This has been something I’ve wanted to get off my chest for a while, but quite simply had nowhere to rant and rave about it. I wish I had something a little more positive to start my writing on Blogcritics with, but I feel it’s about time I shared my opinions on this.
I’m a UK gamer. I’m a pretty hardcore one too. I spend pretty much all of my expendable income on new titles to add to my collections. I’m a multi-format gamer who owns everything from a ZX-81 to an Xbox 360 along with a multitude of software for each system… but there’s something that’s infuriated me with my demographical location, and it may not sound like much to your average mainstream gamer, but to a hardcore gamer like myself it’s a major problem.
Why do videogame developers, in this day in age of HD technology and widescreen TV’s, still cripple us UK gamers with 50 Hz only games? Back in the days of the Super Nintendo and the Megadrive it was understandable. Most standard TV’s bought here in the land of Cold and Wet could only support 50 Hz, and widescreen wasn’t invented so we had the black borders at the top and bottom of our picture (Just like you get on Anamorphic ratio DVDs), but now in 2006 where even the cheapest TV’s support the extra 10 frames per second display rate that you get from 60 Hz, why the hell are we stuck with a standard that we British video gamers have been forced to endure for the last 20 years?
It’s like owning a Ferrari and having the gearbox stuck firmly in first gear. You know things can be faster and smoother if only someone took the effort to give you the ability to make it so.
Even more annoying is the fact that choosing between 50 and 60 Hz for every game is possible. Not only is it possible, it’s tried and tested on two systems in particular. In every game you purchase for Xbox and Xbox 360 you can select between the two speeds with ease. Why can’t we have the same option on the majority of PS2 and GameCube games?
Article comments
1 - Jon
erm... we have more horizontal lines in the UK, PAL actually has better picture quality than NTSC so i'm not quite sure what you're complaining about.
2 - Ten
Also with most gamecube games if you press B while the game is loading you get a 60 hz options menu.
3 - bamf
Maybe you have a 50 year old TV. I have a standard CRT tv (getting a HD soon) and when I play my games sometimes I am given the option to use 60hz. However after switching back and too from 50hz and 60hz I fail to see any difference so I don't bother. PAL does have more lines than NTSC like Jon says and is allot better picture quality. NTSC has 525 lines and PAL has 625 lines. I did read once that the actual lines that are being produced are lower than stated.
I have only seen borders with Onimusha, Devil May Cry, and Resident Evil 4 all created by Capcom, Resi 4 has no borders on a widesreen TV.
4 - Inkvisitor
Do not get confused by encoding systems such as NTSC and PAL. Those who like picture quality want to use component or SCART RGB anyway.
I think Andrew is right mostly because of bad ports. These are games that were made for 60Hz. A good example of this would be Ikaruga. Sure if you havn't played anything but locked down 50Hz on the PAL version you might not even notice something is wrong. Most games do have the 60Hz option though, but why take the chance ? And the PAL version near never includes progressive scan mode, needed to display the picture on a regular computer monitor.
Modchips are not illegal. It's the firmware on some of them that's illegal. This is why professional hardware chippers always preload a legal firmware.
And to kill another myth while I'm at it. The PAL gamecube does support progressive scan ! The PAL games do not. Countless sources mentions the hardware as non compatible. This is wrong ! All you need is the digital A/V out, component cables and games from the NTSC region ! I know this is true also for the PS2. But supposedly some PAL games also have the progressive scan option. Please understand that many titles do not have the progressive scan option in any region.
I also think removing/adding features in the game in different regions is complete bullshit. Most developers try their best to make them identical however, even if it runs at 50Hz, which is good.
Lastly, I have noticed that the box art on PAL games is different. Frankly I think changing the font to something generic is bullshit. Especially as I know it was done after the first NTSC region release ! Why was this done ? Will grandpa have an easier time reading the titles on my collection of games ?
5 - Ken Edwards
If you happen to live in the US, you should be aware of the DMCA. This abomination does in fact make mod chips illegal.
The DMCA says: circumvention devices, aka mod-chips, are illegal, because the device circumvents the copy-protection features of their host systems.
