Super Nintendo Region & Display Mods

Myrddin

Below is the mod procedure for adapting a PAL Super Nintendo to display a choice of 50 or 60Hz, and to make it dual region (PAL or NTSC). The technicalities of the mod are almost identical to the Sega Megadrive mod. A common point is given wither a ground, or a 5v to change the setting.

In this case, the region lockout chip (CIC), pin 4 to be specific, is lifted from the board and wired to a SPDT switch, with either side having 5v or ground. The display frequency is controlled by the two PPU chips, pin 24 of PPU1 & pin 30 of PPU2. These two pins are wired to the center of another switch, & given either a 5v or ground to choose the frequency.

While this makes a PAL Super Nintendo almost fully universal, there are still some limits. US NTSC carts are a completely different shape to PAL carts, & as such won't natively fit through the cart slot. This can be solved by either a) adapting the cart slot with a dremel, or b) using a pass through adaptor, which is the better choice as it keeps the console aesthetically the way it should be. There are also a very select few games which are able to detect the deactivation of the CIC chip, Super Mario RPG is one of them. This is solved by modifying the internal CIC chip within the cart, but it's outside of the scope of this log. 99% of import games will now work however, so don't fret!

Onto the business at hand, o1s1n's SNES



The now obligatory, under the hood shot



Motherboard removed



Shielding removed



The PAL CIC chip. There's an identical chip in every PAL cartridge. On boot, the chips communicate, verifying a match (PAL in this case), if there's a mismatch, you get the region protection screen. If the chip is disabled altogether, the system will boot the cart regardless of the region (excluding the few games that are able to detect the mod)



The two PPU chips (Picture Processing Unit)



Pin 24 of PPU1 lifted, & Pin 30 of PPU2 lifted (the bit I really hate doing, if these pins break off, it's more than likely ruined the console).



Pin 4 of the CIC chip lifted, this will allow us to disable it or deactivate it.



Once the three pins are lifted, that's the hard part done. They can now be isolated to work on.







I position the switches at the rear of the console, to keep it looking as original as possible.





Now, we will only bringing onto 5v supply to the switches, so we must link the two together. A 2.2k resistor is used to perform the link, as presumably the PPU's need slightly less than 5v. This means we get 5v at the CIC switch, and the correct voltage at the Display chip, by only using one wire.



We get our 5v & ground form the underside of the console. Green for live, brown for earth.

Myrddin

Power & ground linked appropriately on both switches.



All that remains, is to wire the lifted pins to the center terminals of the switches. The two PPU pins go to the same leg on the display switch.





Reassembly



Finito



The switch on the left of the last picture, is the CIC or region switch. In the UP position it is set for PAL. The switch on the right, is the display switch, in the UP position it is set for 60Hz. So both switches up for PAL & 60Hz.

Reamer Fanny

Nice job EnterNow

Jack burton

This will come in very handy for me soon!

KeRbDoG

Hey folks,
Just completed a SuperCiC/SwitchLess mod on Ciderman's SNES. Basically like the EnterNow's mod but you have a PIC controlling the pins on the PPUs and also controlling the console 'power' LED to let you know the region/screen mode.

PPU/CiC pins lifted - prob the hardest part;


The PIC installed/wired with the two wires at the bottom going to a new LED in place of the power LED;

Myrddin

Is the pic pre-programmed to know how to force boot certain regions when you boot with the reset button pressed etc?

KeRbDoG

EnterNow wrote: »

Is the pic pre-programmed to know how to force boot certain regions when you boot with the reset button pressed etc?

Yup, pre-programmed to do the switching and also changing the LED colour depending on setting. Bad_Ad84 on AssemblerGames is selling a kit for this mod. I must get another one or two.

Myrddin

KeRbDoG wrote: »

Yup, pre-programmed to do the switching and also changing the LED colour depending on setting. Bad_Ad84 on AssemblerGames is selling a kit for this mod. I must get another one or two.

Looks like a handy man to know, he has the PS1 & GC chips too

KeRbDoG

EnterNow wrote: »

Looks like a handy man to know, he has the PS1 & GC chips too

He is indeed, 3GBP shipping for kits to Ireland. Not bad and deals with orders next day. Might hit him up to see if he could hook me up with the 5V 4.433M Crystal Oscillator I'm after

Stuxnet

the SNES in OP looks strangely familiar

s10

hey guys looking good on the modding.
i am looking to buy....
Super Tetris 3 - Super Famicom / SNES Game NTSC-J
the only 4 player tetris on the market for snes, never released for PAL.
So quick question if u will, is it just the The PAL CIC chip pin thats needs to grounded with a switch for this particular game to work?

Myrddin

s10 wrote: »

hey guys looking good on the modding.
i am looking to buy....
Super Tetris 3 - Super Famicom / SNES Game NTSC-J
the only 4 player tetris on the market for snes, never released for PAL.
So quick question if u will, is it just the The PAL CIC chip pin thats needs to grounded with a switch for this particular game to work?

The extent of the protection is dependant on the game. Some games have more protection that others. The CIC chip being disabled is one way to bypass the region lock, but some games check the display frequency too, so your PAL machine will need to be outputting 60Hz rather than 50Hz in that case. If you're going to the bother of the mod, just do the two if them. Or if you're feeling adventurous do the Super-CIC mod that Kerbdog done, it's the best of the bunch

s10

i've found a full picture of one, front ,back and board.
http://produto.mercadolivre.com.br/MLB-487281166-cartucho-super-famicom-nintendo-super-tetris-3-jp-leilor10-_JM?redirectedFromParent=MLB485152871
is there anyway to tell from the pictures.

Myrddin

s10 wrote: »

i've found a full picture of one, front ,back and board.
http://produto.mercadolivre.com.br/MLB-487281166-cartucho-super-famicom-nintendo-super-tetris-3-jp-leilor10-_JM?redirectedFromParent=MLB485152871
is there anyway to tell from the pictures.

There's no way to tell from a picture of the cart no. It'll be either:

1) Be region free
2) Be region locked to NTSC, requiring a region mod
3) Be region locked AND display locked, requiring both mods.

It's unlikely to be the latter but there's no way to know. If getting the mod done though, you really should get both done together.

KeRbDoG

Basically completed the same switchless mod of a Sega Saturn with the same kit - while it took an age since there be no good guides for all mobos online, it works a treat!

Burzum

Sorry for necroing the thread but would this work on a super famicom?

steo2k9

I'm going to do this as it's annoying me playing Mario 17% slower. Do I just literally need 2 2 way switches and a 2.2k resistor and wire?

I seen switchless mods but how do they work exactly. Like if I want to run my pal game at 60hz won't that just default to 50?

I'd probably rather the switch way just in case.

I've done my mega drive 2 and that was easy but the snes looks slightly more tricky.