NTSC versus PAL

Edit history:

DJGrenola: 2007-07-25 06:00:18 am

2007-07-25 05:55:39 am

guffaw

PAL is better, it's just (as nate said) game developers couldn't give a shit about europe, never have, and probably never will. Precisely the attitude which will probably end up with me quitting gaming altogether in the not too distant future if european release dates don't start to improve. Nintendo in particular do not deserve my money right now.

Quote:

And now of course there is so much legacy material that a unification of framerate will probably never happen.

Actually I think it might ... PAL does 50 and 60 Hz pretty much universally these days, and you can play back 50 Hz stuff on 60 Hz equipment trivially just by duplicating every fifth frame. Plus with video rapidly moving into the digital realm the idea of having to encode chroma onto a subcarrier is becoming unnecessary (because it's not broadcast that way on digital broadcast systems), so the difference between the PAL and NTSC chroma subcarrier frequencies (the main thing differentiating PAL-60 and NTSC) will eventually become unimportant.

PAL is better, it's just (as nate said) game developers couldn't give a shit about europe, never have, and probably never will. Precisely the attitude which will probably end up with me quitting gaming altogether in the not too distant future if european release dates don't start to improve. Nintendo in particular do not deserve my money right now.

[quote]And now of course there is so much legacy material that a unification of framerate will probably never happen.[/quote]

Actually I think it might ... PAL does 50 and 60 Hz pretty much universally these days, and you can play back 50 Hz stuff on 60 Hz equipment trivially just by duplicating every fifth frame. Plus with video rapidly moving into the digital realm the idea of having to encode chroma onto a subcarrier is becoming unnecessary (because it's not broadcast that way on digital broadcast systems), so the difference between the PAL and NTSC chroma subcarrier frequencies (the main thing differentiating PAL-60 and NTSC) will eventually become unimportant.

Soulrivers

2007-07-25 09:02:00 am

Oh and to hell with Nintendo for releasing N64 PAL games for the VC. Slower running SM64 = fail.

nate

2007-07-25 04:20:36 pm

yeah, nintendo is basically incompetent, but on the whole i think things have improved over the last 10 years.

Rake

2007-08-02 04:08:25 am

The whole PAL vs NTSC has become very trivial over the last several years most game makers will now allow for the different frame rates and most modern PAL TVs allow for 60hz playback any way the 50hz is just there for backwards compatibility with older TVs/VCRs

nate

2007-08-02 04:52:39 am

too bad prime 1 had 50 hz and prime 2 didn't (anyone know if there's been word about prime 3?).

SuperCoolAl

2007-08-12 02:43:51 am

I love YaBB 1G - SP1!

Would surprise me if it didn't support both modes. So far Nintendo titles have simply implemented some kind of frameskip for the 50Hz mode as I mentioned.

DJGrenola, duplicating frames would not result in smooth playback.

DJGrenola

Edit history:

DJGrenola: 2007-08-12 11:20:36 pm

2007-08-12 11:17:45 pm

guffaw

non smooth playback > no playback

It doesn't matter, anyway. Unification of fps has already begun; many xbox360 games won't run at 50 Hz on PAL equipment.

Equinox

2012-02-12 02:34:07 am

Obsessicus Parrotus

I have a question about my game running NTSC.

The PAL version of Pandemonium is noticeably slower, as you have discussed a long time ago, this seems to be the case with a lot of games, I am still quite confused about it though. It is hella easier to play the PAL version of this game but does result in a slower time. How off does it have to be to be a different category? Or are we now at the point where it doesn't matter?

Sir VG

2012-02-12 03:04:39 am

Fucking Weeaboo

Quote from Dumpsterknight:

I have a question about my game running NTSC.

The PAL version of Pandemonium is noticeably slower, as you have discussed a long time ago, this seems to be the case with a lot of games, I am still quite confused about it though. It is hella easier to play the PAL version of this game but does result in a slower time. How off does it have to be to be a different category? Or are we now at the point where it doesn't matter?

Most PAL games if they run at 5/6th speed are automatically a different category. One of the few games that isn't is Sonic, since not only the game slows down but the timer does as well. Since both items run at 5/6th speed and the in-game timer is used that one is an exception.

Most newer games don't apply, since they don't have slowdown, or run at PAL-60.

Dumpsterknight

2012-02-12 05:57:07 pm

Thanks Sir VG!!!!!

Equinox

Edit history:

Equinox: 2012-02-12 10:17:22 pm

2012-02-12 10:14:57 pm

Obsessicus Parrotus

When does a PAL run replace a NTSC run? Was the next question that came to mind, there are several threads discussing this topic and most have stopped, with few clear conclusions. To a person that has only been lurking around here 6 months and trying to do my first speed run these are things I desperately need to know.

Sir VG

2012-02-12 10:38:40 pm

Fucking Weeaboo

Quote from Dumpsterknight:

When does a PAL run replace a NTSC run? Was the next question that came to mind, there are several threads discussing this topic and most have stopped, with few clear conclusions. To a person that has only been lurking around here 6 months and trying to do my first speed run these are things I desperately need to know.

1. The aforementioned Sonic game would be a time when it would, since the times are directly comparable.
2. Maybe if it beats the snot out of the NTSC time, since the whole 5/6th speed thing leads to other things that don't make the sames similar, such as glitches or jumps that are otherwise impossible at NTSC speed.

Equinox

Edit history:

Equinox: 2012-02-12 10:44:07 pm

2012-02-12 10:40:20 pm

Obsessicus Parrotus

I would think any game would be much easier to play at reduced speed

Sir VG

2012-02-12 10:45:43 pm

Fucking Weeaboo

In some aspects, yes, in some no. Because an action takes a lot longer to perform...

But some games have glitches, which is why it's not always gonna be comparable. ICO for instance, the character can, if performed right, do an extra long jump that allows for a major skip late in the game. Thus it can't compare to the NTSC version which has to go though everything.

Equinox

2012-02-12 11:01:13 pm

Obsessicus Parrotus

Still trying to figure out if my game is like that though, been driving me insane lately.

Sir VG

2012-02-12 11:11:04 pm

Fucking Weeaboo

Well, you don't need to figure it out alone. If there's a thread about it, discuss it there. I'm sure there's somebody knowledgeable in the game who will help you.

Equinox

Edit history:

Equinox: 2012-02-13 01:11:53 am

2012-02-13 12:31:56 am

Obsessicus Parrotus

Not rly lol, I am practically all by myself, its why I came here. I would pay people to help me answer questions about my game.