Atari Consoles Available in PAL-A (or PAL-I)?

[ColecoFan1981]

Is it true that of the Atari consoles, that those players in the U.K. and Ireland only had the 2600 and 7800?

 

I have read here and there the 5200 was never available in anything but our NTSC, even though at the time Atari had a production plant in Ireland (in County Limerick) that could have done a version of the 5200 for the PAL-A region.

 

And while I know some Europeans did get the XE Video Game System (or XEGS), the few new game cartridges made for it -- as far as what I could find -- are NTSC only. I believe that may also be the case with the earlier 400/800/XL carts.

 

~Ben

Edited March 28, 2023 by ColecoFan1981

[Lostdragon]

49 minutes ago, ColecoFan1981 said:

Is it true that of the Atari consoles, that those players in the U.K. and Ireland only had the 2600 and 7800?

 

I have read here and there the 5200 was never available in anything but our NTSC, even though at the time Atari had a production plant in Ireland (in County Limerick) that could have done a version of the 5200 for the PAL-A region.

 

And while I know some Europeans did get the XE Video Game System (or XEGS), the few new game cartridges made for it -- as far as what I could find -- are NTSC only. I believe that may also be the case with the earlier 400/800/XL carts.

 

Atari UK did initially announce the 5200 as the planned successor for the aging 2600,only to later announce plans to launch it over here had been abandoned due to the US Crash. 

 

They then later showcased the 7800 at a London show, annoyed pricing, detailed launch games etc,citing this as the 2600 replacement. 

 

 

 

 

Bob Gleadow, Atari UK MD, then convinced his bosses in the USA, that  the XEGS was more suited to the UK market, so that was launched, with the 7800 limping out sometime after. 

 

 

This left the UK in a rather bizzare state of affairs, with Atari offering 3,cartridge-based 8-bit consoles, all competing for the same, limited market at one point. 

 

 

My memory is rather hazy, but i do seem to remember some home shopping catalogues at the time, featuring the 5200,as they'd been put together months in advance before being sent out and the cancellation of the system arrived too late for them to be removed. 

 

It became something of a running joke over here, why buy an Atari machine today, when they'll announce another system, tommorrow 🙄

[+x=usr(1536)]

9 hours ago, Lostdragon said:

Atari UK did initially announce the 5200 as the planned successor for the aging 2600,only to later announce plans to launch it over here had been abandoned due to the US Crash. 

FWIW, there was at least one small run of PAL prototypes.  Atari Ireland still had, at a minimum, two of them in 1986/7.

[alex_79]

Note that "PAL" indicates a color encoding system, and since system A (the old 405 line system used in UK) remained a monochrome only format until it was discontinued, "PAL-A" doesn't actually exist as a TV standard.

 

Color transmissions in UK were in "PAL-I" format, that is PAL encoding paired with the 625 line system I.

 

[Lostdragon]

1 hour ago, x=usr(1536) said:

FWIW, there was at least one small run of PAL prototypes.  Atari Ireland still had, at a minimum, two of them in 1986/7.

Yep, remember reading in A RetroGamer Magazine article, there were Pal Prototypes. 

 

 

Wasn't aware Atari Ireland had some, but then the magazine never covered Atari Ireland in any form in any article i ever saw as a subscriber. 

[+x=usr(1536)]

1 hour ago, Lostdragon said:

Yep, remember reading in A RetroGamer Magazine article, there were Pal Prototypes. 

 

 

Wasn't aware Atari Ireland had some, but then the magazine never covered Atari Ireland in any form in any article i ever saw as a subscriber. 

Can't speak for Retrogamer Magazine; never read it in any sort of significant way, and definitely not where the 5200 was concerned.

 

From what I recall, however, the units that we saw were basically put together as feasibility study units for production in Tipperary.  I'd imagine that there were more than two total produced, but those are the only ones I can speak to.

 

Both looked like normal production-model 5200s - they weren't badged as Video System X or anything like that.  Unfortunately, that's about the extent of my recollection of them.

[ColecoFan1981]

FWIW, I have issue five of Retro Gamer from 2004, and here's the rundown of the Atari 8-bit line they mention. All except the 1200XL were also available in PAL-I. However, the manufacturing dates are off in it, so I refer to the Atari 8-Bit FAQ (by Michael Current) for them.

https://www.consoledatabase.com/faq/atari-8-bit-computers-faq-michael-current/

 

The original Atari 400 and 800 were produced from September 1979 until May 1983. Most of these were made in the U.S. at Atari's main HQ in Sunnyvale, but a few last 400s were made at Atari-Wong Ltd. in Hong Kong.

The 1200XL (NTSC only) was produced from January to July 1983 (from January to April 1983 in Sunnyvale; and from May to July 1983 in Hong Kong at Atari-Wong Ltd.)

The 600XL was produced from September 1983 until July 1984 in Hong Kong thru Atari-Wong Ltd.

The 800XL was produced from September 1983 until March 1985 in Hong Kong thru Atari-Wong Ltd.

The 65XE and 130XE were produced from February 1985 until December 1991; most examples were made in Taiwan, but the very last ones were made in China. A special model called the 800XE was produced for then-East Germany and eastern Europe.

The XE Video Game System was produced from September 1987 until December 1991 and was made in Taiwan.

 

~Ben

Edited March 28, 2023 by ColecoFan1981

[mimo]

On 3/28/2023 at 4:05 AM, ColecoFan1981 said:

the few new game cartridges made for it -- as far as what I could find -- are NTSC only. I believe that may also be the case with the earlier 400/800/XL carts.

Atari 8bit computer line carts are region free

[ColecoFan1981]

6 hours ago, mimo said:

Atari 8bit computer line carts are region free

But also means they will be slower for you folks. Same thing with the ColecoVision carts you had (known as CBS ColecoVision).

 

I would guess the reason these cartridges weren't optimized for you guys... lack of adequate re-programming time before shipments?

 

~Ben

Edited April 12, 2023 by ColecoFan1981

[mimo]

Nah, pal is the correct speed, NTSC is faster 😉

[MrMaddog]

The 400/800 carts can run on PAL systems but slightly slower and a more squat screen, much like European Mega Drive games Sega made.  If you never played the NTSC version you wouldn't notice (except for NES games which were too slow).

 

The Atari 8-bit games that were originally made by Europeans have to use PAL because they employ programming tricks that are only possible to do on 50Hz displays.  On NTSC computers the display gets garbled up.  Something to keep in mind when using emulators...

[ColecoFan1981]

2 hours ago, MrMaddog said:

The 400/800 carts can run on PAL systems but slightly slower and a more squat screen, much like European Mega Drive games Sega made.  If you never played the NTSC version you wouldn't notice (except for NES games which were too slow).

 

The Atari 8-bit games that were originally made by Europeans have to use PAL because they employ programming tricks that are only possible to do on 50Hz displays.  On NTSC computers the display gets garbled up.  Something to keep in mind when using emulators...

Exactly, especially Super Mario Bros. for the NES. The very first PAL release from 1987 was exactly the same as our NTSC version (hence the slower speed and music), but while Nintendo of Europe did release a PAL-I optimized version in 1990, some of the changes to make it conform to the PAL-I standard were left to be desired.

 

~Ben

Edited April 12, 2023 by ColecoFan1981

[+slx]

The Jaguar was available in PAL, too.