What Is the Best Way to Play Super Famicom Games in English?

[Cannon | 1]

I'm interested in getting into collecting Super Nintendo games, but a lot of the titles I want are ungodly expensive, like Earthbound, Chrono Trigger, and so on. I've noticed the Super Famicom versions are much cheaper, complete versions often cheaper than an American cartridge. Is there a way to apply English translation patches easily without modifying the cartridge while playing on original hardware? I saw that there was the UFO Pro 8 converter adapter and the Hyperkin system, but I'm curious if there is anything else out there.

[Tanooki | 4,939]

Yes and no

If you want to actually own an original Japanese cartridge, as much as I detest recommending it, there's the Retron 5, an HDMI multi-cart console that will do SNES (NES, FC, Genesis, all ver Gameboy) and it has a SD card slot in the back.  One unique feature it has, hot patching on the fly, hacks into the games you put into the system from a cart.  Basically you can either hack a game where it's one of those remasters/total new game hacks, but you can also apply english translations.  It'll boot the game, hold a moment throwing the patch on, then booting your JP game in english.

The better choice, using a good piece of hardware, the SD2SNES(FXPak Pro) or if big chips aren't your need the Super Everdrive, and grabbing the rom, the translation, patching the file, and just playing the copy on the SD card using the kit.

[DefaultGen | 5,414]

If you want to be super legit you can dump your own SFC carts with a Retrode 2 or Super Nt, patch the ROM, then play on a flash cart. The Retron 5's auto patching is a pretty fancy feature. I don't know anything about the UFO Pro 8, but if it does that on real hardware, that sounds really cool.

[JamesRobot | 5,808]

SD2SNES and patch your roms with the translations.  Or just download the translated rom.

[noiseredux | 232]

I use the Retron 5 myself. I've been thrilled to recently pick up Super Famicom RPG's for a few bucks when the SNES counterparts were in the triple digit zone.

[LHCGreg | 111]

1 hour ago, DefaultGen said:

If you want to be super legit you can dump your own SFC carts with a Retrode 2 or Super Nt, patch the ROM, then play on a flash cart. The Retron 5's auto patching is a pretty fancy feature. I don't know anything about the UFO Pro 8, but if it does that on real hardware, that sounds really cool.

UFO Pro doesn't have any autopatching functionality. It's just a dumper and flash cart combined in one unit. You can stick the Japanese cartridge in the dumper slot on the top while playing the patched ROM if it makes you feel cooler but you have to do the patching yourself.

To play translations and ROM hacks I've used a UFO Pro, Retrode, or sanni cart reader to dump the cart, transfer the ROM to my computer, use my computer to apply the patch, and transfer to a SD2SNES (FXPak Pro) to play.

I was under the impression that translation patches generally don't exist for games that got a western release?

[darkchylde28 | 1,546]

I don't have anything to add that hasn't been covered, but holy crap, looking up the UFO Pro 8 to see if it was worth purchasing...yikes!  It seems Retro-Bit apparently stopped manufacturing all of their converters/adapters, and in the interim prices have gone insane on them.  $250-400 for a UFO Pro 8 that probably cost $30-50 when new?  $40-70 for the RetroGen adapter I paid like $10-20 for new?  Stuff like this is about enough to make me just pack it in for this hobby and bust out a software emulator and be done with it.

[Tyree_Cooper | 757]

Soon, learning Japanese and buying the Japanese games you want will be cheaper than all those 21st century made retro consoles. But don't wait too long because the once-cheap Japanese games are getting expensive too.

[Tanooki | 4,939]

That ship sailed already on a good many of the Japanese games.  Just a few years back what I was buying PCE games for complete you'll get them loose, if you're lucky.  Same can be said for Famicom, (monitored, didn't buy) SFC, Gameboy brand too.  It's just sad.

[noiseredux | 232]

Prices are rising, sure. But SFC is still definitely cheaper than SNES by a long shot. 

[Cannon | 1]

I think LHCGreg made a good point, there probably isn't translation patches for games that had an English release, if this is the case my plan isn't going to work.

[noiseredux | 232]

9 hours ago, Cannon said:

I think LHCGreg made a good point, there probably isn't translation patches for games that had an English release, if this is the case my plan isn't going to work.

On Retron5 you can patch which region you want the cart to be recognized as.