A periodic difference: PAL vs NTSC speed.

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Erik_Twice
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A periodic difference: PAL vs NTSC speed.

Post by Erik_Twice »

This is a simple question. Is it worth getting imports to play games at the original speed?

I just discovered that Megaman 2 is slowed down when playing in PAL than in NTSC. I always played it using roms and not until now I discovered this issue. Since the Megaman games are on my "to-buy" list, this is an important change.

What should I do? Import? Import from Japan? Stick to PAL?
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emwearz
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Re: A periodic difference: PAL vs NTSC speed.

Post by emwearz »

I mod my consoles for the 60hz output, as long as the console is outputting in 60hz, for most cases it is fine and the game runs at fullspeed.

For those few games that were optimized for PAL (Mario Kart, etc) they generally still run slightly slower, but not the big 17% most other PAL games do. (PAL optimized games generally mess up at 60hz, so you are fine to play them at 50hz because there were tweaks to make the speed normal) They still have the bordered graphics (which is actually squashed and so the graphics are deformed in 50hz).

The issue for most games (the non PAL optimized ones) is that it was the exact same game, but not the exact same hardware, so the hardware is the actual issue. Mod all PAL consoles that can be modded for 60hz (Most can, the 64 and NES cant) and you will be right in terms of speed. You will also now get fullscreen graphics.
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Re: A periodic difference: PAL vs NTSC speed.

Post by vlame »

Get 60hz machines. Most should work with new tvs available to you. Especially hdtvs.
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BoringSupreez
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Re: A periodic difference: PAL vs NTSC speed.

Post by BoringSupreez »

I'd import, but from the US rather than Japan, so that you can have it in English. I assume your English is better than your Japanese.
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