A Little History Lesson
In December of 1953, The National Television System Committee's colour standard (NTSC) was adopted by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) as America's standard for colour television, though it was not until 1964 that the mainstream consumers began to adopt colour television in droves. Throughout the 1960s, the British tested various TV colour standards, before settling on the Phased Alternation Line (PAL) colour format in March of 1966. PAL quickly spread throughout the British Commonwealth and across the world, quickly becoming the most popular format for colour television.
There are a stack of differences between the two standards. The ones that concern gamers, however, are the issues of lines and refresh rate. PAL televisions consist of 625 lines with a refresh rate of 50 Hz, while NTSC sets consist of 525 lines with a refresh rate of 60 Hz. Arguably, PAL is the superior format for things such as movies, only one frame faster than the cinema versions (25 frames per second as opposed to 24) while NTSC movies have to undergo the process called 3:2 pulldown to ensure that their movies run at the correct speed. Unfortunately, this makes NTSC movies prone to interlacing and motion artifacting.
Videogames and Televisions
Quick quiz question - where are more than half of the videogames in the world developed?
Answer: America and Japan.
Second quiz question - which colour system is utilised in Japanese and American television sets?
Answer: NTSC
Obviously, one can put two and two together and deduce that the Japanese and American game developers are going to develop games for their own television format. Who can blame them, seeing as those two markets tie up more than 60% of videogame sales.
Due to the 100 line difference between the two standards, developers would have to make a conversion in order to run the machine on a PAL television. Often this meant inserting large black borders to fill up the extra line, and frame cutting to make the game run 17% slower.
PAL Super Mario 64 vs NTSC Super Mario 64 - bear in mind that the NTSC one also ran 17% faster (images courtesy of Super Mario 128 Central
Our Saviour
Inferior PAL conversion had angered many a gamer throughout the years - those with the motivation would go to the extra effort of importing the titles themselves (or paying high prices to others who did it for a living). With cheaper prices and earlier release dates, who could blame them?
Many thought that their continuous complains were falling on deaf ears. However, Sega became the saviour of the PAL gamer in 1999 when they announced that the Dreamcast would feature support for PAL60, a variation of the PAL system developed in Brazil, which displays games at 525 lines and updates at 60 Hz, effectively allowing PAL gamers to experience games at their native speed and resolution.
After being treated to the delights of 60 Hz gaming, PAL gamers craved more. Sony was the next manufacturer to step up to the plate - unfortunately, very few of their titles supported 60 Hz gameplay (it should also be noted that PAL Playstation 2's do not output a PAL60 signal, it's actually an NTSC signal). Those few members around here who frequented the PAL Community Board over at IGN may remember a lot of aggressive discussion on the board about 60 Hz games (davidguisado lives on, somewhere). Tons of e-mails were sent, petitions were set up and signed, and even a website to demonstrate the differences between the formats was constructed. Gradually companies began to sway towards taking the time to implement 60 Hz modes in their products. Nintendo even decided to add 60 Hz functionality to the Gamecube (at the expense of progressive scan, however).
So What Are You Complaining About?
The uptake of 60 Hz mode implementation by developers has picked up, but it's still not in the majority of games. In fact, some companies are still delivering really poor 50 Hz conversion - Square-Enix is the worst offender, but not the only one. Companies such as EA, Atari and Vivendi Universal have not adopted 60 Hz implementation practices in the majority of their releases, instead opting for full screen 50 Hz conversions.
We need to establish PAL60 as the main format for videogames. Any decent television made in the last 10 years will support PAL60 - if you don't have such a set, you should consider re-evaluating your priorities in this line of entertainment. I personally wouldn't mind shifting to a PAL60 only model (as seen in the Zelda: Master Quest disc), though this wouldn't be viable, as companies need access to 100% of the market. We need to investigate whether or not it is possible to get a system to force games into running 60 Hz without additional programming, or getting the three system vendors to make 60 Hz compatibility a part of the approval process. We should not have to bear the burden of a single bordered game next generation!
As a part of my commitment to 60 Hz gaming over the coming weeks, I'll be constructing a list of PAL games that feature 60 Hz support. Perhaps a few e-mails from disgruntled customers to publishers and developers of games with poor 50 Hz conversions is in order as well.
The views expressed by Matt Keller in the Easy Mode editorial are his own, and are not indicative of the views of the PAL Gaming Network or its affiliates.
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