Timed games-- NTSC vs. PAL

[+Propane13]

Tried this question in the 7800 forums; didn't get any real response, so posting here.

 

In games with timers (i.e. Activision games like Decathlon, Stampede, Sky Jinks, Winter Games, Airlock, etc, there is a timer on screen.

Since PAL is 50 frames per second, and NTSC is 60 frames per second, I am wondering:

- is the PAL game 5/6 slower to play than the NTSC version (seems logical to me), and:

- is the clock accurate to a real timer, or is the clock for PAL also a little slower? In essence, I'm wondering if playing one vs. the other would probably net you the same winning time, or if there's an advantange to playing one over the other because the clock is "more real time"?

 

Just curious. As a programmer, if I wrote a game where there could be a leaderboard for "best time", I want to make sure the game is fair, but I also want to make sure that people aren't distracted if a timer is not 100% second-accurate.

 

Thanks!

-John

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Depends on the effort spend in conversion. Activision was very lazy here, while Atari and Imagic tried to use fractional values for timing.

[+Propane13]

Interesting.

 

So, from a TwinGalaxies high-score and record-keeping perspective, someone could have a better/worse time if they used a PAL or NTSC Atari / Imagic cart?

Sounds like a possibility for fradulent low scoring.

 

-John

[Thomas Jentzsch]

No, it is opposite.

 

Atari and Imagic did the conversions right, but Activision did not. So PAL records with Activision games are easier to achieve.