List of NTSC games on PAL Famiclone compatibility

[Wanderer]

This list is UNDER CONSTRUCTION. If you know how any other NTSC games run on PAL Famiclones please post the results, and I'll migrate them to the main post.

Games marked with a have been queried, and need more testing. Please help and test/post your results if you have these games!  

Bubble Bobble (FDS port) - Both the gameplay and music are slower than normal. On older Famiclones the whole game may be green.

Nekketsu Koukou Dodgeball Bu - in 4 player mode, when we are choosing players, music plays very fast (maybe 200% speed), and most of screen is glitched.

SMB1 - Both the gameplay and music are slower than on normal

SMB2 - Both the gameplay and music are slower than normal

SMB3 - Both the gameplay and music are slower than normal

Spy vs Spy - Sound is terrible on newer Famiclones 
On older Famiclones runs slowly, but sound is correct

[P]

Haven't seen such a list.

Some clones like Dendy seems to be a mix of NTSC and PAL NES/Famicom. An NTSC game on a Dendy will have the correct pitch for music (unlike with a PAL NES) but the music tempo and movement speed will still be too slow just like on a PAL NES.

A Dendy may also handle some split-screen features correctly unlike a PAL NES.

[Wanderer]

There seems to be a huge difference between how modern clones and older ones handle NTSC games.

Bubble Bobble for example on new clones seems to play fine, except with slow music (the speed looks the same as the PAL NES version, but the pitch is correct as you said.) On a Subor or similar clone though the colours are completely off, almost everything is a shade of green.

If there isn't already a list I'll start taking notes and post them here. 

Off the top of my head



Bubble Bobble - Music is slow, and appears to play at the same speed as the PAL NES version. (On some older clones the whole game is green)

SMB3 - Overworld is slow, sound is slow, but in levels the gameplay appears to be the correct speed

SMB1 - I'm sure most people already know, but both the music and gameplay is slower

Spy vs Spy - Plays at the correct speed, but the sound is absolutely awful 

[verteks]

Nekketsu Koukou Dodgeball Bu - in 4 player mode, when we are choosing players, music plays very fast (maybe 200% speed), and most of screen is glitched. This appeared to me on Micro Genius IQ - 502 console, I must check behaviour on all clones that I have - then I will edit this post.

...Spy vs Spy - Plays at the correct speed, but the sound is absolutely awful  

Oh, I didn't notice this when playing on clone, time to compare gameplay with original Famicom.

[Wanderer]

Oh, I didn't notice this when playing on clone, time to compare gameplay with original Famicom.

On the two clones I tried it on it was only just recognisable as the Spy vs Spy music, it sounded truly awful.

We may have to work out how to group different clones to make this list useful. If there are a few more replies and nobody posts a link to an existing list I'll start migrating all replies to the original post, and change the title to show this is (becoming) a list instead of being a question.

I'm currently playing games on the generic new Dendys (I think these can mostly be lumped together), and an old Subor (and Subor type clones, Liko, and an old Dendy keyboard to be specific).

[fcgamer]

If you need / want an ntsc clone, i have many for sale / trade

[Wanderer]

PM sent fcgamer. If I buy a NTSC clone or Famicom I'll keep testing new games in the PAL clones anyway, this list could be useful for other people in the future. 

[P]

Bubble Bobble - Music is slow, and appears to play at the same speed as the PAL NES version. (On some older clones the whole game is green)

I can explain the green tint. The Famicom/NES PPU has colour emphasis features that makes the whole screen have a tint of red, green, blue or any combination of the three. Bubble Bobble (FDS version only) is using the red emphasis bit, which is why the game always has a red tint on an NTSC system.

On PAL and Dendy (I guess old Dendy) PPUs the red and green emphasis bits have been swapped for some reason. So Bubble Bobble will activate the green tint instead of the red one when run on those systems, which is why you may think the colours are off. But it's only the FDS version of Bubble Bobble that is using the emphasis bit at all, so I guess you are playing a bootleg cart port of Bubble Bobble FDS version?

SMB3 - Overworld is slow, sound is slow, but in levels the gameplay appears to be the correct speed

Nekketsu Koukou Dodgeball Bu - in 4 player mode, when we are choosing players, music plays very fast (maybe 200% speed), and most of screen is glitched. This appeared to me on Micro Genius IQ - 502 console

This is strange. SMB3 has wrong music speed but correct gameplay speed? I believe they both has to do with the CPU speed so this shouldn't be the case.
And Nekketsu has too FAST music? It should be slower on PAL systems.

[Wanderer]

The Bubble Bobble cart I'm using is a Whirlwind Manu cart, not an original. When I migrate everything to the main post I'll note that it's the FDS version, thanks. 

The SMB3 cart I'm using is based off of the Japanese SMB3, and is a pirate which gives you 20 lives to begin with. The overworld plays at the wrong speed (moving between areas is very slow,) but upon entering a level gameplay returns to normal speed, but the music and sound is slow, as in the overworld. Why, or how, I have no idea.

[P]

The Bubble Bobble cart I'm using is a Whirlwind Manu cart, not an original.

As I thought. It's an FDS to cart port.

The SMB3 cart I'm using is based off of the Japanese SMB3, and is a pirate which gives you 20 lives to begin with. The overworld plays at the wrong speed (moving between areas is very slow,) but upon entering a level gameplay returns to normal speed, but the music and sound is slow, as in the overworld. Why, or how, I have no idea.

A bootleg again, I see. I guess it had some speedup hacks made to optimize it for PAL systems. But the hackers forgot or didn't care to speed up the music and the overworld engine. Now it makes sense.

[Wanderer]

The game was from an NTSC region, not sold in a PAL region, so I'm not so sure that it would've been optimized for PAL systems. If somebody has a PAL Famiclone and original SMB3 cart to check how it runs before I turn this into a proper list that would be great.

[P]

Hmm then maybe the hackers thought the game was too slow in general and sped it up?

[Wanderer]

I've moved everything so far to the first post, and marked SMB3 and Spy vs Spy asking for somebody else to verify them. Both of them are fairly common games, so hopefully somebody else can test them too.

I tried SMB3 on some other Famiclones and all of them ran with everything slower, including the gameplay. Strange, I could've sworn it was playing at the right speed. Unless it happens again or somebody else reports it I'm changing SMB3 to music/gameplay slower.

[verteks]

I recorded bug in Nekketsu Koukou Dodgeball Bu, I tested this game in Micro Genius IQ-501, IQ-502 and Pegasus MT-777DX and all have buggy 4 player mode choose screen. Link to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3fuRK2_i30

I also checked sound in Spy vs Spy on famiclones - in my opinion, sound is correct, but naturally slower. Tested on the same three famiclones as Nekketsu Koukou Dodgeball Bu. Link to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCGUJgLcrq8

I have Famicom version of SMB3, so I will test it in few days.

[Wanderer]

Updated the original post to say Spy vs Spy is just slow on older Famiclones. Tested it again on a modern globtop NOAC and the sound is awful. I'll post a video later.