screen flashes occasionally with what appears to be ingame rendered stuff

Hi guys,

Very happy with my NTSC everdrive v2 i just bought from stoneage, but occasionally what appears to be rendered content flashes up during gameplay (not like a signal issue). This does not occur on the ED64 menu, have tested a few roms. running the latest OS64.V64. It is a NTSC console and NTSC roms

If you want some more information from me or would like tme to record it please let me know.

Thanks,

Julius

 

I think you'll have to provide more information than that, such as the games it does it on, if you can reproduce the fault (so detail exactly what you must do to see the fault), what version(s) of the game(s) it happens on (i.e. is it the version [!], or [f1] etc, if you have the GoodROM set), and ideally some photos of the onscreen problem would help.

 

I cant really replicate it as it just happens but it just happens often, ill have to see if my camera will pick it up as it flashes up for what appears to be one frame. It has happened on all of the roms ive tried so far.

Blast Corps (U) (V1.1) [!]
Goldeneye 007 (U) [!]
Super Smash bros. (U) [!]

 

All of those games are very popular on the N64. If it were common, someone would have found out by now.
It could be a problem with the cart itself.

 

Could have gotten some bad ROMs. I've gotten some that were supposed to be clean dumps but got corrupted during download...

 

roms have been verified.

Starting to think it could be cart/64. going to buy a genuine copy of one of the games and see if i can rule out the console (i have pal stuff, bought NTSC console and NTSC everdrive)

 

You say you have PAL stuff, but NTSC console and Everdrive, do you mean you're trying the PAL games on the NTSC? Even so, I wouldn't have thought that would cause any problems, as I think the ED64 removes the region restrictions (certainly, on my PAL N64 + PAL ED64 + PAL TV, I can play NTSC roms as well as PAL roms).

I've played all three of those extensively, and never had any problems like you describe. Probably won't help, but have removed all connections from your TV (satellite, DVD player, etc) and tried only your N64 plugged into the TV, in case it's interferences form another electrical item?

 

I live in Australia, everything here is PAL. I wanted to play NTSC games at the correct rate on composite so i went and got a NTSC N64 and NTSC everdrive 64 (plus down the track i can RGB mod the 64 which is another sweet thing about the US consoles)

I have bought a NTSC copy of Blast Corps, will confirm if it is the 64 or the everdrive playing up when it eventually arrives here...

 

Yeah you need some interest in real NTSC carts for the full benefit. Getting an NTSC N64 only for everdrive doesn't achieve much.

Speed is software controlled on N64, more like the PS1 or PS2.
Why you never hear about 50/60 hz switch mods for those systems.

 

is the everdrive supposed to play PAL games fine on a ntsc console with no slowdowns or visual problems? this is turning more into a question thread haha..

When i try to play pal roms on my ntsc n64 the screen goes grey and gets cropped on composite output..

 

NTSC N64 with composite, attempts to display PAL games using NTSC50.

 

yeah so thats why i wanted to get a NTSC console for my NTSC games haha... but with RGB it should play them fine? if not no biggie as i wanted to get onto the NTSC release base anyway.

I have put a video up of this, it occurs at ~1:19 in this video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihA34I8a88Q

Anyway ive ordered a blast corps cart and ill just compare to see if its only the everdrive or if its the console. This thread was really just to see if it was a common problem.

Thanks,


Also i have gotten platinum on that level since the upload haha

 

That flash was so miniscule. Does it really occur that often to be a bother?

 

yes about once every minute or two. it gets annoying if you have a hour session.. but if its just how the ntsc 64's are designed then ill put up with it. will find out anyway after i test another cart.

 

I believe so. RGB is likely to fix the problem.

Normally though, it's just as I was saying. Easier in fact to use a PAL console for NTSC games. As opposed to a NTSC console for PAL games.
Far more TVs accept PAL60 than NTSC50.

 

but if you play a 50hz game at pal60 wont it cause gameplay issues?

 

Perhaps but that's not even possible without hacks. N64 is different from older consoles.

The cartridge itself (game program code) decides 50hz or 60hz. Not the console.

 

To summarize a few points:

1)RGB will solve most visually related problems. RGB modded PAL and NTSC consoles output the same 60 hz or 50 hz video. RGB has no color encoding.
2)if you are using composite output, a PAL console will output PAL50 or PAL60 depending on the cartridge and NTSC console will output NTSC50 or NTSC60. My CRT TV supports PAL60 but my LCD tv does not.
3)Most PAL releases are slow and bordered. meaning they are not PAL optimized. if you force them to be 60 hz using PALadin, you will get normal gameplay.

But if you do this process to optimized PAL games, you will have faster gameplay and cut-out display.

Remember Everdrive won't force PAL games to work in 60 hz. They will be 50 hz and output will be PAL50 if you have PAL console and NTSC50 if you have NTSC console. That is if you are using composite.


So using NTSC roms (or real cartridges) is the best way to enjoy N64 games except for a few cases. (a few PAL exclusives and extra languages on PAL games)

 

Thankyou reprep for the info, could you go into a bit more detail about faster gameplay for pal optimised games?

On a NTSC console, with RGB and NTSC everdrive will a pal rom run at 30FPS (if the n64 can cope) or at 25FPS?

I would like to know if they have different clock timers in the consoles or something. This is why i bought a NTSC console as i wanted to enjoy the games as they were intended, not watered down so that its possible on PAL consoles (Blast corps has 20% extra time, goldeneye has slower reacting enemies e.t.c.)

 

Any rom should run at its original speed on any n64.

It's set by the game software. an ntsc console has no purpose for users hoping to play pal games faster, you must continue buying ntsc games.