Which NES games have the Famicom adapter??

[Jasoco]

How to tell?

 

Allrightie. I'm reading up on Ben Heckendorm's upcoming NESp and remember that some NES carts have that Famicom adapter built in.

 

He had bought a Gyromite and found his, but I opened mine, and to no avail, there is no adapter in mine. (Mine has regular flathead screws.) I guess I'm the "lucky" one with the actual English version. Go figure.

 

I assume there's a weight difference. And the GS may still have a cart if someone hasn't grabbed it. But what other games have this adapter?

 

Just a strange question to satisfy my curiosity.

[video game addict]

try this link:

 

http://web.archive.org/web/20011004204617/...ns/adapter.html

[ApolloBoy]

Well, that's cool! I didn't know Ben was working his own version of the NESp!

[Jasoco]

Damn! Figures all the versions of the ones I have are remade Non-Famicom versions.

 

Guess I'll have to look around.

[JerseyDevil]

Jason, do you have a copy of Wrecking Crew? My Wrecking Crew has the adaptor, I would trade it for a copy of one that does not have it. I really don't care about the adaptor anyway. As long as its in decent shape and works good.

[Jasoco]

Sorry, Jersey. That's one of the few pixel games I have not gotten my hands on yet.

[Atarian75]

I found mine in a copy of Stack Up.

-Atarian75

[jsoper]

I found one in Hogan's Alley (out of about 6 HA carts in the store). You'll

know when you find one, they're a lot heavier than normal.

[Jasoco]

I can't believe this.

 

I tested EVERY ONE of the carts on my shelf and in the store and NONE of them are heavier!

 

What gives??? How long did they sell the adapted versions for before they finally made actual US versions?

[Raijin Z]

Beatsafukkouttame. I got my Gyromite at a pawn shop, not AN HOUR after I learned of the adapter, and I checked it for weight versus Ninja Gaiden. Noticeably heavier.

[Jasoco]

Beatsafukkouttame. I got my Gyromite at a pawn shop, not AN HOUR after I learned of the adapter, and I checked it for weight versus Ninja Gaiden. Noticeably heavier.

[banging head on table]

 

I gotta lie down for a second...

[Ferris]

Wouldnt the Famicom boards be coded with Japanese in the game? How can they just slap an adapter on there and pack it in a cartridge.... interesting that they did that.

 

 

By the way I'm having a problem. A lot of my earlier NES titles arent booting up when I turn on the system. Games like Excitebike, Metroid, Hogan's Alley, and Mario either give me a blue screen, a FLASHING blue screen, or scrambled code on the screen. Sometimes if I sit there for a while, having cleaned all the contacts, and turn the system on and off for like 20 mins the game will finally boot up. Is this common for these old titles to die out like that? They have been well maintained in a dry, airconditioned area for most of their lives.

 

Is there some trick to reviving these cartridges? I have Atari cartridges that are twice as old that dont give me problems like this. I know that the system works just fine because all of my other titles work on it perfectly.

 

Thanks!

[Raijin Z]

Cosmic radiation? Bit rot?

 

A lot of Japanese have nothing but english text in them. It's not like you're reading a novel. Hell, you wouldn't know if you were playing a Japanese copy of Street Fighter until you saw a character's win or loss text.

[Bratwurst]

@ Ferris:

 

The mask roms were likely the english versions, Nintendo probably just didn't have enough US boards, or an overstock of Famicom boards and decided to get rid of them. Another possibility is that it was so early in production they didn't even have a US board conceived yet.

 

As for the difficulty in getting early games to work, here's what I've found. All of the first generation games (NROM, UNROM, CROM MMC1 chip boards) have trace connectors filling up either side, instead of missing sections like you'd see on the card edge of Super Mario Bros. 3, for example. Thus, in order for the game to work properly, it's very dependant that every single one of those traces are in contact with the generally faulty 72-pin connector of the NES. Additionally these games have thinner circuit boards than later revisions, if you compare them.

[Sylentwulf]

Why do you need one so bad? They're like $5-$10 on ebay or at any online store that sells imports. It's just easier to buy one

 

Not to say I haven't checked some of my carts, but I wouldn't go out of my way to check for one.

[Jasoco]

Why do you need one so bad? They're like $5-$10 on ebay or at any online store that sells imports. It's just easier to buy one

 

Not to say I haven't checked some of my carts, but I wouldn't go out of my way to check for one.

For the coolness factor.

 

I dunno. I don't actually need it. I just want it without using eBay. So I can say "I got my Famicom adapter out of an NES cartridge."

[JB]

@ Ferris:

 

The mask roms were likely the english versions, Nintendo probably just didn't have enough US boards, or an overstock of Famicom boards and decided to get rid of them.

Nah. Minimal adaptation was needed, if any.

 

Look at Gyromite. They didn't even change the titlescreen for the US release. It still claims to be Robot Gyro, which is its japanese title.

[Wrathchild]

Certainly the European released versions of a couple of these titles that I've opened didn't have the adaptor in, maybe this was only done in the US?

 

I'd love to get a my jap Final Fantasy 3 cart running on my NES (PAL) but even if the adaptor did work - would there be any country lockout or NTSC/PAL issues as the next hurdle?

 

If there's another (PAL) title that uses an identical mapper then the FF3 ROMs could be lifted and re-inserted onto that board in a different case perhaps?

 

Regards,

 

Mark

[+-^CrossBow^-]

I found my adapter in a Gyromite as well. The number stamped on the back of my Gyromite handle instructions is 07. I have seen links that stated to look for 00 or 01 stamped on the back, but everyone of those I have found did not contain the adapter. I have ran into 2 gyromites that had the 07 stamped on them that did have the adapter. However, I have also ran into other 07 stamped games and even gyromites that didn't. In all, I would say that I have checked nearly 50+ gyromite carts in my area from time to time just to see if they feel heavier, and so far only found 2 that contained the famicon adapter. The weight difference isn't much by the way. To get the best feel for the weight difference you simply need to compare the cart with another of the same game. If one of them feels heavier, then chances are it contains the famicom adapter inside. I had to compare about 3 different Gyromites before I was sure the one I had was indeed heavier than the rest. I actually had a hard time being able to tell.

 

Hope that helps somewhat?

[JB]

Certainly the European released versions of a couple of these titles that I've opened didn't have the adaptor in, maybe this was only done in the US?

 

I'd love to get a my jap Final Fantasy 3 cart running on my NES (PAL) but even if the adaptor did work - would there be any country lockout or NTSC/PAL issues as the next hurdle?

 

If there's another (PAL) title that uses an identical mapper then the FF3 ROMs could be lifted and re-inserted onto that board in a different case perhaps?

 

Regards,

 

Mark

If I recall, the PAL NESes use a diffrent lockout chip, which means Famicom games won't work without a more complex adapter than was used for the US NES games(which just moves pins around).

 

I know they do on the SNES(which is admittedly a diffrent beast, but there ARE some striking similarities).

[DeV0]

There is no hope in hell finding an adapter in a PAL nes cart, as advosed different lockput etc.

 

What im after is an NES to FAMICOM adapter as i never have the NES plugged in and have several famicoms.

[Miqorz]

Here's a better one..

 

http://rpgd.emulationworld.com/ballz/convert.htm

 

I have a couple of these laying around if anyone's intrested.