I've lived in the UK all my life, and as such 99% of my games are PAL.
This shouldn't be a problem, but sadly a majority of the games run in 50Hz, have borders around the screen, run slower, and don't support progressive output.
I can easily pick up US consoles and games for most of my systems. I'm wondering, does /vr/ think it'd be worth it for me to switch my collection to NTSC?
I mostly play everything from NES - GameCube eras on various platforms.
The games don't run at 50hz, the system does. If it didn't you wouldn't get colour on a PAL tv. Modding the console is piss easy, so do that. Most games are identical to the NTSC-U versions. Only a few like Gunstar Heroes and Shinobi III have a lockout that prevents them from running on a non-50hz system. If you play NES for whatever reason (it's a crap system with hardly any good games) import an American system or a Famicom. The clockspeed is either tol fast or too slow on PAL systems depending on the model. Famicom is the better choice as it has more good games and no censorship.
>>3141504
>(it's a crap system with hardly any good games)
That's a hot opinion.
He is right about modding your console instead of buying a new one though. Make sure you mod it with a 50hz-60hz switch though, because like he said, some games won't run on 60hz.
>>3141517
Games made for NTSC are better played in NTSC format, but the same goes for PAL games in PAL format.
>does /vr/ think it'd be worth it for me to switch my collection to NTSC?
You would need to ask someone who has played enough NTSC and PAL games to know if, and how much, PAL games suck in comparison to NTSC games.
I doubt the majority of /vr/ would know. Honestly, you're probably better suited to answer that question yourself since you have the ability to emulate some NTSC games, compare them to the games you already own, and then make a decision.
Anyways, from what I've played, I agree that NTSC games are far superior. Some PAL versions, like Earthworm Jim, absolutely blow. It all depends on how much you love those old retro games, and how much time/money you're willing to invest to "fix them."
My personal opinion? I would just hold onto my PAL versions, and emulate the NTSC games I wanted to play. But switching your collection isn't a bad choice, either.
NTSC versions are better, so if you want the best versions of the games, then go for it.
Good luck!
>>3141504
>>3141515
>>3141517
Thanks for all the opinions.
I feel like I'm correct in saying the console was locked to 50hz/60hz, but only until about the PS2-era? I'm fairly sure it's per-game on the PS1, but think it's still per-console on N64. I could be wrong though.
I completely forgot that 50/60hz switches were available for SNES actually.
I have a PAL PS2 but seemingly there isn't a homebrew way to play imports without a modchip. I can burn NTSC copies to a new disc but that's a bit redundant.
Luckily I also purchased an AV famicom, so if I get a NES --> Fami adapter, that's the NTSC part taken care of for that system.
Think most things on Dreamcast are PAL60 anyway so that isn't a problem.
>>3141496
There's no need to switch your collection. If you can figure out which end of a soldering iron gets hot you can frequency and language mod a Mega Drive.
Just get NTSC copies of the small handful of PAL games that shit the bed when forced in to 60Hz.
>>3141523
The hardware of a console, any console, is either 50hz or 60hz if it doesn't have a switch. The games don't have anything to do with the colour encoding.
There are advantages to a few games running in PAL.
For example, Ecco the Dolphin The Tides of Time runs in a slightly higher native resolution in PAL. It's quite unusual but nice.
Unsurprising though cause the developers were from Europe.
>>3141531
PS1 modchips still play NTSC games in 60Hz as far as I'm aware.
>>3141535
Street of Rage does too, but still plays at 50hz so runs slower. I'm surprised no one had made a rom hack for the few PAL games that take advantage of the higher res, to play at 60hz. Only one I know of is Terranigma.
>>3141535
PAL is visually superior, so that's no surprise.
>>3141538
That occurs when the game is not modified to run at 50hz, though you will never get full screen at 50hz (obviously) no matter if it is modified or not.
>>3141540
I don't know anything about the Playstation, I have never owned or played one, so I can't really say anything about that.
>>3141540
yeah tho do, a pal50 tv will play them in black and white tho, i played quite a few games that way back in the day.
>>3141561
But for a modern TV it shouldn't be a problem if I just get my PAL console chipped?
Unless I can force PAL games to run at 60hz
>>3141564
If the game is modified for PAL it will run too fast and the timing will be off at 60hz, if it wasn't modified then it will play fine at 60hz.
>>3141567
But to even get it running in 60Hz I need to force it in some way.
>>3141574
You shouldn't have to. Does the Playstation have region lock?
