Is an Asian NES Region free? Strange CIC Mod

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phreak97
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Is an Asian NES Region free? Strange CIC Mod

Post by phreak97 »

I got two nes consoles this week, one Asian Version and one Hong Kong version.
Both had cic pin 4 clipped which I have now soldered back.

The homg kong version is back to blinking as it should.

The asian version has these two extra wires:
photobucket.com-albums-z234-phreak97-null.jpg
[mod edit: attachment fairy was here]

Theyre tied into the reset lines on the cic, one connects a pin on the hex inverter to the reset output, the other connects from the 4mhz clock to the line from the power led. (From a brief look and from memory)

With the wires in place the console is region free, removed it blinks like usual.

Are these a factory mod? I have never heard of this method of lockout disabling.

Also the reason theyre where they are is so the mod could be performed by just removing the top shielding and leaving the motherboard and cartridge holder in place. Kinda cool.
lidnariq
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Re: Is an Asian NES Region free? Strange CIC Mod

Post by lidnariq »

phreak97 wrote:Are these a factory mod? I have never heard of this method of lockout disabling.
Definitely not stock.

The jumpers override the 4 MHz ceramic resonator, using it as an inverter to generate /RESET_BUTTON and then to tie that to /2A03_RESET_IN
SkinnyV
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Re: Is an Asian NES Region free? Strange CIC Mod

Post by SkinnyV »

I have never heard of such a way of tricking the lockout chip. Pretty interesting! It seem like a cleaner way to mod NES console. Well at least I find it cleaner than cutting the leg of an IC.
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Jeroen
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Re: Is an Asian NES Region free? Strange CIC Mod

Post by Jeroen »

The best part is that it should work on those cics that didn't work with the pin 4 mod. (recentlyish discovery)
3gengames
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Re: Is an Asian NES Region free? Strange CIC Mod

Post by 3gengames »

Jeroen wrote:The best part is that it should work on those cics that didn't work with the pin 4 mod. (recentlyish discovery)
It's in code, yet I have yet to see proof of a SINGLE chip/console on which it fails, so I wouldn't post stuff like that like it's common...more like 1 in a million.
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mikejmoffitt
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Re: Is an Asian NES Region free? Strange CIC Mod

Post by mikejmoffitt »

This seems much more elegant than cutting pin 4, not to mention it's completely reversible from what I can see.
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bootyhuntah
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Re: Is an Asian NES Region free? Strange CIC Mod

Post by bootyhuntah »

I just did the mod to a NTSC NES board and it works fine. No flashing reset without cartridge inside the console. :)
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Kreese
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Re: Is an Asian NES Region free? Strange CIC Mod

Post by Kreese »

Does this mod make the NES play games from different regions? PAL games in NTSC consoles and vice versa...
tepples
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Re: Is an Asian NES Region free? Strange CIC Mod

Post by tepples »

PAL-only games won't play on an NTSC console if they actually use the extra vblank time, and they probably do. They'd have to be reprogrammed to turn rendering on late like Battletoads was.
Epicfatigue
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Re: Is an Asian NES Region free? Strange CIC Mod

Post by Epicfatigue »

i also have come across this mod, except they did it from the top.

However the unit was non functional it would just load with a grey screen and was not the 72pin connector i think a ppu died.
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Bregalad
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Re: Is an Asian NES Region free? Strange CIC Mod

Post by Bregalad »

How comes Hong Kong didn't recieve the "Asian" version ?

Did they get the UK version (PAL-A) because Hong-Kong was part of the UK back then ?
FrankWDoom
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Re: Is an Asian NES Region free? Strange CIC Mod

Post by FrankWDoom »

Here's another one. This is from an american toaster modified by the Racermate that someone posted on NA. I copied the wiring just by look and it seems to work as intended on my machine. Can someone explain how this one works? It's nice to not have to pull the board out of the bottom shell to clip the chip leg.
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cic alternate mod
cic alternate mod
lidnariq
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Re: Is an Asian NES Region free? Strange CIC Mod

Post by lidnariq »

This does the same as the previous picture; it's just soldered to different locations of the same signals on the PCB.
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wyatt8740
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Re: Is an Asian NES Region free? Strange CIC Mod

Post by wyatt8740 »

Dang. And just last week i accidentally ripped pin 4 off my CiC while disabling its chip.

Oh well. I guess I can harvest one from a game. This looks really cool!
No matter what year it is, 1980 was about 20 years ago, and you can't change my mind.
3gengames
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Re: Is an Asian NES Region free? Strange CIC Mod

Post by 3gengames »

wyatt8740 wrote:Dang. And just last week i accidentally ripped pin 4 off my CiC while disabling its chip.

Oh well. I guess I can harvest one from a game. This looks really cool!

Why would you go through the trouble? It defies logic to kill another CIC to do another mod that does the same thing.
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