playing usa carts on a japanese super famicom

I bought a japanese super famicom, since I'm used to the looks of the pal version of the console (live in a pal region country) along with a good amount of super famicom carts.

Now, I'm doing some research on how to play usa carts on this machine.
I crossed out the option of cutting the case so that the carts can fit, as it's going to destroy the looks of it.
On ebay I come across some import adapters like super key and one from honey bee, but these tend to be rather expensive.
Others suggest getting a game genie cart and cut some tabs.

Whichever cart I buy (etiher one of the import adaptets or game genie) will I be able to play every game?
Are there any games that have lockout routines for these carts?

 

Our American games use the exact same CIC as the Super Famicom so all USA games work on a Japanese system. The Game Genie is a good option. You can even turn it off to pass the cart directly. Another option is to just take the PCB out of the cart and put the bare PCB into the console. If you have the tools and the parts, you could make your own adapter.

 

This sounds like a cool project . Can you source me to the procedure?

 

I can't find a link but all you would have to do is take a broken Super Famicom cart with all of the pins on the bottom (a broken SGB would be perfect) and cut the edge connector off the cart PCB. Cut a hold in the top of the shell for a SNES cart slot. Solder wires to each pin on the edge connector but make sure it still fits in the cart slot. Then take a cart slot from a dead SNES and solder the wires to the correct pins. After that, simply mount the cart slot in the hole you made in the shell. An optional step would be to remove the old label and slap a custom label on it.

 

The game genie lacks the extra pins so for example you can't play Yoshi's Island with it,as for a import adapter you need to find one that has all of the pins so it will play every game you throw at it.

A very easy solution is to just swap out the pcb from a US game to a super fami or pal cart.

 

This one's pretty cheap. Since the pal snes is identical in design to the sfc I guess it could work?


http://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/291613364931


This is affordable too
http://m.ebay.com/itm/SFX-Converter-DIS-SFC002-Adapter-Super-Nintendo-SNES-/331699884511?nav=SEARCH

 

Those won't work. The super famicom is not the same as a PAL SNES. The super famicom is identical to a USA SNES though. The PAL SNES has a different CIC lockout chip and a different video output circuit.

 

They are hard to find, but you could use the Pro Action Replay MK3. It is compatible with Super FX games. Some Game Genie cartridges do support games using the full edge connector but I don't think that many do. Plus I don't think the North American Game Genie fits into a SFC console slot.

You asked about regional lockouts. The only regional lockout is between NTSC and PAL which is the lockout chip and some games have software checks. So NTSC North America and NTSC Japan are the same thing. But the physical shapes prevent interchanging games and consoles. Now if you want to play a PAL game on a SFC you might require an adapter like the Pro Action Replay to input a code to remove the regional lockout check.

That adapter (2nd link) will work for most games. That adapter just routes the CIC connections to one cart and the rest of the signals to another. He could absolutely use this for playing US games on his SFC as long as the NTSC cart will fit in the sockets or he is willing to cut any plastic in the way on the adapter. He will have to plug a NTSC cart into the slot that it gets its CIC from.

 

Yes, but the cart slot is same shape and the adapters just pass through. You put an NTSC game in the front and a PAL game in the back (for the CIC). So to do what the op wants, just put an american game in the front and any NTSC game in the back (for the cic). You could even open it up and make it so you only need the front cart if you really wanted, by soldering the connections that go to the back cart back to the front cart slot.

So yes, the linked items will work just fine.

I also own the first one and can confirm its fully wired.

 

The second one is indeed a US SNES to SFC adapter.

The first one is a US to PAL converter and since the pal and sfc carts are of the same shape I'm thinking it might work. Unless it outputs a pal cic code.

 

Ah ok. I couldn't read the description in the second one but the first one has a PAL CIC in it if he description is correct.

 

No, the description doesnt say that at all....

It has 2 cart slots on the top, front one has all connections except for CIC wired to the slot -> console
Second slot has just CIC pins wired to console. You put region of console you own into the back slot and import into the front slot.

 

According to Bad Ad and to the attached picture it doesnt have it's own cic chip. It uses whichever cart you put in the back of it to output that carts cic code.


Kind of like the action replays on the psx that used disc swapping to trick the psx.

 

Ah ok. So then they should work fine. How rare are these things anyway?

 

Has anyone made a 1:1 cart converter?
I am eventually going to mod my snes and don't really want to hack the cart slot up. Seeing as it's (to be) modded, no need for an actual import adapter..
Anyone know the pitch of the snes carts and the connector? I was going to chop up a cheap sports game to do this.

 

It would seem they are rather expensive, the only one I could find of the exact model above is £65 - http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Super-Fam...451769?hash=item25a2b35579:g:zNsAAOSweW5VCv-w
I found a cheaper one although not the exact same still has the two slots for £26.58
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SNES-Impo...626713?hash=item58cf650719:g:fxYAAOSw5ZBWHQ2B
Personally I would suggest getting an American Snes as you can never have to many consoles and its about the same price as buying an adapter.

 

This one's £12.49 http://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/291613364931

 

plus £7.50 Standard Delivery so still cheaper at £19.99. It does say NTSC to PAL but I would assume it would still work NTSC USA to NTSC JPN. Good find

 

wow never imagined that it would be so much trouble trying to buy an import adaptor!
For the time being I'll just swap plastic cases as one of the guys suggested,and when my collection of usa carts grows, I'll just buy one american console..

 

Or just keep to inexpensive superior SuFami carts.