Many of you know about video formats like PAL, NTSC and, of course, SECAM. You probably heard these abbreviations when it came to video technology. Nobody really knew what the difference was between them or why they were different. As for the video game industry, everyone knows about the regional differences. PAL was first and foremost about the European and CIS countries. And it was in this format that the main problem was that games for this region were much slower than for NTSC. And that was not all of the problems.
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When the first commercial power systems were developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, many different operating frequencies were used, and eventually some parts of the world, such as Europe and Australia, set the standard at 50Hz with 220-240V, while America and some Asian countries, used 60Hz with 100-127V. These frequencies were chosen because of the operation of the ordinary filament light bulb. Because starting from a frequency of 50Hz the human eye does not feel the flicker and the lighting becomes comfortable.
And here we get to the most important point, because in the early days of television technology, the refresh rate of the screen had to be related to the frequency of the power supply to avoid interference. So in America and Japan the screen refresh rate became 60Hz with the NTSC broadcasting system, and in Europe and Australia respectively 50Hz with the PAL broadcasting system. SECAM, which was adopted in France and the USSR, also worked at 50Hz, but we won’t consider it.
PAL videos could only work at 25 and 50 FPS, while NTSC videos could work at 30 and 60 FPS. And speaking of colors, PAL had much richer and more natural colors on the screen, while NTSC format was bad in this regard.
Basically all consoles and games were designed with 60 Hz refresh rate in mind, because the most dominant markets then were Japan and America. Europe at the time was not seen as something very serious. Therefore, optimization in the game industry was not something necessary and important, and developers almost did not pay attention to it… That’s why the vast majority of games for the PAL region, about 17% slower than it was originally intended:
(1 – (50/60))*100% ≈ 16.6(6)% ≈ 17%
Well, in very rare cases, the developers, following the principle “I wanted the best, but it turned out as it was” increased the gameplay timing so much, that even a 17% slowdown did not save and everything came out really fast.
With modern consoles and TVs the refresh rate is no longer some kind of barrier, but we are still talking about retrogaming here, so the frequency at which your CRT TV was running was very important. It’s a lot easier now, because the later models of older TVs can work with 50/60Hz as well as PAL and NTSC formats.
Fans of pocket-sized retro consoles don’t need to worry about it at all, because the problems described above for obvious reasons simply do not exist for them and the regional differences are quite arbitrary. That’s why your gameboy will run equally well in Japanese and European regions.
By the way, the difference varies between the consoles you are or will be dealing with. By and large, things are worse with the PAL format, and the higher resolution is more of a disadvantage because they always add thick black borders at the top and bottom of the image to compensate. This method is also known as letterboxing whose effect you can see in the picture below. And the frequency difference means a drop in frame rate.
In general, Europe at that time is a set of many countries with different laws, and the developers often treated it as one big mass with a bunch of different rules and laws in one pile. Well, for convenience… For example, if you had to do something for Poland and Spain, all the bans for each country were combined into one. Which meant that some of the more extreme cases of censorship took place in that region (and most often, for obvious reasons, it was Germany, although by no means always Germany), on the other hand, some facts of censorship varied quite a bit, and where violence or religious and sexual topics were banned, then for North America and Japan it had virtually no limits and boundaries. Nowadays Europe is seen as a normal unit with some, but relatively common legislation.
There is also a separate sport as a modification of consoles, so you can increase the output 50Hz to 60Hz, thereby forcibly making them work in a mode “like NTSC” allowing to play games in this region, but this is not always a panacea, because some games will still work incorrectly or completely nothing, and this fun activity will require you to work with a soldering iron skill. Fun fact is that after modding – 60Hz will not be real. Why? Because your final operating frequency will be about 59.3Hz, but you won’t even notice it by eye. And all because of the quartz resonator, which carrier frequency is designed for the PAL region.
Actually, it refers to all retro consoles of any region, if you want to make them into Frankenstein monsters, giving out pure 50 Hz and 60 Hz. You just can’t avoid messing with the resonator, because here the ability to work with a soldering iron won’t be enough, and you’ll have to be a little skilled in circuitry and other little things.
In my opinion PAL games are only good for collecting and not for use. In most cases PAL games come out much less, and therefore they will be more rare, which automatically makes them more expensive. Plus add to that the presence of censorship and black borders that flatten the picture.
In any case, the game should be fun and do not have any restrictions, so that you can fully enjoy the process. But if you are comfortable playing slower versions as well, I can’t judge you for that.
Unfortunately, demonstrating the gameplay itself with pictures isn’t really a good idea, and it’s pointless. But for that purpose, I recorded a video where you can see firsthand the results of tests conducted on both real consoles and non-emulators. Plus, there’s a bit more information there than in the article itself. So if you’re interested, you’re welcome to check it out.