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Something that really annoys me is the way we European game players get treated. What the hell am I harping on about? Pal conversions.
If a game is made in the US or Japan (NTSC) then it’s required to do a PAL conversion, this is due to the differences in the way TV's from US and Japan produce the picture than European TV's. In simple English, NTSC TV's updates at 60 fps (frames per second) while PAL TV's update at 50 fps. This means PAL TV's update slower, resulting in reduced picture quality. So when doing a conversion from NTSC to PAL, things have to be changed. If you want the game at full speed, then you have to put up with those big bladdy black borders (as seen in Tekken 3 on the PSOne), or you could have a full screen (no black borders! woo hoo) but the game wont be running at full speed, boo!
Yet there is a way of getting better conversions. The ill fated Dreamcast managed to do this with a good 80% of its games, by offering a 60Hz option, making the game run faster and no drop in screen size. Even though it stated that it will not work on all TV's, it did work on my 6 year old portable (hey I'm no millionaire), so you only need to worry if your TV's is 8 or 9 years old.
The people to blame is game makers. Simple. It's quicker for them to do a PAL conversion that results in a game at full speed but not a full screen. What is also an option is for the makers of the Consoles to make sure or insist that game makers should include the 60Hz option in their games.
Why should European's wait an extra 3 to 4 months (or sometimes even longer) for a version that's poor in comparison to the American version? What this also tends to result in, is that these people will start buying imports of games from US, due to these being the better version and being released much earlier than the PAL version.
Top games are being spoilt by the PAL conversion, Tekken 3, and of late ZOE and Onimusha Warloards, and this is a sorry sight to see. Wouldn't more time and effort (and yes probably a tad more money) from game developers to make a good conversion (Crazy Taxi, Fur Fighters on PS2) see a rise in people buying PAL versions of games and a drop in sales of importing, this resulting in Sony and other console companies being exultant. (If Sony didn't mind about importing they wouldn't have put a territorial lockout on the PS2).
Matt Clarke
If a game is made in the US or Japan (NTSC) then it’s required to do a PAL conversion, this is due to the differences in the way TV's from US and Japan produce the picture than European TV's. In simple English, NTSC TV's updates at 60 fps (frames per second) while PAL TV's update at 50 fps. This means PAL TV's update slower, resulting in reduced picture quality. So when doing a conversion from NTSC to PAL, things have to be changed. If you want the game at full speed, then you have to put up with those big bladdy black borders (as seen in Tekken 3 on the PSOne), or you could have a full screen (no black borders! woo hoo) but the game wont be running at full speed, boo!
Yet there is a way of getting better conversions. The ill fated Dreamcast managed to do this with a good 80% of its games, by offering a 60Hz option, making the game run faster and no drop in screen size. Even though it stated that it will not work on all TV's, it did work on my 6 year old portable (hey I'm no millionaire), so you only need to worry if your TV's is 8 or 9 years old.
The people to blame is game makers. Simple. It's quicker for them to do a PAL conversion that results in a game at full speed but not a full screen. What is also an option is for the makers of the Consoles to make sure or insist that game makers should include the 60Hz option in their games.
Why should European's wait an extra 3 to 4 months (or sometimes even longer) for a version that's poor in comparison to the American version? What this also tends to result in, is that these people will start buying imports of games from US, due to these being the better version and being released much earlier than the PAL version.
Top games are being spoilt by the PAL conversion, Tekken 3, and of late ZOE and Onimusha Warloards, and this is a sorry sight to see. Wouldn't more time and effort (and yes probably a tad more money) from game developers to make a good conversion (Crazy Taxi, Fur Fighters on PS2) see a rise in people buying PAL versions of games and a drop in sales of importing, this resulting in Sony and other console companies being exultant. (If Sony didn't mind about importing they wouldn't have put a territorial lockout on the PS2).
Matt Clarke
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Something that really annoys me is the way we European game players get treated. What the hell am I harping on about? Pal conversions.
If a game is made in the US or Japan (NTSC) then it’s required to do a PAL conversion, this is due to the differences in the way TV's from US and Japan produce the picture than European TV's. In simple English, NTSC TV's updates at 60 fps (frames per second) while PAL TV's update at 50 fps. This means PAL TV's update slower, resulting in reduced picture quality. So when doing a conversion from NTSC to PAL, things have to be changed. If you want the game at full speed, then you have to put up with those big bladdy black borders (as seen in Tekken 3 on the PSOne), or you could have a full screen (no black borders! woo hoo) but the game wont be running at full speed, boo!
Yet there is a way of getting better conversions. The ill fated Dreamcast managed to do this with a good 80% of its games, by offering a 60Hz option, making the game run faster and no drop in screen size. Even though it stated that it will not work on all TV's, it did work on my 6 year old portable (hey I'm no millionaire), so you only need to worry if your TV's is 8 or 9 years old.
The people to blame is game makers. Simple. It's quicker for them to do a PAL conversion that results in a game at full speed but not a full screen. What is also an option is for the makers of the Consoles to make sure or insist that game makers should include the 60Hz option in their games.
Why should European's wait an extra 3 to 4 months (or sometimes even longer) for a version that's poor in comparison to the American version? What this also tends to result in, is that these people will start buying imports of games from US, due to these being the better version and being released much earlier than the PAL version.
Top games are being spoilt by the PAL conversion, Tekken 3, and of late ZOE and Onimusha Warloards, and this is a sorry sight to see. Wouldn't more time and effort (and yes probably a tad more money) from game developers to make a good conversion (Crazy Taxi, Fur Fighters on PS2) see a rise in people buying PAL versions of games and a drop in sales of importing, this resulting in Sony and other console companies being exultant. (If Sony didn't mind about importing they wouldn't have put a territorial lockout on the PS2).
Matt Clarke
If a game is made in the US or Japan (NTSC) then it’s required to do a PAL conversion, this is due to the differences in the way TV's from US and Japan produce the picture than European TV's. In simple English, NTSC TV's updates at 60 fps (frames per second) while PAL TV's update at 50 fps. This means PAL TV's update slower, resulting in reduced picture quality. So when doing a conversion from NTSC to PAL, things have to be changed. If you want the game at full speed, then you have to put up with those big bladdy black borders (as seen in Tekken 3 on the PSOne), or you could have a full screen (no black borders! woo hoo) but the game wont be running at full speed, boo!
Yet there is a way of getting better conversions. The ill fated Dreamcast managed to do this with a good 80% of its games, by offering a 60Hz option, making the game run faster and no drop in screen size. Even though it stated that it will not work on all TV's, it did work on my 6 year old portable (hey I'm no millionaire), so you only need to worry if your TV's is 8 or 9 years old.
The people to blame is game makers. Simple. It's quicker for them to do a PAL conversion that results in a game at full speed but not a full screen. What is also an option is for the makers of the Consoles to make sure or insist that game makers should include the 60Hz option in their games.
Why should European's wait an extra 3 to 4 months (or sometimes even longer) for a version that's poor in comparison to the American version? What this also tends to result in, is that these people will start buying imports of games from US, due to these being the better version and being released much earlier than the PAL version.
Top games are being spoilt by the PAL conversion, Tekken 3, and of late ZOE and Onimusha Warloards, and this is a sorry sight to see. Wouldn't more time and effort (and yes probably a tad more money) from game developers to make a good conversion (Crazy Taxi, Fur Fighters on PS2) see a rise in people buying PAL versions of games and a drop in sales of importing, this resulting in Sony and other console companies being exultant. (If Sony didn't mind about importing they wouldn't have put a territorial lockout on the PS2).
Matt Clarke