Playing PAL Atari VCS games in NTSC-Land

[Pitfall Harry]

Over the course of many years of collecting,  I've managed to accumulated quite a number of PAL format Atari games. Now, I would like to play them the way they were intended to be played -- on PAL equipment.  What is the best way to do this?  If I buy a PAL based Atari 2600, will it display the games correctly on my NTSC television or will I just be wasting my money if I don't buy a PAL-based TV too?

 

If anyone out here in NTSC-Land has tried this, please let me know what you did and how it turned out.

 

Thanks,

 

 

-Ben

[Thomas Jentzsch]

You probably need both, a PAL console and a PAL or multi norm TV. 

[Pitfall Harry]

44 minutes ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

You probably need both, a PAL console and a PAL or multi norm TV. 

Thanks, Thomas. That would be my guess too. You probably need both.  But I would like to move beyond probably, and graduate to absolute certainty.

 

Has anyone actually tried this?  I'd really like to hear from you.

 

-Ben

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Since the PAL signal uses a different carrier frequency for color than NTSC, I am very, very sure that I am right here. But I won't guarantee anything. 😊

[Pitfall Harry]

12 minutes ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

Since the PAL signal uses a different carrier frequency for color than NTSC, I am very, very sure that I am right here. But I won't guarantee anything. 😊

Yeah, I know about the different carrier frequency.  But in today's global economy, televisions are shipped all over the world and technology never stands still.  It seems reasonable to me that TV designers would throw a few extra cents worth of silicon chips in their designs so their TV's can compensate for mismatched PAL/NTSC signals in whatever country their TV's end up.  It seems reasonable to me that designers would have thought about doing this 20 years ago, at least.  So even though you are very very sure (as am I), I would like to be 100% certain about this.  There's really only two ways to be absolutely certain:  1) Buy the PAL TV and console and see what happens, or 2) Get the straight story from someone who has actually bought the hardware and tried it out for themself.

 

I'm leaning heavily towards option 2), since I want to avoid the difficulty and expense of acquiring any more PAL hardware than I need to be certain about this.

 

Meanwhile, thanks for your input which, as always, I value a great deal.

 

 

-Ben

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Oh, you are talking about a modern TV. I thought you were talking CRT. How do you plan to attach the console to the TV?

[+Mitch]

Or get a 2600+.

 

Mitch

[Pitfall Harry]

49 minutes ago, Mitch said:

Or get a 2600+.

 

Mitch

That is an interesting idea.  I hope it is the low cost solution I am looking for.  Does the 2600+ play PAL games correctly on an NTSC TV?  By "correctly", I mean will I see the exact same colors displayed from the 2600+ when I play PAL cartridges on it hooked up to an NTSC TV that I would see if I were playing PAL games on a PAL Atari 2600 (not "2600+") on a PAL TV?  Have you tried it to see for yourself?

 

If so, then I'm all in!

 

 

-Ben

 

 

[+Mitch]

I do not own one but reading in the 2600+ forum that seems to be correct. You may want to ask your question there to verify though.

 

Mitch

[Verdant]

4 hours ago, Pitfall Harry said:

Does the 2600+ play PAL games correctly on an NTSC TV?

The 2600+ displays over HDMI, which is the same all over the world (i.e. there's no "NTSC HDMI", "PAL HDMI", or "SCART HDMI"). The only issue that I can see here is whether or not it will play PAL games correctly. I imagine that it would, because it's just running Stella under the hood, but that's only a guess.

Edited July 17 by Verdant