Pal games on NTSC

[borntorun]

I know this question has likely been answered, but my search didn't yield anything. I bought some PAL games today, but I have an NTS 2600 and tv. The games output in black and white on flatscreen tv. Is there a way to get the games to run in color?

[yarjr]

As far as I know you need a PAL tv. Should never buy PAL games.

[Andromeda Stardust]

I've played them on my Harmony cart. CRT rolls. My 2006 Sanyo HDTV displays "NTSC 50Hz" just fine but crops the bottom off. Colors are also wrong on PAL ROMs. Best not to mix 'n' match...

Edited June 29, 2014 by stardust4ever

[walter_J64bit]

I've played them on my Harmony cart. CRT rolls. My 2006 Sanyo HDTV displays "NTSC 50Hz" just fine but crops the bottom off. Colors are also wrong on PAL ROMs. Best not to mix 'n' match...

I've got a question, about your 2600 are you using a moded system with A/V out or are you just using the RF out?

Edited June 29, 2014 by walter_J64bit

[borntorun]

It's just an old-school RF-out. I didn't know that they were PAL games until I got home, with the exception of Fatal Run, which I knew was never released NTSC. However, I was a bit suspicious of finding all of these cool boxed games which are quite rare to find NTSC. I don't mind having them, even if I can only play them in black and white

[+SpiceWare]

It's odd that they're in B&W. I play PAL games on my 2600 and they're in color, they just show the wrong colors. This is to be expected though, see my Atari NTSC vs PAL vs SECAM page for more info.

[Torr]

Regarding PAL/NTSC, I have a few oddities in my collection.

 

One, is a SQ:EarthWorld with the PAL solution, but it is as far as I can tell an NTSC Cart, that is, it plays fine on my system (I live in Canada) and there are none of the standard PAL markings on the Cart.

As well, I have two "International Version" Activision Carts, Pitfall and Dragster. I looked them up on AtariMania to get some idea of rarity versus the standard labels, and it's stated there that the "International Version" Activision carts were PAL versions.

These as well have none of the typical PAL markings and they run fine on my system as well.

Edited June 29, 2014 by Torr

[Andromeda Stardust]

I've got a question, about your 2600 are you using a moded system with A/V out or are you just using the RF out?

RF only; direct connect. No switchbox. My 2006 Sanyo HDTV seems to be extremely fault tolerant of off-spec signals. It literally displays anything you throw at it, although native PAL via composite will display only in grayscale. I ran a 2600 program that adjust the scanlines and my HDTV is completely roll-proof. Sadly, there overscan as well as slight lag with the set but it's only noticeable on certain games which require twitch reflexes like SMUPs and stuff.

[walter_J64bit]

It looks I'll have just pop in my PAL Obelix cart in the 2600 adaptor and see if I can play the game.

Edited June 29, 2014 by walter_J64bit

[walter_J64bit]

Ok I've just pop in Obelix runs just fine, but It looks dark. Hey I'm happy with my PAL Obelix cart. Now If I can figure how to play the game.

[Raticon]

I have a PAL console and a bunch of NTSC games that have the classic issues with black&white, wrong colors and such. Never mix and match as they say. Your only hope is to get hold of a PAL console, as my only hope is to get hold of a NTSC console :-P

[freewheel]

As you can seen from the replies, it's basically anything goes when it comes to PAL in an NTSC console. It depends on the game and your TV. I own a bunch of supposed PAL games (things that never had NTSC releases, or so I'm led to believe) that seem to play fine on my regular TVs - it's fairly tolerant of odd scanline counts and such. I have others that tend to give B&W depending on the set. Still others show the classic "PAL colours", and these usually suffer from rolling. For this last set I hook my 2600 into an old Commodore 1084 monitor that has adjustable v-hold, and I can stabilize the image and play them just fine.

 

Most of this I've played around with a composite-modded vader. Not sure how much difference it would make over RF, except for a bit of signal strength - I carefully colour-calibrate every mod I do. Fortunately every CRT I own handles weak luma pretty well.

[borntorun]

There's a happy ending to this story. I have a really old CRT TV with a vertical hold adjustment on the back which played the games perfectly after some adjustment. The only game I couldn;t get to work was Sentinel for the 7800

[freewheel]

Hang onto that TV! It won't be too many more years before that sort of trickery will be rather difficult. I can see a small, but highly interested collector's market for that sort of thing in a couple of decades.