PAL systems and games

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turboxray
Posts: 348
Joined: Thu Oct 31, 2019 12:56 am

PAL systems and games

Post by turboxray »

Well, I finally bought a PAL SNES and PAL MD (will arrive in a couple of weeks). I've pretty much avoided all PAL stuffs.. since forever. But after picking up a PAL TurboGrafx last year and playing games on it, I realized I'm missing out on an authentic part of gaming history by discounting PAL systems/games as just "hacked" NTSC games. Rainwarrior's observation about how the Genesis version of EWJ looks more correct if you view it as square pixels. The PAL MD 320px res wouldn't be ~0.914 PAR but instead ~1.09 PAR.. but the pixel height/thickness is 20% slimmer.

I've seen people complain about unoptimized PAL ports where some music plays slower (Sonic for example on the MD). I think it's interesting hearing the music at a slower speed. I'm assuming this shouldn't be the case for SNES games (I can't image why it would be). For TurboGrafx it affected some games, but not all.

But what about gameplay speed? Any PAL ports where you feel the gameplay is better because it's slowed down (i.e. not corrected)? What about SNES games that have less slowdown because of the longer frame time? I know a few MD games that have slowdown in the NTSC versions, don't for PAL ports or is dramatically less (like TF4). Or just any games you think "feel" or look better on the PAL aspect ratio and frame rate.

I don't have a PAL CRT, unfortunately, but I do have the retrotink 5x and my TV supports 50hz. Looks pretty decent. I'm also amazed by the composite encoder chip in the PAL Turbografx and how superior the signal looks over NTSC composite. Can't wait to test out the PAL SNES and MD versions of composite to see how it compares.

I guess now I can run the Overdrive PAL demos for MD. I think there was a PAL only SNES demo... the fly-through STICC port or whatever?
creaothceann
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Joined: Mon Jan 23, 2006 7:47 am
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Re: PAL systems and games

Post by creaothceann »

turboxray wrote: Fri Jul 01, 2022 7:47 am discounting PAL systems/games as just "hacked" NTSC games
That wouldn't be the case for PAL-only games...

turboxray wrote: Fri Jul 01, 2022 7:47 am Any PAL ports where you feel the gameplay is better because it's slowed down (i.e. not corrected)?
Back in the day I had the opposite problem with an Amiga-to-PC port: Turrican II. The Amiga version ran at 50 fps, but the PC version was at least 60 fps (possibly more). There's a space shoot'em up level that is more difficult due to the higher speed.
My current setup:
Super Famicom ("2/1/3" SNS-CPU-GPM-02) → SCART → OSSC → StarTech USB3HDCAP → AmaRecTV 3.10
turboxray
Posts: 348
Joined: Thu Oct 31, 2019 12:56 am

Re: PAL systems and games

Post by turboxray »

creaothceann wrote: Fri Jul 01, 2022 8:59 am
turboxray wrote: Fri Jul 01, 2022 7:47 am discounting PAL systems/games as just "hacked" NTSC games
That wouldn't be the case for PAL-only games...
Of course there's that too haha. Though I typically don't like Euro style developed games from that era. For PAL localizations, I just played the Japanese version or English translated versions in the past.
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