SNES region mod question

[radorn]

Excuse me for the generic title, but I couldn't come with anything better:

When looking for a snes region mod, I always find that one about disabling the cic chip so it won't make any checks nor block the console from booting, but then I also read that some games will check for the cic and since it's now disabled, they will refuse to boot either, so this mod is not perfect.

Now, I'm sure this is not any revolutionary idea, but for some reason I don't find it anywhere else, wich it's a bit shocking to me, because it seems so obvious, but then again, it might be because it doesn't work...

My idea would be to take the cic out of a cartridge of the same region as the console you want to mod, and solder it permanently to the system, and cutting the traces/slot contacts so the console would always be willing to boot having a working CIC check, and also the cic in the cart you want to play won't interfere.
This seems pretty logical to me, if it works at all, but there's still one thing that bugs me.

The games that don't have security checks and just trust the cic system decission (or lack thereof when using the disabling mod) of letting the hardware boot, wouldn't have any problem at all, but what about those that do check?
Would they notice the difference from one cic pair (the cic on the console and the one in the cart) to another? or they can they only check for it to be working?

Anyway, if this mod is already documented, could someone lead me to a copy of it?

I have a PAL snes, for the record, and I would be willing to "sacrifice" the cic from a cart to be soldered inside the console if this does indeed work. It would make that cart unusable on an unmodded console, but since mine would be, it doesn't matter much, does it?

[Hojo_Norem]

AFAIK, and cart which checks if the cic system is operating usually do it in the cart.  I can't remember exactly where I heard it but apparently the cic in the cart can be wired so if the system has been disabled then the cic blocks accesses to the cart somehow.  The only game I heard of doing this is Mario RPG, and the cic on that cart is integrated into the cart's co-processor.

You have a good idea there with putting the cart cic inside the console but I would guess, seeing that the cic chip can either be a lock or key, that a ntsc cart cic could be wired for lock operation and implanted into a pal snes ontop of the existing pal lock with switched to switch between the two cic chips.  This would be similar to what the N64 import mod does (which I have given up on, its a nightmare to even attempt!).

[NeWmAn]

The games that don't have security checks and just trust the cic system decission (or lack thereof when using the disabling mod) of letting the hardware boot, wouldn't have any problem at all, but what about those that do check?
Would they notice the difference from one cic pair (the cic on the console and the one in the cart) to another? or they can they only check for it to be working?

They won't work, the protected games need the CIC signals to enter the chip inside the cartridge.
I did the opposite of what you suggested: since I had a protected game and I had 2 different SNES (USA & PAL), I did put a CIC removed from another game inside the protected game cartridge and cut the pins leading to the SNES connector.
This way the cartridge could run on any system.

If you check the old forum posts you can find the instructions to disable the protection of some games.

[radorn]

The games that don't have security checks and just trust the cic system decission (or lack thereof when using the disabling mod) of letting the hardware boot, wouldn't have any problem at all, but what about those that do check?
Would they notice the difference from one cic pair (the cic on the console and the one in the cart) to another? or they can they only check for it to be working?

They won't work, the protected games need the CIC signals to enter the chip inside the cartridge.
I did the opposite of what you suggested: since I had a protected game and I had 2 different SNES (USA & PAL), I did put a CIC removed from another game inside the protected game cartridge and cut the pins leading to the SNES connector.
This way the cartridge could run on any system.

If you check the old forum posts you can find the instructions to disable the protection of some games.

So, NIY�MA-san (or maybe it's NY�MA?).

In the end, mi idea of a cart's cic inside the console has absolutelly no advantage over just disabling the one inside the console. Is that what you meant?

[NeWmAn]

In the end, mi idea of a cart's cic inside the console has absolutelly no advantage over just disabling the one inside the console. Is that what you meant?

Yes.

Btw. it was supposed to be ニユ－マン but the forum won't accept the last character.

[radorn]

naru hodou. arigatou gozaimasu, Newman-san.