PAL Games on an NTSC System

[Tempest 2084]

I have a question about running PAL games on an NTSC Amiga. If you have a monitor that supports both PAL and NTSC (or are using a VGA monitor with a scandoubler), can you play PAL games on an NTSC ECS equipped Amiga (a 600 for example)? I've been out of the Amiga scene for a long time, but I seem to recall that you can boot ECS systems into PAL mode by holding both mouse buttons down on startup, but that WHDload also had some sort of option for fixing this. I assume there will still be a few software issues, but will something like this make most PAL games playable? I really want to play some RPGs like the Ishar series but those are all PAL I believe.

[LordCrass]

Yes. Most PAL games work on an NTSC system with no changes at all, but with side effects like music/gameplay being faster, and if the game used the full PAL resolution, the display will stretch past the bottom of the screen.

You can fix those by putting the system into a PAL display mode. For floppy boot games I usually boot a disk with the tool "degrader" on it, force PAL and survive reboot, then reboot and put the game disk in. That kickstart boot menu that allows you to choose NTSC/PAL is useless for nearly every game.

For WHDLoad, you just right-click the game's icon, choose Icons->Information, and set a tool type that says "PAL" or "NTSC", and the game will launch with that.

[Tempest 2084]

Originally Posted by LordCrass

Yes. Most PAL games work on an NTSC system with no changes at all, but with side effects like music/gameplay being faster.

Is there a way to fix that at all short of using a PAL system?

[CCRider]

Originally Posted by Tempest 2084

Is there a way to fix that at all short of using a PAL system?

WHDLoad.

[Tempest 2084]

I just found out the system I'm getting is PAL so I guess I'm going to have the opposite problem.

[LordCrass]

Originally Posted by Tempest 2084

Is there a way to fix that at all short of using a PAL system?

Yes, like I mentioned, use degrader to put the system into PAL display mode, or use WHDLoad with the PAL tool type.

On an A500 I have, I use a kickstart switcher that can swap between 2 kickstart ROMs. The 1.2 ROM is modified to switch to PAL mode immediately, so the system is effectively a PAL system when booting 1.2. With 3.1, it is NTSC. This way I don't need to mess with my fragile Agnus chip to install a PAL/NTSC switch. In the rare case I need NTSC 1.2, I use degrader.

An NTSC system in PAL display mode isn't exactly the same as a true PAL system. The clock is a bit different. The only thing I noticed this being a problem on was running PAL version of Dragon's Lair on NTSC system. Even in PAL mode, it wouldn't boot, likely due to the protection.

Degrader and WHDLoad also work the opposite way if you need to force NTSC mode on a PAL system.

[Tempest 2084]

Originally Posted by LordCrass

An NTSC system in PAL display mode isn't exactly the same as a true PAL system. The clock is a bit differen.

Turns out I'm getting a PAL system, so I'm guessing I'll be ok unless there are a lot of NTSC exclusive games. I think almost every popular game has an PAL version, it would have been weird not to given how much larger the market was.


So with the different clock rate, how do NTSC games play on a PAL system? Are they just a little slower?

[Matt_H]

Every Amiga with a 1MB Agnus (e.g., everything except the 1000) can be switched in software between PAL and NTSC. Once done, it behaves 99.999% like a native system. The odds of finding software that doesn’t work with this method is very, very, very unlikely.

[stx2199]

Originally Posted by Matt_H

Every Amiga with a 1MB Agnus (e.g., everything except the 1000) can be switched in software between PAL and NTSC..

plz note the the first versions of A500s from 1987 and 1988 comes with the old agnus and are only PAL or only NTSC.....( original chipset)
then after 1989 all the A500 comes with the new agnus and all of them are PAL/NTSC (enhanced chipset)