Secam games rarity

[pongbeat]

I've got several Activision secam games with variations (colour,text..in the games) it's normal but uncommon in my country!

Are they really rare in your respective coutry? and does anybody collect them?

[Eckhard Stolberg]

When you say there are variations, you mean that the games are different from Activision's PAL games played on a SECAM VCS, right? I've never seen games like these anywhere outside of France. I don't think there are screenshots or ROM images of such games anywhere on the internet either. Do you have some screenshots of your SECAM specific games?

 

I don't think anyone here collects SECAM games. Do you have some spares that you'd like to trade for some common PAL games?

 

 

Ciao, Eckhard Stolberg

[pongbeat]

yes they are different! for example in Hero energy bar is writen in French (energie) and there are some differences in colour for the wall..

I've got pal ones so i could have seen the differences...i just have a webcam but i'm gonna take picture for you tomorrow!

 

i only have seen activision secam games for the other company i don't know!

I think i have some doubles i'm gonna check it tomorrow...but keep in mind that i've got plenty of common games already...

:wink:

[pongbeat]

My webcam refused to work ...please wait just few day more!

But i promised to do the picture of the games!

[highinfidelity]

yes they are different! for example in Hero energy bar is writen in French (energie)

Hey, that's cool, I figured that basically games sold in France were just plain normal PALs played through a secam RF modulator. (I found it out at my expense trying to buy a vader in France some time ago ) This new is pretty interesting!

 

On the rarity side, it has been discussed many times about updating the database with PAL/SECAM games, many people is interested and volounteered, some started with a very interesting tracking project of the games for sale on the internet, but nothing really made it to the website AFAIK. I guess it's because this site is basically made in anyone's spare time, and nobody would neglect his family or work or whatever to go through that.

[pongbeat]

Yes you are right! it takes a lot of times...and i've got a job!

But for your info, i've got plenty pal and secam 2600 (woody or vader) and it's funny because the colours change on format!

But as i know from my own experience there is only Activision games in secam...

I'm gonna take time in the following days to check my cartridges and see the differences between both pal, secam and ntsc!

If anybody could help for rarity and info it would be welcomed!

:wink:

[lkermel]

Hi,

 

Some companies released games in Secam in France, I wrote an article few years ago about this (as I am french) which was published in UK fanzine 'Retrogames'. You can find a copy on my web site at:

 

http://www.geocities.com/lkermel

 

Go to classic'land, then classic infos and Pal&Secam info. My english wasn't that good few years ago, so I apology if some parts don't make sense.

I am not 100% sure about the Secam games in France, but I read some info in a couple of French magazines and I think this is true...

 

hope this helps

 

-Laurent

[pongbeat]

Hi Frenchy friend...it's good link that you give us!

Good info for the subject!

For your info you can add Space shuttle and keystone Kappers in your listing...and for Apollo they never saw the light of the day! but i didn't know that Spectravision/spectravideo made secam games!

Thanks for your precious info

Wait for the photos in the following days!

[lkermel]

cool

 

As I said, I got some info from french magazines and from my own collection. the (S) label is just a guess, I am not sure about this but I am sure it is not far from the truth. About the spectravision/spectravideo games, I think I saw an advert in a magazine, I'll try to find it and I'll scan the page. But once again, I am sure they never saw the light of the day either.

Thanks for the photos. I wrote this article maybe 5 or 6 years ago, so it would be a good time to update some of this stuff

If you want, I have bigger scans of those carts, and more CBS ones.

 

I'm glad it helped

[pongbeat]

The S is for Secam i confirm it! there is not doubt!

[Eckhard Stolberg]

That's a nice article, Laurent. But I think you are wrong about CBS/Colecovision. Games for the Colecovision and Intellivision are system independent. You can play European cartridges on an American system, and you can play American games on an European system. Also I don't think they ever made special SECAM versions of their VCS games.

 

I had a friend from France read out the ROM of a SECAM Schtroumpfs cartridge for me, and it was exactly the same data as the ROM images from my German and UK Smurfs cartridges. They are all three identical. Only the labels are different.

