super famicom import questions

[ac_90]

i'm going to be picking up a japanese super famicom from ebay soon; i just had a few questions for anyone that knows:

1. will the power adapter work fine? i'm not sure if the outlets in japan have a different voltage or some garbage like that compared to america

2. does anyone know where i can get a cartridge adapter to play american snes games on a japanese system? i wanna be able to do that without doing any sketchy mods but i can't find one anywhere!

3. can you play pal games on a japanese system without using any adapters or doing any mods? the cartridges look to be the same size/shape

thanks!

[vlame]

no, iirc the power adaptor is diff.


this is possibly the best one out there since you can use most games bc it is shown as being super fx compat.

no, pal games run at 50hz, us and jpn games run at 60hz. the simplest way is to buy cheap sfc games and open them and put the usa games in the shell.

another option would be to buy a cheap game genie and a cheap sfc cart and put the GG in the sfc shell, im not 100% sure the gg will owrk on the sfc tho.

[isiolia]

Japanese power is typically slightly lower in voltage than US, and in some regions runs at 50 cycles rather than 60. Most of the time, devices can accept a range of input volts (100-120V, 110-120V, etc), and won't have a problem. Predominately, the only devices you need to worry about the cycles for are things like clocks that might run based on them - a clock made for 60 cycles will run slow on 50 cycles, that sort of thing.

Basically, compared to power in most of Europe and the like, U.S. and Japanese power are rather similar.


Far as converting...I think it'd be easier to mod an SNES to play Japanese games than vice versa...and it'd probably be cheaper than trying to find an adapter, assuming that you're in the U.S.

PAL games have a software lockout that prevents playing them on any NTSC system (without mods/adapters). The clone systems will play most of them though, but not all.

[vlame]

SNES Model 1 and Model 2 US
10v DC, 850mA
pos --( o-- neg - proprietary plug

SFC Model 1
AC 100V 50/60HZ
18VA
DC 10V 850mA
pos --( o-- neg

maybe they are the same...

[Satoshi_Matrix]

1. will the power adapter work fine? i'm not sure if the outlets in japan have a different voltage or some garbage like that compared to america

Japan uses the 100-110 voltage range. North America uses 110-120 v. There difference is negligible. You can also power a Super Famicom using any number of US power supplies as long as they comply to 9v with a polarity of center pin positive. HOWEVER, NEVER, EVER use an NES power supply. The NES PSU outputs AC voltage, not DC. You also can't use a North American Super NES PSU because the plug is different. This was done to ensure stupid Americans don't accidentally plug in an NES power supply and using the excuse "well they're both nintendo right?".

2. does anyone know where i can get a cartridge adapter to play american snes games on a japanese system? i wanna be able to do that without doing any sketchy mods but i can't find one anywhere!

The only thing preventing Super NES games from playing on a Super Famicom is the cartridges are a different shape. Unlike the Famicom/NES, internally the games are the same number of pins. There are rare adapters like Honeybees out there that will do this.

3. can you play pal games on a japanese system without using any adapters or doing any mods? the cartridges look to be the same size/shape.

The Super Famicom/Super NES uses two kinds of lockout cics: NTSC and PAL. To play PAL games on a Super Famicom, you need to use one of those wonky adapters where you plug in both the game you want to play and an NTSC game. It piggybacks the cic signal from the NTSC game to run on PAL. Overall, I'd just suggest you buy a SNES Powerpak from Retrozone. It will play all the PAL games because it has a cyclone custom cic that can be any region.

[vlame]

1. will the power adapter work fine? i'm not sure if the outlets in japan have a different voltage or some garbage like that compared to america

Japan uses the 100-110 voltage range. North America uses 110-120 v. There difference is negligible. You can also power a Super Famicom using any number of US power supplies as long as they comply to 9v with a polarity of center pin positive. HOWEVER, NEVER, EVER use an NES power supply. The NES PSU outputs AC voltage, not DC. You also can't use a North American Super NES PSU because the plug is different. This was done to ensure stupid Americans don't accidentally plug in an NES power supply and using the excuse "well they're both nintendo right?".

in my pics above, are the power points different?

[Satoshi_Matrix]

Are those two Super Famicoms? IF so then they're the same power input. If not, then they aren't. Simple as that.

[vlame]

in the post up there is an SNES and a pic of 2 SFCs

[theclaw]

Be warned. PAL carts that check for 50hz will still halt with an error message, if the lockout chip alone is bypassed.

Look closer at the pic. SFC and PAL SNES have a different power connector. Which is what's being shown.