Skatepunk60 Posted July 23, 2001 Share Posted July 23, 2001 what was the point of PAL why dint the just make all NTSC systems and carts and is this just an atari thing or do other systems do it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jahfish Posted July 23, 2001 Share Posted July 23, 2001 they invented PAL so that 20 years later, we PAL- (and ntsc too) collectors in europe can seriously compete with us-collectors that mostly stop between 600-700 carts. i just reached the 1000 carts now it's up to you to help me reach the 3000 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ze_ro Posted July 23, 2001 Share Posted July 23, 2001 PAL is a video standard that is used in Europe (and probably some other places I'm not aware of). In North America, Japan, and many other places, the NTSC standard is used instead. I won't try to explain what all the differences are, someone will probably post a link to a better description than I can give. The hardware (In this case, the Atari) must be made to send out a PAL or NTSC signal depending on what type of TV is recieving the signal. In other words, you can't really make a "universal" Atari, without installing two different video chips (one for each standard). At least, such is my understanding. The Atari is not alone in this. In fact, pretty much every system has PAL and NTSC versions of the hardware and software. The Atari is actually one of the few systems (I'm not aware of any others, though there probably are) that actually allows you to use PAL and NTSC cartridges interchangably despite the fact that they might not work properly. A friend of mine bought an N64 game in Europe, and I told him it wouldn't work on his Canadian N64... sure enough, it doesn't even fit in the cartridge slot (Nintendo made sure there are different grooves in the cartridge and system), and even when we sawed new grooves into the cartridge to make it fit, it still didn't work. Moral of the story: Don't buy games in Europe and expect them to work in North American video game systems. --Zero Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marco(2) Posted July 23, 2001 Share Posted July 23, 2001 quote: Originally posted by Ze_ro: Moral of the story: Don't buy games in Europe and expect them to work in North American video game systems. Correction: Buy all the games you can from your PAL pals and send them the games that never made it to Europe (or Australia, another PAL (or should I say 'mate'?) continent). Cheers, Marco Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marco(2) Posted July 23, 2001 Share Posted July 23, 2001 BTW - in case you were wondering - PAL is *better* than NTSC Cheers, Marco Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atari70s Posted July 23, 2001 Share Posted July 23, 2001 If at all possible people buy all the PAL atari 2600 systems you can that has 8 ,16,32,64, or 128 game built in those are teh ones that are worth the most. and also bets places for PAL items Australia , and germany Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skatepunk60 Posted July 23, 2001 Author Share Posted July 23, 2001 WTF? a tv is a tv they work the same no matter where you are. i mean if you bought a tv from europe then used a NTSC system your tellin me it wouldnt work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skatepunk60 Posted July 23, 2001 Author Share Posted July 23, 2001 oh yeah about the n64 thing i have bought some jap carts and they give you this weird game genie type thing that you plug into the system and plug the cart into and it translates it to NTSC i guess and cant some one make one for the Ataris? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Superjenn Posted July 24, 2001 Share Posted July 24, 2001 quote: WTF? a tv is a tv they work the same no matter where you are. Er, no, that's not wholly true. Like, if you buy a television set in England, it has to have a diffent kind of VCR, and then you have to purchase your videotape in PAL format. But if you buy a set here in America (or in Canada), you'd better have an American VCR and a videotape in NTSC. Different regions of the world actually use different kinds of signals with their television sets, that's all. So the game console + games must have a compatible signal with whatever country it's in. I think the whole thing stems from the fact that the United States had the first TV sets, but shortly afterwards some crazy European improved upon it, and the Americans were too stubborn to switch over to the other type of television. It's created problems ever since. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ze_ro Posted July 24, 2001 Share Posted July 24, 2001 quote: Originally posted by skatepunk60: oh yeah about the n64 thing i have bought some jap carts and they give you this weird game genie type thing that you plug into the system and plug the cart into and it translates it to NTSC i guess and cant some one make one for the Ataris? Well, Japan uses NTSC, so converters are nice and simple. Converting PAL to NTSC (or vice versa) is much more involved. If anything, I would imagine you'd need a converter that would be attached between the Atari and the RF switch. However, I have no idea what kind of components would be required. Has anyone ever tried this? As a side note, some TV's can handle the PAL signal... especially if they have a vertical hold knob on them. --Zero Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atari70s Posted July 24, 2001 Share Posted July 24, 2001 well the truth is pal games and NTSC games are MOSTLY COMPATABLE . not all will work but at most the colors might be thrown off or the screen with be jumpping and in few cases also teh screen may be fuzzy . otehr errors might eb lack of sound ( or maybe buzzing) . and then there are some that plain wont work no matter what you do ( that only work on there own system on tehre on power voltage. hope it helps you people out Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nicewun Posted July 24, 2001 Share Posted July 24, 2001 quote: Originally posted by atari70s: If at all possible people buy all the PAL atari 2600 systems you can that has 8 ,16,32,64, or 128 game built in those are teh ones that are worth the most. and also bets places for PAL items Australia , and germany You know it is funny hearing what Atari games are worth over in the U.S. Over here in Aus. hardly anyone collects Atari stuff so you get everything really cheap. E.G: about a month ago I bought a 7800 with about 15-16 games plus built in Asteriods for $2 Australian, (which is probably 50 cents American) But same goes for selling, noone wants the stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhindle The Red Posted July 24, 2001 Share Posted July 24, 2001 quote: Originally posted by Nicewun: [QB]Over here in Aus. hardly anyone collects Atari stuff so you get everything really cheap.QB] Unfortunately, when I've dealt with people from Australia the shipping costs are so high to the U.S. that it almost completely negates any savings. And on a note about PAL/NTSC compatibility. Sometimes it's the system that is keyed to the display and not the game. As far as I know the Atari Jaguar is cross compatible. I know for a fact that the Sega Saturn and Dreamcast PAL discs work in an NTSC system as I have PAL Doom for Saturn and PAL Expendable (Millenium Soldier) for the Dreamcast. They work fine with the same converter I use to play Japanese NTSC games. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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