Side by Side, Back to Back

While Charlotte was watching the movie Hop, I was killing time by researching underrated vintage video games. Martin Watts, from N64 Today, suggested 20 N64 titles that were still fun to play today. His number 12 pick, Chameleon Twist, caught my attention.

The Japanese version of Chameleon Twist sounded cool, so I bought one on eBay. The next day I read online that Japanese carts won't fit in my N64. Well, shoot.

Although the Japanese game will play on a US television, the back of the cartridge prevents it from loading into an American N64 console. The Japanese cart is on the right. You can see how the indentations on the bottom do not match the US cart.

The N64 console can be taken apart and modded, but that seemed like a lot of work for one game.  Instead, I went looking for a cheap N64 cart with a nice back cover.

I bought this one at Half Price Books for $1.80 (teacher discount!).

I used a 3.8mm screwdriver bit to remove the cartridge screws.

I switched the back covers. Now NFL Quarterback Club '99 has the Japanese label, and Chameleon Twist should fit in my N64.

That worked!

I'm not too worried about the language barrier. I can watch a few YouTube videos of the US gameplay. That should help when the Japanese text boxes appear.

Baku Bomberman 64 is supposed to arrive from Japan in mid-June. I should have found another cheap N64 cart by then...