6 - Inkvisitor
Luckily I live in europe. And this is exactly the reason why we shouldn't adopt US law. As that would reduce our options.
7 - Inkvisitor
On second thought. One could just import the hardware along with the software and it would be perfectly legal. Many are already doing this. But you have to start realizing something is wrong when you have to buy everything from abroad.
8 - Andrew Ogier
It's a kind of complex law. In America it's legal to own an imported game, but it's illegal to actually play them (regardless of whether your machine was imported or not) while the machine and game are residing in the USA.
In the UK it's just illegal to circumvent copy protection by installing modchips / HD loaders / etc, so yeah, if you imported a game and system to go with it, you'd be legalised to play it.
...But this is besides the point. If Europe was treated like a lame dog with 3 legs that just gets the occasional bone out of pity from developers, we wouldn't HAVE to resort to breaking the law by installing modchips.
If release dates were closer to their USA counterparts (as seen on the 360 and original Xbox - typically a couple of days to a month later at maximum), and if all game supported 60hz (again, as all Xbox and 360 games do) I'm sure most of us wouldn't mind waiting the little extra time.
It just annoys me that game developers treat Europe like the fifth wheel, when we give them more revenue than Japan does!
It annoys me even more when it's been proven that closer release dates worldwide and universal support for 60hz IS possible and HAS been done, but developers (for PS2 in particular) simply don't bother taking the 5 minutes extra time to write a few lines of code to give us those options that should be available as standard.
91% of PS2 games and 63% of GC games deny us of our right to choose.
9 - Ian
It is not illegal to play imported games in the US. The reason modchips are getting released only with firmware that blocks the region check is so they can get around the DMCA. Users then download firmware that defeats the copy protection measures, but the maker of the chip can claim protection just like a knife manufacturer can when someone uses their product for murder.
The same thing can be done in the UK and when I checked it was easy to get modded consoles inside the UK.
It is nonsense that 50Hz has any inherent disadvantage over 60Hz.
You'll see more frames displayed when using 60Hz so movement might appear slightly smoother, but the speed of actual gameplay is identical. And 24fps is actually sufficient to produce the illusion of smooth movement so it should not matter whether you're getting 25fps for PAL or 30fps for NTSC. I've got several games in both formats and there is no visible difference.
10 - Dark Sakul
I think the big difference between the NTSC and PAL standards other than PAL is 50Hz and NTSC is 60Hz is PAL has 625 lines, NTSC has 525 lines. Hence the need for the black bars.
I think the big reason why game developers produce European PAL games they way adapt the game for each region(localization). Developer's/company's department responsible for localization have (traditionally)the smallest share of the game production budget. Not just the Localization department have to do language translation for text and possibly in game audio and audio tracks in video scenes, but code the new translated material back into the game then selfs usually (with out the rest of the development staff). They often have to write compression algorithms so that (for example) English text can fit into the same amount of space the original Japanese text took (and that including the compression and new font). Even though Japanese have more characters in there writing they use less characters to say the same words. Additional program codes to properly adjust NTSC formats into PAL takes time. Likely time, man-power and money the localization department do not have not to mention they are probability under a deadline and works salary so they do not get overtime pay and have to work overtime to get the work done.
When it comes to porting a game over to the UK/ Rest of Europe it is most likely the American version of the English dialog is used and the same reused piece of code to adapt NTSC to PAL that been used for the last 20+ years. The European Localization department for each game developer is ether a few guys in Europe who is over worked and under paid paid or 1 to 3 people in Japan using bad "Engrish" and do not care/realize how the product appears on PAL televisions.
11 - ingx24
50hz isn't all bad - you guys over in Europe get more reaction time than we do. There are people that I know who live in Europe who actually prefer to play games at 50hz as opposed to 60hz (at least for playing games for scoring records and whatnot) because of the slightly longer reaction time. So you guys shouldn't feel like you're getting gyped - sure, for a lot of older games you don't get the full experience as it was originally intended, but the bright side is that you get slightly more reaction time to play easier. Besides, most games nowadays have either a 60hz option or a 50hz conversion that is true to the original NTSC version (Rare games come to mind).