCD (PAL/NTSC)

- any VCD backups (silvers/CD-R, PAL/NTSC)

- any Music CD and CD-R

- Gamecube software japanese and american originals

On a sidenote, we came up with an interesting new solution: The new Qs are not externally modified anymore with a switch to change between japanese and american software, you just have to push the "power on" button for 2 or 3 seconds, and it will automatically switch to the american menu of the Gamecbe. Also nice.

Sorry again for the misleading and unintended false advertisement, but we are all just humans, and everyone who already received one of our DVD modified Qs, and who is still on the waiting list, should have already received an e-mail from us concerning various refund/exchange/bonus options. Thanks for your support and understanding, you are the best!

09/01/2002

Although, the HK official PSX2 console was released, it is not very popular, since most of the HK customers wanted to buy the moded PSX2 consoles. First of all, the Japanese version is much more easily to be modify. Even the official HK PSX2 console was moded, there would be something unusual. Normally, the PSX2 CD tray will comes out very slowly. However, if it is moded, the tray sometimes will comes out very quickly and sometimes very slowly. That's why the HK version is not as popular as the Japanese version.

08/01/2002

In this couple of days, the GBA console are very hot selling, since the price of GBA has dropped to a very attractive price (due to the dropping of the Japanese Yen). Therefore most of the popular colors are out of stock.

06/01/2002

A news source reported that the sub-company of the SEGA Amusement Division might release a very very great game the "Spike Out" for the Gamecube. If this is real, I am sure that the Gamecube would be much much more popular.

05/01/2002

A news source report that a HK company had got the exclusive distribution of the GBA game "Guilty Gear Advance". Moreover, they will assign some dealers to sell this game. Every dealers will get a extra poster on each game. If the non-dealers want to buy that game for resell, they will not get any poster. This make some non-dealers very angry and they desire not to resell that game or only resell the parallel import ones!!!