First Time 2600 Owner - Some Questions!

[Aydan]

Hello everyone! I'm a huge fan of retro gaming and just got my very first Arari 2600 delivered to me

 

It's an amazing console even though it came out a long time before I was born. I just appreciate the simplicity and I love seeing the homebrew where people have pushed the system to whole new limits (Princess Rescue/Super Mario Bros comes to mind!)

 

So I have a few questions which I'm hoping can be cleared up as I'm not sure how this console works as it's not made like consoles from the 90's.

 

I live in the UK and have a PAL Atari 2600. Now I'm assuming all the games run in 50hz where as the NTSC games run in 60hz right?

 

Do the games run 17% slower and run with thick black borders or is the gameplay and the screen size exactly the same as the NTSC versions?

 

I ask because with other consoles like the the SNES or Megadrive/Genesis, in 50hz the games (Like Sonic 1) run much slower and have squashed screens with the borders above and below the gameplay screen.

 

I'm just trying to figure a few things out as I tend to buy NTSC consoles because I prefer having the correct full screen full speed experience so if anyone can explain or help me out I'd appreciate it

 

I'm glad to be a part of this huge amazing community!

 

Here's a screenshot of my very first Atari 2600!

 

[Thomas Jentzsch]

It depends.

 

If you have NTSC carts, they will run at 60Hz, even on your PAL console/TV. Most likely your PAL TV can handle that. But the colors will all be wrong. And the screen may look squashed, but that depends on your TV.

If you have PAL carts, they will run at 50Hz and with correct colors. Usually those 50Hz versions were converted from NTSC versions. Some companies did compensate for the different frame rates (e.g. Atari and Imagic), while others (Activision) only converted the colors. Only the latter games will run ~17% slower.

The same goes for the utilized screen size, though here less games were adapted.

 

Generally Activision conversions are pretty bad. If your TV can handle 60Hz, you better look out for PAL color hacks of the original NTSC versions.

 

NTSC consoles will usually create a B/W picture on PAL TVs. Except if your TV is a "multi norm" one.

Edited September 1, 2013 by Thomas Jentzsch

[Aydan]

Ahh I see! So basically NTSC carts will run at 60hz regardless? That's kinda cool, because usually with later consoles running NTSC games on a PAL console makes them run 50hz regardless!

 

Is there anyway to fix the colours when running an NTSC game on a PAL console? It's good to know most games run full screen and full speed pal (except Activision right?) I mean, the 2600 doesn't utilise the WHOLE screen anyway from what I've seen, like pole position uses a small part of a tv, where as pacman uses a lot more.

 

I don't think I'm too bothered about the whole pal ntsc thing with the 2600 as the games are so basic I don't think it makes much of a difference.

 

So if I buy a harmony cart, get all NTSC games on there, they would run in 60hz on a PAL console, but the colours would be wrong right?

[Mayhem]

Correct.

 

Unlike most other consoles, the 2600 game itself determines the colour palette and speed, not the console hardware.

 

My solution, being a 7800 collector as well, was to get an NTSC 7800 modded for S-video output. So thus I can play all NTSC 2600 games in colour too (as the 7800 supports 2600 games). The same may apply (I'm not 100% sure), if you got someone to video modify your current 2600. But either way, it has to happen, as UK TVs don't support NTSC through the RF cable. You may get lucky and run the RF into a VCR and then connect that via Scart to your TV. That may get your colour.

 

In the short term, getting a Harmony cart to try out all the games isn't a bad idea. You can then see if you really want to spend the extra to run a NTSC compatible system here.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

So if I buy a harmony cart, get all NTSC games on there, they would run in 60hz on a PAL console, but the colours would be wrong right?

 

Exactly. And some people have started to hack NTSC games to PAL colors (= PAL60). So you have the perfect games then.

[Mayhem]

I will also note, without going back to edit my previous post, that the AtariAge store here does sell many of its homebrews in PAL60 format, and a number of homebrew programmers try to accommodate that when developing their titles. So you get the game in PAL palette with the "proper" speed of the NTSC version to boot.

[Aydan]

Thank for the information so far I'm going to look into this some more. I use RF with an old PAL CRT TV and it looks great although I have to put the brightness and contrast up high to make it look correct lol!

 

So to summarise, if I buy some NTSC games, they will run in 60hz with no problem, however if I run it through RF, the colours will be wrong, but if I had it modded for composite AV the colours would be right?

 

I'm very sorry for all the questions, very new to this but I love the 2600 and only owned one for a day! The Super Mario and Sonic Homebrews are games which truly blew my mind!

 

I think maybe a harmony cart would be the way forward, I hope it's easy to use!

[Thomas Jentzsch]

I think maybe a harmony cart would be the way forward, I hope it's easy to use!

Dead easy! You just have to be able to transfer files from your computer onto a SD card.

[Aydan]

Ah great stuff! I'll order one later today. Shame it'll take about 5 weeks to arrive though! This is probably off-topic now but do they accept paypal? I could only see google pay