 

Also CBS didn't even bother to adapt the colours for the PAL version of Roc'n'Rope. Therefore the game looks mostly grey on a PAL system. This is why I doubt that CBS did special versions with SECAM colours of their games.

 

As for Spectravision, are you sure that PAL cartridges don't work on SECAM consoles? www.gamereset.de lists some Spectravision games that were sold in boxes with German names. But the cartridges were the normal PAL cartridges with English labels. Maybe the SECAM releases that you mention in your article were like this as well?

 

The only company that really seems to have made special SECAM cartridges is Activision. But I'll have to see Pongbeat's screenshots before I can believe that.

 

 

Ciao, Eckhard Stolberg

[lkermel]

Hi,

 

 

You are probably right, but CBS games clearly say 'Secam' on the game label, that's the reason why I though they were maybe Secam. What you mention makes sense, I wouldn't be surprised if they actually added it to the game label to avoid people to buy the game in France and play it in another country. As I said this article is really old (probably 1997) and it would probably need a good update especially as I am in US now, so I'll be able to bring some Pal and Secam games over to test them

 

As for Spectravision games I am not sure. It was mentionned in an french magazine ('TILT' I think). Same for Apollo games, they had an advert with pictures with French labels if I remember well.

 

As soon as I have a bit more time, I will look into this again and do a bit more research. Thanks for your comments

[highinfidelity]

You can play European cartridges on an American system, and you can play American games on an European system.

Well, this is true for every game, as long as you have a TV set able to handle vertical hold frequencies on a pretty wide range! With PAL and SECAM is even easier, since they're almost the same thing excepting the color encoding (basically, you can't tell a PAL black & white TV signal from a SECAM one: they're 100% identical and compatible).

 

The problem rises with color - all the colors would be messed up if you play an NTSC game on PAL, a PAL on SECAM or whatever. But, since from my experience I noticed that they relased a special 2600 with a SECAM-specific RF modulator to be used with (and to correct) standard PAL carts, it's nice that they even made SECAM carts with further color-palette improvement or some local language translation :wink:

[Eckhard Stolberg]

I was talking about about the games that CBS/Coleco released for the Colecovision and Intellivision consoles. Laurent also mentiones those in his article. While the label of the French version of these games say that the cartridges are SECAM versions, games for the Colecovision and Intellivision are actually system independent. All cartridges should play on all consoles, no matter if the consoles are NTSC, PAL or SECAM.

 

For the VCS you are right. There are differences in the palette of the NTSC, PAL and SECAM VCS, so that games need to be adapted for that to look right.

 

 

Ciao, Eckhard Stolberg

[pongbeat]

For those who doubdt about it

Sorry for the bad quality (bad webcam)but here are 3 of them.

 

i hope it will help the community...fight for Secam collector!

Ps: all pictures has been taken on secam woody 2600!

[Eckhard Stolberg]

Thanks for the pictures. They are really cool. H.E.R.O. looks a bit pale though. Could you post a complete list of all the special SECAM Activision games that you have, please? And did you try them on a PAL VCS too? I'm wondering if Activision really made special SECAM-only games, or if they made dual-standard PAL/SECAM games, that adapt the colours depending on the state of the colour/bw switch, like Atari did. And did you find any double games that you'd like to trade yet?

 

 

Ciao, Eckhard Stolberg

[pongbeat]

Hero is actually pale (it's a variations of blue and white) but as i mention the text is different from Pal one and ntsc (it's in French!!!)

 

Actually i've owned Space Shuttle (this one i bought when i was a kid ) , Hero, keystone Kappers, Decathlon (this one my brother bought it when he was a kid ), river raid and Ghostbusters!

It could be a starting list...but i'm not sure if there are few more titles in this format . I've got a most of Activision but a plenty of them are in pal and i found them on garage sales so...

Of course i've tried on Pal 2600 and on my heavys 6er ntsc and it's the same with variant for colours! But hero is the only one with French text and i have to check for River Raid, Space Shuttle and ghostbuster..

I'm gonna publish a exchange list in few days and there will be some extras Secam activision game!

I will keep you informed in the following days...actually i'm going on hollyday tommorrow !