Mobiusclimber of the Rising Stuff Forums has created this simple and straight forward guide to one of the quickest mods you can do: Make your SNES play Super Famicom games! Don’t worry, it will still play your Super Nintendo games perfectly and the modification will not be visible on the outside of your console.
Standard Disclaimer: Mod your Super Nintendo at your own risk. We are not responsible for damaged consoles.
1) Unplug your console. This step should be obvious. Here is is anyway.
2) Look inside the cartridge slot of your SNES and you might notice two small ridges of plastic, one on each side of the pin connectors.
Since the pins in both Surer Nintendo and Super Famicom games are the same, those two small pieces of plastic are the only things holding you back from playing Japanese Super Famicom games on your SNES. Well maybe the language barrier as well, but we can discuss that another time.
If you look at the back of an SNES cartridge, you’ll see two slots cut out of the plastic. This is what those ridges fit into.
Looking on the back of an SFC cartridge, they don’t have the open spaces for the ridges. So if you just tried to pop the cartridge into your SNES, it wouldn’t fit.
3) Of course there’s a very easy solution to this problem: with a pair of pliers (or some other suitable implement of destruction), reach into the cartridge slot and break off those two pieces of plastic. I used a knife when I performed the surgery, but I wouldn’t recommend that. Pliers work best because you want to make sure you get the whole piece off and not leave any behind. Take a look at these pics to see what an SNES will look like before and after the surgery:
4) … There is no fourth step. Yeah, that’s it. And in case you were wondering, no, removing those two tabs doesn’t change your SNES Mini into a regular SNES. I just took pics of the two SNES consoles that I had. I didn’t mod the Mini and just happened to have a beat up regular SNES so I modded that. Once you have those two tabs broken off you can start playing all the Super Famicom games you like. Well… not quite. Later games (released around 1996) might have a lockout chip still. Known games that will not work are Super Mario RPG and Kirby Super Star. The solution? … Play the North American release!
