Adding RGB to the Super Famicom Box - the rare hotel SNES console from Japan!

The Super Famicom Box is a rare version of the Super Famicom that was installed in hotels throughout Japan. These consoles allowed you to play Super Famicom games for a fixed amount of time when a coin was deposited! There's little documentation on this console, but on this week's Fix it Friday we will do a complete teardown and see if we can add RGB to this console!
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Parts:
Borti's SNES RGB bypass board: github.com/borti4938/SNES_RGB...
Super Famicom/SNES Schematics: wiki.console5.com/wiki/File:S...
Gamester81's Super Famicom Box video: • Rare Nintendo Super Fa...
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[@TheLukemcdaniel]

I totally misunderstood the title of this video when I scrolled by...

[@Retroman8077]

Mine has a coin mech on it when I bought a ten set from a burned down hotel plus a control unit that went to the front desk to control the units off credit cards at the desk on checkout. They were hardwired into the tvs rgb in each room we had to desolder them all. A few rooms had external controller ports on the nightstand for two controllers u could rent additional controllers for use in the bed versus the 5 foot built in cables to force u to the floor for the kids

[@LIRetroGaming]

Wow that’s really cool. Never seen any photos of the other accessories that it comes with

[@Retroman8077]

@@LIRetroGaming I'll get you some video when I get home in three days

[@patrickgarber576]

I was doing research and saw the screwdrivers and keys I sell on eBay and it made my day! Nice work on the mods!

[@RickTheGeek]

The nintendo “game bit” is also known as a “line head” bit, and is used in things the company would rather you not get into, like the game consoles and cartridges and cable boxes, and I’ve heard some computers use them.

[@LIRetroGaming]

They are definitely used by a number of companies, but the size of these screws is larger than any I have seen on a gaming console. Took me a few months to find a compatible screw driver

[@RickTheGeek]

@@LIRetroGaming yeah according to Wikipedia there are a couple standard sizes larger than the ones nintendo uses on the home consoles. Makes sense I guess they’d use a larger one cuz by that point maybe the home console size ones were becoming more available. Also, I wonder how common this screw is in Japan, it may be more common there

[@SegaSteve0429]

Cool to see! Ive definitely thought about looking at what it might take to RGB mod the Prologue 21, but its so impractical to play on in most situations ive never really looked at what that would take.

[@LIRetroGaming]

Glad you enjoyed it! Yeah I suspect the Prologue can probably have RGB added, but opening it all up and finding the right place to tap RGB would be an even bigger challenge than the Super Famicom Box. We will have this one out at the show this August!

[@Zer064]

Funny to see you here

[@philipboggs3372]

Great video! It's always interesting to see hardware like this.

[@LIRetroGaming]

Thanks, I love documenting obscure stuff like this

[@GameJunctionMedia]

Such an amazing piece!

[@_BELMONT_]

this is going to be awesome! thanks for sharing!

[@LIRetroGaming]

Thanks! This was a fun project for me since there’s basically no documentation on this console

[@disciple_316]

Fix it Friday! 👍 Thank you.

[@CarcinogenSDA]

first cart: starfox Mario kart Mario all stars (super Mario collection) second cart: super bomberman donkey Kong country (super donkey Kong) i mostly just tuned in to see how the games were loaded haha i wonder if those boards can be reflashed easily. I reckon they chose games that didn't need sram, or maybe it would be intentional that sram would clear when the guest leaves the room

[@stevemcknelly5036]

For the Tubular locks, the Lock Picking Lawyer's company Covert Instruments sells a Tubular Lock Pick. It's on sale for $60 right now. Great video as always!

[@LIRetroGaming]

I really should learn something about picking locks because I always end up needing to do it when I acquire new Arcade machines and don’t have keys!

[@stevemcknelly5036]

@@LIRetroGaming With the exception of the tubular locks, you could probably open most of the locks you deal with using wave rakes or jigglers.

[@anthropophagus6452]

These aren't regular sized tubular locks, they are mini tubular locks, so the sets that you normally buy don't fit on these, as they are for 7.0 7.5 and 7.8 inner diameter millimeter locks, these mini tubular locks are 5.5mm There does exist a mini tubular lockpick but those are around 120 dollars, AND they don't fit on to these locks because of the housing of the super famicom box and shape of the tubular lockpick. However, these locks on the super famicom box have such shallow bitting that they can by opened by like.. a round tube that barely fits into the lock and is twisted.

[@noryia]

Looks like your missing some video from 21:30 to 22:30ish. The audio is there but it's like the video wasn't included to render.

[@LIRetroGaming]

Yeah I apologize for that, I was building the snes multiout in that section

[@jeffreyshepherd8488]

This stuff is so interesting to me. I cant solder worth a darn but what a cool video thank you!

[@LIRetroGaming]

Thanks, glad you enjoyed it!

[@SuperLuigiGuy64]

So nice :D

[@ncc1701p]

As an owner of one of these. I've always been curious if this was possible and yes it is! Great video!

[@LIRetroGaming]

Thanks! It’s pretty easy to do now that all the spots for RGB and the other signals have been mapped out. RGB looks really crisp too

[@quajay187]

They had these in the states too. I remember playing super punch out on one of these as a kid at a holiday inn

[@LIRetroGaming]

Wow that’s incredible. I would love to work on one of those!

