PAL SNES in the States and how to get it working

Hey everyone. I'm a very longtime lurker and I love this community for all of the great info. I've recently been able to acquire a beautiful PAL SNES complete in box on my trip to the UK and want to bring it back to the states and would love to use it there.

I know there are issues with 50 and 60 hertz refresh rate differences. It seems a lot of current TV's will handle this fine. The real issue I have trouble finding any clarification on, is whether I can just plug in the console with a proper adapter or whether I need a converter due to the voltage differences. Does anyone have any experience with this?

Thanks for the help and I'll post some pictures of the SNES once I get home. Never thought I'd find one wandering around here so very cool to get it.

I'm pretty sure you need a converter. I know that using the US Power Adapter in a Japanese Famicom will kill the Famicom as will plugging the Famicom w/ Jap Adapter into an American socket. (I was looking into getting an AV Famicom, but that little tidbit kind of turned me off on the idea.) As far as I know, the SNES and NES use the same power adapter so I think they would have the same problems.

I would probably just mod an SNES 2 to play PAL games and keep the PAL system as a display piece, but that's just me. 

The PAL and NTSC SNES use a different connection port on the unit itself so you can't just plug in a US power adapter into a UK unit or vice versa.  Unfortunately, you will need to pick up a separate power adapter.  

KillerRamen said:

I'm pretty sure you need a converter. I know that using the US Power Adapter in a Japanese Famicom will kill the Famicom as will plugging the Famicom w/ Jap Adapter into an American socket. (I was looking into getting an AV Famicom, but that little tidbit kind of turned me off on the idea.) As far as I know, the SNES and NES use the same power adapter so I think they would have the same problems.

I would probably just mod an SNES 2 to play PAL games and keep the PAL system as a display piece, but that's just me.

Click to expand...

Using a NES Power Adapter in anything else besides a NES will kill just about anything since other consoles run on DC, when the NES one does straight up AC.

According to NintendoAge:

A PAL AC Adapter will take in

Input: AC 240V 50Hz 17w

Output: Output AC 9v 1.3A
Barrel: 2.5mm inner/5.5 outter. Length 9.5mm.

Click to expand...

As long as you find a power adapter that outputs the 9V and 1.3A, like a Sega Genesis power cable, you can power your PAL Snes. Getting the thing to display on your tv is another matter.

KillerRamen said:

I'm pretty sure you need a converter. I know that using the US Power Adapter in a Japanese Famicom will kill the Famicom as will plugging the Famicom w/ Jap Adapter into an American socket. (I was looking into getting an AV Famicom, but that little tidbit kind of turned me off on the idea.) As far as I know, the SNES and NES use the same power adapter so I think they would have the same problems.

I would probably just mod an SNES 2 to play PAL games and keep the PAL system as a display piece, but that's just me.

Click to expand...

Holy shit really? I know I have a Japanese PSOne and have had no problem running it in an American socket. Was their something different there regarding earlier consoles in terms of voltage?

Additionally to the OP, why would you want to run a PAL SNES here? Are you desperate to run Terranigma because that's about the only European exclusive we didn't get. If you're talking about a Super Famicom then I can understand.

I think it was a mistake buying a PAL SNES, the system is heavily incompatible with North American TVs, and the voltage is different too.  Not sure what you were thinking OP, but you might want to try to unload it on Ebay.

I have a JAP SFC and it runs fine on US tvs and US sockets. Don't PAL games play in JAP SFC?

I would recommend trying to trade/sell for one of those if that's true.

Hopefully someone can help. This part of the forum seems to be dead.