Any Way of Modding an NTSC-U Genesis 1 to Run SLOW Audio Like a PAL MD 1 ?

Title said it all, I have several NTSC US spec Genesis 1 units with many different board revisions and I always loved the PAL slow speed of music playback... This might sounds odd to many here but I grew up with a PAL model 1 and a rare SECAM model 2 and I always liked the soundtrack tempo speed on the PAL 1 a lot better than the model 2 I had... In my opinion, many games would actually benefit from the slower speed because it adds a certain sense of "class" and make the gameplay experience more settle and serious versus childish and clown-y. With the slower playback speed, some of these games will feel like they have finally nailed the perfect connection between the intensity and depth of the video contents and the audio. Of course, not ALL games would benefit from such presentation, some felt like they were meant to be played on a faster clock. Again, this is just my own humble opinion. Examples of games that actually sound more mature on a PAL-like speed: 1. Sonic 3D Blast (the entire soundtrack) 2. Mortal Kombat II (The game's intro is a great example, play it on both speeds and you are a believer!!) So, Again, the question is, are there any ways to use an NTSC unit in a way to make it play a slow sound playback similar to the OEM PAL units ?Thank you all for this wonderful resource!!! :subdued:

 

You can add 50/60Hz switch on it. Sadly the image on your TV would be slower.

 

Thanks for your reply... Yeah I did some more research on this issue without much luck...I want the video to remain smooth and at regular speed, it's the audio that I'm trying to slow down. actually ended up just buying a model 1 PAL mega drive. I found a cheap one on epay yesterday and pulled the trigger. BTW, I have a Model 1 Sega CD unit laying around... If I modified that PAL MD1 to be used with an NTSC tv, can I still use it with the NTSC Sega CD 1 ? Thanks!!

 

You will have to mod the cd unit as well to match the region of your main console (or fit region free bios).

 

If you are slowing down the audio, but not the video - everything is going to end up out of sync...?

 

I'd wager strongly that this would happen which may ultimately result in the game crashing. Only way I can think of getting this to work would be to hack up the ROM to have modified audio and run it on a standard NTSC-U console. Or modifying an emulator to produce the desired effects.

 

Ok, I see your point but again all I want to achieve is to have a PAL MD1 play experience on a US spec TV. and we all know that the slower audio playback with intact gameplay speed is very possible (obviously, every genuine PAL unit came already configured like that from the OE :subdued

So, considering that modding a US Genesis 1 to duplicate that effect is not very possible at the time. I went and got me a PAL MD1V6 rev. of epay.
The question now... what exactly would I gain from a 50/60Hz mod on a PAL MD 1 and an LCD US spec TV? is the mod useful in terms of running PAL games on NTSC hardware and vise versa OR is it to enable PAL hardware to run on NTSC screens? and in either way, would this mod effect the audio playback speed?


Thanks again!

 

It depends on the game. Most games were developed for NTSC. A few others for PAL.
Games can also detect either mode at boot and adjust themselves to some degree.

Behavior like slower audio playback with intact gameplay speed, would likely be some kind of conversion mistake on the developer's part.

LCDs in the US have better PAL support than CRTs did. But still no SCART input.

 

No, it isnt...

Most games run slower (gameplay and audio) on pal hardware. A select few were "sped up" to compensate, but they are the exception. If you were playing PAL, you were playing the game slower than the NTSC version, hence the slower sound.

 

Wouldn't you have to replace the master oscillator with one from a PAL unit to get that effect? Adding a 50/60 Hz switch only changes the video frequency of the VDP and that's pretty much it I think.

 

Nah it slows the music as well.

 

There's no reliable way to do this short of reworking games since the note lengths are going to be based on video timing. If you wanted to try you could attempt dividing the Z80's NMI or whatever by 5/6. This still won't change the sound command rate or the YM's timer so compatibility really comes down to the game.

 

I think your memory is playing tricks with you to a certain degree.

If a game was developed in America or Japan, it was probably written with an NTSC console in mind. As a result, the PAL conversion probably plays slower (that's audio AND video). However, any game made in the UK may well have been designed with PAL speeds in mind, so PAL would play fine. As already mentioned, some games had PAL optimized releases, too - so there would have been no difference.

You can't slow the audio but not the video - and consequently, your PAL Mega Drive didn't, either. What probably happened is you noticed the audio sounded a little slow, but didn't know any better when it came to the actual game speed. That, or there was too much going on for the console to handle (or a fault) and you experienced lag

Don't forget that PAL is 625 lines vs. the 525 lines of NTSC. The mod on PAL consoles stretches the picture to be full screen on a PAL television. If you do the mod on an NTSC console with an NTSC television, what happens to the picture when you switch to 50hz?

 

Which mod?

You get 625/50 frame timing, but at a slightly wrong frequency (<1%) due to the different master oscillators.

 

Historically a rolling screen little different from PAL consoles. Many NTSC sets at the time would fail to sync 50hz.

 

I see... Thank you for all your responses... I believe its true that my memory might had been a bit fuzzy here... I know the sound playback speed was slower but I understand now that the video playback speed HAS to be slow too... Interesting.

Well, considering my goal is to have a slow PAL-like play experience. I would want to go ahead getting my new PAL MD 1 running. Here's the new question:
If I wanted to connect the PAL MD 1 to a modern LCD monitor/TV using RGB => Scaler+sync stripper => VGA. Would I have safely bypassed any PAL/NTSC issues, considering it's the raw RGB signal I am using?

Thanks again folks!

 

For that method, you need a scaler good enough it can convert 50hz to 60hz.
50hz isn't a standard part of VGA.

 

Even the cheapy gbs scaler handles that. So yes, to answer his question.

 

thanks again bad ad84 the el-cheapo scaler is what I have... :friendly_wink:

 

yeah just helping ensure he didn't get stuck with something really miserable.