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Re: Perfect Ultima VI NTSC Disks Found, ADFs Made, Available

Posted: Wed Jun 19, 2019 4:46 pm
by Shot97
If you're 99% sure it's using NTSC artwork on both versions, then I'm 100% sure. I've seen idiots attempt to come at me before when mentioning NTSC/PAL issues trying to say there were separate PAL versions that would run and look fine, that the internet is just populated with NTSC images (AHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAH!----- breath----AHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHhA ----- AHHAHAHAHHAHAHHA)

Overwhelmed with NTSC images? lol. I don't believe this game is rare like you do, what a collector can and cannot find online in physical form (or digital with the prevalence of PAL, not NTSC images online) says nothing about its availability at the time. #6 best game of 1992, with a nice hefty price tag I might add, they wren't afraid that people wouldn't buy it at 70 bucks in 1992 money. It was out there.

Anyway, until one of those people come to me with said perfect looking and running PAL game ported from NTSC, I'm telling you, I ain't ever seen an example of NTSC stuff converted to PAL when it comes to artwork. Music? Sometimes they make that play at the correct speed across versions. Three Stooges was the same way, there was a region lock on it, but it still only looks right in NTSC.

Pinball Dreams... Now there's one I need to take a look at. That was a 320x256 PAL game. It came to America, but there was a problem... They couldn't make a lazy port and just crop out the top, because that's where the scoreboard was.... So they did screw with the graphics for the NTSC version of Pinball Dreams... I'm still not sure if they just moved the scoreboard or if they stretched the graphics to look correct in NTSC 320x200... but I've long been curious about that. There's an actual reason there, they couldn't just throw it over, they had to mess with it. Otherwise, if they don't? They won't. They didn't.

Re: Perfect Ultima VI NTSC Disks Found, ADFs Made, Available

Posted: Wed Jun 19, 2019 5:12 pm
by Shot97
$70 in 1992 is the equivalent of $125.28... Everyone likes to say in blah blah year money... But when you actually calculate it... wow....

Re: Perfect Ultima VI NTSC Disks Found, ADFs Made, Available

Posted: Wed Jun 19, 2019 5:41 pm
by intric8
Yes, it was not a trivial investment. And this is another reason the Amiga version really got slapped in the face when it received a paper map, and not the cloth one like the other platforms and previous releases. (The cloth maps were not cheap to produce, but Amiga gamers had to pay the same price as everyone else...)

Re: Perfect Ultima VI NTSC Disks Found, ADFs Made, Available

Posted: Wed Jun 19, 2019 5:48 pm
by Shot97
Maybe the 10 bucks difference between MM3 and U6 is because of the maps... Might and Magic always came with paper maps... Well, except for my collectors edition of MM6, THAT one came with a massive cloth map, but most people just got a paper one.

Re: Perfect Ultima VI NTSC Disks Found, ADFs Made, Available

Posted: Wed Jun 19, 2019 5:49 pm
by TjLaZer
Shot97 wrote: Pinball Dreams... Now there's one I need to take a look at. That was a 320x256 PAL game. It came to America, but there was a problem... They couldn't make a lazy port and just crop out the top, because that's where the scoreboard was.... So they did screw with the graphics for the NTSC version of Pinball Dreams... I'm still not sure if they just moved the scoreboard or if they stretched the graphics to look correct in NTSC 320x200... but I've long been curious about that. There's an actual reason there, they couldn't just throw it over, they had to mess with it. Otherwise, if they don't? They won't. They didn't.
I have the Original NTSC version of Pinball Dreams and I installed it to HD with WHDLoad. They did cut some of the graphics down to make it fit. Looks ok.

Re: Perfect Ultima VI NTSC Disks Found, ADFs Made, Available

Posted: Wed Jun 19, 2019 5:53 pm
by Shot97
Compared to the PAL versions you find online, would you say it looks out of proportion or does it actually seem to have the same dimensions, just less resolution?

Re: Perfect Ultima VI NTSC Disks Found, ADFs Made, Available

Posted: Wed Jun 19, 2019 6:43 pm
by intric8
The screenshots I've seen online of the PAL version show the black borders on the tops and bottoms, where they take the NTSC art and simply center it to the screen vertically in order to maintain the original look.

Re: Perfect Ultima VI NTSC Disks Found, ADFs Made, Available

Posted: Wed Jun 19, 2019 6:56 pm
by obitus1990
I never played this game back then, but one of my best friends at the time was a positive addict of the Ultimate Series. I do seem to remember the floppy disk drive Constantly running during exploring the world when I’d watch him play it on his 500. I think that might have been the game that prompted him to buy a GVP sidecar with the 030 in it :)

Re: Perfect Ultima VI NTSC Disks Found, ADFs Made, Available

Posted: Wed Jun 19, 2019 7:04 pm
by Shot97
Sorry, I should have quoted the previous message. I was asking about the NTSC Pinball Dreams compared to the PAL version. That one (I have the PAL version) is fully utilizing 320x256 PAL mode, but there was an NTSC 320x200 release, where they were forced to mess with the graphics due to the scoreboard being at the top of the 320x256 screen, it would have been cropped out in a 320x200 NTSC port.

I haven't come across the NTSC version online (though I haven't really searched either), but I've always been curious on if the NTSC version simply moved the scoreboard, but didn't adjust the graphics, so it would essentially still be stretched and not looking correct in NTSC, or did they actually stretch the 4:3 320x256 graphics down to 4:3 320x200 NTSC graphics where it would essentially look the same, just ever so slightly less quality because of the decrease in resolution.

I mean that was done all the time when it came to ports from incompatible systems. Prince of Persia, for example, on the Apple II, was only like 200x150 or something, I forget, much less than 320x200. But Broaderbund made them look correct on a 320x200 NTSC system...so it's not like that was impossible, but you just rarely ever see it when it comes to PAL/NTSC stuff on the same system.

Re: Perfect Ultima VI NTSC Disks Found, ADFs Made, Available

Posted: Mon Jun 24, 2019 8:32 am
by Zippy Zapp
This is fantastic news! Thanks for the dedication to this, that is awesome.

As for Pinball dreams NTSC, I bought that back then and enjoyed it. I will go through my disks as I did not throw anything out. Hopefully they still work.