Buying a N64 Console

[mykeal]

Hey guys, I'm just about to purchase a N64 console, however I was told that all the consoles and games from this particular website are in the NTSC format, what would I have to do to be able to play this console in Australia? is it a power issue or the video side of it?

 

[samjc3]

Australia is PAL, so the power side is different, but the console should take care of that; the carts all run at the same voltage cross regions. You'll need some sort of region mods to block the lockout. Most region mods I have seen are for NTSC/NTSC-J so people can play all the lovely Jrpgs. Somebody who actually knows the n64 stuff should get in here.

 

[hidiosoman]

I think the only way to change the region of an N64 is by swapping the PIF chip.

For his uses, I bet he just wants a plain PAL n64.

 

[XCVG]

For the most part, NTSC and PAL boards are the same, hardware-wise. The revisions are different, so for more advanced mods you may need to figure things out yourself. If you're just doing basic modding, the connections should be the same.

Australian PAL consoles output in PAL50 video format and work only with PAL games. NTSC-U and NTSC-J consoles output NTSC60 video and can play each others' games (NOT PAL GAMES) with a simple mechanical mod. The only way to region mod an N64 is to wire a switch that can swap between NTSC and PAL PIF chips. It's not very well documented.

 

[bud]

Asked zenloc this a while back.

Turning a pal n64 to ntsc is not that simple. When you switch the piff chip the video chip will still output a pal50hz image which will give you a flickering image if you play ntsc games and also show it in black and white. If you rgb mod it however you shouldn't have this problem.

 

[XCVG]

Ah. One of my eventual projects is a multiregion N64. RGB-modded revision with an external AD725 wired to switch video modes with PIF perhaps?