You should have ditched your PAL shit YEARS ago. It's only worth it for the handful of games which had good PAL conversions, and for games made by PAL devs (exclusive or no).
People telling you otherwise are looking for excuses to justifying the money they put into that crap.
>>3141581
Why not just mod the console to avoid all the voltage conversion business?
>>3141504
>the nes is bad hipsters are STILL here on /vr/
Good lord
>>3141590
Only Americanised hipsters like the NES. It is a shit console with maybe 6 good games at best.
>>3141594
Youre a bit of a retard if you actually believe that
>>3141578
The playstation has region lock. Just like most home consoles did until recently.
>>3141603
The Mega Drive and Master System didn't have it.
>>3141598
Fuck off, James.
Most good games were strongly PAL optimized, with a few notable exceptions like MK64 and Sonic 1. Some were even the best forms of the games. PAL games had better resolution if they didn't have the black borders. The only thing we can say for sure is that when PAL went bad, it got really bad, while with NTSC at least they weren't playing at slower speed. 50hz vs 60hz has little effect, it is not nearly as important as resolution.
>>3141605
This is a lie
>>3141606
Looks like I triggered you
>>3141619
No it isn't. Very few games on the MD had it and they were all later releases and no MS games had it.
>>3141496
>and don't support progressive output
I agree with everything else but this is untrue
>I can easily pick up US consoles and games for most of my systems. I'm wondering, does /vr/ think it'd be worth it for me to switch my collection to NTSC?
if you do it's much cheaper (both the devices themselves and the postage) to buy japanese consoles. I did this.
Also save yourself a heap more money and get flashcarts for those systems.
Is NTSC worth it over PAL? idk, if all the games released on on pal systems were made for it it would be harder to call but they hardly ever are so NTSC definitely has the edge.
>>3141605
The mega drive had it later on officially (Phantasy Star 4, Thunderforce 4) and EA had their own version for all their games.
>>3141630
>I agree with everything else but this is untrue
It certainly isn't. Especially on PS2, many games that support 480p in the US don't support it on PAL.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_PlayStation_2_games_with_alternate_display_modes
>if you do it's much cheaper (both the devices themselves and the postage) to buy japanese consoles. I did this.
Do you mean buy the console and either mod it to play English games or get a flashcart? Seems like extra hassle. I don't speak moonrune either.
>Also save yourself a heap more money and get flashcarts for those systems.
If I was going to pirate stuff I'd just keep emulating. I want a physical collection, and not all flashcarts for all consoles are 100% compatible.
>>3141637
Although that was frequency lock, not region lock like the Saturn had.
>>3141640
>It certainly isn't. Especially on PS2, many games that support 480p in the US don't support it on PAL.
288p is used by all pre-dreamcast pal consoles and 576p is supported by quite a few later ones .
>>3141640
>It certainly isn't.
For the purposes of /vr/ games, it is. PAL uses the exact same field priority hack for half-resolution progressive scan as NTSC.
PAL is still shit though.
>>3141658
>288p is used by all pre-dreamcast pal consoles
Which is alright but a lot of shit outputs interlaced signals
>576p is supported by quite a few later ones
again, interlacing. PS2/GC games are mostly 480i in PAL regions (or 576i)
>>3141660
If PAL is shit then NTSC is really shit.
>>3141668
Flicker perception is non-linear. 50Hz flicker is about 10 times as annoying as 60Hz flicker.
>>3141671
Source?
>>3141661
>Which is alright but a lot of shit outputs interlaced signals
wut
>>3141640
If I was going to pirate stuff I'd just keep emulating. I want a physical collection, and not all flashcarts for all consoles are 100% compatible.
>muh cullection
honestly you don't seem to know what you're talking about or care that much so i'd just stick to buying those pal snes games for 50-100 bucks a pop.
Like what are you displaying these on even? If you're using an lcd and wondering why pal games look like shit maybe you're looking under the wrong rock.
>>3141671
50hz flicker is undetectable to the human eye.
>this thread
Instead of listening to the original Michael Jackson album on CD, I'll willingly listen to a version that slows down the tempo by 20% on a 192kpb/s MP3.
It's superior because in that version the bass sounds a little better.
>>3141687
>listening to a nigger paedophile
>>3141689
um everyone knows MJ is white
>>3141690
How young are you?
>>3141690
He sure is
>>3141496
>switch
No.
