My TV plays Atari PAL games!!!Woo hoo!

[Cassidy Nolen]

Here's a motivator...

 

Friday night, my wife turned in early. I went into the basement (AKA, "manland") and fired up the 2600 Vader. After an hour or so, I decided to plug in my PAL games, just to see what would happen. Normally, the big screen only sees the Atari for games like Warlords, when everyone is gathered around, but that night it was just me and some big game fun. I have a tiny junk TV I usually play/test Atari on. I had plugged in PAL games to it before, and on the small screen they would roll. Of course, none of my TV's have a hold knob to adjust.....

 

What do you know, the PAL games came in fine on my big screen! Unreal! Now, the screen is not perfect. It bows in middle, and the bottom is off the screen on a few games (Mangia, Master Builder). Activision HES multicarts were perfect, Cakewalk worked fine, so did Threshold and Kung Fu Master. Unreal that all this time I could have been playing my pal games, and never knew it.

 

Go home guys, check out your TV's. It's sure worth a try! BTW, its a few years old (2000?) Panasonic.

 

 

Cassidy

[Lumpbucket]

Yeah, all my TV's can play PAL Atari games; but then I live in the UK, so its not so surprising

 

What is interesting is that they all play NTSC games fine. The only exception being the TV card in my Amiga, which expects a true NTSC signal, not PAL60 (which is what PAL Atari's generate with NTSC games).

 

In fact, european televisions generally support 50 and 60Hz signals without any need for vertical hold controls or anything; they just work.

[Marco]

Go home guys, check out your TV's.  It's sure worth a try!

 

Welcome to the PAL realm of Atari 2600 collecting, you've stepped up one level and let the 'NTSC-only' guys way behind you

 

Cheers,

Marco

[+-^CrossBow^-]

I can play PAL format Atari games on my ancient '85 16inch Sylvania...hehe...I also loose like maybe the first 5 lines at most on the games. However, some, like when I test (He who shall not be named)'s solaris cart. It was pal since the colors were off. But, the picture on that came in fine and the sound was also correct. When I tested Trey's PAL Xonox double enders, they came up fine with some missing lines on the bottom of the screen and the sound and gameplay was also slower...hehe...

 

The best part is...my TV does HAVE Vhold etc still on it.

 

I still won't be collecting any Pal games for quite some time though.

 

[Godzilla]

I use my coleco adam + expansion module (poor mans video out hack,) and use that video out on my amiga monitor. I've always been 'pal-ready' :-)

[Pitfall Harry]

My Commodore 1701 color monitor plays PAL games rock steady once I adjust the horizontal hold.

 

 

Ben