New to Retro Collecting, looking for infomation for PAL mods.

[Evelyn]

Hi there, I’m based in the UK and have recently been getting invested in replacing my standard 50Hz N64, PS1, and Mega Drive with modded, region free 60Hz compatible units along with buying a modded SNES in similar vein. I’m struggling to find concrete details on compatibility for that kind of thing regarding NTSC games as well as forcing PAL games to 60, So I figured dedicated gaming forums like this one would be my best bet. do any of those systems have major issues I should be aware of before buying a modded system? Is it worth it to just bite the bullet and import a stock NTSC system? Any advice you think a beginner for the systems would need to know would be very much appreciated. Apologies if I’ve made any kind of mistake with this post, very new to forum culture. Thanks.

[BuckoA51]

Hi Evelyn,

N64 can be done, I’d look to our friends at retro upgrades for that – https://www.retroupgrades.co.uk/product/n64-ultrapif/

Megadrive/Genesis the same – https://www.retroupgrades.co.uk/product/sega-md-genesis-region-dfo/

SNES – Unfortunately we’ve had issues getting the parts for the SNES region free for quite some time.

On the SNES and the Megadrive the cartridges are also a different width, so you’d need to dremel widen the cartridge slot or use an adapter. The N64 has a simple plastic bracket that prevents the insertion of different region cartridges.

Some PAL games will work when forced to 60hz (indeed some PAL releases were literally just the NTSC versions on the same ROM with no optimisations for speed difference at all) but many won’t.

If you’re planning on using a scaler rather than a CRT, check before you buy a pre-modded system if it has a DFO type chip installed with the mod. Many of the older mods did not and this can cause issues on more fussy, modern TVs as the refresh rate is ever so slightly out of spec.

[Evelyn]

Hi there, thanks for the info ! I have heard that some PAL games have trouble when forced to 60 like sped up music, if I end up using a simple cartslot extender/pass through adapter would that result in NTSC copies working fine if the system is completely region modded? I’m assuming so since I haven’t heard much in way of issue with that kind of thing, but I figured it was bst to be certain before committing to anything.  And no worries for not being able to do SNES mods, I have a seller I’ve been looking at. Just need to be sure I’ll be buying the right stuff beforehand.

[Evelyn]

Realizing I really don’t know how forums work since I messed up trying to reply to this, but thanks for the reply ! I’m not gonna retype everything I said in my messed up reply, but it’s in the thread. Thanks again for your help 🙂

[BuckoA51]

It depends on the mod you do but yes, a properly region modded PAL console will play NTSC games the same as a native console would.

• This reply was modified 3 weeks, 5 days ago by BuckoA51.

[Evelyn]

Finally getting back to this but thanks, this is a huge help 🙂 Trying to find concentrate info for PAL retro collectors is so difficult so I really appreciate all the help, I’m still struggling to figure out stuff like Mario RPG and Kirby’s Dreamland 3’s compatibility with SuperCIC modded PAL systems and that’s been taking up a load of my time, would you happen to know how workable that might be? Sorry for the additional questions.

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