What countries come under the PAL umbrella?

[Polygon Window]

Hi, sorry this is a really basic enquiry but what countries actually use PAL, a friend of mine has what he calls a PAL N64, he no longer wants it and is willing to send it me but he bought it years ago in Germany, is their PAL the same as our PAL, I know Australia use PAL too and power cable differences aside, are all PAL systems the same, i.e. image display and all that stuff, cheers.

[EvilBoris]

Yep, as PAL is refering directly to the PAL image settings. There are a couple of variations of PAL but all PAL tvs will support all pal modes.

[Jason]

Doesn't Brazil use a variation of PAL (PAL-M) operating at 60hz? To be fair, you don't see many Brazilian games

[EvilBoris]

Is that what it is?
It always annoyed me that gamecube boxes said "this software will not work on US, JPN or brazilian systems"

[goldbricker]

What's SECAM then - the European version of PAL?

[MattyD]

SECAM is French. I don't think anyone uses it much any more - it was a socialist protection racket for the French electronics sector and as such, a lot of former French colonies in Africa also used it and the Soviets also adopted it so they didn't have to buy American-produced TV sets. Most countries that adopted SECAM now have dual SECAM / PAL, or have switched to PAL completely.

EDIT - Incidentally, I just read that PAL was invented by a German firm.

[smouty]

Most PAL systems should work in other regions. The PAL-I/G etc usually only affects the sound so you will be OK as long as you dont use RF (you wouldn't would you?).