Common 'net slang for modification chip. The term modchip originally came about when a device used for playing bootlegged Playstation games hit the market. It consisted of a PIC microcontroller that the owner would solder to their Playstation. It could fool a Playstation into believing that it had a special blessed CD in the drive, making it possible to play CDR copies of games (affectionately referred to by some as backups), foreign releases of games (most consoles have something similar to DVD region codes), and pressed bootlegs (often called HKs since Hong Kong is a big pirate pressed disc center). Eventually, similar devices became available for unlocking the region code restrictions in DVD players and playing bootleg games on other consoles. The term modchip stuck, eventually coming to mean any device that, when connected to the internals of a larger device, will remove manufacturer imposed restrictions.

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