Famicom Converters on NES

[makaveli]

I have a question im gettin a Pal NES for the first time in my life so please dont slang me...

I always had a sega prior master system, megadrive

Anyway i was reading that ddue to the physical size of the carts you wouold need a 60 to 72 pin converter found in some games. My question is can i plug it straight in my pal nintendo and it will work? Or is it all region locked?

I think boot games are region so they should work right?

Thanks all

[Xious]

Hmm... That's a tricky one, as I don't recall any PAL CIC-based converters (made by Nintendo). I think some such as the Honeybee would work, as they were sold to various markets, but if not, you might have to wait for the ones I plan to make (which will support PAL systems), or disable the CIC in your NES.

[133MHz]

Unlicensed converters like Honeybee, Spica, Nasa and others use a charge pump to generate a negative voltage pulse to freeze the lockout chip and let the game run, thus making them region-agnostic, unless your NES is one of the later revisions with protection diodes against this sort of exploit.

When in doubt, disabling the lockout chip is usually the easiest.

[Parodius Duh]

When in doubt, disabling the lockout chip is usually the easiest.

exactly. everyone should do this and it literally takes 5 seconds.


Heres a guide from a guy in the UK, dont know why hes adding wires and shit but this seems complicated:

http://www.mmmonkey.co.uk/console/nintendo/nes-lockout.htm


AND here is the easy way of doing things:

http://kyorune.com/modding/article.php?id=26

Just rip that little fucker out.

[2A03]

Heres a guide from a guy in the UK, dont know why hes adding wires and shit but this seems complicated:

http://www.mmmonkey.co.uk/console/nintendo/nes-lockout.htm


AND here is the easy way of doing things:

http://kyorune.com/modding/article.php?id=26

Both those methods are actually the same, Mmmonkey just connects pin 4 to ground which the latter guide also recommends. It's unnecessary for the most part though.

[makaveli]

Do i not have to connect pin 4 to ground i might have to try this but im crap at lifting pins ive tried it before on a snes and wrecked it ... Done the biro trick tho which was nuts will i need that nintendo screwdriver? I may have to purchase that in advance aswel

[2A03]

Do i not have to connect pin 4 to ground i might have to try this but im crap at lifting pins ive tried it before on a snes and wrecked it ... Done the biro trick tho which was nuts will i need that nintendo screwdriver? I may have to purchase that in advance aswel

The NES is held together with regular Philips-head screws so no gamebit screwdriver is needed. The pin you'll be lifting isn't on a surface-mounted chip like on the SNES so it's much easier.

[Xious]

Alright, so the Honeybee adapters work via the 'Color Dreams' -5VAC method, which is just fine. I wonder if it's possible to do this for running additional games on the FC Box (with menu support added, of course) to bypass its special CIC.

I should rewire a CD game (or build it onto a new PCB) to see what would happen when attempting to run it on the FC Box.

Grounding that pin is done to keep it from picking up random electrical impulses, which can happen if you leave it floating. It's pretty much a 'good practice' method to ground any disused connection. 

[makaveli]

Sold so i will have a go at lifting the pin... Just waiting for the nes few more days now...

Those converters are kindof unheard of here in the uk more in the usa ofcourse

[BasiliskFang]

As far as I know the famicom and nes were not locked out due to refresh rates. So a Pal game should work here and a USA game should work there, for importing Japanese games you should get a converter found in early black box titles, these have nes-10 chips and are Nintendo made.

[makaveli]

As far as I know the famicom and nes were not locked out due to refresh rates. So a Pal game should work here and a USA game should work there, for importing Japanese games you should get a converter found in early black box titles, these have nes-10 chips and are Nintendo made.

Thanks for the info mate i thought a usa cart would not work... 

[BasiliskFang]

an easy way to tell if your lockout chip has ever been modified is to turn on your nes with no game in it,and if it DOES NOT flash on and off then it has been modified.

my previous post is true BUT the pal/USA lockout chips are different, so you will still need to disable the lockout chip to play imports.

[jpx72]

I have a couple PAL systems but I never tried my converter (without any extra components, just pin to pin board) on an unmodified one (I have only one without broken pin4 )... but I can try if you give me a couple of days to get to that.
Anyway, http://www.retrousb.com/product_info.php?cPath=24&products_id=37 is an interresting product if you want to upgrade your converter.

[2A03]

As far as I know the famicom and nes were not locked out due to refresh rates. So a Pal game should work here and a USA game should work there, for importing Japanese games you should get a converter found in early black box titles, these have nes-10 chips and are Nintendo made.

The only problem though is that some PAL titles will have issues running on an NTSC system. I once had a French copy of Gauntlet II and the background graphics would glitch up whenever you scrolled up or down. Most should be OK though.

[makaveli]

I just recieved my pal nintendo however it has some blibking red light does that mean the connectors gone? Ahhhh man, still wont be able to first hand experience the first nintendo