Just recently did NTSC SNES mod...

[Atomizer]

Hi, im new to these forums, so, hello everyone

I bought an ntsc snes off of ebay a couple of weeks ago that had the little pegs already cut (which was nice). So i decided to do the 50/60hz and region lockout switch mods on it. This is the first time i've ever soldered anything before in my life! As you can imagine, it was rather hard and i nearly messed it up because solder dripped off the iron onto a chip, covering half of it! Luckily, i managed to remove all the solder and tidied it back up, and now you wouldnt notice it if you were to look for it.... anyway, cut a long story short, it worked fine... at least i think it did, which is why i'm posting here now...

First thing i tried was to boot a ntsc game, it worked fine. I switched it off, switched to 50hz, switched it on, and it worked. So i tried a pal game. Region switch on, 50hz - no boot (which i believe is correct). Region switch off, 50hz - boots fine. Switching to 60hz works fine. Now, heres where im concerned... if i switch the region switch back on when the game is running, it basically crashes (i guess...black screen, no sound or picture). Turning the console off and on again works fine (switching back to region off first, of course). Is this correct behavior for this mod?

Secondly.. i was playing secret of mana for about 3 hours the other night (after the mod) and when i switched it off to change to a different game, i felt that the cartridge and console was a bit too hot. I didnt play the ntsc snes too much before modding it, so im not sure if its normal for it to get hot?? any help would be greatly appreciated.

PS: the mod i did was on mmmonkeys site. Thanks again!

[MonkeyJuggleDX]

Some games crash on various parts of the game if you change between 50/60Hz.

Can't remember which ones, but I do remember one game I had, I needed to flip back to 50Hz between levels.

[Hohum]

Can't comment on the heat issue, but you will indeed crash the machine every time if you toggle the region chip whilst the console is switched on. You can only change between 50/60Hz on-the-fly.

[Atomizer]

@FamiDude - yeh i know, some games wont allow you to play it unless you wait till your actually in game before switching..

@Hohum - Ah ok, i thought as much. Only reason im wondering about the heat issue is because im hoping it wasnt caused by me fitting the mod.. :S

[egparadigm]

As has been said it is quite normal for the region switch to kill the power to the SNES – that's exactly what happens on both my UK and US machines. All the modification does is to disable the region protection, so there is no way the heat could be caused by that; it is a very low voltage operation.

You will probably want to stick to US games as many PAL games run badly at 60Hz, and who wants to run a game at less speed with borders, right? For example, the backgrounds are all messed up on Super Mario All Stars – the only game in the collection to play correctly is SMB3, IIRC.

Well done for doing the mod! I've done a few over the last couple of years and am still improving. Dropping solder is a minor mistake – I managed to snap off the leg on the second machine I moded, had to use glue to hold the wire in place...

[Atomizer]

Ouch, not good lol. It does certainly seem like quite an easy thing to break.. i mean, the legs are tiny (pictures are deceiving to say the least ¬_¬ ).

In regards to pal games on ntsc system... most of my collection is pal unfortunately... but some do work fine. Super Metroid pal running at 60Hz is interesting cause Samus runs, jumps and shoots faster than she does on a ntsc version lol. i think its better to play like this though. It ups the pace a bit you know? lol

OT: I attempted to do the RGB mod on my ntsc n64 last night... i ended up giving up lol. not only is there multiple ways of doing it, but i just couldnt get the solder to do what i wanted it to lol. i read online that i should get some flux to help the solder along a bit.. and i also read about how flux gets left behind on the tip of the soldering iron or something, causing it to burn?.. it leaves black stuff on the iron... i think that's happened to mine... as you can probably tell, im a noob when it comes to soldering irons lol

[egparadigm]

I believe flux is built into the small solder used for electronics, it is used separately by plumbers. At least that's what I heard.

The best method for N64 RGB is definitely the booster, however some people report good results with the other methods, but it all depends on the model of N64. Pete (mmmonkey) and I both had Hong Kong units that required the booster method. I would caution against lifting the legs personally because once they're up they're difficult to get back into position. I just happened to have to resolder one of the legs on my '64 yesterday because the red video had come loose.

[Atomizer]

Ah ok, thanks for the info. I don't think i'm quite good enough to build the booster yet... looks really fiddily. I was planning on just soldering the 3 wires from the underside at R8,R9 and R10 (method 2 on mmmonkey's site), but i need to know what type of wire to use and whats the best way to solder it? I have 2 types of wire. Ones got like, copper strands (from a dead n64 controller wire) and the other has silver coloured strands (from a usb lead, which is what i used on the snes). Thanks again!

Edit: Oh my n64 is a US one, serial no. NS182886102. It has the VDC-NUS chip, so it can definately be modded. It seems like all serials upto NS20xxxxxxx are moddable? Maybe i should email mmmonkey to tell him to add my serial to the list because his only goes upto NS136718770.