Asterix & Obelix - Determining Format

[The_Great_Mutato]

Hi Everyone!

I've been looking for a nice Asterix and Obelix NTSC for my collection. I've read some discussions on here about how the Asterix NTSC is the silver label with an '83 date (rather than '85), but that not all silver labels with '83 are necessarily NTSC. Makes sense, but my question is, can you ever tell just from the label whether the game is NTSC? I understand about the end-label variant with a "p" = PAL and how not all carts without "p"'s are NTSC, but is there anyway to determine without actually playing the game? Thanks in advance!

[CatPix]

PAL carts can have either the little P at the end label, or a square P letter glued somewhere on the cart.

 

I don't know of any way to know the region of any cart without playing the game, unless it got a P on it, except if a PAL run might occured later than a NTSC run, getting a different label.

[The_Great_Mutato]

PAL carts can have either the little P at the end label, or a square P letter glued somewhere on the cart.

 

I don't know of any way to know the region of any cart without playing the game, unless it got a P on it, except if a PAL run might occured later than a NTSC run, getting a different label.

Thanks CatPix! I kinda thought the only way to tell would be to play it, but wasn't sure.

[CatPix]

I can't find any pic of it, so here is the "P" I'm talking about.

It isn't sticking extremely well, so that's why many PAL carts are the same than NTSC carts, because the P was removed at some point. Either at a cleaning of just because of bad storage (you can notice how they are damaged, even if the cart labels are very fine).

[The_Great_Mutato]

Thanks for posting a pic! I hadn't seen that before, so that's something I'll keep in mind from now on. They really didn't secure the "p" sticker to the cart, did they? lol

[CatPix]

Not alot ^^ And some PAL cart might not have it just.. Because Atari isn't famous for having consistency in such things anyway so they would stop sticking them to the carts.

Or maybe they made carts in Europe, and so they wouldn't need to stick a P on them for making a difference between NTSC and PAL carts at the original factory. Who knows?

Edited January 24, 2014 by CatPix

[Frostbite Bailey]

There are also carts that have the "P" on them that have been NTSC...go figure!

[CatPix]

Well that would support the theory that NTSC and PAL carts were made on the same factory and production line, and that they were hand-picked to be put in the right boxes, so human error would happen.

[+Psionic]

I've been looking for a nice Asterix and Obelix NTSC for my collection. I've read some discussions on here about how the Asterix NTSC is the silver label with an '83 date (rather than '85), but that not all silver labels with '83 are necessarily NTSC.

The silver labels from 1983 are the originals and were released in both NTSC and PAL format. The gray labels from 1985/86 are reissues in PAL format only.

 

Makes sense, but my question is, can you ever tell just from the label whether the game is NTSC? I understand about the end-label variant with a "p" = PAL and how not all carts without "p"'s are NTSC, but is there anyway to determine without actually playing the game?

Regarding Asterix and Obelix specifically, the PAL versions will always have the "P" on the end label, so any cartridge without it should be NTSC. An NTSC copy of Asterix or Obelix will have no special markings on the cartridge itself, but the box, if present, will have a small red "N" sticker on the top flap (as seen here). Of course, finding an NTSC copy of Asterix is nearly impossible.

[The_Great_Mutato]

Thank you to everyone! I've seen the pics of CPUWIZ's NTSC Asterix NIB copy from 10 years ago with the "N" sticker on the top flap, and I've also noticed that the PAL boxes of both games have Four languages (i.e "English - One Player Only") on the front of the box, whereas the NTSC releases did not.

So, in regards to Asterix & Obelix carts, silver labels and '83 dates are both NTSC and PAL, while the '85's and '86's are PAL only. A small, square "p" label may be affixed to the back of the cart to signify PAL, but they easily fall off, so don't use that as a guide. Also, the "p" notation on the end-label indicates a PAL release.

I guess the only way to tell for sure that an Asterix cart is NTSC is to play it! I really appreciate this!

[CatPix]

I didn't mentionned the boxes, as they are quite hard to find anyway But yeah, most 2600 PAL boxes have 4 languages (5 sometime?) but even this isn't a 100 safe rule; I have seen boxes in Enlish only (tho, it might be 3rd parties boxes from Activision, not Atari). Also in a general matter, non Atari games doesn't have differences between PAL and NTSC versions externally. There are exceptions like Imagic, who provided boxes and even cart labels in multilingual format.

But not everytime :

(okay there is a PAL sticker, but if the box is missing or damaged, you can't tell the difference)

[+Psionic]

A small, square "p" label may be affixed to the back of the cart to signify PAL, but they easily fall off, so don't use that as a guide. Also, the "p" notation on the end-label indicates a PAL release.

Some people in this thread are going off on a tangent and turning this into a discussion on identifying PAL game in general. For these two games you asked about specifically, PAL versions will always have the "P" on the end label (as far as I know). I don't know what games or manufacturers used those small "P" stickers, but it wasn't these.

[CatPix]

The two games I showed are Atari games. Namely, Centipede (silver label) and Secret Quest.