N64 Region free N64 modding the “kind” way!

Awbacon

Awbacon

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I’ve seen too many mentions across the Internet lately about cutting plastic away from your cart slot and it all sorts of makes me sad to think people are just recommending hacking plastic away from their consoles. So I made this. Maybe it’s painfully obvious but I’d appreciate feedback since it’s the “simplest” video I’ve done to date.

Show it to your friends. Let’s start a “don’t cut your 64” campaign lolol
 
In regards to feedback. I mean, sure, this is a perfectly fine method of playing off region games on your system. The only thing is, if you own a big library this starts to get into the territory of owning a donor cartridge for every single game you want to play, unless you're prepared to keep swapping the back of the shell every time you want to change games. In some people's cases they might own a Japanese console, have 10 NTSC-U games but only 2 NTSC-J games, meaning they don't actually have enough donor backs for every game in their entire library.

But yeah, if you don't want to damage the console, hey why not. Personally I'm not bothered, consoles are reasonably inexpensive to find if you pick up generic models, and I'd rather cut the tabs away as opposed to risk damaging a cart like you mentioned, but whatever floats your boat!
 
esprade said:
In regards to feedback. I mean, sure, this is a perfectly fine method of playing off region games on your system. The only thing is, if you own a big library this starts to get into the territory of owning a donor cartridge for every single game you want to play, unless you're prepared to keep swapping the back of the shell every time you want to change games. In some people's cases they might own a Japanese console, have 10 NTSC-U games but only 2 NTSC-J games, meaning they don't actually have enough donor backs for every game in their entire library.

But yeah, if you don't want to damage the console, hey why not. Personally I'm not bothered, consoles are reasonably inexpensive to find if you pick up generic models, and I'd rather cut the tabs away as opposed to risk damaging a cart like you mentioned, but whatever floats your boat!
Click to expand...

Maybe I am just the patient type and use one donor back and swap as I decide to play something from Japan. But I could see that getting annoying.

I saw a 64 at thrift last month that had the cart slot "modified" and it was the worst hack job I'd ever seen. Someone went way too heavy on the snippers and dremel and made it look like their dog had just gnawed on the thing! That's what gave me the idea for the video lol
 
Haha. Well yeah there's gonna be people who botch it for sure, I'll be honest mine is not super clean but it works. I think as long as you're happy and playing games is the main thing. You can buy region free cartridge slots for the N64, so that's also an option for those who want to disassemble their console but then it's not 100% original, your tutorial is definately good for people who don't.
 
Yeah I figured so many new people are getting into retro gaming lately it seemed topical :)
 
Note to those new people: This is just for US<-->JP compatibility. While it (as well as any slot mods) makes PAL carts fit into NTSC machines, it won't make them run. And vice versa. Google "PIF"/"CIC" for further info.
 
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If this works for you, then great, but this is not a "region free N64 mod", because if anything, you modded the game carts, and not the console itself.

I personally just took a dremel tool and cut away the tabs. The other option is getting of those 3D printed slots of course.
 
Why not just use a N64 Gameshark? AFAIK, you could use to play JPN carts. I don't have any JPN to test, but I down a gameshark. The only negative that I see to this is (if like me) you have a server rack and vertical space is a premium.
 
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