PAL Games

[farquh]

Just wondering if the Atari 2600 Jr. has the ability to play PAL region games. Does anyone know for sure?

[+SpiceWare]

Yes it can, there's no region lock on the Atari like with modern consoles.

 

That said, there are 2 things to be aware of:

 

1) the colors will be incorrect and

2) the picture will most likely roll on your TV

 

More info here - Atari NTSC vs PAL vs SECAM

Edited April 11, 2010 by SpiceWare

[farquh]

So even though it can, it doesn't mean that you should?

 

I was going to buy a PAL game on ebay if they played correctly (only because the game was cheap).

 

I know with the NES Top Loader that PAL and NTSC both play correctly, so I was wondering if the Atari 2600 Jr. was improved upon in a similar matter.

 

Thanks!

 

 

Yes it can, there's no region lock on the Atari like with modern consoles.

 

That said, there are 2 things to be aware of:

 

1) the colors will be incorrect and

2) the picture will most likely roll on your TV

 

More info here - Atari NTSC vs PAL vs SECAM

[Herbarius]

I know with the NES Top Loader that PAL and NTSC both play correctly, so I was wondering if the Atari 2600 Jr. was improved upon in a similar matter.

No it's not. In fact, such a thing wouldn't have even been possible for the Atari 2600.

The reason the NES toploader played everything is they just removed the Lockout-Chip. Atari 2600 games have to be changed themselves to account for PAL/NTSC differences, while in the NES the console did (most of) that work.

 

That being said, if you can play a PAL Atari 2600 game in an NTSC country or vice versa, it depends more on the TV you use than it does on the console.

It's quite common among PAL TVs, especially newer ones, to accept NTSC as well. For NTSC TVs to accept PAL is less common. Often the only way to find out if it will work by trying it.

Edited April 11, 2010 by Herbarius

[Pitfall Harry]

I know with the NES Top Loader that PAL and NTSC both play correctly, so I was wondering if the Atari 2600 Jr. was improved upon in a similar matter.

No it's not. In fact, such a thing wouldn't have even been possible for the Atari 2600.

The reason the NES toploader played everything is they just removed the Lockout-Chip. Atari 2600 games have to be changed themselves to account for PAL/NTSC differences, while in the NES the console did (most of) that work.

 

That being said, if you can play a PAL Atari 2600 game in an NTSC country or vice versa, it depends more on the TV you use than it does on the console.

It's quite common among PAL TVs, especially newer ones, to accept NTSC as well. For NTSC TVs to accept PAL is less common. Often the only way to find out if it will work by trying it.

 

And if your TV doesn't play the PAL game, go run out to a thrift store and pick up an old CRT TV. Look for one that has a vertical hold adjust knob. You won't be able to watch airwave TV with it without a converter box, but it will allow you to play PAL and NTSC games. They're dirt cheap right now. Find one at a yard sale, and they might pay you to cart it away.

[potatohead]

Be aware the color won't work on those. Black and white only, for all but a select few.

 

Another option is a video capture device. You can play on a computer using that. One thing I'll do is hook up the capture, then hook the computer to the TV for PAL stuff. Works pretty great. Most all the USB capture devices will do PAL easily.

[Herbarius]

pick up an old CRT TV. Look for one that has a vertical hold adjust knob.

read: veeeeeeeeeeery old CRT TV

 

And as potatohead already wrote, you won't get color with those. But even with newer ones which support PAL you (almost certainly) will get wrong colors.

[macdlsa]

I'm in Italy, I own a PAL L6 and many carts of both PAL & NTSC systems. Half the NTSC carts plays in b/n and the others plays with different color palette. It means, for example, that Pole Position sky is blue when played with a PAL cart and purple (!!!) with the NTSC one ! Other differences ? The screen, of course... all PAL games have those "black-bounds" at the top & bottom of the display, while NTSCs use the whole screen, also if displayed by PAL TV !

I know the reason... but I'm not here to explain it... also because you certainly know it !

The speed of the NTSCs... all of them plays faster than PALs, except of those few PAL60 games I own (of course... refreshes are 29.97x2 Hz against 25x2 !)

 

But after all I've never played a NTSC VCS and tried all the carts... I have an original NTSC '75 Sears Pong and playing on it is good only with a NTSC TV ! Trying it with a PAL TV means b/w (and this could be good...'cause the original Pong has no colors ) and kinda' de-syncronisation of all the image. This could NOT be resolved, as Pong still works with scanlines to display images and not with pixels... otherwise it certainly could be displayed with its correct images using a multistandard TV with a CVBS connection instead of the RF one !