dumb newbie question about atari carts

[retrowilly]

This is probaby a dumb question, but bear wwith me i'm new to this. I recently bought a 2600 to relive a few childhood memories. However some of the carts i got roll on screen? what causes this? can it be fixed? My thinking goes a bit like this....I thought the chip inside them was just a rom chip, so if there is a pic on the screen it must be being read, If thats the case then the cart is ok....so what causes the rolling screen??

 

Many Thanks

Willy

[liquid_sky]

willy, here is some info that might help.. the USA and Europe have different tv standards, NTSC is the television standard used in North America and Japan. Any standard of cartridge will play in any system, the problem lies with the TV. With most newer TV's, PAL games will cause the NTSC screen to roll. Some older TV's do not have this problem, or if you have a vertical/horizontal hold you can adjust it to the correct frequency. There will also be some color variances if you play a PAL game on an NTSC system and vice versa.

 

im sure someone else on this board knows it better than me, but at least you have a start now

 

[ 07-02-2001: Message edited by: liquid_sky ]

[+-^CrossBow^-]

It is quite possible that he has Pal carts which are causing this. But there is also another reason. Some of the TVs do not care for the tall aspect and odd scanline modes that the 2600 used to use. My old 1980 Magnavox was doing this rolling bit on several games...mainly all non-Atari. CBS games...and US Games were the worst on this.

 

Then I recently (2 weeks ago) was given 27inch TV/Monitor from a club from way back.

 

Those problems...aren't there anymore. So basically my newer TV was able to handle it better than the old 1980 Magnavox I was using.

 

My suggestion is to try a different TV...not really a newer one..just a different one.

[utamav91]

It's quite possible your cart is the European PAL standard. It's a little different from the NTSC that we use here in the United States. My advice is to get a European TV set.

[liquid_sky]

what game(s) are you having trouble getting to work? i wouldnt go out and buy a european tv set just yet... lets see what we can get goin, maybe we can get your atari workin great, and if not.. then umm i dunno

 

[ 07-02-2001: Message edited by: liquid_sky ]

[retrowilly]

Thanks for the advice guys, i guess i should have mentioned that i am in the UK using a PAL tv, so i guess they could be NTSC carts causing the problem. I am also using an old tv, as i couldnt achieve a decent picture without fine tuning it.....anyway ill give a different tv a try

 

Cheers

 

Willy

[maximebeauvais]

you have the answer!!!!

[utamav91]

In that case you might want to purchase a North American TV set so your NTSC cartridges won't go unused.

[liquid_sky]

here is a FAQ i found on this page that might explain some stuff for you

 

PAL NTSC FAQ

[Nostalgic]

Is there any way to tell from the box or label of a cartridge that you have PAL instead of NTSC?

 

I picked up Mario Bros. at CCAG last weekend only to find it is probably PAL (screen rolls and the colors are wrong).

 

I took a closer look at the box. Atari's name is given as "ATARI, CORP. International Division" rather than "ATARI, CORPORATION".

 

The copyright statement also says the trademark belongs to "Nintendo of America Inc. - Western Hemisphere; Nintendo Co. Ltd. - Other Worldwide Rights."

 

Strangely, the original price tag on the box lists the price as $32.95 - definitely not in European currency!

[jochta]

Living in PAL-land I have see a lot of PAL carts!

 

Usually (but not always) there will be a P somewhere on the cart, see http://www.best.com/~jearney/images/atari12.jpg for some examples.

 

For Atari carts text labels usually (but not always) have a P suffix on the CX number. Picture labels have a P on the end label (but I understand some of these can be NTSC still!?). Silver labels also usually have a P on the end label. Red labels either have a P suffix on the number or a P sticker on the back of the cart.

 

For Activision carts, they are labelled as "International Edition" (usually?). The cart number is prefixed with a P or an E (European?). e.g. Skiing is PAG-005 instead of AG-005.

 

For other manufacturers it is sometimes much more explicit. e.g. CBS carts state on the label that they are for PAL system only.

 

However, I still have several carts that I assume are PAL (where they were sourced means there should be no reason to assume they are NTSC) with none of these indicators. For example, sometimes a text label Atari carts has no P suffix but the box has a P sticker on it. Other times you can tell as the instructions and/or box have other European languages in/on them.

 

Any more info like this regarding PAL carts I would be glad to recieve. A section detailing the usual tell tale signs would be a useful edition to this site as well.

 

John

[Albert]

quote

Any more info like this regarding PAL carts I would be glad to recieve. A section detailing the usual tell tale signs would be a useful edition to this site as well.

 

Excellent idea! However, it'd be extremely useful to show examples of the differences in the form of Pictures. I don't have very many PAL carts myself so I'd need some help here with images.

 

I have some Atari carts with "P" on the end label, but I think they're NTSC (although I could certainly use them for pictures, I'd prefer to use games I *know* are PAL in case there are subtle differences in the printing). I also have a CBS PAL cart, I think of Rescue in Gargamel's Castle. Probably a few others, but I don't (yet) go out of my way to collect PAL carts.

 

If you guys in PAL-Land want to send me scans (both main and end labels) of PAL carts that'd be great. Then I can put together a page describing the visual differences, when they exist, and show pictures to help people identify them. Would also be useful to get additional information about PAL carts from other (not yet discussed here) third-party companies, at those that released both NTSC and PAL variations (like Activision).

 

Also, would be nice to get box scans, such as an Atari box that says "International Division". Covers for PAL instruction manuals would be nice also.

 

If you want to send scans to me, please do so at albert@atariage.com and keep the file size of attachments under 2MB. We prefer to get high-resolution scans that are either uncompressed or compressed lightly so we can then shrink and compress them ourselves. At bare minimum, cart scans need to be at least 400 pixels wide, manuals at 600 and boxes at 600. You can send 'em in any file format your heart desires, as long as Paint Shop Pro or Photoshop will open 'em.

 

Thanks!

 

..Al

 

[ 07-04-2001: Message edited by: Albert ]

[jochta]

OK, I can sort some PAL scans out - no problem. To get you started I sent some Atari red label scans in which have the P suffix. See Joust or Moon Patrol for examples.

 

John

[The Night Phantom]

quote:

---

Originally posted by jochta:

However, I still have several carts that I assume are PAL (where they were sourced means there should be no reason to assume they are NTSC) with none of these indicators. For example, sometimes a text label Atari carts has no P suffix but the box has a P sticker on it. Other times you can tell as the instructions and/or box have other European languages in/on them.

---

 

I'm afraid I must differ regarding the use of languages. Many of my NTSC carts' boxes and/or manuals use five European languages—English, French, German, Spanish, and Italian; these are occasionally accompanied by a sixth, non-European language which I believe to be Japanese. However, it might be that there are certain European languages or combinations of languages that are a dead giveaway of PAL status (like a Basque/Welsh/Romansch box...); but what they would be, I don't know.