Region Lock Guide

Most products we sell are North American (NTSC-U) region items. If a product is from the PAL or JP region, it will be marked as such in its name. If there is no notation, please assume it is NTSC-U.

Many consoles are region-locked, meaning they only support games from the same region (e.g., a PAL SNES only plays PAL games). Some consoles, like the Nintendo GameBoy, are region-free and support games from all regions.

If needed, many consoles can be modded to unlock regions, but this requires research and may involve risk. Please see the compatibility info below for more details on your console.

Region Locked Systems

Nintendo
PlayStation
Xbox
Sega
Atari
Video

  • NES / Famicom

  • SNES / Super Famicom

  • Nintendo 64

  • GameCube

  • Wii

  • Wii U

  • 3DS

  • PlayStation

  • PlayStation 2

  • Original Xbox

  • Xbox 360

  • Genesis / MegaDrive

  • CD

  • 32X

  • Dreamcast

  • Nomad

  • 7800 (Backwards Compatibility with 2600 games are Region Free)

  • DVD

  • Blu-Ray

  • UMD (PSP Video Discs)

Famicom Games - Retro Island Gaming

Famicom Games
PlayStation 1 - Retro Island Gaming

PlayStation 1 Games
Original Xbox - Retro Island Gaming

Original Xbox Games
Genesis - Retro Island Gaming

Genesis Games

Region Unlocked Systems

Nintendo
PlayStation
Xbox
Sega
Atari
Video
Other

  • GameBoy

  • GameBoy Color

  • GameBoy Advance

  • DS (Except TWL cartridges, which will only work on the original DS and DS Lite. Notable titles include Pokemon Black/White, Black 2/White 2, and Pokemon Conquest. All other Pokemon games are completely unlocked.)

  • Switch

  • Virtual Boy

  • PlayStation 3 (Except for Persona 4 Arena and Way of the Samurai 3)

  • PlayStation 4 (Except for digital games)

  • PlayStation 5

  • PSP

  • PS Vita

  • Original Xbox

  • Xbox 360

  • Game Gear

  • SG-1000

  • Saturn (Japan only)

  • Naomi

  • Pico

  • Master System (outside of Japan only) [Some games may be glitchy on a US system]

  • 2600 (NTSC games can display wrong colors, slow speed and sound on PAL systems and vice versa)

  • 5200

  • Jaguar and Jaguar CD

  • Lynx

  • ST

  • VCS (2021 console)

  • VHS (for minimal issues, play on a universal VCR)

  • 4K UHD Blu-Ray

  • Commodore 64

  • Intellivision

  • ColecoVision

  • Magnavox Odyssey and II

  • Neo Geo, Neo Geo CD, and Neo Geo CDX

  • Neo Geo Pocket and Color

  • Philips CDi

  • Panasonic/Sanyo 3DO

  • Fairchild Channel F

  • Plug N Play

  • Microsoft Windows/PC (Except some digital/online content can be region locked)

  • NEC Turbografx/PC Engine CDs (Excluding system cards

GameBoy Games - Retro Island Gaming

GameBoy Games
Game Gear - Retro Island Gaming

Game Gear Games
PlayStation 5 Games - Retro Island Gaming

PlayStation 5 Games
VHS Tapes - Retro Island Gaming

VHS Tapes