back white screens on european games

[howerton]

I own a US atari 1040stfm. Most european games work fine but some come up with a black and white screen and are unresponsive to the controls of both keyboard and joystick. Do these games require a ste or are they simply PAL only?

[ParanoidLittleMan]

There are games with regional restrictions. They wanted that it work properly only in Eu only - for instance. Or only in USA, pardon, Northern America - where 60 Hz is power freq.

So, if TOS in machine is not for that region game may not work. Other possible way is to check screen refresh rate, and disable controls if not 'allowed' region.

But there may be cases that game simply work not well at 60 Hz refresh rate. Then may use some SW to set ST refresh rate to 50 Hz, and then may happen that you will get black and white pic on your TV, monitor, or even on your PC, of watching ST via capture card - which is for NTSC and not for PAL .

In your case it's obvious that your TV, monitor does not support PAL, and that's why getting B/W pic when game sets 50 Hz. If possible, use RGB cable instead composite. Get monitor what supports 50 Hz refresh rate.