PAL TO NSTC MODIFICATION! HOW TO DO IT?

[kid8bit]

Hi guys,

(skip the paragraph if you want to)

I am new here and I love Famicom games since I was 8 or 9. I believe 8Bit never die here.
Anyways, I have purchased a dead famiclone over eBay years ago, I I have been trying to fix it for couple of months now, and thank God I did! After extensive internet research I finally figured that my Famiclone was manufactured in Venezuela. I watched videos on youtube, read forums, and looked for PCB pictures all over the internet, until one day I bought a similar PCB from eBay. I finally figured that it was a specific voltage regulator "KIA 7805P 3C" was the problem. What a feeling of success when I turned on the first time! Woahh! IT WORKS!


My problem is the sound is weird, It took my a few minutes to think that it could be a PAL famiclone. Is there a way to convert PAL to NES? Thank you!

[famifan]

weird sound. what did you mean under that?

was it just slow? or intensively distorted/muffled?

relatively modern made famiclones have got very bad PCB design (eg: which produces a lot of humming noise) and poor quality sound circuits as well ( heavily distorted, unclear muffled sound).

[kid8bit]

Hi! Thanks! It isn't slow. It has great quality picture. The Base(BASS) is great, the high pitch sounds are a little low.

[jpx72]

You can use an emulator like Nestopia to test the speed difference between PAL and NTSC. Or just use youtube, plenty of compare videos out there.

My guess is also because it's a famiclone, unfixable situation, cloned CPU is the reason.

[kid8bit]

@ jpx72

   Yes, it is a Venezuelan made famiclone( but is says Made in Taiwan)

[80sFREAK]

You will need NTSC chipset and crystal 21.477MHz.

[jpx72]

Like 80s said, this is a full hardware clone, you need to exchange PAL PPU (one of the "big chips") for a NTSC one. Plus xtal.

[number47]

Actually some guys from Argentina managed to do the mod without replacing CPU or PPU

http://retrogaming.com.ar/forum/viewtopic.php?f=44&t=11157

[kid8bit]

Thanks for this. After an thorough inspection it turns out my Famiclone isn't PAL after all. I have switch a couple of resistors and the sound is perfect like the actual Famicom. At the same time it resolved my second issue that I have not mentioned. When I had a weird sound, controllers won't work. As I switched resistors it solved 2 problems. It works now but has damaged PCB circuit traces.

[jpx72]

I don't understand that forum and translator is not helfull
But I understood that he pulled pin16 PPU high.
The usage of EXT pins of a PPU are not clear to me...
Also what crystal did he got there? Pal or ntsc?

[FAMICOM_87]

I ask the guy from the video in that forum, and he replayed me

"well, basically you have to lift pin 16 of the ppu and then connect it to 5v (i connect it to the pin 40 in the video) thats it, i dont have an schematic. Also, this only works on some CRT tvs, no lcds. This is because some crt tvs when they detecting the color system, it checks the hz (50 or 60) or the color subcarrier. With the ones that check the speed you get black and white, with the others you get color. I was told that this mod works on some european clones and with plasma tv."

[jpx72]

Hmm will try what it does on one of my clones I will post results!

[FAMICOM_87]

Hmm will try what it does on one of my clones I will post results!

me too !
EDIT here are my results, but NO luck

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hP6LmoJ5Ql8&feature=youtu.be

[jpx72]

You will need a NTSC crystal, cant imagine how this will work without it, even if the PPU manufacturers "edited" the function of one of the EXT pins to make an universal pal+ntsc ppu.
Try other EXT pins too, 14,15,16,17.

[number47]

I went through the posts and some members got things right with pin 17. And yeah - the XTAL swap is also needed.