Converting a PAL EU NES console into PAL UK NES console

Discuss hardware-related topics, such as development cartridges, CopyNES, PowerPak, EPROMs, or whatever.

Moderator: Moderators

Post Reply
User avatar
ultrageranium
Posts: 16
Joined: Thu Aug 20, 2015 2:02 am

Converting a PAL EU NES console into PAL UK NES console

Post by ultrageranium »

Hello,

I'm pretty sure this would work fine.... but I prefer to ask just to be sure... :) :oops:

I've made a prototyping cartridge using krikkz' avrciczz to make the dev cart multi-region and it seems to work fine, except that I only have a PAL NES console to test. I would like to test it on more regions, and I thought the easiest way to test UK region should be as simple as taking the CIC from a UK game and put in place of the CIC in the NES PAL. This should be enough right?

Thanks!
tepples
Posts: 22708
Joined: Sun Sep 19, 2004 11:12 pm
Location: NE Indiana, USA (NTSC)
Contact:

Re: Converting a PAL EU NES console into PAL UK NES console

Post by tepples »

Both 31xx and 61xx CICs are used as the key in the Game Pak, but only 31xx CICs can be used as the lock in the Control Deck while maintaining compatibility with Game Paks.

If I remember correctly, the compatibility is as follows:

31xx lock - 31xx key: Works
31xx lock - 61xx key: Works
61xx lock - 31xx key: Fails
61xx lock - 61xx key: Works
User avatar
ultrageranium
Posts: 16
Joined: Thu Aug 20, 2015 2:02 am

Re: Converting a PAL EU NES console into PAL UK NES console

Post by ultrageranium »

Oh wow! Thanks for the info!

This is going to make things a bit more tricky/exciting then. The UK game I'm ordering is not on bootgod's database. Or to be more precise, it has entries for the USA, Scandinavian and German versions, but not the UK. The last two have a 3195A, but the USA one has a 6113B1.

Fingers crossed...
SuperWill24
Posts: 33
Joined: Sat May 13, 2017 7:54 pm

Re: Converting a PAL EU NES console into PAL UK NES console

Post by SuperWill24 »

ultrageranium wrote:Oh wow! Thanks for the info!

This is going to make things a bit more tricky/exciting then. The UK game I'm ordering is not on bootgod's database. Or to be more precise, it has entries for the USA, Scandinavian and German versions, but not the UK. The last two have a 3195A, but the USA one has a 6113B1.

Fingers crossed...
What game are you ordering? I would like to know.
I also know bootgod is incomplete when it comes to PAL releases. For example, it doesn't say anything about Snowboard Challenge (Spanish release).
User avatar
ultrageranium
Posts: 16
Joined: Thu Aug 20, 2015 2:02 am

Re: Converting a PAL EU NES console into PAL UK NES console

Post by ultrageranium »

NES Open tournament, no particular reason, I took the cheapest BIN available. But, I really should have waited for the answer here before ordering, it was stupid... There are quite a few UK carts on bootgod, and it's easy to find one that is both cheap and would have a 3197 CIC.

Anyway, regardless of the outcome, I'll submit the game to bootgod as there is no info for a UK NES Open tournament.
User avatar
ultrageranium
Posts: 16
Joined: Thu Aug 20, 2015 2:02 am

Re: Converting a PAL EU NES console into PAL UK NES console

Post by ultrageranium »

Late update...

As it turned out, both UK PAL games I ordered (NES Open and Defender of the Crown) have the 3197A. All good!
Post Reply