So, I am looking at NES gaming. I'm in the UK. Unlike many other consoles, I am aware the NES cannot be modified to operate at 60Hz. There's a lot of non-PAL games I'd love to get my hands on. I understand that the NES still plays many of the games though, but with glitches and speed problems, if that's correct? How widespread is it - can I get by with many NTSC games being playable, but sluggish, or do most end up crashing? Would you recommend tolerating this, or getting a second (US) NES, or a Famicom alongside a PAL one? Also, one last question. The Famicom is a gorgeous piece of kit, but the non-removable controllers and the lack of start/select on Controller 2 makes me wonder if it makes a Famicom a hindrance for playing US NES games. Any experience with this? Cheers
I ended up getting rid of my PAL NES and getting an NTSC one instead. So many of the games don't play their music at the correct speed. The only real hindrance to playing NES games on a Famicom is the connector, you'd need an adapter for them. I know there's adapters for playing Famicom games on a NES, but I'm not so sure about the reverse. Either way, if you got an adapter, you'd probably have the usual glitches that come from playing PAL NES games on an NTSC system.
I seem to have no real issue with the lockout disabled with NTSC games so far. Really depends how trained your eye is I suppose.
I'd like to get an NTSC NES/Famicom but my TV is PAL only. I'd like a reasonably affordable not-too-big multiregion LCD TV!
LCD is crap for retro gaming, anyway. If you want to play US games, get a NES. If you want to play Japanese games, get a Famicom. If you're bothered by the controllers, get a Famicom AV.
Yeah, I know LCD sucks for retro gaming, alas I can't fit a CRT anywhere. I don't think my current TV handles it too badly, though. Oh, I've just heard a plausible workaround is to use a VCR as a throughput to encode the PAL signal into NTSC. Any PAL users have experience of this?
I've had very few issues playing US NES games on my PAL NES, it's really simple to modify the console yourself aswell. I'd link an article but not sure on forum rules. The only issues I got were the odd initial graphical glitch noticeable when the game displays, which are usually fixed by either a soft reset or at worst, a eject+blow+reinsert of the cartridge. The only game that I couldn't get to work was Robocop 3 out of a collection of around 110 games, of which i'd say.....a quarter are US region. Also, I actually run all my consoles on an LCD TV- I have them running into a SCART splitter which goes to both a CRT and my HDTV. I then compare and change the brightness/contrast/ colour/ screen warmth to match the CRT as best I can. To my eyes it ends up looking pretty damn good- bright primary colours and deep blacks. It's even got a noise reduction facility which softens the interference (turn this down if you're an analogue purist I guess!). I can post the settings I use if you like, it's a Panasonic but I'm sure they can be roughly translated to other makes.
NTSC NES games almost always run at 50Hz on a PAL NES with the lockout chip disabled. Don't let anyone fool you into thinking they run perfectly. The video output is not the same so you WILL get graphical (and sometimes, sound glitches), even if they're minor. You can overclock a PAL NES to 60Hz (and even add a switch to turn it on and off), but off the top of my head, there are three main components in the NES that are different between the two versions, so even changing the clock rate, you're still not accounting for the other two parts, and will still end up with glitches. Theoretically, you could cram some of the components from both an NTSC and a PAL NES into one box so that you could get full compatibility between the two. Eventually, I want to look into this because I'd like to have just the one NES but have it play all games perfectly. However, that's a task-and-a-half. If you just want to play NES games in general, buy an NTSC NES and never look back. There aren't too many PAL exclusives, and most of them are rubbish. The best part is that the NES uses an AC adapter (or DC, if you get an NTSC one), so the power supply is external and you can therefore just buy another cable for it (I believe one of the Sega ones is actually the correct type for an NTSC NES) without needing a step-down converter.
