Why did ATARI sell NTSC versions in Europe ?

[Lord-Chaos]

I´ve many ATARI silver box games in European packages , but on the box you´ll find an "N" for NTSC.

 

The carts are NTSC , but were sold in Germany and the UK.

 

These games work on PAL systems and most PAL TVs , especially the bigger ones can display 60Hz , I remember our old 25-year old TV could display NTSC games , but some smaller TVs can´t.

 

And the colors are not correct.But ATARI sold these games in large quantities.

 

I have ET,Galaxian,Jungle Hunt,RealSports Football and Volleyball as NTSC versions in European boxes with European manuals (usually French,English,German,Italian,Spanish).

 

The second company which sold NTSC games was Telegames , but they had such a bad quality control - you never know if the game is PAL or NTSC and sometimes there´s even a wrong cart or a wrong manual in the box.

 

Thimo

[MattyXB]

 

Never hear from that before. Thats strange.

 

I have think they have sold only PAL games here.

[Lumpbucket]

I would imagine it was just a cost-cutting exercise. I could imagine the conversation at Atari HQ:

 

Marketing guy: So we have a bunch of NTSC carts sitting in warehouses? Why don't we just flog them in europe?

Technical guy: Uhh... well.. they have a different TV system. The games will have the wrong colours, and they won't work on some of their TVs

Marketing guy: But they'd basically work?

Technical guy: Uhh.. well.. yeah.. but...

Marketing guy: OK then.. its decided!

 

[Lord-Chaos]

 

 

Never hear from that before. Thats strange.    

 

I have think they have sold only PAL games here.  

 

It´s true.They have been sold in Germany , the boxes look like the boxes of the 1987 silver box PAL version , they have a yellow sticker by ATARI Germany on it and somewhere a small red/white "N" - sticker.

 

I also found lots of NTSC Moon Patrols here.But this one is a real US version.

 

They also sold NTSC Donkey Kong junior for 7800 here and AFAIK other 7800er games that work.I´ve got these with extra French manual.

 

I´ve played Donkey Junior and it works.

 

Seems that it was a commercial decision.

 

Thimo

[ccc---]

A few years ago I bought a bunch of the same games that Thimo mentioned from Telegames UK. They are exactly the same (Euro boxes but NTSC stickers etc.). I was always wondering what's that about but I think Lumpbucket's guess might be right.

 

The 2600 lived much longer in Europe than it did in the US, so they probably had tons of carts in their US warehouses and shipped them to Europe where they still could be sold. Just a guess, but it would be logical ...

[Mayhem]

I've had a number of NTSC 7800 games through my hands, especially DK Junior. That seems to be a popular one for not being PAL. Sometimes I can tell, sometimes I can't... without the P sticker there's almost no difference in some games.

[Joey Kay]

Hey hey!

 

You've probably heard me mention this before, but in Canada Atari sold the multi-lingual N sticker games because of packaging laws requiring French and English on all products sold in Canada since we're bilingual. (I think those laws have been relaxed somewhat in recent years)

 

I wonder if unsold carts from Canada were perhaps shipped overseas?

 

Cheers!

 

Joey

[Lord-Chaos]

Hey hey!

 

You've probably heard me mention this before, but in Canada Atari sold the multi-lingual N sticker games because of packaging laws requiring French and English on all products sold in Canada since we're bilingual.  (I think those laws have been relaxed somewhat in recent years)

 

I wonder if unsold carts from Canada were perhaps shipped overseas?

 

Cheers!

 

Joey

 

Never seen English/French only versions , they have at least German text on the boxes.

 

Most games have English/French/German/Spanish/Italian text on the box and in the manuals.

 

They look like the boxes of the PAL versions , but have the little "N" sticker.

 

But it may be possible that there are Canadian versions , too.Some of the ATARI games are still available in large quantities.

 

I think that they repackaged NTSC carts in European boxes.

 

Normal European boxes look the same , but have no "N" sticker.

 

Thimo

[Joey Kay]

In the Atari tradition of cheaping out, the versions sold in Canada included about a zillion languages... I'm at my folk's place right now so I can't check a box to see how many, but they were multilingual, not just French and English!

 

Cheers!

 

Joey

[DeV0]

We seemed to get loads of ntsc's here is australia around the 80's, well at least til almost every cart was HES. I have a tonne at the moment but i think these have been purchased overseas or from people migrating here.

 

My jungle hunt and galaxian are without doubt NTSC and bought here. Oh, most my relatives are German and some of the carts they bought to me here where NTSC as well.

 

off topic,,,

 

Moving 2000 k's is so much fun,,NOT

 

I have bought a laptop to catch up on weeks of missing threads

[Joey Kay]

off topic,,,  

 

Moving 2000 k's is so much fun,,NOT  

 

What... is Australia 2000 k's long? Time for me to get out my atlas!

 

Cheers!

 

Joey