playing JP/USA games on EURO mega drive

[micki]

hi everybody!
after collecting for the Sega Master System for a long time, I've been heavily into the Mega Drive for a while lately. I've been checking out games I always wanted to have, games I never knew existed... you know the stuff.

last week I got a Pro Action Replay and my very first Japanese game: Double Dragon 2.
I got a PAR because I read it would allow my euro MD to play all kinds of import games, and even override some territorial lockout some games might have.

Double Dragon 2 works perfectly, but there seem to be some little troubles with the speed. it's not even, I mean, the game slows down quite often for a couple seconds, then it runs ok for a while, then slows down a bit again. and that happens throughout the whole game.

is this because my MD runs at 50Hz and the game was supposed to run at 60Hz? do JP systems run at 60Hz anyway?
I was planning to do a 50Hz/60Hz mod to my console on my Christmas vacation, when I'll have a bit of free time, have any of you ever done that and would you recommend it? is it like in the SMS, where games were supposed to run at 60Hz and looked like crap in our euro systems at 50Hz?

thanks a lot in advance for your help!

micki

[108Stars]

Indeed, most games were never optimized for 50 Hz, so they run slower on a PAL console, and with fat bars on the upper and lower ends of the screen.

And yes, japanese games do run in 60 Hz; but any US or JAP game will run on 50Hz automatically when played on a PAL console.

I have not played Double Dragon 2, but it seems unlikely that the slowdown comes from the PAR...usually 50 Hz rather reduces slow-down. Maybe the game is just choppy to begin with, no matter how you play it.

[micki]

hmm... yeah, the game could be choppy to begin with. from what I've read, it's not considered a good port at all... but I had to get both parts for the Megadrive because I'm a sucker for Double Dragon's first two parts... I love them.

the first part on the Megadrive is pretty awful... the graphics are quite good, but the controls and the sound effects are totally wrong.
the second part is a bit better, most notably in terms of sound, but has this weird slow-down happening all of the time.
in conclusion, I think both ports for the Megadrive are two huge missed oportunities to make some awesome conversions of the arcade games, the console was truly capable.

I gotta install the 50/60Hz switch on my machine and try the game at 60Hz, but I'm starting to suspect the scroll won't be smooth either.
thanks!