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SNES u/floppy_five25 ·

Why don’t Super Famicom games fit into my American SNES?

I bought a couple of Japanese games because they were way cheaper, but the cartridges physically won't go into the slot on my SNES. I thought they were the same system internally. Did I just waste my money or is there a way to make them work?
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2 comments

  • u/pixelrot ·
    They are exactly the same system inside, Nintendo just used physical shape as a cheap region lock. If you look inside the cartridge slot of your American SNES, you'll see two little plastic tabs near the back. Those tabs slot into the grooves on the back of US cartridges, but Japanese Super Famicom carts have a smooth back so they hit the tabs and get blocked. If you remove those tabs, the games will boot up just fine.
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  • u/lightgunlou ·
    If you don't want to permanently modify your console by snapping those tabs off, you can just buy a cheap pass-through adapter or a Game Genie. You plug the Game Genie into the console, and the Japanese game into the Game Genie. Since the Game Genie has the right grooves for the US system, it bypasses the physical lock entirely.
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