Question regarding NES lockout chip & PAL/NTSC

[insideinfo]

The lockout chip on my PAL console has been disabled. Can I play NTSC games without a 50/60hz mod?

[Hateshinai]

I am wondering the same thing actually. I finally got a NES and was thinking about modding it.

[insideinfo]

After some research i've found out 2 things:
- a 50/60 hz mod is not doable on a nes.
- I've read that only 80-90% of ntsc games will work bugfree on a pal console. (don't know if that's true)

US games that scroll will create really messy screens at the sides of the screens, making some games frankly unplayable. Some games may fail to work at all.

I'm interested in some rpgs that were never released in Europe (Dragon Warrior, Crystalis) and Ninja Gaiden 2&3. Will they work or not

[Hateshinai]

I have just finished disabling the region chip on my Pal Nes. It was a twenty minute job, quite simple but the "cutting a leg without breaking anything else" part was a bit nerve-wrecking. I have tested the NTSC games I own and found the following:
Batman - plays well without problems
Kid Icarus - plays well withut problems
The Legend of Zelda - plays well without problems
Zelda II: Adventures of Link - the energy/magic bars at the top of the screen scroll incorrectly in relation to the rest of the screen. They start of fine but as you move along they get out of place. When you reach the end of a scrolling area they stabilize again. This does not interfere with the gameplay at all and the game is still fully playable.
I don't have any other NTSC games to test but feel free to send me some so I can test them.

[insideinfo]

Thank you very much for your reply, Hateshinai.
It seems most games run fine save for some minor graphical glitches. However the games you tested all have pal counterparts so there's really no need to buy the ntsc versions.

[insideinfo]

I've read of a way of testing whether or not games will be playable before buying them. Use an emulator such as nestopia, set the region to pal, load a ntsc game, see if it plays. Sometimes games will have graphical glitches in the intro screen but play fine otherwise. But Battletoads for example gives a black screen when entering level 1 and is therefore unplayble.

[insideinfo]

Followup: I've bought 2 games that only saw a ntsc release; dragon warrior and legacy of the wizard. Both games run flawlessly albeit a little slower at 50hz. Now I'm planning on buying a couple more games.

[insideinfo]

2nd followup, i've bought a bunch more games (crystalis, dragon warrior 3, megaman 6, ninja gaiden 2) and everything works as it should. There's a small graphical glitch in crystalis in the item selling screen but other than that it's fine. Disabling the lockout chip was one of the best things i ever did. I recommend it.

[XxBroBuzzxX]

Semi-related question: Will a NTSC version of Metroid work on a PAL NES without glitching? A friend of mine won a NSTC version of Metroid but he's wondering if it'll work on his PAL NES. (And if someone can link me to a guide on how to mod aNES to play PAL/NSTC games, you'd get some cookies )

[bacteria]

I covered this mod in my guide, please have a look if you're interested:

http://moddedbybacteria.wordpress.com/n ... m-nes-pal/

My understanding is that over 90% NTSC games work fine on the PAL modded unit, just issues with some text games I think. Naturally, playing NTSC games on a PAL unit will run a little slower than would on an NTSC system, but not that noticeable.