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Nintendo NES Overclocking Guide

Posted by timothy on from the what-everyone's-been-waiting-for dept.

Deven "Epicenter" Gallo writes "I've perfected a process by which to overclock the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) to run games smoother without slowdown. The NES CPU normally runs at 1.79 MHz, I've reached a stable maximum of 4.2 MHz, about a 230% overclock. The games do not run faster than they should, the CPU never overheats, and most games are perfect up to 3.3 MHz!" Here's the guide on how to perform the modification, along with photos and demonstration videos

3 of 229 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Jumpy games? by metricmusic · · Score: 4, Informative

    I remember getting Megaman for a christmas present many years ago and it had slowdown at some points when there were alot of enemies on screen. Here aa review on the game that mentions the slowdown in it: http://www.nesplayer.com/reviews/mm2r.htm

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    http://www.livejournal.com/users/metricmusic
  2. A nice concept, but... by Quietust · · Score: 4, Informative

    ...there would be some very significant side effects to such modifications:
    1. NES audio is generated within the 'RP2A03G' (CPU) chip and is based on clock cycles, so doubling the CPU clock will cause the audio to go up an octave (assuming it even runs). The site mentioned in the article actually pointed this out, so it looks like it's legitimate.
    2. Games which use cycle-timed code will no longer work properly - Battletoads is the first that comes to mind.
    3. Some NES cartridges only used 250ns PRG ROM chips, which is only good up to 2MHz; go any higher and the game may not run at all.

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    * Q
    P.S. If you don't get this note, let me know and I'll write you another.
    1. Re:A nice concept, but... by Epicenter713 · · Score: 5, Informative

      I tested about 10 games out (some of which I listed info about on the site). I don't have any that refuse to run-- every one handles at least 3.0 MHz. The pitch increase isn't as bad as theory would suggest it should be. In fact, it seems to kind of improve the tone of audio in some games, and a lot of the time, 'out of key' audio is put back IN key (most notably Metroid). That's my 2 cents. Sticklers for 100% perfect original audio won't be thrilled I'm sure. But I'm damn finicky and it still doesn't bug me.