Issue playing Snes games on Super Famicom?

o1s1n

Does anyone else have a Super Famicom they can test out? Basically what has happened is I was playing through Super Mario World and there were a few minor (but annoying) glitches.

The game plays fine. However, during the start up demo the screen would blink a hell of a lot. Also when you have selected a level, when the screen goes black around maro in a little circle, you'd get the blinking again too. With minor weird square glitching.

None of the game play was effected until I got to the very end in Bowser's castle. There's a disco ball thing that lights up your way. All the area that remains dark has this weird same flashing glitchyness. I think it may have happened in dark areas through the game..not too sure if it was noticable.

I thought it was just a dodgy cart.Tried playing Super Maro Kart last night and the game was flashing similarly to the above. Also I think there may be some slight problems with the sound volume in these two games too.

Tried about 20-30 more carts and most of them seem to be okay. Starwing won't boot up at all.

Does anyone know if the above might be due to PAL optimization? What I'm trying to figure out is if something has gone bad in my Super Famicom and it's only messing up certain effects in games (thought it might be a mode 7 issue but F Zero runs fine)

I suppose a good way of testing out if it's a region or hardware issue is to try a Japanese copy of Super Mario World or Super Mario Kart.

Retr0gamer

Could be a timing issue. Was on you tube and it shows in the NTSC version the enemy in he first stage will go over your head while in the PAL version he will hit you if you justrun straight so there is some optimisation in those games. Just pray it isn't capacitors related. I'dsay mario kart has some optimisation and F-zero definitely isn't optimised, there was lots of complaints about howslow it was on release.

Myrddin

Can't see how its capacitor related, it's some kind of processing/timing error as you mentioned. Perhaps try one of those t-connectors for imports if you have one, to use the cic chip of a famicom game while running a pal one?

o1s1n

I first thought it was a cap issue in either the Super Famicom or the magic disk thing I have on it. However as it's isn't really happening any other game it would make more sense for it to be a software problem.

Unless of course Mario Kart and Super Mario world happen to be the only games I have out of about 50 that use a particular effect/chip that is suffering cap failure. Sounds highly unlikely though.

Myrddin

o1s1n wrote: »

I first thought it was a cap issue in either the Super Famicom or the magic disk thing I have on it. However as it's isn't really happening any other game it would make more sense for it to be a software problem.

Unless of course Mario Kart and Super Mario world happen to be the only games I have out of about 50 that use a particular effect/chip that is suffering cap failure. Sounds highly unlikely though.

Try the SFC version of Mario on the magic disk thing...at least it will rule out a hardware fault if it works.

o1s1n

EnterNow wrote: »

Can't see how its capacitor related, it's some kind of processing/timing error as you mentioned. Perhaps try one of those t-connectors for imports if you have one, to use the cic chip of a famicom game while running a pal one?

Yep, tried that. Same issue! As both the games that are having the problem are PAL I can only get them going through adapters.

So I'm testing them through both a region adapter T thing like you mentioned and my Super Wild Card floppy disk system thing which also has a region bypass. As there are two adapters it can't really be a fault with either them.

So the only true way of testing the Famicom to see if it's working is to get my hands on a Japanese copy of Super Mario World or Mario Kart and plug them directly into the system.

Ah! Brainwave - the Wild Card is a piracy device. Therefore I can try to load a Japanese version of the games onto that and see if they have the problem. I don't think Starwing would fit, but Super Mario World might. Will give that a go when I get home...if I can find my damn floppy drive!

o1s1n

EnterNow wrote: »

Try the SFC version of Mario on the magic disk thing...at least it will rule out a hardware fault if it works.

Heh, only saw this after I submitted my post. :P

o1s1n

Tried out the Japanese version of Super Mario World - works perfect! So no hardware issue at all. That's a relief. Thanks guys

o1s1n

Another Snes related problem. Not the same console though. There's been a Snes sitting out in my parents for years that I could never get working, would just boot to a green screen.

I realized I'd never tried it again since my big RGB changeover. So brought it home with me today.

Booted it up in RGB and the game appears but it's only bright for a second and then fades away to black. Sound keeps going though.

Thought it must be the early PAL snes/RGB scart cap issue. Not going to take the caps out of my scart cable as it works with my NTSC one. So I tried one of those fake scart cables instead.

This is where it gets odd! Tried the fake start in the RGB scart slot on the TV. No image at all. Tried it in the other, non RGB scart slot and the game boots (In AV, ugh! so ugly), but it's all red. There's very little to no other colours in the picture. I can see, play and hear the game fine. Other than it all being red.

Any idea? I'm fairly sure that when it starts up in RGB there's colour there until the image fades.

On the note of AV, jesus christ is it bad. I had two Super Nintendos on at once, on going in RGB and the other AV. It's pretty amazing seeing a real time comparison like that.

edit - right, it starts up fine in the RGB slot with the non RGB cable, just same with the red image.

OKay, TLDR version -

RGB - picture and sound appear. Picture fades in half a second and sound continues on - sounds like a PAL/scart cap issue.

AV - Picture and sound work fine. Just everything is red. Issue - no idea!

Retr0gamer

o1s1n wrote: »

Another Snes related problem. Not the same console though. There's been a Snes sitting out in my parents for years that I could never get working, would just boot to a green screen.

I realized I'd never tried it again since my big RGB changeover. So brought it home with me today.

Booted it up in RGB and the game appears but it's only bright for a second and then fades away to black. Sound keeps going though.

Thought it must be the early PAL snes/RGB scart cap issue. Not going to take the caps out of my scart cable as it works with my NTSC one. So I tried one of those fake scart cables instead.

This is where it gets odd! Tried the fake start in the RGB scart slot on the TV. No image at all. Tried it in the other, non RGB scart slot and the game boots (In AV, ugh! so ugly), but it's all red. There's very little to no other colours in the picture. I can see, play and hear the game fine. Other than it all being red.

Any idea? I'm fairly sure that when it starts up in RGB there's colour there until the image fades.

On the note of AV, jesus christ is it bad. I had two Super Nintendos on at once, on going in RGB and the other AV. It's pretty amazing seeing a real time comparison like that.

edit - right, it starts up fine in the RGB slot with the non RGB cable, just same with the red image.

OKay, TLDR version -

RGB - picture and sound appear. Picture fades in half a second and sound continues on - sounds like a PAL/scart cap issue.

AV - Picture and sound work fine. Just everything is red. Issue - no idea!

It's a well known issue o1s1n abd it was implemented by nintendo to try and sell their own brand RGB cables and get a leg up on third parties before they copped on to the soultion. Usually happens when you are using a GC RGB cable. It requires modding the RGB cable and it's really simple to do. I did it myself with a soldering iron (no solder required if you do it right and just reheat the solder) and just requires the removal of a few capacitors.

Mod here:

http://www.mmmonkey.co.uk/console/nintendo/pal-snes-rgb.htm

o1s1n

Two problems with that though

1 - I don't want to mod my RGB scart cable as it works perfectly with my NTSC Super Famicom. As far as I know, NTSC consoles need the caps.

2 - why is it giving a normal but completely red image when through standard AV?

Only solution I can think of at the moment is to buy another RGB cable, remove the caps and then see if the picture is red via RGB. Pretty expensive way of troubleshooting something though!

Anyone ever heard of a Snes giving out mostly red? It's like an extremer version of what was happening to my Amiga. That was solved by doing a cap kit. Maybe the caps in this snes are just on the way out.