Fun fact: “tennis” in Japanese is actually golf!

"YOU CAN PLAY ALL GAMES FOR ONLY 7 BUCKS!" *Okay now I need games*

You could spend $7 on this or simply do it for free. There are 2 tabs in the cartridge slot that you snip off and that's it then it'll play any region

You don't need the $7 tray. Just remove the tray and it works just fine.

I miss how simple tech was to tinker with lol now every time I take something apart I'm scared I won't be able to get it back together the same way

“Japanese Mario Tennis-“ *click* *Mario Golf intro*

That’s neat. For some reason it reminds me of putting tape on cassette tapes so you could record songs from the radio.

You are officially my hero. So going to try this here in South Africa.

Idk what my dad did all those years ago, but he “modded” our n64 with a soldering iron back in the 90s. We lived in Japan at the time so it was perfect when us kids bought any Japanese games, as well as any US games we got on base.

If only I figured this out back in 1997!

I remember cutting the edges of Sega Genesis Japanese carts so I could play them in my us system.

This is freaking amazing! Now I can dust off my N64 and play games I can't read or understand the text in... niiiiice.

So the region block is physical like with the SNES. "All you have to do is disassemble the N64 then using a saw or pair of wire cutters snip off the corners of the cartridge slot that is causing the cartridges from the other region not to work. You then just put the console back together again and your console can play games from the USA and Japan."

Japanese tennis is weird

"japanese Mario Tennis" 💀

I think mine might have already been modified, I played a couple Japanese cartridges on my North American N64 and I never had any issue. I didn't even know there was a region lockout.

Long time ago when they were still making Nintendo 64 games I got a Mario Party in Japanese it would not fit my American-made Nintendo 64 I looked at the back and noticed that there were two plastic prongs preventing it from going into the Nintendo 64 I promptly sawed those chunks off. Worked like a charm

Wait so it's literally just a peice of plastic that prevents different region carts from being used either the other?

an alternative to this is to swap the back of a north american and japanese cartridge that way it can fit becuase of the parts in the bottom left and right of the cartridge on the back are different from each other just swapping them will make the game fit in and work just like normal.

He really can swing that tennis club 😂

If you're a purist like me and don't want to modify your N64 console, there are other options. Option one, You can buy a cartridge adapter, which is what I own. Basically, it's blank cartridge that you insert into your N64 console and it has a slot on the top that you can connect Japanese cartridges to, much like a GameShark cartridge. The adapter acts as a passthrough between the console and the cartridge. Option two, which won't cost you anything... you can unscrew the back half of a Japanese cartridge and screw on the back half of a North American cartridge or vice-versa if you live in Japan. The reason Japanese N64 cartridges won't fit inside North American N64 consoles and vice-versa is because the tabs on the backs of the cartridges are shaped differently and the trays inside the consoles are shaped so that the cartridges will fit only in their respective region's consoles. But if you swap the back half of a Japanese cartridge with the back half a North American cartridge, then the Japanese cartridge will fit the North American tray and vice-versa. Option three, use a GameShark cartidge.

Damn I'm been playing tennis wrong my whole life

I'd do this to my N64...IF I HAD ONE!

Alternately, if you have an N64 Gameshark, you don't need to replace a tray, snap off tabs or remove a tray. Just put the Gameshark between the console and the out-of-region game, don't enable any codes if you don't want them, and it's effectively region-free with zero console modification.

"Now you can play any N64 game for $7" Europe: Am I a joke to you?

...I might be sleep deprived, I thought the title said "Don't do this" for the entire duration of the video

I remember IGN had an article on their N64 page near the end of the N64's life about "region unlocking" the N64 and they had you filing the edges of cartridge tray. Fun times! Blessedly I never did that. :)

Did he say tennis ... But Mario is CLEARLY. Swinging a GOLF CLUB... Am I missing something

$0: just remove the old piece, no need to add another

OR you could just take the back shell off your Japanese cartridge, and switch it with the back of Quest 64 or any other NTCS cartridge. Puts the shovelware to good use 👍

That Mario Kart track slap tho

Did exactly this a while ago to my Japanese ice blue n64, best decision ever :)

Miss these days 😩🥺 Late 90’s early 2000’s A brief window of 3-4 golden years old nostalgic gaming . I have 3 siblings, 1 brother 2 sisters So Mario parties won’t ever be forgotten… helping my brother beat Zelda: Ocarina of time with the game guide …. God bless the good times we hold on too. Much love to you all

Nintendo's lawyers now have your scent. Run.

If anyone is confused, the reason why this works is because the cartridges from their respective regions are all shaped differently. The difference in shape is the physical method of region locking.

This is also important to know: You can use any power adapter in any N64. So for example, you can use a PAL 220V power adapter on a Japanese 110V console, and vice versa. Because the PSU is build in the power adapter (that's why its so big). In for example a Playstation 1,2,3,4,5, saturn, dreamcast etc etc, the PSU is build in the console itself, so in those cases you definitly a power convertor! For the N64: The only difference is the PAL/NTSC video signal, and the cartridge tray as shown in this video.

This hack only enables ntsc-j and ntsc carts to play on a console. If you use the EMS N64 Passport Plus 3 III you get full region free playback. It is a converter for PAL to NTSC, NTSC to PAL Cartridge adapter.

the most weird ass tennis i ever saw

Nintendo watching this guy do this: "hey that's illegal we're losing money on games we don't sell anymore!"

1 other thing to know: Only the French N64 model had RGB already build in, so you dont need to build in a RGB PCB. The only thing you have to do, is to "activate" it, by soldering some SMD components/fuses on the RGB part of the board.

