PAL Vs NTSC - Which is better?

Retro

I'm just wondering which of these two release regions are better because I had trouble getting what I believe is a European version of Super Marios Bros on NES to work at the correct speed - the music was way too fast. I've just replaced it with a USA-Japan version and this appears to have fixed the problem so I'm wondering, going forward, which of the better formats works better with emulators on a consistent basis?

Impman66

Maybe others know a lot more than me, but I always thought that PAL and NTSC referred to the television system of that country, and the scan lines that a TV had.
PAL and SECAM was for Europe, mainly PAL for the UK, and sure SECAM was France. Then NTSC for USA. It's also why there were different region settings for DVD's.
So I am not sure if the different rom versions, cater for the different displays or not.

Stiffler

If I remember correctly PAL runs at 50Hz and NTSC runs at 60Hz but I may be wrong.

That would account for why the PAL version of the ROM would be running faster than the NTSC version. If the emulator is set to run at 60Hz then the 50Hz PAL ROM would be running 20% faster than it should be, again I could be wrong!

Retro

@Stiffler I see. Is there a way to adjust this setting for the NES emulator in RetroPie?

BuZz

@Retro

https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Nintendo-Entertainment-System/

If you want to use PAL roms, make sure they contain (E) or (Europe) in the filename, or else they may be run at the wrong speed.

There may be core options to switch also depending on emulator.

If your screen refresh is 60hz, use NTSC roms for best experience.

There's lots of info in the docs. If only people read them :-)

barbudreadmon

@Retro said in PAL Vs NTSC - Which is better?:

@Stiffler I see. Is there a way to adjust this setting for the NES emulator in RetroPie?

Usually, the emulator will pick the right refresh rate after detecting game's region. Maybe you are somehow forcing 60Hz in retroarch settings ?

IanDaemon

@barbudreadmon So you're saying that each ROM should be displayed correctly (if they have a mixed set) unless they're forcing things. Cool.

barbudreadmon

@IanDaemon That's how it works in the emulators i'm contributing to, i can't vouch for other emulators but at the very least i can say FBNeo will render the few pal nes games it supports at 50Hz, except if you forced something in retroarch.

Retro

@BuZz I tried that before coming here - it had no effect.

If the emulator usually detects region, then it may have simply been an issue with the ROM itself.

dankcushions

@Retro said in PAL Vs NTSC - Which is better?:

I'm just wondering which of these two release regions are better because I had trouble getting what I believe is a European version of Super Marios Bros on NES to work at the correct speed - the music was way too fast.

what was the name of the file? the name of the file often instructs the emulator what region it is, so i suspect it is not named correctly, and trying to run a 50hz pal game at 60hz.

barbudreadmon

@dankcushions said in PAL Vs NTSC - Which is better?:

the name of the file often instructs the emulator what region it is

Even though i don't know any, there might be emulators doing that on nes where headers aren't 100% reliable, however i think the more reliable nes emulators prefer using a game database with crcs (could still fail with an unknown dump).

Retro

@dankcushions It was "Super Mario Bros Game" however like I said before I did experiment with putting different letters in there to replace "Game" however it had no effect.

mitu

@Retro Some emulators don't rely only on the name, for instance Nestopia uses the file's hash to determine which game it runs. What emulator are you using ?

Retro

@mitu lr-quicknes

dankcushions

@Retro said in PAL Vs NTSC - Which is better?:

@dankcushions It was "Super Mario Bros Game" however like I said before I did experiment with putting different letters in there to replace "Game" however it had no effect.

that sounds like a very suss file name but ok.

but in any case, looks like quicknes doesn't support PAL properly: https://github.com/libretro/QuickNES_Core/issues/52

i guess my advice would be to not use PAL (there's very rarely a reason to use it over NTSC, which is generally full speed, no borders, and so on). other NES emulators should handle PAL properly, but you're presumably using quicknes because you're on a RPI1.

Retro

@dankcushions Yeah, the ROM I used was one I just had lying around from years ago when I first got into emulators. The emulator I used back then worked with the game fine, so it's probably just an issue with QuickNES as you've referenced. I've decided to use NTSC in the future. Cheers!