So my little brother decided to get an SNES of eBay for his birthday. Of course, I explained to him why we should get a SNES from America instead, but he cared more about getting it fast rather than getting it right.

So, is there any easy way to make the PAL console play NTSC games at the right speed? Like, some kind of converter you can buy to make NTSC fit into the slot and play?

Or are we better of just selling the PAL console and getting one from across the Pacific?

an easy way? no. if you want easy, you'll just have to get a NA SNES. if you're handy with a soldering iron, though, this guide is quite detailed and looks like it'll give you some solid results.

edit: wait, if you're just talking about getting NTSC games to run on a PAL SNES, there are converters for that. they'll probably run you more than you paid for the SNES, though :3

Well, both actually. It'd be nice to get the games I have to run at full speed, but I really want to play Earthbound!

It'd probably make more sense to just get a NTSC SNES and then buy a step-down converter for the voltage.

The problem is whether my brother's going to let me replace his SNES.

if you're looking to play Earthbound specifically, this article will be of interest to you.

There's an adaptor that allows you to do that. I've goy one named AD-29 Universal Adaptor.

You just need the game you want to play (doesn't care if it's from Japan or USA) and a PAL game. Wish you luck trying to find one.

To run at the right speed, you'd either need to mod the PAL SNES you have, or just buy a US one now. My money is on the latter... which is what I did from the start back in 1991...

Yeah, I convinced my brother to get a NTSC console. He was hesitant at first, but I said Super Mario RPG and got the green light. Even though we have SMRPG on Virtual Console...

Really? How did you buy games from overseas without the internet?

@Big A2: believe it or not, back in the day here in the US there were import stores with hotlines you could call to order things and local stores that would import games for you... i'd assume the UK had similar services available. :3

@theblackdragon These shops did indeed exist here in backwards Ye Olde England, except we didn't have telephones, we had to send messengers by horseback.

With whiskey bottles as pay.

One more quick question regarding PAL PS1 games (don't want to start another thread). How are they in terms of optimisation? Is it similar to N64 games (ie, some were, some weren't)? I know Sony were a little more aware of their European market than Nintendo were (and to some extent, still are).

There were mail order firms placing adverts in the magazines of the day, plus there were a couple of market stalls near where I lived that imported games to sell as well. It was expensive being an importer back then though, before internet shopping took off, partly because the importers had to pay VAT (think American sales tax but at 17.5% since 1991 until recently) on everything they brought in, and then charged the same percentage again on top when they resold the items. All part of having to do things legally.

Nowadays I can import directly from the US and Japan and bypass both levels by having Customs marked appropriately. Back then I remember paying 60 quid for Japanese Starfox and 90 quid for Street Fighter II Turbo...

Huh. Of all the percentages it could have been...

But, geez, 90 pounds for a game? I would have just made do with the PAL version.

Back then the PAL version would be possibly unoptimised, cost two thirds of the price and be six to nine months later. I'll take the NTSC route thank you very much

Oh yeah, forgot about that.

Woah. It's hard to imagine now of someone paying $150-180 for any Street Fighter II game.
If they're not the Madden of Super Famicom games, they gotta be close. (pachinko/pachislot and horse-racing games are probably the most common SFC games)
(But it's understandable at the time, it was the coolest thing ever. )

Hi I'm in the same boat here, if I purchase a PAL Super Nintendo and one of these adaptors to allow me to play NTSC games I will be able to play all NTSC games at the right speed with minimal glitches? Should I buy an NTSC Super Nintendo and what adaptors and special equipment would I need to have this running in the UK with a PAL TV. Or should I look into a modded Super Nintendo which could play all games? Please help I'm itching to play these 16-bit classics but I don't want to jump the gun and end up with a system and collection of games that don't play as they were intended or to be prevented from playing some NTSC exclusive games.

Many thanks in advance Jonathan

I've heard some games will detect if they are running on a modded console and refuse to run, even if they are a genuine cart and being run in its intended market. I can't say for sure about NTSC/PAL mods myself as I've only run Japanese games on a US console, which doesn't require tampering with the hardware itself, only between an NTSC region and a PAL region does. But I suspect you would have glitches as I would suspect all the adapters do is defeat the lockout chip. So you would be able to play NTSC games as long as they don't verify the lockout chip is working (it tends to be Nintendo games and maybe special-chip games that do that), but you'll still have games running at the wrong speed.

If you're in the uk, may be worth checking out 'consolepassion', I got a Megadrive off that site. Even if you dont buy from there, you can find more information about PAL / NTSC issues.

Already, I got an AD-29 Upgrade Adaptor, Lufia & the Fortress of Doom, Lufia II and the first Breath of Fire all three in US version.

I'm a good importer, isn't it?