US friends who put a PAL ANTIC in their NTSC A8....What are your results ?

[mr-atari]

I like the colors of the NTSC-GTIA, some colors are more brilliant than shown on PAL.
Checkout:
PAC-MAN (much nicer colors)
Midnight Magic, Pinball (full color, not BW...)

So I experimented putting a NTSC-GTIA in my PAL-800XL.
Facing the same "problems".
The NTSC-GTIA has no 4.43Mhz input for the PAL-circuit to work, no 4.43Mhz burts.....
In fact, you leave this pin out of the socket and conect it to the OSC.
This means you need to changing the clock-crystal, the 3.57Mhz in PAL-board give a false burst-signal.
No color on any monitor/tv I have. Also your machine runs 1% slower.
In other words, putting a PAL-ANTIC in a NTSC atari gives the same result.


I have color on most cheap LCD's, using NTSC-devices.
Most likely these LCD's have universal color-detection.
SONY and likely other brands, I think, have a region-code inside, blocking non-PAL detection.
But I really hate the lag LCD's produce, making gaming difficult then on CRT.
Finding a CRT that displays NTSC-colors is harder, but here also cheap brands (like FINLUX), works.

But be aware of software detecting the PAL-register of the GTIA.
It will detect NTSC and adjust its settings to run on a NTSC ANTIC/GTIA-set.
But the ANTIC stil is PAL, generating 50Hz end less NMI-cycles....

[Level42]

Yep, very aware of the software detection which yields some fun and interesting results,,,,(like a reaaaaaallly slow rendition of the Ghostbusters tune)

 

Yeah man I’m all CRT here for A8 and just like you I can’t stand LCD lag. But there are lots of people who seem to be happy with LCDs for the A8 and it would ave been ideal if every TV would have accepted both hybrids.

 

I feel like poking around with my scope around GTIA

 

On the other hand, when using a Sophia all those nasty old fashioned trouble should be solved, I have an RGB Sophia that I still need to install....curious how it will interact with my board

[mr-atari]

If the main board could run on 4.43Mhz.....
You have OSC and color-burst in one signal (like NTSC has)

 

 

Hmmm, another thing to test, someday.....

 

[Level42]

Yes, but the entire machine would speed up too....which may be nice....but not always

[Level42]

Very true about those colors, but Midnight Magic's problem is that it relies on NTSC articulating for colors which simply won't work on PAL so that's a different issue.

 

I like the colors of the NTSC-GTIA, some colors are more brilliant than shown on PAL.
Checkout:
PAC-MAN (much nicer colors)
Midnight Magic, Pinball (full color, not BW...)