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Super Famicom FE on a SNES (via converter)


PsychoTenshi
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So I recently managed to get my hands on a PAL Snes + a converter to play Japanese and American games on it.

Now i'm kinda thinking about Importing some copies of Monsho No Nazo, Seisen No Keifu and Thracia 776, but i wonder wether theyd work on my snes with the converter or not and wether it would be worth it.

I want to add the games to my collection but if I can't play them I dont think it would be worth the trouble of getting them.

(Getting a Super famicom or modded snes is sadly not an option at the moment)

Pic related is the converter i have for the SNES

post-13031-0-95672300-1463929397_thumb.jpg

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So I recently managed to get my hands on a PAL Snes + a converter to play Japanese and American games on it.

Now i'm kinda thinking about Importing some copies of Monsho No Nazo, Seisen No Keifu and Thracia 776, but i wonder wether theyd work on my snes with the converter or not and wether it would be worth it.

I want to add the games to my collection but if I can't play them I dont think it would be worth the trouble of getting them.

(Getting a Super famicom or modded snes is sadly not an option at the moment)

Pic related is the converter i have for the SNES

Cant you just use a NTSC model and take the little tabs out with pliers? And yes, japanese FE games should work as they dont have any special chips or anything the converter might not be able to pick up.

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Cant you just use a NTSC model and take the little tabs out with pliers? And yes, japanese FE games should work as they dont have any special chips or anything the converter might not be able to pick up.

At the moment getting a American SNES or Super Famicom isnt an option for me, but seeing that they would work on the converter is nice, would at least be a temporarily solution and give me an excuse to add them to my FE collection.

Also are you sure about Genealogy and Thracia also having no special chips? Since they came out pretty late in the Super Famicom's life.

Edited by PsychoTenshi
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I know for a fact that FE4 has some copy protection because I was unable to play it on my American SNES with a Game Genie in it. (So I wouldn't have to cut the tabs in my system.) If you're using a 3rd party device, the game may think it's a game copier and refuse to run. The game runs fine on an American system by soldering the tabs, but unfortunately I have no knowledge of how it works on a PAL system. FE5 may have similar issues, but FE3 should be fine.

That being said, cartridge-only copies of FE3 and 4 will only run you about $10 each, so it's worth a shot even if they don't work. Thracia 776 is like $40-50 though so I suggest picking up the other 2 first, then only get it if you're able to finish them without compatibility issues.

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I know for a fact that FE4 has some copy protection because I was unable to play it on my American SNES with a Game Genie in it. (So I wouldn't have to cut the tabs in my system.) If you're using a 3rd party device, the game may think it's a game copier and refuse to run. The game runs fine on an American system by soldering the tabs, but unfortunately I have no knowledge of how it works on a PAL system. FE5 may have similar issues, but FE3 should be fine.

That being said, cartridge-only copies of FE3 and 4 will only run you about $10 each, so it's worth a shot even if they don't work. Thracia 776 is like $40-50 though so I suggest picking up the other 2 first, then only get it if you're able to finish them without compatibility issues.

PAL hardware is clocked differently. NTSC and NTSC-J run at 60 htz while PAL runs at 50 htz, and correct me if I'm wrong about resolution but NTSC uses 240p while PAL uses (I think) 360p and the secreen sizes are also different. So running it on a tv from a different region will screw with the screen or not be visable at all

Thracia 776 varies in price, a Nintendo Power cart can run up wards to $60 while a full retail cart can run up to $150-200.

(luckily I got mine for $90)

At the moment getting a American SNES or Super Famicom isnt an option for me, but seeing that they would work on the converter is nice, would at least be a temporarily solution and give me an excuse to add them to my FE collection.

Also are you sure about Genealogy and Thracia also having no special chips? Since they came out pretty late in the Super Famicom's life.

nope, tbh they really don't push the hardware as much as people like to think
Edited by Captain Karnage
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Right, the PAL/NTSC differences are also worth mentioning. I think the games will still run, but the picture is going to be a bit off the the music will probably play slower. Again, try at your own risk because I do not have the hardware to test this.

Thracia 776 varies in price, a Nintendo Power cart can run up wards to $60 while a full retail cart can run up to $150-200.

Yeah, the $40-50 figure is for a NP cart. Their differences are mostly aesthetic (just missing the S ranks I believe?), so I'd pass on the retail release unless you're a collector.

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Thanks guys, maybe i'd be better of just buying a reproduction cart then, that way ill be sure itll run.

Im not sure, maybe ill try importing one day, maybe I wont, I guess I need more time to think about it.

Edited by PsychoTenshi
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  • 3 weeks later...

Right, the PAL/NTSC differences are also worth mentioning. I think the games will still run, but the picture is going to be a bit off the the music will probably play slower. Again, try at your own risk because I do not have the hardware to test this.

I can confirm it, i've got a pal SNES with a converter and Seisen no Keifu. It's actually one of these "2 cartridges" one where you put the foreign game forward and a random european game backward. The game works perfectly for as long as I played (i'm at chapter 5). I haven't played it since a little bit of time but i don't remember any huge black bars on top (maybe they were there but not huge). What I remember is that the 50Hz difference can be seen but is not very annoying for a slow game like this one. You can notice for example that the triangle animation when you attack with the light sword has it's sound effect getting cut before the animation has ended.

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From what i remember, copy protection on most SNES games involves checking on boot up to see if the system features corespond to an actual SNES. If there is no issue at frist the n you are almost always good. (with the notable exeption of earthbound, which does things like freeze before the final boss and then delete all of your save files i based on a different set of checks from the obvious one)

Edited by sirmola
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I guess its time for an update

Recently managed to get my hands on a copy of Seisen no Keifu complete with Box and Manual

(Found it at an anime convention of all places)

And I can confirm that it works really well on my converter.

It's great to finally own a physical copy of this game

pOuqvESr.jpg

Edited by PsychoTenshi
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The box looks to be in pretty good shape.

Congrats. I'll always prefer to play these games on consoles, and the lack of savestates removes the temptation to scum your way to victory. Successfully recruiting Xavier suddenly feels way more satisfying when you manage to do so legitimately.

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Right, the PAL/NTSC differences are also worth mentioning. I think the games will still run, but the picture is going to be a bit off the the music will probably play slower. Again, try at your own risk because I do not have the hardware to test this.

Yeah, the $40-50 figure is for a NP cart. Their differences are mostly aesthetic (just missing the S ranks I believe?), so I'd pass on the retail release unless you're a collector.

Well, im not sure wether a NP cart would work on a converter, it seems to have some special chips if i look at the carts closely, I know the retail one does work mainly due to having no special chips, though it is also more expensive, it does look nicer in a FE collection tho.

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Well, im not sure wether a NP cart would work on a converter, it seems to have some special chips if i look at the carts closely, I know the retail one does work mainly due to having no special chips, though it is also more expensive, it does look nicer in a FE collection tho.

That seems like a good question to ask a specialized forum. Apparently, it uses flash memory instead of the normal ROM so that games can be written to it. This flash memory is probably what looks odd. It does not have a super FX chip or anything like that. I have no idea weather a converter could handle the flash memory, though.

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