Quick question about Pal/NTSC and cartridge modding

Discussion of hardware and software development for Super NES and Super Famicom.

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Snoot
Posts: 13
Joined: Sun Feb 19, 2012 6:51 am

Quick question about Pal/NTSC and cartridge modding

Post by Snoot »

Hello,

i was planning to burn a ntsc game on my eprom after using romutil (swapbin/split etc). After that i will stuff it into a fitting PAL Cartridge.

Now one question comes to my mind: since its a ntsc rom, how will it run on my pal system? will it run at 60hz or at 50hz? do i have to modify the ntsc rom somehow ?

Its an unmodded console btw.

thanks for the help!
d4s
Posts: 94
Joined: Mon Jul 14, 2008 4:02 pm

Post by d4s »

The cartridge lockout (CIC) and system video mode is completely independant of the ROM, so any ROM works and runs on a PAL system in 50 Hz theoretically, albeit a little bit slower.

However, there are two problems you may encounter:
1) the game may detect the current video mode and refuse to run if it doesn't match its expectation.
2) timing differences may cause graphics and sound glitches. Compared to the NES, relatively few games are affected by this.

1) can usually be patched easily, 2) requires great insight into programming on the SNES.
Snoot
Posts: 13
Joined: Sun Feb 19, 2012 6:51 am

Post by Snoot »

thank you kindly :) helped me alot
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