Post everytime you get ANYTHING retro. We want to know (^v^)

[Leon Retro]

Yeah.. those Contra bosses are mean muthas. The way that giant robot tears his way into the background- with that evil maniacal look on its face.

It's quite spooky how good first generation Super Famicom games are.

[MattyD]

Yeah, it's one of my favourites too but up until now I'd only owned the PAL version, Super Probotector. I just sold my minty boxed copy to finance this, actually.

My modded SNES has arrived now too so I suppose that counts as a retro purchase. I've tried out throwing the 60hz switch in most of my PAL games this-morning and the difference was quite pronounced in some, and barely noticeable in others. Super Mario Kart and Super Mario World seem much faster; Super Metroid seems a tad faster but I'm not sure; and Axelay and SUper Aleste are like a completely different games.

Super Castlevania IV and a couple of others seem basically the same aside from being in full screen so they may have been speed corrected for the PAL release. I suppose time, and an extended replay, will tell. If nothing else it'll be a good excuse to replay some of my favourite games like LttP, Castlevania IV and of course Contra 3.

[chaoticjelly]

Super Mario Kart and Super Mario World seem much faster;

When producing the PAL version of Super Mario Kart, Nintendo increased the game speed to compensate for the fact the PAL version runs at 50hz (PAL) - 16 2/3% slower than the American 60hz standard (NTSC). Due to this optimisation, the PAL version of Super Mario Kart appears to run at the same speed as the NTSC version. Because of limitations in Euler's Method for numerical integration, specifically the error value derived from that equation, the NTSC characters drive at about 2.5% faster top speed.

• If the PAL version of the game is run on an NTSC SNES, gameplay speed increases by 20%, faster than what was intended by Nintendo.

Interesting, huh?

[MattyD]

Interesting, huh?

I had a feeling that some of the games were already speed-optimised. I guess I'll have to track down SFC copies of all my old games now

I always remember how the magazines used to have two leagues for lap times in their high score pages, one for PAL and one for NTSC. I suppose that 2.5% margin of error was why?

EDIT - Chaoticjelly: I know you're the man who knows his hardware stuff around here. Are there any pages anywhere listing games that were speed optimised, or NTSC games that won't work on a modded SNES? I'm not having much luck with Google.

[chaoticjelly]

I had a feeling that some of the games were already speed-optimised. I guess I'll have to track down SFC copies of all my old games now

I always remember how the magazines used to have two leagues for lap times in their high score pages, one for PAL and one for NTSC. I suppose that 2.5% margin of error was why?

EDIT - Chaoticjelly: I know you're the man who knows his hardware stuff around here. Are there any pages anywhere listing games that were speed optimised, or NTSC games that won't work on a modded SNES? I'm not having much luck with Google.

Emm, I dont know about lists, but Super Mario RPG wont work on a modded SNES I believe.

You can make it work by lifting one of the pins on the SA-1 chip. That puts it in PAL mode.

I dunno who did your modded SNES, but I take it the lockout chip is disabled? I always make the lockout chip switchable from enable/disable as if yours is fully disabled you'll probably find something like Kirbys Fun Pak wont work, because for a handfull of games the lockout has to be enabled for it to run.. normally you would have it disabled tho for all rest of games.

Also any PAL Super FX games you will probably get glitches at 60hz.

[Geoff D]

I remember seeing that for the first time in 1992 and being absolutely astonished.

How's about this moment -



The plane is ****ing well flying TOWARDS YOU! Whilst bombing the **** out of everything.

That was damn early in the game to throw in something that gave me such a boner.

[Klatrymadon]

Super Castlevania IV and a couple of others seem basically the same aside from being in full screen so they may have been speed corrected for the PAL release.

I dunno, CV4 seems faster to me. The whipping in 50hz actually feels a bit more powerful and satisfying.

[pentarou]

Another bargain from Gamestation today, Castlevania SOTN with artbook and CD for ?19.99. The only annoying thing is that there are stickers on the discs but they'll soon come off!

[Klatrymadon]

That's a good catch, man. It fetches much more on t'eBay...

[MattyD]

I guess the lockout chip is disabled because the machine only has one switch, which appears to be just a 50/60hz switch, and it plays my Jap Contra 3 at least. TBH most of the compatability problems I've heard about have been with RPGs, and I'm not interested in them so I should be OK.

[Klatrymadon]

Some of the PAL Mario games reportedly skip a lot of frames when you switch 'em to 60hz, but I've never experienced anything like that myself. There are certainly no problems with World...

[pentarou]

That's a good catch, man. It fetches much more on t'eBay...

Yeah, I don't know who has been doing the pricing in that shop for the past week but they have some absolute bargains at the moment!

Just noticed, the artbook for Castlevania appears to have a different cover to the ones I've seen elsewhere. This one has a dark blue cover with a diamond pattern whereas the other I've seen have a white cover

Anyone know anything about this version? Its a PAL copy and everything else seems to be identical to other versions I've seen.

[Emir]

It's just the slipcase cover for the book I believe. The two copies I owned each had it. The white cover is beneath it.

[dannywhac]

Emm, I dont know about lists, but Super Mario RPG wont work on a modded SNES I believe.

Theres two versions of Mario RPG - think its mentioned in another thread on the forum - I've got one of 'em that works (US NTSC)- I'd recommend the old switchable lockout for definite tho'

[Max P.]

Super Tennis was another optimised for Pal. It's not just the 17% slower speed of Pal games that is the problem - there are the dreaded borders of course which ruins the 'arcade' look. This was especially bad on games that already had borders as NTSC releases (SFII, Final Fight) etc.

Having said that Super Tennis is one of the few games I have on Pal - when played through an NTSC console it was super fast due to being optimized for 50 hz but boosted further by the 60 hz console - if I play the Jap version now on NTSC it feels really sluggish!

Agreed with the Contra fans though - as a SFC nut this is one of the best games on the system. Mind you any konami games were superb - alongside Nintendo (and many Capcom games) they were true gods with the system. A few SFC/SNES must haves:

Axelay, Contra, Goemon I, II and IV, Parodius, Pop n twin bee, Street Fighter II, Super Mario World, Super Pang, Super Tennis, Desert strike, F - Zero, Final fight, Lethal Enforcers, Pilotwings, SOS, Secret of mana, Simcity, Smash TV, Starfox, Stunt race FX, Sunset riders, Super mario all stars, Super mario kart, Super metroid, Super punch out, The legend of Zelda, Yoshi’s island, UN squadron...