Famicom disk system on PAL NES?

[Mudk112]

Hi,
I was planning on buying myself a Famicom disk system, shortly after seeing that someone was able to adapt theirs to work on a standard 'Toaster' NES. However, since then I have suddenly had a thought - the Famicom has a frequency of 60hz, whereas a standard PAL NES only has 50hz.
I have seen people play NTSC game carts on PAL consoles, with the only difference of games running a little bit slower, but i figured that maybe with the disk system, it might not just be as simple as just 'plugging and playing'.
SO, I was wondering if anyone knows whether it will make any difference to how the disk drive works if i used it with my PAL NES, Will it be fine(with only the game running a tad slower)? or will the differences cause something like a short circuit or fry the disk drive? (In which case im probably better off buying a famicom and a disk system)

Thank you very much for taking your time to read this.

P.s. I think I may have posted this in the wrong place, if I have, then im sorry. (I'm quite new to this Forum)

Here's a link to the site where I saw this: http://www.nintendoplayer.com/projects/famicom-disk-system-in-a-toaster-nes/

[P]

I don't think it could damage your NES in any way, but it will probably run too slow or even not run at all. The only thing that differs between NTSC and PAL Famicom/NES games is how they are programmed (for different PPUs and timing and such).

I would suggest getting an NTSC system (Famicom or NES) for playing NTSC games.

[80sFREAK]

It will work unpredictable  Or(most likely) not work at all, if clock frequency out of tolerance range.

[Mudk112]

Ok, Thank you for your quick reply...
I know i sound a little bit too determined/hopeful when I say this, but, would it be possible to play these games at full speed if I used a Famicom-to-NES converter of some kind? Or does such a thing not exist?
Alternatively, might there be a way to overclock the processor in my NES?
Im not going to hold my breath with any of these questions, but if any of the things above are possible, then I would like to know
Thank you for your time

[P]

No a converter just converts the pin configuration (there's really nothing else to convert) and simply overclocking would most likely not be enough either since the PAL NES uses a different CPU and PPU. You would have to reprogram every game for them to work on a PAL NES. That is if you can even run the RAM adapter in the first place.

Getting an NTSC console is by far the cheapest and easiest way.

[Issun]

This is an interesting question actually. If I'm not wrong, the 2C33 chip in the RAM adapter handles all disk to adapter-RAM transfers (and vice versa), so the clock rate of the NES CPU shouldn't matter if all it's doing is waiting for a "transferred" latch from the RAM adapter. Of course you'd run into the usual problems running NTSC code on a PAL machine; it'll be slower and eventual raster effects will be off. Also you'd be missing the FDS extra audio channel but there's a modification that could be done to remedy that though.

I think there's a chance it could work and in anyway it sounds like it would be a fun project to try out. If you do some more research and decides to take it on, feel free to post the result here!

If you're just itching to play, like P said; get a NTSC system. A Famicom isn't that expensive.

[Clarky]

Just as a heads up, it doesn't work.

The PAL NES reads and loads up the FDS bios but as soon as the game tries to load, it doesn't. I know it's not the FDS at fault either as it has been tested on a Famicom.

[Issun]

Thanks for trying it out, good to know!

[ImATrackMan]

Pretty old topic, but if the expansion port is on the PAL NESes (which it is), then the FDS was clearly intended for international release, and therefore, it should work in principle. I'm entirely sure that the issue is one of system clock speed. if you look inside the RAM adapter, you'll see an NTSC NES/Famicom crystal, so if you swap that one for a PAL NES crystal, it'll likely work just fine.

[MrNorbert]

I actually tried this method.
I can confirm: it does not work with a PAL NES, netiher with Famiclones.

[HVC-Man]

Pretty old topic, but if the expansion port is on the PAL NESes (which it is), then the FDS was clearly intended for international release, and therefore, it should work in principle. I'm entirely sure that the issue is one of system clock speed. if you look inside the RAM adapter, you'll see an NTSC NES/Famicom crystal, so if you swap that one for a PAL NES crystal, it'll likely work just fine.

The PAL NES "expansion" port was for AV output. FDS doesn't work on the PAL NES because the 2A03 code is simply incompatible. Code written for 60hz either barely works or flat out doesn't work at 50hz.

The only option is an NTSC NES / Famicom and realize that PAL sucks.

[P]

I think if the "NES Disk System" that never came, was going to use the expansion port, they where going to redesign it either way. Both PAL and NTSC version.

[tonev]

Funny i played smb2j on a pal nes and it did not had any problems running. Yes it was slow but it was running fine

[HVC-Man]

"running slow" still counts as incompatible. Sometimes an NTSC NES game is playable in PAL, sometimes it completely crashes and is unplayable. There are a number of PAL exclusives that have corrupted garbage, crash or run slow on an NTSC NES.

[P]

Many PAL releases was poorly optimized or not optimized at all for PAL often having the wrong speed and/or wrong pitch for sound. But yeah I also regard that as incompatible and always play NTSC games on an NTSC machine.

Funny i played smb2j on a pal nes and it did not had any problems running. Yes it was slow but it was running fine

Was it really the disk or some pirate cartridge or flash cart? I thought the problem was that the RAM Adapter doesn't work at all on PAL, not the FDS games themselves.

The PAL NES "expansion" port was for AV output.

You mean that big expansion port on the underside was used for AV output? Now I don't have my NES any longer but I'm sure it had RCA jacks in the back like the NTSC NES (we always used RF though).