Well, a hot knife to cut the pads works too, but I think this solution is more elegant, but it costs money, in the other hand.

I just took the piece out entirely, no need for a 7 dollar replacement part. The only downside is that it holds the dust flaps, but if you keep a cartridge slotted in, there's no drawback.

Hungrybox getting jumpscared is like him winning a major

I knew this already...in 1997 I bought one of the first japanese consoles, and as soon i could buy me an American game, I faced this problem. I just scrape the little blocks off inside that tray. Problem solved, and for FREE.

Lol I just took the tray out in general.

It’s wild that, as a kid, we knew about region locking and thought it was this big difficult programming issue. Only to find out 25 years later, nope, just a piece of plastic.

Him: Mario “tennis” Me:??? Jenny: arcanine use flamethrower! Growlithe: ???

That's pretty awesome! I'm glad you're breathing more life into this classic by opening barriers from retro gamers!

I'll make sure and do this when I time travel back to 2000...

As someone who prefers to keep their consoles as OEM as possible, I think mods like this are great. You can swap them out super easy without destroying anything permanently in case you resell down the line.

"Japanese Mario Tennis!" *boots up N64* JUMP CUT "Working!!!!"

Tell's you to buy it now, fails to give direct link.

Hey Rick! I’ve been a fan of this channel for a little while and it’s awesome how much you’ve grown!!! Game on and may the force be with you dude!

Grab a travel passport 3 or whatever it’s called

My dads old n64 just looks like someone took some pliers to it 💀

Alternatively, just removing that tray will allow you to play either. You don't have to spend $7 on a piece of plastic. That's just to make it "hold" better. The doors that cover the insert area already make it so it doesn't move around.

I 3D printed mine. lol

"Now you can play every single N64 game for 7 bucks!" I didn't know that Super Mario 64 cost under 0,50$

A solution to a problem i never knew existed.

Or you can just snip the bumps off the stock bracket for free. Though I'd only say buy the 3d printed bracket for special edition versions of the console.

That was all that kept it region locked?! Damn thanks for the tip!! 👍👍 Miss my 64😢

You could just take the tray off. We use to clip the extra plastic prongs off of the Japanese games lol!

You can play them without buying any accessories just remove the plastic but the cartridge slot will be without cover thats why you need this plastic accessory

I didn’t even watch the video I was just vibing to the song

An easier solution is to just swap the back of the Japanese cartridge with a North American one if you have a North American console and vice versa with Japanese console

I looooove when channels like this always negate that europe exists

Mario tennis. Proceeds to play golf

Or, if you want, you can use a game shark because when you connect anything to the game shark it just holds the connector pins with no physical lockout

I wonder what I would have paid to have had this back in high school

I love the intro: "now we have a problem"

I live near a local video game store and they have Japanese copies of N64 games, in very good condition, for like dirt cheap. Definitely gonna try this and save some dough, but I gotta work more on my Japanese lessons on Duolingo first!

Must be a 300 yard tennis court.

I did this to my friend's N64 back when they were a thing with a soldering iron for free. The hardest part was making a game bit out of a pen. I melted and used the end of the clear bic pens as a mold for the screws.

As a person who owns an N64, I find this very useful, thanks!

I like how it cuts to the screen likely because it took like six tries before it actually started up

You can actually modify your system to do this without buying printed plastic piece. But it does require you to destroy part of the housing.

Ah, ゴルフ。　Japanese for tennis!

Warning! Doing these steps might void your warranty ;)

That looks like something that can be 3D printed.

Animal Forest Freezes after about 10 minutes into the game if you do this.

I used the saw the back pegs off my Japanese N64 games to fit in my US console back in the day. Nintendo put a PAL/NTSC lock on Euro consoles making it impossible to play them without an adaptor.

Same plastic gate keeping for the SNES and Super Famicon lol.

“Game bit” let me go get my impact driver.

I love how cartridge era region locking was just to put some bullshit tabs in the console or cartridge so the cartridge wouldn't fit in another region's console.

I swear back in the day a local game store would just shave the Nintendo 64 games to fit

**Everdrive has entered the chat**

I bought a jpn version ice blue locally and I didn’t even know it was region free till he texted me it was after. I was going to buy one of these. He melted the plastic off but actually did a nice job

I remember when I modded my PSX to play imports... it was like a rite of passage, like getting a tattoo...

Awesome! Now to learn japanese!

Although cool. I just use a game shark

The console isn't region locked except by hardware. The thing is, the tray inside the N64 where the cartridge goes is designed to take in the game cart of the region. What I mean is, NA NTSC carts have squares on the very corners of the cartridges, while the JP-NTSC though uses the same voltage as NA NTSC, has square indentations NEAR the corners. Because of the design of the cartridges, an American N64 won't fit Japanese N64 carts. So yeah, that $7 mod for your N64 is an ideal change. Cutting off the squares inside your N64's cartridge tray looks messy long term...

You actually can you just trim the corner bump on the cartridge that stops you from inserting it into the console and it works fine

Can't you just remove the tray

I'm going to do this right now. Thank you!

Cool vid. I mean, you could just do it for free too. Get rid of the little notches that prevent the other region game from playing

My first console ever. Thinking about modding it. Thx I never knew about this!!!!

I did 3d print one of these trays myself and installed it in my n64

It's super easy to cut the tabs out of the original one. I did that years ago and have enjoyed a region free system since. Same can be done to a Super NES

i had a Japanese 64 5 months before we got them in the states. i just used a screwdriver and a torch and melteythe tabs . it was free and it played every game !

"Japanese Mario Tennis" Shows golf. 🤣