Jpn or Pal Modded PS2

[Brats]

Hi there,

I'm currently on holiday in Singapore and there is a great games shop here that is selling PS2's modded with the Messiah 2 chip for ?150 including an extra controller and memory card .

The question I have is whether it is worth buying one of their PAL modded machines (Singapore is PAL) or pay a little bit more for a Jpn modded machine? My understanding is that the Jpn machine is better because games like DDR play out of sync on PAL consoles without using an Action replay.

If so, I'll get the Jpn machine, but is this all I should be aware of? Does a Jpn modded PS2 have any disadvantages?

Cheers
Jez

[bash]

I personaly advise you to get a modded PAL so you wont have any step down transformer malarky. Also I've heard that PAL games run more unreliably on Modded NTSC machines as opposed to vice versa. I've got a messiahed PAL and its never given me probs.

Tbh the installation of the chip is far more important IMHO. Nothing worse than a bodged up PS2 mod.

[Tak]

With a PAL machine you can play both PAL and NTSC movies, but with an NTSC machine you are limited to NTSC movies - although you still need a Region X in either case. Personally I never play films on my PS2 so it may not be an issue :P

I've got a JPN modded Aqua PS2, I used to have a PAL machine. Differences I've noticed:

- startup screens/options look less "squashed" than on the PAL, I guess these screens are at 60Hz on the JPN machine. Minor.

- DDR sync issues

- movie playback as stated earlier.

- Power supply

[Brats]

Thanks for the advice peeps .

I think I got the best of both worlds. I bought an Asian NTSC model. This means it is NTSC-J (It says so on the machine and the box) but has a 240v power supply, so no stepdown required .

The mod works perfectly. I've tried a few PAL games in 50hz mode and besides the differences you would expect they run fine.

Cheers
Jez