new to programming SNES carts

[Didodeman]

don't the games have a region lockout chip, the cic chip or something, that prevents the console from playing the game?

[MrPopo]

The only regional lockout is on video formats, so NTSC-J carts work on NTSC-U systems, but you need to modify your console if you want to play NTSC on PAL and vise versa.