I started wondering about that as well. If the SNES has no region protection other than a physical barrier, why wouldn't any of my pass thru devices allow an SA-1 cart to play?Originally Posted by Ed Oscuro
In looking closely at the Game Genie and the Honey Bee convertor I had, I noticed that both made the physical allowance for the insertion of a cartridge containing the side 'wings' found on SA-1 cart. However, there were no actual electrical contacts in the wing area of the connector. Just room for them to enter freely, but making contact with nothing. On the console insertion side of both, there was no continuance of the 'wings' area to enter the console and even provide the possibility of a pass thru feature.
I also have a Datel Action Replay Pro and it allows an SA-1 cart to be inserted, but has no connectors on either side of the convertor to make contact with the 'wings' portion of the cart and so has absolutely no chance of acting as a pass thru device.
I then took a closer look at the Super 8 convertor made by Innovation. On top, it's cartridge connector has all the necessary electrical contacts to accept carts with SA-1 'wings'. On the console insertion side, there are 'wings' that would be inserted into the console that are identical to the 'wings' on the SA-1 cart. In theory, this is a perfect pass thru device, so why didn't it work when I tried using an SA-1 chipped game?
I have no answer for that. Mine might even be defective, because it looks like a perfect pass thru device and should have worked.
I started to wonder why the Super 8 even included an SNES cartridge port at all, since it's being used in an SNES console. Why even bother replacing what's already there? So I tried a few other Super Famicom games and they all played just fine. I guess because none of those had any special chips. I realized the Super 8 will act as a region bypass convertor, of sorts then.
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