Only positive thing is, that you can play games which aren't available for PAL. So i mostly have consoles in PAL and NTSC(mostly J). To have a nice available accessibility of games. Especially since some games are more expensive as PAL, and some as NTSC. So you can profit alone by this aspect.
Screensize/speed is just a thing which can be a benefit sometimes, but not really noticeable after you get used to both.
>>3141687
What are you talking to yourself babbling nonsense for?
>>3141684
I'm sorry to hear of your disability. For people with normal brain function, NTSC is much more tolerable.
>>3141736
He has no disability, you're just full of shit.
"tolerable", get that autistic tampon out of your asshole you pretentious shithead.
>>3141745
Even 60Hz flicker is obviously detectable by the human eye. 50Hz is eye-raping extreme nauseating flicker. And the flicker is the only way to get good motion quality from the low framerates found in console games (50fps/60fps is low), so there is no way around it. Motion interpolation unacceptably increases latency, frame doubling causes motion artifacts.
>>3141594
Kill yourself
>>3141745
Ignore him, he's a troll that shows up every thread on this subject.
Ironically, he is literally autistic, as autistic brains have a much higher Hz tolerance which is highly detrimental to perceptive function.
>people replying to Australia-kun in a serious way
Guys, the "NES only has 6 good games" is Australia-kun. Just remember he's an old man who gets drunk everyday to "relive stress" while shitposting about old sega vs nintendo wars, and laugh.
He will never not shitpost, he's drunken every time.
>>3141558
>I'm surprised no one had made a rom hack for the few PAL games that take advantage of the higher res, to play at 60hz. Only one I know of is Terranigma.
Typically PAL games don't actually run at a higher resolution. They get scaled into a higher resolution by the video encoder, but the actual game is being drawn in the same resolution as NTSC. I'm not aware of any SNES games, Terranigma included, that actually are a higher resolution in PAL.
A handful exist for Sega like Streets of Rage 2 and Ecco: The Tides of Time, and a few Rare games on N64 like Goldeneye, but it's very rare.
>>3141878
As I recall Super Mario World displayed some extra lines in PAL but they were just fancy borders.
There are lots of Saturn games that ran in higher resolution in PAL mode.
All three Streets of Rage games and Strider too displayed more lines in PAL models. It was pretty surprising to move to NTSC versions of SOR2 after playing the PAL ones all my life, I had to get used to the lower part of the screen being cut off.
>>3141496
>but sadly a majority of the games run in 50Hz,
ALL of PAL games run at 50hz.
>run slower,
...but most are sped up to compensate. 'All PAL is slow' is a meme and not one worth your learning.
>have borders around the screen
All you have to do is press a single button on your remote control to fix this and they suddenly look identical to their NTSC counterparts. A valid complaint if your TV is old enough to have knobs on it, I suppose. Otherwise, you have only yourself to blame.
>>3141594
Silly Australia-kun, nobody will ever take you seriously.
>>3143442
Holy shit anon you're retarded
>ALL of PAL games run at 50hz.
No they don't, but it's a majority. It's a PITA because some companies bothered to keep a 60Hz mode but most didn't.
>...but most are sped up to compensate. 'All PAL is slow' is a meme and not one worth your learning.
Fuck no they weren't. If all of them were, I wouldn't even be complaining. Only example I can think of off the top of my head that does this is Super Metroid.
>All you have to do is press a single button on your remote control to fix this
The borders are literally there in place of a part of the game. They aren't added around the game window, they replace it. Zooming in or cropping the picture won't do shit.
>>3143856
>The borders are literally there in place of a part of a game
Holy shit. Stop posting any time. PAL games with borders have the exact same FOV. It's just that because a lower resolution is squeezed into a higher resolution at the exact same aspect ratio PAL games no longer have square pixels.
If you stretch a PAL game with borders so that the borders are pushed into the overscan and the game has square pixels again, it will look like it does in NTSC.
>>3143856
>'All PAL is slow' is a meme and not one worth your learning.
Counterpoint: Final Fantasy X.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7h9htbYDss
Mario 64.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWwAXUZvDhk
Super Metroid
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Okm8dF55DI
It was a serious problem. Even games from big-budget developers suffered it, like Devil May Cry and Kingdom Hearts.
>>3144130
Doesn't matter. There are massive black borders on the top and bottom of the screen that have no business being there. There are action replay codes that adjust the Y-axis for fuck's sake, it was pure laziness.
>>3144146
>action replay codes that adjust the Y-axis
You literally don't know what you're talking about.
