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Re: How to tell if a downloaded game file is PAL or NTSC?

Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2018 7:45 pm
by intric8
Sony PVM monitor
Drool... that is a kick ass monitor you've got there. 100% perfect for your Amiga's needs.

The whole NTSC/PAL issue used to drive me batty, too. And I don't want to go too far into the aspect ratio stuff (Shot covered it perfectly already) but as a designer I couldn't stand going to other sites and seeing US-made/NTSC games displayed vertically squashed. And these are sites - well-meaning sites - that are being pointed to as shrines of history.

And that broke my heart.

To see someone's work like Jim Sachs' with squashed heads... That's a large part of what convinced me to take the plunge and start my (albeit tiny) Games Library here at AmigaLove.com. It's also why most of the games in the Library show actual photographs of my CRT screens rather than straight up pixels from the original source. Not only did I want to capture the correct aspect ratios, I wanted to show the color blooms and scan-lines the way gamers (and the original designers) saw the games back in the day. They weren't perfectly crisp blocky games - Many were impossibly detailed thanks to the very nature of the hardware outputs common at the time.

Now, on the games I review I don't list NTSC/PAL. What I list is the original source for the game - e.g. USA, UK, Germany, Japan, etc.

And at least right now, over 90% of what I've been reviewing originated in the USA, which means for most practical purposes you're looking at NTSC screens on most of what you might find in there. I did that because, like Shot said, some popular games were created in both formats. So listing "NTSC" or "PAL" next to a game would only make sense if it was relevant to a download found also on the page somewhere.

The one place I've run into the most confusion (especially in the beginning) was with arcade ports. Nearly all of the games originated in Japan or the US, but many of the ports were made in the UK. And, unfortunately due to the reality of economics, many of those ports were rushed to market putting the designers and developers under completely unreasonable expectations. As such, the games were often PAL only and, well, pretty crappy.

Couple final thoughts on this interesting topic.

When it comes to games specifically, and I'm talking about compatibility, my personal experience is OS1.3 is the most compatible OS across the board. This reality falls off the table once you go beyond 1993 or so. But not really the OS, more on the regional NTSC/PAL side of things. By 1993, a lot of US companies had started to move on and a lot of the software being pushed out was produced and aimed at the European market. Most of my personal focus is 1992 and earlier with a few exceptions.

And since the European market lasted longer (and some might argue began later) you see most of the demos these days being coded by talented and devoted Europeans on and for PAL hardware.

So whether it's owning one of each type of machine, or installing a switch - either is a great option if you want to experience it all, which it sounds like you do. Which is awesome!

Re: How to tell if a downloaded game file is PAL or NTSC?

Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2018 9:09 pm
by piper_flatline
Thanks for your thoughts, intric8. :)
intric8 wrote:That's a large part of what convinced me to take the plunge and start my (albeit tiny) Games Library here at AmigaLove.com. It's also why most of the games in the Library show actual photographs of my CRT screens rather than straight up pixels from the original source.
I've been spending so much time reading and posting here in the forum I honestly didn't even know there was a game section here, haha. Going to check it out now.
intric8 wrote:When it comes to games specifically, and I'm talking about compatibility, my personal experience is OS1.3 is the most compatible OS across the board.
My Amiga 500 has 1.3 on it, yeah. I might try to do a ROM switch type thing with an add-on board, but definitely want to keep 1.3 for full compatibility and awesomeness.
intric8 wrote:Sony PVM monitor Drool... that is a kick ass monitor you've got there. 100% perfect for your Amiga's needs.
Thanks! I just got it about three weeks ago and so far it's been incredible for everything I've thrown at it. I love it!
intric8 wrote:So whether it's owning one of each type of machine, or installing a switch - either is a great option if you want to experience it all, which it sounds like you do. Which is awesome!
I've been considering getting several Amigas from different regions with different setups. Not sure if I'll actually go through with that, but hey it's fun to daydream.

Have a great holiday, you and Shot97 (and anyone else reading this!), if you do that kind of thing. :)

Re: How to tell if a downloaded game file is PAL or NTSC?

Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2018 12:40 pm
by rpiguy9907
You can use a PAL Amiga to your advantage. If you run an NTSC shooter on it, it will be ~18% slower and you might be able to get past obstacles that were too fast for your reflexes. It is like having a slow-down cart built into your machine!

Re: How to tell if a downloaded game file is PAL or NTSC?

Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2018 1:08 pm
by Zippy Zapp
piper_flatline wrote: I've been considering getting several Amigas from different regions with different setups. Not sure if I'll actually go through with that, but hey it's fun to daydream.
That is kind of what I ended up with. I no longer have my original A500 but I did buy a replacement a few years back. I did get my original A2000 though as it was sitting in my friends storage for 20 years or so, since about 1996. He gave it to his son to use and he basically threw it in his garage to collect leaves and stuff. I recently got it working again, which made me really happy. Other then that I have a PAL 1200 and an NTSC 1200. With the 1200s it really doesn't matter as you can toggle PAL/NTSC at bootup. And with something like relokick you can kick 1.3 into memory and many games will play fine with that, although some don't.

The only thing I really use PAL for is the demos. I am a huge demo fan ever since the 64 days. It was something I spent a lot of my Q-Link time on, downloading demos, graphics and .MUS/SID tunes. There are plenty of demos that work on NTSC but most of the Euro demos need PAL to display right.

I too have a Sony PVM it is a great monitor. With RGB though, the PAL screen modes work fine even on an NTSC 1084 monitor as they support the PAL modes over RGB. You do notice some flicker though. I do love that the PVMs support basically every signal type created.

Anyways, it is nice to read about your experience in the industry and your images and sounds are fantastic! You probably have more talent in your pinky then I have at all, in regards to art. :lol: But I sure do enjoy other peoples work.