2600 cartridges bought in usa can be played on pal/european console?

[shambi]

2600 cartridges bought in usa can be played on pal/european console? 

[davyK]

It will vary from game to game and how your TV handles it.

 

At best it will play OK but the colours will be different - and it might look pretty gaudy because of that.

 

You might get a rolling picture with some games.

[shambi]

Thank u very much! 

[+Andrew Davie]

NTSC (USA) games typically produce screens with 262 scanlines. PAL (European) games typically produce screens with 312 scanlines.

These are related to half the vertical resolution fo the TV systems (525 for NTSC, 625 for PAL). That "half" is because TV frames are displayed as two interlaced frames, each being ~262 (NTSC) and ~312 (PAL) scanlines high. The 2600 sends identical half-frames, so to speak, so the TV doesn't know any different.

Depending on your TV's electronics... is it smart enough to cope with a TV signal that is significantly out of spec for what it is designed for? Instead of receiving 262 line screens at 30Hz (NTSC), what if you feed it 312 line screens at 25Hz (PAL)?  It's the cartridge itself that decides how many scanlines to "display" and consequently at what frame rate. The frame rate is directly related to the number of scanlines, so cartridges can vary things slightly, and still be in spec with (most) televisions.

But when you take a cartridge from the USA which is probably written for 262 scanlines at 30Hz, and try to display on a European (PAL) TV, then the TV is expecting (about) 312 lines for the frame, but is instead only getting 262. So, what does it do?  Depends on the TV, really! Some will auto-adjust and display the picture just fine. Others will have a hissy fit, and roll the picture.

THe colours are another thing yet. 2600 units in the USA have colour circuitry suited to the NTSC standard. 2600 units in Europe have colour circuitry suited to the PAL standard. So, when the game cartridge (NTSC) says "purple", for example, when displaying a colour... the PAL 2600 unit won't see "purple". It sees the number, which happens to be $54 (hexadecimal, = 84 decimal)... and in PAL land, colour $54 is displayed as...  a darkish green. SO that's another side-effect of using NTSC cartridges on PAL '2600 units... the colours are all screwed up. The "colour band" in the TV signal is in different frequency positions in USA and Europe. So, that's why there are machines specific to each area - just to get the colour signal in the correct frequency band for the TV. Right, so what happens then if you use a PAL '2600 in the USA?  Well, colours won't be in the right place in the frequency signal, so... no colour. Probably a black and white display. Same thing for NTSC '2600 in Europe. Black and white.

There is one more thing that can be an issue. The design of PAL TV signals is such that there is some sort of colour delay line embedded in the circuitry, which expects an EVEN number of scan lines. If you feed the TV an odd number of scanlines (say, 263 instead of 262) not only do you get the issues related to scanline count, but ALSO, the TV won't detect any colour signal properly and thus will also display in black and white.

These are the issues as I understand them.

[+SpiceWare]

Atari NTSC vs PAL vs SECAM

[+Gemintronic]

I'd take it on a case by case basis.  Meaning: look for specific indications from the game developer (especially PAL60 support).

 

I made a game called Super Smash Truck for a friend.  It used NTSC timings and PAL colors a.k.a. PAL60.  So, during development I chose colors that would look acceptable on US and European TVs.  Of course, I also made the assumption that most European TVs can handle NTSC timings nowadays.