Star Wars NTSC?

[tjlazer]

I am looking for a copy of Star Wars in NTSC, all the ones I found online, including my original disk is PAL. Was there a NTSC version?

[stirrell]

I am looking for a copy of Star Wars in NTSC, all the ones I found online, including my original disk is PAL. Was there a NTSC version?

 

Star Wars The Arcade game? If that is the one, then, yes, there definitely is a NTSC version. I had it on floppy for my STe (and it worked on the Falcon). Alas, I no longer have my Atari computer stuff but I do know there was an NTSC version.

[tjlazer]

I am looking for a copy of Star Wars in NTSC, all the ones I found online, including my original disk is PAL. Was there a NTSC version?

 

Star Wars The Arcade game? If that is the one, then, yes, there definitely is a NTSC version. I had it on floppy for my STe (and it worked on the Falcon). Alas, I no longer have my Atari computer stuff but I do know there was an NTSC version.

 

 

Ok well i would like to try and find a copy as I tried to play it on my TV and it did not display right (black and white) which is what all PAL games do on my TV...

Edited June 27, 2008 by tjlazer

[ijor]

Yes, there was an US release. It was published by Broderbund, and it's pretty scarce.

[Thorsten Günther]

Yes, there was an US release. It was published by Broderbund, and it's pretty scarce.

 

Errr... but tjlazer claims the "PAL" version (presumably the Domark release) of this tile lacks colours when played on a US STE - that seems technically impossible, since the ST has an internal RGB colour model that is "encoded" to NTSC or PAL by the video hardware. Personally, I bought US releases of some ST titles (e.g. "Time Bandit"), and the colours don't change a bit when played on a PAL TV set.

 

 

Thorsten

[Mark Wolfe]

try here:

 

http://www.planetemu.net/index.php?section...=364&page=s

 

or here:

 

http://steem.atari.st/automation.htm

[ijor]

Yes, there was an US release. It was published by Broderbund, and it's pretty scarce.

 

Errr... but tjlazer claims the "PAL" version (presumably the Domark release) of this tile lacks colours when played on a US STE - that seems technically impossible, ...

 

It is not impossible at all. The problem is the refresh rate. Many TVs would display on black and white when receiving the "wrong" sync.

 

If the software forces a 50 Hz vertical refresh rate (many do it), then on an US computer you will get an "hybrid" TV output (NTSC at 50 Hz). Some TVs have no problem with that. Some will display on black and white. Some will not sync at all.

 

I should add however, that this is not the case in this title, at least in the original version. The european release of Star Wars is one of the few releases that have "regional protection". It won't run at all on an US rom.

[Thorsten Günther]

Yes, there was an US release. It was published by Broderbund, and it's pretty scarce.

 

Errr... but tjlazer claims the "PAL" version (presumably the Domark release) of this tile lacks colours when played on a US STE - that seems technically impossible, ...

 

It is not impossible at all. The problem is the refresh rate. Many TVs would display on black and white when receiving the "wrong" sync.

 

I've never experienced this effect the other way. A PAL TV set incapable to cope with 60Hz will simply show a rolling picture, but *with* correct colours. but these issues can easily be fixed by using a colour monitor such as the Atari SC1224 or the Commodore 1084.

 

I should add however, that this is not the case in this title, at least in the original version. The european release of Star Wars is one of the few releases that have "regional protection". It won't run at all on an US rom.

 

Now that *is* a real problem.

 

 

Thorsten

[ijor]

I've never experienced this effect the other way. A PAL TV set incapable to cope with 60Hz will simply show a rolling picture, but *with* correct colours.

 

I don't remember if I have seen the effect on PAL. But I've certainly seen PAL only TVs that could sync at 60Hz without rolling or any other problems. This surely depends on the specific TV, and conceivable "the b&w effect on wrong sync" is more common on NTSC than in PAL.

 

I've also seen the effect in some multi-standard TV sets (don't remember if it was with NTSC at 50 Hz or PAL at 60 Hz). I got a black and white display when the TV standard was set in "auto". I needed to manually select the correct standard for getting the color.

 

You are certainly less likely to see this with the ST. This is because Us releases are much fewer than European ones. And from the smaller percentage of US releases, the software that actually switches to 60Hz is probably tiny.

 

but these issues can easily be fixed by using a colour monitor such as the Atari SC1224 or the Commodore 1084.

 

I'm not sure I would call this an "easy" fix if you don't have one, but certainly there are fixes. And even if you already have an ST monitor it can be very annoying. Some ST monitors can easily sync on both refresh rates, but with others you need to adjust the vertical. This in turn is a PITA, because you need to re-adjust the monitor whenever the software switches refresh rate.

 

Furthermore, those used to 60 Hz, are manytimes annoyed by the flickering at 50 Hz (I do). So it wouldn't be that unusual for an US person to prefer an US/NTSC/60 Hz version regardless.

[tjlazer]

Necro bump!

 

NTSC patched version of Star Wars!

STARWARS_NTSC.zip