Difference between revisions of "NTSC/PAL - Recording Guide"

From Video Game Music Preservation Foundation Wiki
Jump to: navigation, search
(removed something which shouldn't be considered, as far as I understand User talk:TheAlmightyGuru#Recording Guide on 15:43, 21 July 2020 (EDT))
Line 13: Line 13:
 
* If the game only works in only one region, set up your favorite emulator or player to use that region and record then.
 
* If the game only works in only one region, set up your favorite emulator or player to use that region and record then.
 
* If the game was published in both regions and really sound different, record the soundtrack twice: once for each region, and each with a different disc number (see [[Terminator 2: Judgement Day (NES)]] for an example). The first disc number should go to the region which the game was primarily made for or in.
 
* If the game was published in both regions and really sound different, record the soundtrack twice: once for each region, and each with a different disc number (see [[Terminator 2: Judgement Day (NES)]] for an example). The first disc number should go to the region which the game was primarily made for or in.
* Even if the game was only published in one region, a gamer from the other region may have bought it overseas. See if the hardware allowed that (consoles may have prevented it through lockout chips) and the game works without crashes, major glitches or lost notes.
 
  
 
==Region-dependent platforms==
 
==Region-dependent platforms==

Revision as of 16:03, 21 July 2020

Normally, you can play a video game and listen to its music without second thought. However, in the 1980s, this was different. Home computers and video game consoles were connected to analog color television sets, and depending on the continent (sometimes the country), they worked in different ways, at different screen refresh rates:

  • America and Asia: NTSC at 60 Hz
  • Europe and Australia: PAL at 50 Hz
  • France: SECAM at 50 Hz

If a company wanted to ship a platform to both regions (namely NTSC and PAL/SECAM), they had to produce two versions of the same platform. The PAL/SECAM ones have a much slower screen refresh rate as seen above, but, as a side effect, also a slightly slower CPU and sound chip. This in turn means that the very same song would sound lower (mostly by a semitone) and slower on PAL than on NTSC. On games, it would actually be worse: To work best around technical limits, games almost always synchronized audio to the screen refresh rate, so on PAL, the same song would be not just slightly slower, but much slower.

Reactions of developers to this problem were mixed. If for example NTSC developers wanted to ship a game to PAL/SECAM, they usually did one of the following:

  1. Rise the tempo and the pitches on the PAL version's music, so overseas, it sounds as close to home as it gets.
  2. Rise the tempo only.
  3. Nothing, and risk that the games sound different (if not wrong) overseas. Today, various comments on YouTube videos reveal that some gamers like the wrong versions better.

So, when you want to record a soundtrack from a such platform, see where the game was available:

  • If the game only works in only one region, set up your favorite emulator or player to use that region and record then.
  • If the game was published in both regions and really sound different, record the soundtrack twice: once for each region, and each with a different disc number (see Terminator 2: Judgement Day (NES) for an example). The first disc number should go to the region which the game was primarily made for or in.

Region-dependent platforms

Region-independent platforms

On handhelds, the problem did not exist, unless you played on a television set adapter. On later platforms, the problem was getting solved in hardware.