PAL format

[philnyy]

how is the usability of a game that is in the

pal format? to what extent will the game work

in a 2600 system?

[TheTIGuy]

You just need an old TV with horizontal hold adj. knobs.

[CatPix]

For an Atari 2600 game, the general rule is that you'll need to ajust the vertical hold to stop the screen from jerking or rolling. You'll be able to see the game, albeit probably with slightly wrong colors as PAL games use a slightly different palette than the NTSC ones.

Some more complex games might not work well but I'm not sure I ever heard of that happening.

[TheTIGuy]

OPPS! I thought horiz. was this way I

I

I oh well it was late and i was (still am) tired so...

 

Also, if you want to play PAL tape on an NTSC VCR or vice-versa, you will need adjustable tracking, and a TV with horizontal an vertical control .

CatPix is kinda right, but PAL Ataris used a (really,really sucky) 8-colour subset of the regular Atari palate.

Edited July 17, 2017 by TheTIGuy

[CatPix]

No, this is the Atari SECAM.

PAL models have a 112 color palette.

And SECAM colors are generated from the grayscale signal, which mean that there is no real Atari SECAM games - all but 6 Activision titles are PAL games. And even the Activision titles are PAL games, they just fiddled with the color palette to get the color to look right on SECAM models.

SECAM Atari consoles use a PAL TIA, the color signal is simply not used.

Edited July 17, 2017 by CatPix

[0078265317]

Or just get a used small PAL tv or video capture card for PC with PAL.

[alex_79]

SECAM Atari consoles use a PAL TIA, the color signal is simply not used.

Actually there are two board revisions of the SECAM VCS, one using a NTSC TIA, the other using a PAL one.

And since, as you said, the color signal from the TIA isn't used, it makes no difference for this application.

[CatPix]

A NTSC TIA?

Wow, that would be awesome. I guess that would only be the early woody models.

I have one early model that emit on VHF, which is an oddity. Maybe it's one NTSC modems hacked for SECAM operation. I'll check it out, that would be quite the mindblowing discovery.