The Neo Geo CD is an interesting console. The games released featured no regional differences, meaning that both the English and Japanese languages are featured on the CD. The console itself decides what language the game plays in. Luckily the Neo Geo CD is very easy to modify so that it can play games in English. So that is what I set out to do. All that I need to do is solder a couple of wires and add a switch so that I can change regions.
The console is a nice big chunk of plastic and certainly looks the business
Looking for the right spot to mount the region switch
Decided to mount the switch here next to the composite ports, keeping it nice and compact
After opening the case this is what you're presented with. Luckily I only need the board at the front of the console, so I don't need to disassemble the whole thing.
After removing a couple of screws and a ribbon cable, I have full access to the board I'll be working on
On the left of the board you'll find the country code. The “O” represents a jumper
Using the country code you can work out that as of right now there is no jumpers in place, which is the default Japanese configuration. There must be a jumper in the indicated place for the USA and EUR consoles. If I just wanted to make the console play in English I would only need to solder a wire from one point to the other and that would be it, however I decided that I want to keep the console a Japanese one and just swap the console over to English when needed. In order to do this I will add a region switch so I am able to swap regions on the fly.
Turning the board over I located the 2 points in which I need to solder a wire to
2 wires soldered to each point
I secured the wires along the board by using kapton tape
The board is then reattached to the rest of the console, making sure the wires were not getting pinched.
Locating the wires across the RF shield to the back side of the console
This is the switch I will be using. Its a very simple on/off switch. The wires will be soldered to both of the points. When the switch is in the ON position, this creates a circuit which in this case will activate the region select.
There is a piece of plastic that will have to be removed.
Plastic removed to be flush
The ends of the wires were then soldered onto the switch points.
Here is the switch located in the front
Looking good
Before: The loading screen
Japanese game title screen
After flipping the switch, I'm greeted with the fully English title screen
