PAL optimizations in the 8-bit and 16-bit days

[Ryo Saeba]

The never ending topic of PAL conversions is still as relevant as back then (looking at the virtual console titles of the PAL Wii) and I'm really ancious to shed more light on it.

As everyone knows, back in the days, 60Hz options were unheard of and developers just didn't care about proper PAL optimisations, so what we got here was a slower (by one-fifth) and squished (thick borders on top and bottom of the screen) gaming experience, that really made a big difference, if you were somehow able to draw the comparison by experiencing the superior NTSC versions.

But that wasn't always the case. I'm not speaking about games that were natively developed in PAL format, like the Rare or Codemasters titles, but there have been some titles that were actually optimised for the PAL market.
There are two things that can be optimised, the image could be stretched, to fill all the lines of PAL tvs and therefore eliminating the black borders and the game could be sped up, to play at the same speed as the NTSC versions.

I'm only aware of two games, that have been optimised in the 8 and 16-bit days, namely Super Mario World for the SNES and Virtua Racing for the Mega Drive.
Afaik both titles ran in full-screen, but the speed was unaltered and therefore slower than the NTSC versions.

What really interests me know is, which other games got a PAL optimisation and if there are any games that have been optimised in regards to their speed.

[chaoticjelly]

The PAL release of Super Mario Kart on the SNES had its speed optimised as they felt that was an integral part of the gameplay.

[Max P.]

Pal Super Tennis was 'optimized' - I always played the UK version on my US Snes - double fast then and once you go back to the NTSC version it seems very slow.

Lots of SNES games were 'optimized' to a degree but even then they were almost always not full screen or full speed.

[sj33]

Wasn't Sonic 2 and CD speed optomised, and thus the PAL versions actually show slowdown when run in 60Hz?

[Tetsuo]

Edit - ignore.

[Ryo Saeba]

The PAL release of Super Mario Kart on the SNES had its speed optimised as they felt that was an integral part of the gameplay.

That's not true afaik. It's been years since I played it, but my copy of Super Mario Kart wasn't optimised. The only thing they altered was the timer (so that one "ingame minute" was one "real minute") but apart from that it was noticable slower and bordered.
That's the reason why you can't compete with NTSC times in Time Trial.

[riku]

I dont know a single PAL SNES game that ran in full screen, where there ever any?

The donkey kong games obviously were pal optimized on the SNES, so was mortal kombat 2 and 3 i think. And possibly street fighter 2 turbo, this is easily noticed when forcing those PAL games to run in NTSC, its faster than the NTSC counterpart.

[Team Andromeda]

Thunder Force IV was really optimised (best I remember onthe MD) as was Brain Lara 96 , VR onthe MD . There were a lot of Mega CD games that were optimised, not so much for fullscreen , but speed wise on the like of Batman Returns (run just as fast as the NTSC version) , Sonic CD ect

[Ryo Saeba]

Thunder Force IV? That's nice, did they only remove the PAL borders or also sped it up?
And what about Virtua Racing (only know that it has been optimized in some sort of way, cause there are some graphic problems when you run the PAL version on an NTSC machine)?

I didn't know about the two Sega CD games either, nice to know.
It's just a shame when games that rely on speed (like the Sonics games or racers) aren't running at their intended speed.

Wasn't Sonic 2 and CD speed optomised, and thus the PAL versions actually show slowdown when run in 60Hz?

That would be awesome, I'll try and check it out.

Pal Super Tennis was 'optimized' - I always played the UK version on my US Snes - double fast then and once you go back to the NTSC version it seems very slow.

Thx, very helpful as I'm planning to get Super Tennis and I it's easier and cheaper (shipping) for me to get a mint PAL version.

Lots of SNES games were 'optimized' to a degree but even then they were almost always not full screen or full speed.

What do you mean by that? When they're not full screen and slower, what has been optimized?

[Hohum]

I dont know a single PAL SNES game that ran in full screen, where there ever any?

The donkey kong games obviously were pal optimized on the SNES, so was mortal kombat 2 and 3 i think. And possibly street fighter 2 turbo, this is easily noticed when forcing those PAL games to run in NTSC, its faster than the NTSC counterpart.

