Star Ocean doesn't work with copier...

[Snark]

EDITED TITLE. See last post









Is there some sort of adapter which enable you to play Japan-region games into North America region Snes? Or does one need to tinker with the console itself?

edit: reason I ask is because I noticed S-Famicom games fetches extremely low price on ebay compared to many of their North American counterparts for some reason (Chrono Trigger...Snes80-120$ vs 20$ for Famicom...wtf)

edit2: I actually have a copier, so needless to say region is a non-issue but I actually like to own some original games

[AntoineWG]

The games themselves should compatible, but you need a cartridge adaptor to get the cartidges to fit.

[Gil_Hamilton]

You can mod a Game Genie too. It's a matter of breaking out 2 plastic tabs.


Of course, anything using the side connectors won't work, but whatcha gonna do?

[PHoNyMiKe]

yeah, a pair of pliers. don't be a pussy, your snes isn't a piece of gold. just reach in the slot with a pair of pliers (needle nose ftw) and twist the little tabs off your snes. you could open her up and use a dremel to grind down to perfection, or even a soldering iron to melt the leftover bits down nicely. if you got the snes opened up you mine as well cut the pin on the lockout chip (I think it's pin 4) to enable you to play european games as well. but some games have lockout software, which you'll need to modify 2 pins on the graphics apu to make it 50hz.

hell, you can't just plug the cart into the copier and play the games through it? needless to say the games will of course be in japanese. they don't switch over to english just because you plug it into an american snes

p.s. disabling the lockout chip does not fuck with 'special chip games.' I own almost all of them, and they have never 'crashed.' anyone claiming mario rpg or other games screw up when you disable the chip must be special themselves.

[byuu]

Is there some sort of adapter which enable you to play Japan-region games into North America region Snes? Or does one need to tinker with the console itself?

I just use a flathead screwdriver + hammer, myself. Beat the two tabs out on the inside of the SNES door, at the back. Now your SNES can play both US and Japanese games.

[Snark]

I just use a flathead screwdriver + hammer, myself. Beat the two tabs out on the inside of the SNES door, at the back. Now your SNES can play both US and Japanese games.

You can mod a Game Genie too. It's a matter of breaking out 2 plastic tabs.


Of course, anything using the side connectors won't work, but whatcha gonna do?

yeah, a pair of pliers. don't be a pussy, your snes isn't a piece of gold. just reach in the slot with a pair of pliers (needle nose ftw) and twist the little tabs off your snes. you could open her up and use a dremel to grind down to perfection, or even a soldering iron to melt the leftover bits down nicely. if you got the snes opened up you mine as well cut the pin on the lockout chip (I think it's pin 4) to enable you to play european games as well. but some games have lockout software, which you'll need to modify 2 pins on the graphics apu to make it 50hz.

hell, you can't just plug the cart into the copier and play the games through it? needless to say the games will of course be in japanese. they don't switch over to english just because you plug it into an american snes

Color me pussy, but I actually have a stupid Game Genie and it's good to know it could works with that. Even if I somehow manage to break it I don't care.

I'll try with the Game Genie first, then (and only maybe) with the Snes. If it works right off the bat with the copier, then of course that's even better. If it doesn't, no way I'm touching it the copier. Snes are still easy to find for a relative low price, old copiers less so.

Of course, I know the game will be in Japanese. The only games I know of which had multi region built in are CPS3 games * Still, it's a wonder why there's such a huge price differencies between the two regions...I would imagine there would be as much demand in Japan for old dead console games too.

anyway, thanks everyone for the informations.





*edit:actually I'm not sure what's the deal with CPS3 and if it did have muti-region built in or if the current CPS3 roms just include every region differences in the zip file

[Gil_Hamilton]

Of course, I know the game will be in Japanese. The only games I know of which had multi region built in are CPS3 games * Still, it's a wonder why there's such a huge price differencies between the two regions...I would imagine there would be as much demand in Japan for old dead console games too.

anyway, thanks everyone for the informations.





*edit:actually I'm not sure what's the deal with CPS3 and if it did have muti-region built in or if the current CPS3 roms just include every region differences in the zip file

Japan has decent used game stores, which combine with limited living space to keep prices down(competition in the market, and less people making huge collections driving prices up).



As for multi-region....
Some Master System and Genesis games did it. Selected by console region.

It's actually not uncommon in the arcades.
The older stuff set it through config switches.
NeoGeo and CPS2 set it according to the motherboard BIOS.
ST-V has SOME games that select config based on BIOS, but most only work with their native region's BIOS.

Not sure about CPS1 and the like(most of the modular systems are poly-era anyways).

[Snark]

Well so far every Japan-region Super Famicom games works great via the copier, well except, well see title.

Does anyone knows if games containing special chips (such as Star Ocean special decompression chip) will not play via devices that act as bridge between North American consoles and Japan games?

ex:

Catridge
-------
Copier
-------
US console
------
Lithosphere
------
Hell


Basically, does anyone knows if SO can be played in a US console?

[PHoNyMiKe]

had you mentioned star ocean sooner you could have known. plus more helpful information would be what backup unit you're using. but here's a simple experiment you can do at home! look at the bottom of say chrono trigger, and also star ocean. see all those shiny pins? do you notice anything different from the two carts? now look at your backup unit. notice the part that plugs into the snes, do you notice some of the pins missing? if this piece is removable, remove it and look where it connects to the copier, and also look in the slot where the snes cart fits in. are those pins there? because if at any point along the line, even inside the copier, if these pins don't go straight through then no these games will not work.

street fighter 2 alpha didn't work right in my copier. the game would play fine, but most of the graphics were messed up to hell. I'm pretty sure it's due to the long path those extra pins on the cartridge have to take. normally they plug direct to the snes, but now their path is either doubled or tripple and that can affect the clock signals traveling through. time to get the pliers boy!

[Snark]

had you mentioned star ocean sooner you could have known. plus more helpful information would be what backup unit you're using. but here's a simple experiment you can do at home! look at the bottom of say chrono trigger, and also star ocean. see all those shiny pins?

So it does...what are those for exactly? And do you know how many SFamicom games have them?

Anyway, I notice the only thing preventing my Game Genie from accepting Jap games are two little plastic pieces. I'll remove them and see if it works.

[grinvader]

Typically you can't get extra chips to work with 'intermediate' cartridges, unless said cart supports it and you plug the needed extra chip cart in the second slot.
Never heard of any supporting sdd1, so your best bet is getting a >=96MB GD7 and use neviksti's sdd1-less SO romhack.

[Snark]

Typically you can't get extra chips to work with 'intermediate' cartridges, unless said cart supports it and you plug the needed extra chip cart in the second slot.
Never heard of any supporting sdd1, so your best bet is getting a >=96MB GD7 and use neviksti's sdd1-less SO romhack.

Oh well.

Though if I mod the Snes itself, import games with special chips should work, right?



I removed the two plastic pieces of the game genie but even the regular (i.e: FFIV/FFV games) games don't work...Just a black screen after the code input interface (works fine with US games, so it's not busted)