PlayStation Classic Uses PAL Games - WHY? #CUPodcast

PAL ROMs are being used in the PlayStation Classic - why?

[PatTheNESpunk]

What do you think about PAL game versions being used in the PlayStation Classic?

[andrewclegg]

Didnt have enough time to download NTSC versions from isozone before nintendo decided to threaten rom sites. Atgames must have made this thing.

[trazzath]

Christmas Episode of PUNK in the works by chance?

[tbirum]

One of the things I love about "The AVGN" is that when he brakes down these AWFUL GAMES, is he always seems to ask "HOW DOES THIS HAPPEN?!!?, WHERE WAS THE QUALITY CONTROL TEAM!?!?, YOU CAN'T RELEASE A GAME/SYSTEM IN THIS KIND OF
It boggles the mind that in 2018 a company like SONY can farm this project out to a bunch of penny pinching board members who have probably never played a video game in their lives.
"How much can we sell a Sony Mini console for? I think we can get 100 dollars for it sir, Hmmm, how much will it cost us to make, around 40 dollars sir, Hmmm so a 150% profit margin, not bad, BUT anyway we can make it a 200% profit margin??? Well I guess if we skimp on the controllers, and don't spend money on getting the licenses for some of the better games, and hire some community college graphic design drop out to design the interface, and grab what ever ROMS we can pull off the net, I guess we could get the profit margin to 200% sir, BUT the players would not be happy about it. Yeah but the share holders will be, so Make it happen!!
(In the voice of "The AVGN") WHAT KIND OF ANAL SAUCE IS THIS?!!?! HOW DOES THIS HAPPEN!?!?!?!?!?!

[cartmann]

Sony being lazy and cheap with the release of the Classic.

[eklektek]

I think also the player base for the nintendo was much much younger so that nostalgia sticks more. Many of the people who fondly remember the ps1 were already older because the games were a little more mature so that fan base is harder to get to especially with shitty games.

[retroprogamer]

I got a theory but i am to lazy to check it out and i dont have the Console or all the Games that are on there. Maybe someone can try it. Could it be that those PAL Games have Multi Language and the NTSC Games in their respective PAL Version are not Multi Language? I mean, they use English Games because most People are able to understand it. But when they have the Chance then they use the PAL Versions which often come with more than just English. That way they dont have to make more than 1 Version of the Console but still give more than 1 Language option in some games which may be more pleasing for some. Sure all that 50/60hz stuff is crap but it would be a thought that is not so far fetched.

[Rivers]

You can change to the proper non PAL version by plugging in a USB keyboard and hitting ESC to open the Emulator menu. Lots of other settings too.

[retrogamerfan]

You can switch to the normal ntsc version buy inserting a keyboard and switching it back to normal there is a video about it

[DSDMovies]

Even people who grew up with PAL games (like me) hate it. It was just inferior, slower and with black boarders at top and bottom. There's no nostalgia for PAL like there is with CRT filters. In the bad old days, a lot of us even had our PAL machines modded to output at NTSC res and Hz as most TVs from the mid 90s onwards could handle it as they were sold around the world and made in NTSC countries anyway.

PlayStation Classic using PAL is purely because their crappy hardware can't run 60fps games at 60fps so they tried to hide it by using the 50fps versions. Sony ought to be massively ashamed of what they've done with the Classic. Pissing on their own legacy for a quick buck.

[shadowfox]

Besides the quality of the product being in question, I don't get all the uproar from collectors and retro gamers with this thing. They'll already have an original physical copy of the game, a re-release, a download from PSN or a rom. I don't see the point in buying those games again unless it something for kids to play. These mini-systems have always been for the causal gamer or non-gamer looking to play these games after all these years in one complete package. Sony should have just released these games in a compilation disc/s like Sega did with the Genesis classics.

[discoron]

They could try again and release a PSOne Classic.

[Cowinspace]

As a European I suffered through the PAL era and I can honestly say that this is a colossally stupid decision.
PAL's benefit over NTSC was that it had a higher resolution in place of that higher frame rate. Sounds like a good compromise, right? Well, we rarely, if ever, saw that higher resolution. If we were lucky NTSC titles would be ported and then, maybe, jury rigged to work at 50fps with black bars in the extra vertical screen space. If we were unlucky then we would simply get a 60fps game running at 50fps with black bars.
Using PAL ROMs of international titles pretty much makes this a no buy for me. I don't want to relive that time.

[Septer_Sever]

This just makes me happy that Sega didn't shit out a Genesis Classic for Christmas. The Playstation Classic is on par with the AtGames Blast!

[atarimonkey]

It only a theory, but it might because it was for worldwide release. For example American and European games sometimes have different translations (even though they are both have a version of English). The american versions usually only have English and Spanish while European have alot more languages. So maybe the American NTSC versions didnt have all the stuff needed for a cheap worldwide release?

[lievenvv]

This is why I modded my PAL SNES with a switch so it can output at 60hz.
Many European CRT TV's have no issues displaying it whatsoever!

I also added a region-free switch while I was at it; now it can run Japanese carts like it speaks native Japanese! :D
(Sadly, I don't, lol)

I do wonder if the display on the PS Classic actually syncs to 50hz - because if it doesn't that makes things even worse. 50fps on a 60hz screen looks horrible; they are not integer multiples so you get jitter from frame doubling...

[benjaminyoung]

Cant wait till Norm makes a video about this and these plug n play things in the future.

[GameHammerCG]

As a Brit who played the PAL releases, I’m still annoyed that they used the 50Hz versions since it’s HDMI output and that’s in 60Hz, so the console is having to adjust a 50Hz output to 60Hz to display it anyway - so why bother using PAL at that point? It’s ridiculous!

[robertmcknightmusic]

Everything I remembered about Playstation games was missing from this. No Crash, Spyro, Tomb Raider...like those were franchises that defined the Playstation back in the day.

[Harperlarp]

Having grown up with PAL games this isn't a deal breaker for me. The deal breaker is that I have a PS1, a PS2, a PS3, and a laptop that can all play PS1 games.