Code differences between NTSC and PAL games

[Room 34]

I am curious if one of the codeheads on the board can give me an idea of what is different in the game code between the PAL and NTSC versions of a given game.

 

I am guessing that since game code talks directly to the hardware, and some games actually are DEPENDENT upon the timing of the display, that in some cases it would be impossible to convert a 2600 game from one format to the other, or that it might require a fairly significant amount of re-coding to make it work.

 

Please... enlighten me!

[Thomas Jentzsch]

The differences differ.

 

If you look at my disassemblies at The Dig!, you find a switch, that causes the game to be compiled as PAL or NTSC. Following this switch in the source code, you can easily find the differences.

 

I have done three Activision games, the PAL conversions where made extremly simple. Only the TV timing and the colors where adjusted, so the gameplay is noticable slower for PAL

 

Imagic seems to have that done much better. My Cosmic Ark disassembly shows, that also the gameplay parameters are adjusted.

 

IMO when doing PAL conversions, Imagic provided better quality than Activision. I was quite amazed when I found out.

[NE146]

Just goes to show you what I've always known...

 

IMAGIC > ACTIVISION

 

[Room 34]

Thomas -- thanks for the info!

[dwh]

So what exactly is the diff.?I thought it had something to do with the number of lines displayed for the diff. style/format t.v.s;though I could be completely wrong-I don't claim to know anything!