Any way to play at 60hz on a pal NES?

[Tackskull]

Hi there, I recently bought my very first nes, is an italian version. Since my plan was to buy a Krikz everdrive to put on it and play NTSC (USA and JAP) games, is there a way to modify my NES and make it to run games a 60hz? If not, the Krikz everdrie N8 pro is capable to doing so?

Because if the answer is no, I first have to buy a NTSC nes, and maybe i would buy the third AV model from Japan. Because when choosing the everdrive, i have to be carefull if buy the "western cartridge" or the "japanese one".

 

[skawo]

You would need to swap the PPU, CPU and the crystal oscillator.

You can get a clone NTSC PPU fairly cheaply from China, but they tend to be faulty, to be honest.
Perhaps buying a spare original Famicom board to harvest the chips from would be your best bet.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Hi there, I recently bought my very first nes, is an italian version. Since my plan was to buy a Krikz everdrive to put on it and play NTSC (USA and JAP) games, is there a way to modify my NES and make it to run games a 60hz? If not, the Krikz everdrie N8 pro is capable to doing so?

Because if the answer is no, I first have to buy a NTSC nes, and maybe i would buy the third AV model from Japan. Because when choosing the everdrive, i have to be carefull if buy the "western cartridge" or the "japanese one".

50hz and 60hz versions of the NES use slightly different CPUs, that have hardware differences to suit the different standards. They also run at different clock speeds.
This makes region modding (like with a region selector switch as on many other consoles) difficult. I think you would need a dual-slot breakout to allow both a 2A03 and 2A07 microprocessor to be installed, and select between them with a switch. This microprocessor was made specifically for the NES, so it would have to be taken from a donor. It doesn't seem like anybody has done this before as I can't find any info about it, but in theory it should be possible (if other related components like the clock crystal are also selectable and the lockout chip is bypassed)
I guess that due to how poorly ported PAL versions of many games were, this has not been a priority for anyone to figure out since they could just get a NTSC console and not need to mod it.

 

[skawo]

//

 

[Tackskull]

You would need to swap the PPU and the crystal oscillator.

You can get a clone NTSC PPU fairly cheaply from China, but they tend to be faulty, to be honest.
Perhaps buying a spare original Famicom board to harvest the chip from would be your best bet.

Ok, this seams interesting. At this point the best thing would just be to replace the entire board on the pal case?

 

[eyeliner]

Just get an NTSC Famicom. There are games that, even with a modded system have issues because they look for the lockout chip.

To prevent hassle, that's what I did. Best of all worlds. I love to notice how little details really make a difference between the two. Specially the cord length on the gamepads.

Please don't outright kill a SNES for no reason. They are dying because of people portabilizing it and modding them for crap reasons.

At least sell the PAL SNES to someone else.

 

[skawo]

Ok, this seams interesting. At this point the best thing would just be to replace the entire board on the pal case?

The Famicom board is physically a different shape than the NES one, so you'd have to swap the chips themselves over. Which is not that difficult, but requires a desoldering pump.

Incidentally, the same seller also has tested, working boards for just a few quid more, so maybe you'll want one of those instead of risking a potentially faulty one.

SNES for no reason.

This is about the NES, though...

 

[eyeliner]

The Famicom board is physically a different shape than the NES one, so you'd have to swap the chips themselves over. Which is not that difficult, but requires a desoldering pump.

Incidentally, the same seller also has tested, working boards for just a few quid more, so maybe you'll want one of those instead of risking a potentially faulty one.


This is about the NES, though...

Sorry, I was thinking of one and wrote about another.

 

[Tackskull]

Just get an NTSC Famicom. There are games that, even with a modded system have issues because they look for the lockout chip.

To prevent hassle, that's what I did. Best of all worlds. I love to notice how little details really make a difference between the two. Specially the cord length on the gamepads.

Please don't outright kill a SNES for no reason. They are dying because of people portabilizing it and modding them for crap reasons.

At least sell the PAL SNES to someone else.

Yes, in the end I think I'll buy a japanese AV model. The only complain is that I spent money to get the pal one without knowing this issue. Anyway, i like the item, and i'll keep it.

 

[Ryccardo]

Buy a Hong Kong Famicom, the only official dual-speed NES/FC

 

[CoolMe]

50hz and 60hz versions of the NES use slightly different CPUs, that have hardware differences to suit the different standards. They also run at different clock speeds.

Never heard of this until now. Thanks for sharing..
Though i heard about a region free mod, i can't remember exactly how it's done, but it's not complicated from what i remember. So maybe all this mod does is allowing ntsc games to work as is (talking about a pal nes here), with inaccurate resolution/fps (like 50hz instead of 60hz etc.)?

 

[Tackskull]

Never heard of this until now. Thanks for sharing..
Though i heard about a region free mod, i can't remember exactly how it's done, but it's not complicated from what i remember. So maybe all this mod does is allowing ntsc games to work as is (talking about a pal nes here), with inaccurate resolution/fps (like 50hz instead of 60hz etc.)?

The region free mod will run NTSC games at 50hz, not at 60hz

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Never heard of this until now. Thanks for sharing..
Though i heard about a region free mod, i can't remember exactly how it's done, but it's not complicated from what i remember. So maybe all this mod does is allowing ntsc games to work as is (talking about a pal nes here), with inaccurate resolution/fps (like 50hz instead of 60hz etc.)?

That involves disabling the lockout chip (which is region specific and normally what prevents out of region games from working)

 

[CoolMe]

The region free mod will run NTSC games at 50hz, not at 60hz

That's what i deduced (in my post above)..