Suggestion:Regions page

2013-07-09 03:42:55 am

Could a page be done on regions in regards to consoles, games and stuff (PAL, JP, etc.)? Possible topics include region locking, old PAL games running at 50hz, and others? I don't exactly know much about the topic, so it would be nice to have a page on it detailing that kind of information all in one place.

Thread title:

Mr. K

2013-07-09 10:45:57 pm

Yes

This definitely needs to happen. I haven't decided whether a single page with this kind of information can do the job or not. If you'd like to take a stab I'll see how it looks and figure out where to stick it. I'm leaning toward handling this on a case by case basis and here's how I'm currently thinking of handling games and consoles:

Games
Minor differences in timing (like NTSC vs JP Super Mario World) should get a little section in the game mechanics page. Contra also fits in this category and there's a side note in the mechanics section. In some games the region differences may affect the route and warrant a new category page.

Consoles
Regional differences can be minor (Super Nintendo in North America vs Super Famicom) or they can be major. I'd say for this situation a few little sections about region differences could be added to SNES recording page and it would be fine.

I haven't tried to make a page for PAL yet and I'm not sure if it deserves a new page or not. We've got some other connectors like SCART and if I'm not mistaken SCART also eliminates the need for splitters? That's pretty significant and it probably makes sense to

Old PAL games - you're talking about old PAL games on Virtual Console still running at their original 50hz framerates?

So yeah it's been on my mind. Thoughts?

This definitely needs to happen.  I haven't decided whether a single page with this kind of information can do the job or not.  If you'd like to take a stab I'll see how it looks and figure out where to stick it.  I'm leaning toward handling this on a case by case basis and here's how I'm currently thinking of handling games and consoles:

Games
Minor differences in timing (like NTSC vs JP Super Mario World) should get a little section in the game mechanics page.  Contra also fits in this category and there's a side note in the mechanics section.  In some games the region differences may affect the route and warrant a new category page.

Consoles
Regional differences can be minor (Super Nintendo in North America vs Super Famicom) or they can be major.  I'd say for this situation a few little sections about region differences could be added to SNES recording page and it would be fine.

I haven't tried to make a page for PAL yet and I'm not sure if it deserves a new page or not.  We've got some other connectors like SCART and if I'm not mistaken SCART also eliminates the need for splitters?  That's pretty significant and it probably makes sense to

Old PAL games - you're talking about old PAL games on Virtual Console still running at their original 50hz framerates?

So yeah it's been on my mind.  Thoughts?

Edenal

2013-07-10 02:24:08 am

Hockey enthusiast

Quote from Mr. K:

We've got some other connectors like SCART and if I'm not mistaken SCART also eliminates the need for splitters? That's pretty significant and it probably makes sense to

Yes. If the scart cable already have a break-out box for composite.
But in general no.

I really want to help out with the KB. But I'm going to have to postpone any serious commitment in doing so for at least 1½ months. Being located in Europe and being having a massive affection for SCART-connections in general, I feel like this is a section I can contribute to!

mike89

2013-07-10 02:40:47 am

SEGA Junkie

My thoughts on categorisation would be thus:
*Differing NTSC/PAL speeds is a wide ranging issue spanning virtually every game up until PS1/N64 era, and probably some beyond that even. This is probably the kind of catch-all page that's being envisioned here.
*Differences between (particularly) American and Japanese versions, whether they be text differences or other game-specific issues, are exactly that - game-specific, and should be dealt with on their own page.

RoboSparkle

2013-07-10 06:34:14 am

Magical. Flying. Bathtub

In addition to what mike said on categorisation, things like loading time differences when playing the same game on different consoles - I'm thinking between PS1/PS2 (w or w/o Fast Disc)/PS3/PSP as this can make a big difference to some games, but I'd imagine you get recurring issues going between N64/GC/Wii/VC as well.

Alko

2014-02-18 04:06:04 pm

Caution: This user contains Kana ^_^

Bump, because same kind of topic. Don't know if the KB incorporates what I'm about to suggest already, apologise, if it does.
We've had pretty many people looking for advice on how to run US/JP consoles in Europe, and I would bet my hat that there's at least one person out there who doesn't know whether he can just plug in the JP plug into US sockets. What about a page on 'How do I run a console outside of its native market?' or something like that? That title suggestion is just the first thing that crossed my mind.

Page would include stuff like 'Does console X need a step-down converter, or are there other ways to power it safely with twice the voltage?', 'Will I get colour if I connect NTSC-console Y to my PAL-TV via composite/component/RGB?' ~~'Can I play Japanese games on my American console?'~~ (actually, that's something you mentioned would go elsewhere) etc.