Hello everyone. I'm confused about the regions on 3DO. Most of the PAL games are double-cd case, which easily distinguishes them from the americans NTSC. However, it seems that there are two types of PAL games: - Type 1: it's indicated "features full screen display for use with any 3DO PAL system". - Type 2: it's indicated "this title displays in a letterbox format on the 3DO PAL system". What is the difference? The first ones are versions optimized for PAL consoles and the second ones are "masked" NTSC games? I suspect this because in the Road Rash disc released in Europe it says "PAL compability" In other words, for the same game: Will the american NTSC game look exactly like the PAL (either type 1 or type 2) on an NTSC console? Same quality? This is my eternal doubt because it is often easier to find the PAL version than the NTSC for my NTSC console. By the way, sorry for my poor english...
Ok, I understand that, but my specific question is: I mean, a PAL game have black bars and runs at 50hz on a NTSC console? Or that happen because the PAL hardware? This subject of the regions on 3DO is a little particular. I already said that I suspect some PAL games are actually NTSC...
I guess the games with black bars are just unoptimised games so they should run fine in NTSC like other consoles. That's just a guess mind you.
There is resolution differences between 480i and 576i, some games like Crash N Burn, and Way of the Warrior will have issues on PAL 3DO consoles.
I just checked my Road Rash PAL (you know, "PAL compability" on disc and "this title displays in a letterbox format on the 3DO PAL system" on the back cover) on my NTSC 3DO and there are not black bars at all.
That is to be expected. The 'type 2' as u say, are simply unoptimised NTSC games repackaged for PAL region. They will display 480i on a 576i Tv, giving black bars at top and bottom. The 'type 1' have been coded to display 576i. I'm not sure if u would get problems displaying a 'type 1' game on an NTSC Tv as u would be squeezing 576i into a 480i display. Interestingly most games are actually written in either 240p or 288p and then interlaced by the on board video encoder up to 480i and 576i respectively.