[@masterninjahh]

Yeah this is how I played a link to the past back then. They also had a N64 version. It was super expensive so I rarely got my parents to activate it. Pretty sure they streamed it to the TV because a controller was just hooked to the TV. We went on a lot of road trips

[@Arcade_Mania]

Dude Idk why when you are off camera and hearing your voice I imagine you as a teenager 😂 great video as always

[@LIRetroGaming]

I wish! I was a teenager back in the 90’s lol.

[@Bakamoichigei]

God I love those chonky boi carts... I really want to get my hands on one to see how they work. I wonder how hard it'd be to make adapter PCBs to allow multiple Super Famicom carts act as one SFC Box cart. At minimum it'd be cool to dump the SFC Box carts to see if the ROMs are different. When the unit switches games, it displays the game title via an OSD... Does it pull that from the ROM header, or is there additional stuff stored in like an EEPROM on the carts? 🤔

[@LIRetroGaming]

I think that it must be pulling that information from the cartridge itself. I suspect that the roms are probably the same but it may have a second chip that has the text overlay information. I think that it’s possible to make a snes cartridge adapter but it’s probably a difficult undertaking

[@898doffo]

Do you plan to replace the capacitors? Though they look fine, they have already begun to leak underneath where you can't see. I replaced the caps on my Super Famicom and though things looked find and it still worked, there was some of the traces underneath already corroding from the caps. Please do so when you can. :) You have a rare unit!

[@LIRetroGaming]

Yeah I’m planning to do that - the surface mount ones in particular should be replaced

[@898doffo]

@@LIRetroGaming No doubt. Awesome stuff.

[@adamsiefferman5547]

Cool video! Are those PVM's both m4's?

[@LIRetroGaming]

Yes they are! I’m impressed that you were able to catch that detail from the video!

[@adamsiefferman5547]

@@LIRetroGaming well, I do own a 20m2, and 2 14m2's the m4 is my CRT endgame. I told myself I am not allowed to buy anymore 600tvl sets and the next one needs to be 800tvl. Which one do you like the best? My 14m2's get a lot of love, but that 20" sure looks gorgeous!

[@bokunogentoo4420]

was there ever a western version of this? My first exposure to Super Mario World was on a console similar to this at a hotel in 2002 but I don't remember it having Japanese everywhere

[@LIRetroGaming]

Apparently there was! I haven’t seen one yet but others have said that they used one of these consoles in hotels in the USA

[@cabbusses]

There is apparently a SNES version of Lodgenet, but as of present only data from the N64 Lodgenet has been recovered.

[@bokunogentoo4420]

@@cabbusses whoa, I looked it up just now and you're right, I'm pretty sure that this Lodgenet thing is what I was actually playing on! I remember what the menu looked like and it looked just like what I'm seeing on Google Images now. That's crazy, the thing that introduced me to console gaming and what would become one of my most favorite games of all time is lost media now, huh... well, if you know of any forums where it's discussed, let me know so I can pitch in with the few details about it that I remember

[@jake66549666]

Super Nintendo looks great on that sharp TV monitor

[@LIRetroGaming]

Yeah I am quite impressed with the quality of the RGB

[@tspawn35]

Out of curiosity was it intentional for it to be audio only from 21:25 - 22:25?

[@LIRetroGaming]

No I’m sorry for that, somehow the video in that section got messed up. It wasn’t too essential though as I was just assembling the SNES multiout

[@rentoptional1524]

Amazing! Someone get a flash cart in there!

[@christophercuevas4644]

I would, but it doesnt take standard-size famicom cartridges, only these massive dinner plate sized multi cartridges.

[@Witchling86]

Wonder if it's possible to install a flash cart in this...

[@LIRetroGaming]

It probably is possible, but you would need an adapter to connect a standard cart to this interface

[@itailevin]

Why is this sp big? (That what she said)

[@LIRetroGaming]

That’s a pretty good question. The original Famicom box is also quite large, but it can hold a lot more games compared to this thing.

[@clintoncronin2504]

Is there a way for us to 3d print the piece you attached your SNES multi out to ? kzbin.info/www/bejne/a4Coo2luadSJg9Usi=v_NY974qY7-Z1xSu&t=1637 . That #NoCutMod piece is what I need for my Super Famicom Box

[@LIRetroGaming]

Unfortunately I didn’t design a 3d printed part for it. That being said, do you have the original metal piece? I took mine to a metal worker and he created a replica with a rectangular hole cut into it for the multiout

[@MarioMania05]

Open the Carts for the Super Famicom Box

[@LIRetroGaming]

I think Gamester81 does that in his video, I put a link for it in the description

[@MarioMania05]

No he didn't ,,I found it anyway, Anyways on the PCB there's like more sockets for more chips...I wonder if you can add more Games to it@@LIRetroGaming

[@groom_of_the_stool]

I like turtles. 🐢

[@segare-trop-vieux3932]

Nintendo was lazy with the RGB and most of their consoles before the GameCube were only composite. Shame on you Nintendo, Sega ruled ( yeah past tense 😢)

[@guillermobranas]

[@420.........]

I got mine for $250, perfect front, right side minor damage with piece include. These guys are extremely brittle.

[@LIRetroGaming]

Yeah I have worked on others that have a lot of damage to the front plastic. This one is in good shape fortunately