Atari 2600 PAL-M unique palette

[Carlos Baldo]

Hi folks.

 

I was testing a few games in my Unocart using a Dactari (brazilian Atari 2600 clone by Sayfi) and noticed that the colors are different from what we see in NTSC consoles and Stella. Some games are pretty close (Keystone Kapers, Grand Prix), others are very different (Pitfall, Pitfall II).

 

Is there a way to reproduce the PAL-M palette in Stella? I know it isn't the way developers wanted the games to be, but that's how a lot of people over South America played them.

[Andrew Davie]

Are you testing PAL ROMs?

 

[Thomas Jentzsch]

AFAIK PAL-M uses the NTSC palette.

[alex_79]

It might be the result of the color trimmer adjustment in your console. Also the TV might make a difference (colors look a bit different on LCD TVs compared to old  CRTs)

Here are screenshots of a test rom showing the entire palette on another PAL-M console (the rom can be found in post #48 of that thread):

https://atariage.com/forums/topic/254053-a-new-marauder/?do=findComment&comment=3548524

Could you try that on your console?

 

Here is a service manual for PAL-M atari 2600 that includes the NTSC to PAL conversion circuit found on these consoles.

Maybe some expert might determine if the conversion also causes some differences in the resulting colors.

Manual_tecnico_Atari_2600-br.pdf