GUIDE Cleaning and region modding a Japanese N64 to play U.S games

I recently began cleaning up the basement over the weekend and stumbled on some old Japanese consoles I won in an auction and never got around to cleaning. So I figure while I have my new camera gear, why not document some of the stuff I'm doing. Hopefully it helps someone out. (I know a lot of us can do this with our eyes closed, but for newer members getting into the hobby, we should document stuff we've learned over the years)

So, here's the bad boy. A Japanese model (NTSC-J) Gold N64... nothing special but the restart button was super stuck, and it couldn't play U.S (NTSC-U/C) games because of the "hardware" region lock in the cartridge tray.


My U.S smash bros doesn't fit :/ ... but we can fix that!


The darn tabs on the back are different between U.S and Japan N64 games. So all that's needed is a little modding on the cartridge tray.


First get some screwbits. You'll need the 4.5mm one to open the N64, but the 3.8mm one is good to have as you can open most Nintendo cartridge games with it.


Using the 4.5mm bit, remove all 6 of the screw on the N64. (Put the screws somewhere safe, you don't want to lose em)


Don't forget to remove the jumper/expansion pak port. (careful not to scratch the console by prying it out, I used pliers and it gripped really good away from the console)


Bam, Lid comes off easy once the jumper/expansion pak is out. This one doesn't look to bad inside... was expecting worse underneath since the restart button was stuck.


Looks like I found my restart button problem... someone spilled coke on the restart button


Luckily the engineers at Nintendo made it easy to pop out the button to clean it.


Yuck


Lots of rubbing alcohol, q-tips, and paper towel later. Cleans up nicely, works like new now.



Ok enough of this button, lets get to the good stuff. To get to the tray that we need to mod, remove these screws. (These are simple phillips heads, not hexes)


This is the plastic nub who has been blocking us from enjoying our US games. Remove it. (Doesn't hurt to clean this tray either, it collects a lot of dust over the years. Again, some rubbing alcohol and q-tips should do the trick)


You can remove it anyway you want. I've seen people use dremels. I've seen people heat it up and use razors. For me personally, I used a drill, yes I admit it's not my best work, I slipped on the drill and it messed up the left one a bit. It's not functionally pretty, but it works. (The best one I saw of these, was actually a guy on here who 3D printed a region free tray, looks very clean and professional, if someone has the thread please link it here!)


Attach the tray back on.


Turn the console, and the console lid in the off position! makes lining them up together easier.


Put all the screws back on... and what do ya know, super smash (NTSC-U/C) fit right in.


Now time to test it out. U.S Smash is working.


And so is Japanese Mario Kart


Looks like we got a winner here. The Japanese N64 can now play both U.S and Japanese games. So any of you who just got a sweet japanese N64, there's no need to worry about the region lock. Once you remove the region tabs, the console is plug in play. You don't need adapters for power or anything. Just enjoy.

 

Ohhhhh ewwwww that reset button lol

 

I don't know where the thread is but the model for a universal cartridge slot is here
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:513728

 

I guess you are referring to me... here's that thread.

 

The colour of the plastic used on the gold N64 (visible inside and on the buttons) is awful. It reminds me of that magnolia coloured paint.

 

Yup! That's the thread, looks damn good. I'm jealous on how clean that mod is.

 

What I've done for pesky reset buttons on other consoles is use a very small amount of white lithium grease on the parts that rub up against each other... will make it move very nicely and not get stuck anymore.

 

I decided to follow up on this, and use the STL file quoted above. I took the file to shapeways and sculpteo, but the price was a bit steep. $20 for bore bones stuff I didn't want, and nearly $40 to get it printed the way I wanted. I eventually went to 3dHubs and found a local printer. He did 3 prints for me 2 PLC 200micron Black, and 1 ABS 200micron Blue. Cost me $10 each for the PLC black, $13 for the ABS blue. I also wanted to do a 100micron black PLC... but unfortunately the prints kept failing, so don't use that file above for 100micron prints, it won't work. (At least for me it didn't, maybe a higher level printer could do it.)

Here's the PLC 3d print vs the OEM Nintendo tray


Here are the 4 different trays and their weight. Top 2 are the OEM Nintendo. Bottom 2 are the 3d Prints



Here's our old friend the Japanese gold N64 with it's tabs cut:


And here's the new tray. Fit like a charm, but had to do a little sanding to make it smoother.


As for the blue tray... that is to be continued

 

Took me a while to play around with different prints. I thought I would like the Blue ABS in my smoke N64 as a tribute to the old N64DD kits... but it ended up looking out of place with the red expansion pak, so I made a red ABS plastic piece. (The red in this photo is what it looks like printed no sanding with slight acetone vapor finish. The Blue is what it looks like sanded down and then sand blasted, no acetone. I did sand down and blast same the red later, but wanted a comparison photo. It's pretty obvious which one looks better imo)



Here's the red piece finished. Came out smoother than the blue bc of the acetone, but still lost some shine. Sanding ABS makes the color more of a matte finish.


Looks killer. I could of easier gone with black but I think the red accent really looks nice and doesn't stick out at all.



As a matter of fact, you can't even see it from a distance. Stealth unless you are looking for it.



I've decided after printing 4 of these out, that the biggest issue is that this print can't be printed face down. I always have to print this on the side which causes the 3Dprinter to make support material... which makes it not as smooth as it could be. I couldn't find a way around this, even with removing the rings.


If anyone has any other designs I'm def willing to try it. But for now, this will do, just needs a lot of prep to make it look right.