blog/content/blog/making-a-nes-region-free/index.md

title	date	draft	ShowToc	cover	ShowBreadCrumbs	ShowPostNavLinks	ShowReadingTime
Making a NES region free	2016-10-15T22:03:00	false	true	hidden hiddenInList hiddenInSingle image alt caption relative false false true images/2016-10-15-14.23.37.jpg The working NES <text> true	true	true	true

It all began with me walking into a video game shop. I decided to buy a new NES game, settled down on GOLF, one of the classics that were released with the console in 1985.

{{< figure align=center src="images/2016-10-15-14.23.51.jpg" alt="Some games I previously owned" title="Some games I previously owned" >}}

{{< figure align=center src="images/2016-10-15-14.24.09.jpg" alt="The new game" title="The new game" >}}

I got home, Decided to try it out, but it didn't work. Well, it'll be fine, I thought, this happens all the time. Just grab a q-tip, rub the contacts to free them from their dirt prison. Done, the q-tips were indeed dirty, indicating a good job of cleaning. There I go butting the cartridge back in the console... for it not to work. Then it hit me : i had bought a USA version of the game, but I own a french version of the console...

{{< figure align=center src="images/2016-10-15-14.23.37.jpg" alt="My console, in all its glory !" title="My console, in all its glory !" >}}

{{< figure align=center src="images/2016-10-15-14.29.35(1).jpg" alt="There I am cracking it" title="As seen in the bottom-right corner, it's a french console (FRA)" >}}

{{< figure align=center src="images/2016-10-15-14.24.15.jpg" alt="The marking on the game showing that it's a USA version" title="Yep, USA version..." >}}

After 5 minutes of search online, I found a tutorial to fix this issue : making the NES region free. This gets rid of the inter-country protection. So, let's go !

First, dismantle the soul out of the console :

{{< figure align=center src="images/2016-10-15-14.33.05.jpg" alt="The bare guts" title="The bare guts" >}}

You'll have to dig a little deeper to find the light at the end of the tunnel : The bare PCB !

{{< figure align=center src="images/P1130310.jpg" alt="The PCB" title="The PCB" >}}

Now I won't cover all the details here, but here's a very good article about doing so (I even stole a picture from them ;) )

After having made the necessary changes (actually, snipping a leg from an integrated circuit) I put back the console in its place :

{{< figure align=center src="images/2016-10-15-15.05.39.jpg" alt="The NES standing heroically." title="The NES standing heroically." >}}

And the USA game worked like a charm !

{{< figure align=center src="images/2016-10-15-15.05.41.jpg" alt="Oooooh yeah, sweet game !" title="Oooooh yeah, sweet game !" >}}

{{< figure align=center src="images/2016-10-15-15.05.45.jpg" alt="The working game" title="I don't even know how to play this thing, I'll have to look online..." >}}