Do Famicom carts work in NES? (Super Famicon in S-NES?)

[gamingguy]

If no, what causes the incompatibility?

[Quazick]

This sould cover everything.

[CrazyImpmon]

And SNES can play any SFC games as well. A cheap way is to get a pair of needle nosed plier, open the dust flap on the console. You see the 2 plastic tab just behind the cart connector? break those off and any Japanese SFC should work fine.

Of course, games from 50Hz region won't work properly on 60Hz consoles and vice versa.

[salt peanuts]

but where do you get a convertor to run US games on a Famicom?!? I want to get one of those nifty Famicom top-loaders with the AV out instead of RF...and how ungainly will the cart be sticking out of one of these with a convertor, meaning, is the convertor so big the things gonna topple over?

[Arqueologia_Digital]

I see in my country a lot of adapters, but i don´t think it works because there are very "pedorro" (sucks)

[CrazyImpmon]

but where do you get a convertor to run US games on a Famicom?!? I want to get one of those nifty Famicom top-loaders with the AV out instead of RF...and how ungainly will the cart be sticking out of one of these with a convertor, meaning, is the convertor so big the things gonna topple over?

Well... that'd be harder as Nintendo never made any officially (unlike the Famicom converter for NES) and from what I usually see on ebay, it seems only one source made it and it's without the case so you'd have green PCB sticking out.

You'd have to try eBay and pray the seller won't milk you for $20.

[gamingguy]

Thanks! So, what does the Famicom to NES converter do?

I didn't realize there was a dual Final Fantasy 1/2 cartridge! Gotta get one of those.

[CrazyImpmon]

Nothing more than making 60 pin connector fit 72 pin connector. And for the adapter to NES console, a lockout chip included since Famicom games didn't use any.

If you're handy with Dremmel and soldering iron, you could permantly hack your NES to accept Famicom game w/o the adapter. Even make it a dual 60 and 72 pin system. Just don't use 2 games at the same time.

[rbudrick]

I actually have 2 of a NES to Famicom converter (play US games on Japanese console). They are not just the PCB. It is very frustrating to find them like this, though. I bought it from a Brazilian, so I would imagine they are far more common there. You do see them on Ebay occasionally....that's your best bet. I found mine through GTZ a couple years ago. I got a deal...I paid $50 for one, and he sent to the wrong address, so to make it up tp me, he sent me 2!

-Rob

[rbudrick]

CarzyImpmon, do you have a link for the plans to make the NES have a dual slot?

-ROb

[stonecutter]

I got my cased convertor for NES to Famicom on eBay as well. I got mine for 15-20 bucks, it was way back when the GameAxe Color first was out. Watch the bay, must be one out there somewhere.

[CrazyImpmon]

CarzyImpmon, do you have a link for the plans to make the NES have a dual slot?

-ROb

No I don't. It's just a theory that does seems to work. I do have about a dozen NES <-> FC converters so I could check and determine the pinout at both side. My NES' lockout already been disabled so I'm not worried about conflict.

Those NES <-> FC adapters are so easy to find if you have the right touch you could collect as many as 20 in one Funcoland/Gamestop/etc. For finding the adapters, you'd need to do the following:

Start with these known games:
Duck Hunt
Excite Bike
Gyromite
Hogan's Alley
Pinball
Stackup

Look for those that has 5 screws on the back and no tab on the end. Later NES games has 3 screws and tab on the end. Next on the back, look for numbers stamped on the grey label. Most of the NES cart with adapters I found has number '00' stamped but a few with '11' stamped popped up as well. Finally, the cart with adapter feels slightly heavier than those w/o adapters.

I haven't found a better way to detect adapters short of getting screwdrivers and taking apart every NES carts or getting X-Ray vision.

I'm going to check and see what could be done to turn NES into dual NES/FC console. It'd be a top loading though so you'd need some clearance to use it.