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PAL ANTIC upgrade question


adam242

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I've been wanting to do the PAL upgrade on one of my machines for some time now... Dying to play Marbled, among others, on real hardware.

 

The Nir Dary upgrade consists of replacing the ANTIC and OS chips - since my 1200XL already has the Atarimax Warp+ 32-in-one OS mod, can I simply swap my ANTIC chip out for a PAL version and switch in one of the PAL OSes from my Atarimax menu?

 

Seems like a no-brainer to me, but maybe I'm missing something.

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yep.. you might have to slightly adjust the vhold, but other than that, it's fine.. It doesnt have to handle the actual PAL chroma signal.. Your machine still has an NTSC GTIA.. It just needs to be able to handle the additional scan lines Which works just fine with a 1702..

Edited by MEtalGuy66
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Thanks for the info, guys... I've bought my chip from Best and it does indeed work without swapping OS and syncs fine with my monitor.

 

However, some games run noticeably slower (Yoomp! is particularly objectionable) now. Is there a (relatively easy) fix for this? I've searched the forums for posts related to ANTIC swaps, but I can't find an answer. The topic of timing issues is barely mentioned... am I just hyper picky?

 

Ideally, I'd like to have both chips in my machine and be able to switch between them. I know this has been brought up before, but again, no definitive answer.

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Yeah, you will have to get used to some games running slower with the PAL Antic, this is the downside of PAL; while it may provide higher-res but some games run slower. This is the reality of PAL with a 50hz refresh instead of 60hz. You will get used to it though, it's just a bit shocking at first. There is no easy fix, you can only replace the NTSC Antic to run NTSC compatible games. On the other hand, games designed for PAL are running at their designed speed, and actually speed up if they can run on a stock NTSC machine. The Pal Antic runs PAL software at the correct speed, and NTSC software a bit slower.

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You're both right... I can learn to live with it. I can run Marbled without an emulator, and Dropzone is actually playable now!

 

It's not like I have a shortage of other machines to use in stock NTSC form.

I think I'll keep the tricked out 1200xl as my PAL machine, and when my Incognito board comes for my 800, I'll have a kick-ass NTSC box.

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You're both right... I can learn to live with it. I can run Marbled without an emulator, and Dropzone is actually playable now!

 

It's not like I have a shortage of other machines to use in stock NTSC form.

I think I'll keep the tricked out 1200xl as my PAL machine, and when my Incognito board comes for my 800, I'll have a kick-ass NTSC box.

 

Sounds perfect to me

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1. Yes the 1200 should be fully socketed.

 

2. You have to order it from the Polish Atari Legion. (Hence the term, PAL).. They developed their own special ANTIC chip to allow ataris to work with televisions and displays in Europe..

 

LOL Wasn't aware Candle had his own chip fab.... and he was saying I was spoiled for having a reflow oven?

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