SECAM

[Tempest]

Can some European collector fill me in on the SECAM format? Were any 2600 carts actually produced in this format? If so do they work on NTSC TV's?

 

I ask because I have a International catalog that mentions all these games being in SECAM as well as PAL and NTSC (of course it also mentions RS Basketball is available and shows a picture too).

 

Tempest

[Eckhard Stolberg]

SECAM is another format for encoding colour information into a TV signal. It's mainly used in France. The 2600 programmer's guide mentions that SECAM VCSs take PAL software, but only interpret the eight possible luminance values as different colours. They have the Colour/BW switch hardwired to BW, so that PAL games can identify a SECAM console and chose colours with appropriate luminance values. If any PAL VCS games actually make use of this I don't know.

 

 

Ciao, Eckhard Stolberg

[Jobf]

Hey

 

Tempest:

 

You'll find some nice info at this collectors site, including some cool pics of Activision SECAM carts:

http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Dunge.../new/vgames.htm

 

 

There is also a lot of info concerning PAL label variations, which is an interesting read too.

 

Hope this info helps

 

Steve Rich

[khryssun]

Never too late...

 

While searching some pics to scan (for the contest) in old videogames magazines, I found some infos about the video standards used for the VCS 2600 cartriges.

 

"Carts were produced in NTSC or PAL/SECAM.

Some carts were especially produced in SECAM : the PAL version wasn't work in Europe (Cross Force / China Syndrome).

 

Tip : The cart apt to work (in europe) are the ones that don't use the B&W/Color switch.

 

The US Carts are incompatibles with Europe systems : It is more a reason of lines (525-625) than a problem of coding colours."

 

I suppose that the opposite is also true

 

Hope this may help