Only game I remember seeing that came close to fullscreen was Killer Instinct. Oh, and I remember Super Mario World having borders.

[Yakumo]

I'm only aware of two games, that have been optimised in the 8 and 16-bit days, namely Super Mario World for the SNES and Virtua Racing for the Mega Drive.
Afaik both titles ran in full-screen, but the speed was unaltered and therefore slower than the NTSC versions..[/B]

???? Super Mario World on the PAL SNES was bordered. Super play even did a comparison between the SFC version and the PAL version. Most PAL optimized games back then were speed only. Most of them kept the boarders. However Toe Jam & Earl 2 is size and speed optimized for PAL Mega Drive..

Yakumo

[Max P.]

What do you mean by that? When they're not full screen and slower, what has been optimized?

Well, as Yakumo and others have added they were 'optimized' (not really the correct word - maybe 'slightly improved' is better...) by maybe a speed boost and slightly narrower borders than might have normally been the case. Remember that some NTSC games had borders (SFII, Final Fight, Stunt Race FX etc) already and when the Pal versions of those were released in 'Letterbox-o-vision' it really showed how badly the Pal gamer was treated...

[Ryo Saeba]

Ah, I see, thx.

So that means that many games have been optimised "a little bit" which leads me to the assumption, that even if Nintendo would offer a 60Hz option for the PAL Wii Virtual Console, many games still wouldn't run perfect, cause they'd then run too fast. Same with a modified PAl SNES, I always guessed that I could keep my PAL collection if I'd modify my SNES to play my games in 60Hz. Turns out that this isn't exactly the case -.-

@Yakumo: I've read somewhere that super Mario World was optimised and therefore assumed, that it had no borders, but you're right.. it seems like that they just reduced the borders a little and didn't eliminate them entirely.

I also have to excuse myself for stating that the Rare games would run perfectly on PAL machines, as Rare is a european developer and would therefore develope their games with 50Hz TVs in mind, but I was proven wrong again. I popped in Donkey Kong Country a few minutes ago and was greated with those ugly black borders everybody knows and hates.
I mean.. why? This really makes no sense to me.. I've to test a few other games now (especially the N64 games from Rare).

PS: thx for the mention of ToeJam & Earl 2, so there are games that have been properly optimised to full screen / full speed. The only one we've found so far.. yeah, that sucks ^^' I hope we'll find some more.
Isn't there a list regarding this topic anywhere? Maybe cause it's sometimes hard to tell when/if a game is only optimised a little bit.

street fighter 2 turbo

Sadly, this one runs noticably slower than the US version (tested both versions on the maximum speed settings of four stars).
I've also tested Super Street Fighter II and apart from the borders, at least this one has been optimized in terms of speed.

[MattyD]

Re Super Mario Kart: If you play a PAL cart of this on a modded SNES with the 60hz switch thrown, it runs too fast and you get some weird issues and glitching. It could be that instead of actually optimising the code to run / output properly at 50hz, they simply went into the code and altered the tempo setting or speed variables to compensate for the drop to 50hz. They did a similar hackjob in the Super Mario Bros / Duck Hunt double cart for the NES, which sped everything up to proper speed but also made the timer to run quite obviously too fast.

Only game I remember seeing that came close to fullscreen was Killer Instinct.

IIRC, all Rare's games including KI were actually developed as PAL games from the start anyway and later twiddled to run on NTSC. It's been a while since I played any of them but I can't think of any that wasn't full screen and running at the proper speed.

[Ryo Saeba]

Re Super Mario Kart: If you play a PAL cart of this on a modded SNES with the 60hz switch thrown, it runs too fast and you get some weird issues and glitching. It could be that instead of actually optimising the code to run / output properly at 50hz, they simply went into the code and altered the tempo setting or speed variables to compensate for the drop to 50hz.

Yeah, that could be an explenation.

IIRC, all Rare's games including KI were actually developed as PAL games from the start anyway and later twiddled to run on NTSC. It's been a while since I played any of them but I can't think of any that wasn't full screen and running at the proper speed.

I thought that too, but I was shocked to see that that's not the case. As said, I've tested Donkey Kong Country (and Diddy's Kong Quest) and they're both horribly bordered, though I don't know if they're also slower than the NTSC versions (but I guess not).