Disabling a Top Loader's region lock-out chip?

flatuswalrusflatuswalrus
in Help Wanted!
Sorry if there has already been covered in another thread about this but I could not find one.

I recently purchased a Top Loader (I am in Australia) and it works awesome. Over half of my NES carts are NTSC though which won't play. I just assumed for some reason the Top Loader didn't have a region chip.

1) Does the Top Loader have a region lock-out chip?
2) If so is it easy to disable like a toaster?
3) Is there any videos on youtube or instructions somewhere on how to do this?

Any help would be appreciated, thanks.

Comments

  • dr.robbiedr.robbie
    my toploader doesn't have a lockout chip... that's one of the primary reasons I use it over a front loader. are they different in australia?
  • Jono1874Jono1874
    I'm not positive, but I dont think the top loader has any sort of region lockout in it.


    EDIT: dr. robbie, you beat me to the punch!
  • jamesnesc709jamesnesc709
    can i see a pic of your top loader flatuswalrus
  • caveman_gamescaveman_games
    Top loaders are region free...
  • flatuswalrusflatuswalrus
    Like I said I really did think they were region free which is also one of the reasons I wanted one. I wouldn't imagine they would be different in Australia to the American ones. I will take a pic of it soon and post it here if I can't resolve the problem, thanks guys.
  • flatuswalrusflatuswalrus
    Hmm that's weird. I just tried a NTSC game and it worked. I originally used the power adapter & RF cable from the toaster. I swapped them around to both cords I got with the Top Loader and then tried the NTSC game & it worked. But there's no way that the cords would make a difference at all. Maybe it was just luck that the first 5 or 6 NTSC games didn't work & the first 3 or so PAL ones did, then this NTSC one did. Oh well sorry about the confusion people I appreciate the responses. I would normally work things out before posting something but after I tried numerous PAL that worked & NTSC that didn't I thought something must be going on but just luck I guess, I'm such a silly sausage.
  • Speedy_NESSpeedy_NES
    Do the NTSC games that didn't work before work now? I'm also curious about this as I don't think it's ever been brought up before whether or not the PAL-A toploader is region-free or not.
  • jamesnesc709jamesnesc709
    yea i wonder that too
  • flatuswalrusflatuswalrus
    First of all let me make this point. ALL my games have been taken apart and cleaned to the MAX! I do this before I add them to my shelf so they are all good so there shouldn't be an issue of dirty PIN connectors.

    I have tried MANY games. I tested probably about 15 NTSC games and only a couple worked. I tried a mix of UKV & GBR & only 1 worked. I tried about 10 PAL games and they ALL worked.

    The non PAL region games that didn't work, worked fine on my old toaster. So my next question is, is the Top Loader EXTRA sensitive to dirty carts? & if it is, it really is a huge coincidence that it was the PAL ones that all worked. In saying that if at least 1 other region cart worked, then it can't really be a region lock-out chip issue.

    When a game was dirty on my old toaster & needed a clean it still would show some of the picture on the screen but all scrambled and shitty. On the Top Loader it just shows a gray colored screen. Is the gray screen a sign on the Top Loader of dirty carts?

    If no one can remember any Australians verifying the region issue of a Top Loader I'm sure there would be quite a few Aussies on here that own Top Loaders that could jump in and offer their opinion also?
  • jamesnesc709jamesnesc709
    do your pal games have a 72 pin connector ?
  • dangevindangevin
    Toploaders are a pain to clean, and since the connector is exactly the size of the boards it's tough to "play" with the situation of the cart to get a better signal. So yes, they are more affected by dirt.



    Cleaning them is a bitch. There are replacement connectors but they're rare. Dain had some, he gave me one at one point. Looks very complicated to install image



    People have found some success getting a copy of a Game Genie to work, and then plugging through cartridges so that if the GG connector gets dirty, it's no big loss...Also the fatter board on the GG helps force the contact on the toploader. Of course this also stretches it out, but after you've taken your toploader's V-card you might as well just leave it in anyways image
  • OzNEScollectorOzNEScollector
    my NTSC games have no problem in my toploader, i was under the impression that all toploaders are region free - i can tell you that the motherboard layout is different compared to the NTSC one meaning that the australian toploaders dont get the "jailbar" thing....maybe Zzap can chime in as he's the one that told me this image
  • flatuswalrusflatuswalrus
    Yes that's funny "OzNEScollector", I heard all the talk about the "jailbar" problem and was surprised that mine didn't have that worry involved. I wonder what exactly they did to kill the problem. Do you know if the all gray colored screen means it's definitely a dirty cart?
  • ZzapZzap
    Yup, I can confirm that the Australian toploader has a similar board layout to the NTSC AV toploader, and doesn't seem to have the jailbar interference. I understand that there may be an ezine in the works to describe the differences image The Aus toploaders is also definately region free, so I'd guess that something's dirty.
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