NES regions

b_w_johan · Post by **b_w_johan** » Sat Dec 27, 2008 3:15 pm

Hey,

so i thought there are 2 types of NES (not to talk about NOACS etc) just NTSC or PAL.

now i'm browsing trough ebay and then i read these "strange" lines like: "UK PAL A" or "only playable on NES from uk/australia/(can't remember the third one)" so does that meen there are now 3 or more different regions where NES and games where build for?

i think this is getting a bit complicated, while i was thinking lets buy games from US since i can play them with a NTSC version or with some ntsc/pal converter ... but now i'm doubting if this just works ... do the germans have there own system as well? the games they offered for sale where german texts so who can give me some info on this ...

what regions are there then? is it possible to mod the NES so it plays from another region? or should i just stop using ebay and only search local newspaper for advertisements in NL only to be sure i'm safe

Kyo · Post by **Kyo** » Sat Dec 27, 2008 3:32 pm

Actually, there's a third. The SECAM NES was only released in france and is the only NES that can output RGB. This does not mean a quality improvement, since it's "fake" (converted) RGB.

UK/Australia are both PAL. It should work fine in any PAL region. I think the french NES also plays PAL games, but I'm not sure about that. If you want to regionmod the NES it's the same procedure as with the SNES, just cut through pin 4 of the lockout chip. (And additionally connect it to ground)

b_w_johan · Post by **b_w_johan** » Sat Dec 27, 2008 6:12 pm

http://www.gamersgraveyard.com/reposito ... ptors.html

still a bit confused, here they are talking about a PAL to PAL converter, and the 3rd country i was looking for was italy, so italy UK and australia apear to be a different region?

lol, how come there are so many transformer parts

i live in The Netherlands by the way, but the games here are expensive as (well think up any word here) and in uk / usa you can find some nice deals.

so youre saying if i ground pin4 i don't need those keythingy's ?

-- edit --

this textdocument says there are 5 regions...

http://www.gamersgraveyard.com/reposito ... scarts.txt

The 5 markets are:

* UK/Italy/Australia (the "Mattel Markets"), PAL
* North America, NTSC
* Europe (other than UK and Italy), PAL
* Asia (Hong Kong, China, Singapore, etc.), PAL
* Japan, NTSC

All NES games in the different regions use a different lockout chip, and a NES cart from one
region cannot be used in another NES without an adaptor of some kind, or by disabling the
lockout chip inside a NES. All FC consoles contain no lockout chip at all, so a 72-to-60 pin
adapter will allow you to play any NES game on a FC, provided there are no NTSC/PAL conflicts
(see "NTSC/PAL Issues" below for more info). A 60-to-72 pin adaptor containing the same lockout
chip (or chip defeating technology) used in your market's NES will allow you to play FC games.

Ben Cebhrem · Post by **Ben Cebhrem** » Sat Dec 27, 2008 9:02 pm

AS far as I can figure, there are four region NESes, not counting how many different variations of the lockout chip as seperate NESes. The main differences are in the PPU, where the video signal is generated, and it may not be possible to play a PAL game on an NTSC platform. The different regions would most likely only be NTSC-J (the Famicom), NTSC (North America), PAL (UK, and most of Europe), and SECAM (Italy and France). Do note I can't yet confirm this, as you well know b-w_johan (and yes, I do plan on shipping soon), so all of this is mere speculation on my part, but backed up by research into different regions, their video signals, and so on.

As far as different CPU speeds, I can only ascertain at this time that there are two- 1.79 MHz for NTSC units, and 1.66MHz for all other regions. Again, I can't confirm this, but it does seem likely that this is the only difference outside of the PPU in NESes of all regions.

As far as disabling the lockout chip- just cut pin 4 of the chip that is marked U10 CIC on the board. You can optionally solder a wire to this pin once it is free, and ground it, but even just cutting pin 4 should suffice in being able to play all games- regardless of region or if it is an "authorized" Nintendo product or not.

Kyo · Post by **Kyo** » Sun Dec 28, 2008 3:31 am

Huh. Guess I was wrong. I never knew Nintendo was so strict about it with the NES...