Anyway to tell what region a game is in by looking at cartridge/box?

[kain11th]

I just bought a bunch of 7800 games on ebay however i forgot to make sure they are all ntsc region. one of them i bought from a UK seller and he didn't specify the region. is there a way to tell just by looking at the cartridge? or the box? any kind of marking or physical indication?

[Trebor]

A PAL cartridge may have a "P" sticker on the back of the cartridge, but that is not always necessary the case.  A PAL game cartridge will definitely not work in an NTSC machine though, as it is missing the encryption key required for the NTSC machine BIOS check.  The opposite though (Running an NTSC game under a PAL console) is possible with a variety of results depending on the game.

[kain11th]

9 minutes ago, Trebor said:

A PAL cartridge may have a "P" sticker on the back of the cartridge, but that is not always necessary the case.  A PAL game cartridge will definitely not work in an NTSC machine though, as it is missing the encryption key required for the NTSC machine BIOS check.  The opposite though (Running an NTSC game under a PAL console) is possible with a variety of results depending on the game.

The game in question is midnight mutants. do you know if that has a p on the back usually?

[Trebor]

6 minutes ago, kain11th said:

The game in question is midnight mutants. do you know if that has a p on the back usually?

Hopefully, it does have the sticker if it is PAL.  Purchasing from a UK seller, the probability of it being PAL is high.

[+groundtrooper]

12 minutes ago, kain11th said:

The game in question is midnight mutants. do you know if that has a p on the back usually?

 

These two auctions would point to the answer being yes. 

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/MIDNIGHT-MUTANTS-THE-MUNSTERS-USATO-ATARI-7800-ED-EUROPEA-CARTUCCIA-FR1-55359/272963216283?hash=item3f8de0239b:g:VSsAAOSwYwJaIR9C

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/MIDNIGHT-MUTANTS-ATARI-7800-VIDEO-GAME-COMPLETE-TESTED-AND-WORKING-PAL-RARE/114381565767?_trkparms=aid%3D1110006%26algo%3DHOMESPLICE.SIM%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D229880%26meid%3D0a22e45f48ca44009282c4d9a33bdad4%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D12%26mehot%3Dpf%26sd%3D272963216283%26itm%3D114381565767%26pmt%3D1%26noa%3D0%26pg%3D2047675%26algv%3DSimplAMLv5PairwiseWebWithBBEV2bDemotionHighArwV3&_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851

 

 

This might be your only option to get it to work. But they don't list that Midnight Mutants is PAL game that would work with this combo bios. 

 

https://thebrewingacademy.com/collections/atari-7800/products/bios-upgrade-with-asteroids

[+slx]

With loose cartridges the P sticker can get lost over time. My PAL Midnight Mutants do have one, so have most of the other carts. I remember the NTSC Joust I bought accidentally to lack color and show some artifacts at the bottom of the screen. It was playable, though.

[gambler172]

3 hours ago, kain11th said:

The game in question is midnight mutants. do you know if that has a p on the back usually?

No....like Trebor said....not usually

it can be Ntsc,but can be also Pal

[Mikebloke]

My midnight mutants does still have a p sticker on it, so it looks like pal carts did start with them, but as people say it may have come off. 

 

However, because most games work just fine in pal with ntsc carts (or good enough), a lot of us buy ntsc carts when we struggle to find pal ones, so there is ntsc carts in the wild here in Europe. 

[juansolo]

I've got a PAL game that I bought NOS that's in a box stating it is NTSC. The P sticker on the back of the cart is the only way without plugging it in, and they fall off at times or are just not there. Atari's QC at the time wasn't great...

[Mayhem]

That's because all the boxes are the same, Atari used the same boxes for NTSC and PAL releases. Can't tell what region a sealed title is unless you open it.

[Mikebloke]

Doesn't some boxes have different back text? My food fight claims to only work on ntsc tvs (it works just fine), so I'm sure there is some variation. 

 

The other noticeable difference is if there is foreign instructions! A lot of the time these are slapped on the back of the case and shrink wrapped outside the box instead of in it. Got a few like this, these should be all pal. 

[Shawn]

On 11/23/2020 at 10:38 PM, kain11th said:

I just bought a bunch of 7800 games on ebay however i forgot to make sure they are all ntsc region. one of them i bought from a UK seller and he didn't specify the region. is there a way to tell just by looking at the cartridge? or the box? any kind of marking or physical indication?

 

If you bought it from the UK it's nearly a sure thing that it's PAL.

[juansolo]

I ended up with an NTSC Centipede and a friend ended up with an NTSC Galaga. Both were bought NOS/sealed and sold in the UK. Also I had two copies of Food Fight where one box indicated on the back it was NTSC (it was actually PAL) and the other box had different printing and didn't specify (also PAL). I've also got PAL games that don't have the sticker on the cart. It's pretty random.