List of NTSC compatible Amiga games?

[kedawa]

It seems that PAL Amiga games will run on an NTSC machine, but most either have the bottom 56 lines cropped from the display, or have timing issues. I'm looking for OCS/ECS games right now, but I would also be interested in AGA games since I may get an A1200 or an FPGA clone at some point.

I realize that with the later Kickstarts, a PAL mode can be selected, but that only changes the refresh rate and still leaves the bottom of the screen cut off.

[atrionfo]

It seems that PAL Amiga games will run on an NTSC machine, but most either have the bottom 56 lines cropped from the display, or have timing issues.

Not only that, but often the colors are not right.

It seems that PAL Amiga games will run on an NTSC machine, but most either have the bottom 56 lines cropped from the display, or have timing issues. I'm looking for OCS/ECS games right now, but I would also be interested in AGA games since I may get an A1200 or an FPGA clone at some point.

I've been using Amigas, off and on, for about 18 years and I've never seen an NTSC list, which is a shame because it would be VERY helpful for us NTSC users. I've had to settle for using PAL games with Degrader and an Amiga or Commodore monitor. I'm down to one last Amiga-compatible monitor. In particular I'd love to be able to use my NTSC Amiga CD32 with NTSC games (although I'm pretty sure that there aren't many of these since the CD32 never had an official NTSC release-- or did it?).

If there is an NTSC listing, or if there is a way to search an Amiga website for games that have NTSC versions, then I'd also love to see it.

It sounds like this has the potential to be a good thread.

Adam

[kedawa]

Cool. I'm glad I'm not the only long time Amiga user here.

I've never noticed any issues with colours, but I'm using a 1084s. I also have an NTSC CD32, which is hooked up through s-video to the 1084s, and the colours are fine there as well. Unfortunately, the CD32 has the same issue with screen cropping in many PAL games. I have those compilation CDs, and I often have to use the startup menu to enable PAL not only when I start the disc, but also when I start the games themselves. Even then, some games are still cropped. A few others give out of memory errors in PAL mode.

The CD32 did get released in Canada, but I don't think many made it to store shelves in the U.S. because of Commodore going under.

What exactly does Degrader do? I was under the impression it was a software hack for reverting to old Kickstarts. It's my understanding that NTSC Agnus chips simply can't render the full 256 lines of resolution that PAL mode is supposed to have, although they can handle more than the standard 200. I believe the Akiko chip in the CD32 has similar issues.

[Ze_ro]

A few others give out of memory errors in PAL mode.

There is some sort of bug in the CD32 firmware that causes some memory loss during bootup. Try turning on the system without a disc in the drive, let the animation play, then insert the disc and close the door. There are a handful of legitimate commercial CD32 games that require you to do this (Fears, Theme Park and Kang-Fu come to mind).

However, if you're playing compilations of floppy disk games, then this might not be the issue, and they might legitimately need more RAM than the CD32 has.

--Zero

[amazin]

If you guys are serious about the CD³², you can do what I did, add a physical 50/60Hz Switch, therefore, you won't need to plug a mouse to change the console to PAL on the Early Startup Menu, which doesn't work at all the times.

I think it's quite easy to do, you need those 3 poles switch, solder a wire to the middle and one of the other poles (one will be unconnected), and then you solder these two wires to some points on the CD32 motherboard.

Dead easy to do, and you increase compatibility.

But the real problem is that, if your CD³² outputs video in NTSC/60Hz, it will output the video in some bizarro format which is not NTSC nor PAL, I think you can only get the correct video output on the CD³² using a RGB monitor.

I have a Paravision SX-1 unit (which converts the CD32 into an Amiga 1200 with 8 megs of Fast RAM), which is for sale, by the way, and it also adds RGB output. For the standard CD32, I think you can get the RGB signals from the motherboard.

Carlos Bragatto -- amazin
carlos.bragatto@gmail.com

[kedawa]

That's good to know, and it would save me some time since I often have to enable it twice just to play one game. I think you're right about the video being some hybrid Frankenstein signal, and yes, you can get RGB directly from the CD32 expansion port, although I haven't done so myself.

It wouldn't be too hard to build a breakout box with RGB video, keyboard connector, and serial port, but that's a project for another day.

[amazin]

Talking about RGB modding on the CD32, this one seems to be the definitive solution to it !

http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic...an-amiga-cd32/

You see, when you get the RGB signals from the TP9 on the motherboard, you have to build an amplifier, there are conflicts with the s-video, the image kind of sucks. This method above seems to be perfect! I'm gonna try on one of my CD32s!

Carlos

[Soviet Conscript]

i've never gotten alot of PAL games to run right on my 1200T. and thats using pal mode, a degrader, amiga monitor...anything i could think of but alot of pal games still played to fast, choppy or didn't play at all.

[Gamevet]

The last year or 2 that Amiga titles were available in the US, I got a PAL port of Golden Axe for my Amiga 500. I went back to the store to return it, after I had discovered the game would lock-up on the final boss. The guy at the store told me it was an issue with all versions of the NTSC game, because the discs were botched during the print run.

[icbrkr]

Never had an issue getting PAL games to work on my Amiga, unless we're talking a very old Amiga 500/1000 without the ECS or AGA chipset. Tons of degraders out there will switch the miggy into PAL mode (and have it output a PAL signal) that any 1084 will decode properly. I use WHDLOAD for all games and put them into PAL mode so they run at the normal speed (realistically, the majority of Amiga games on the net are PAL versions). Buy a scandoubler and hook it to a VGA monitor and the problem goes away completely.



For the NTSC CD32 issue, I ended up purchasing a PAL motherboard instead (instead of paying the cost for an entire PAL CD32 to be shipped). Most modern TVs will display a PAL, or a PAL/60 signal just fine. All of my Vizios will display a picture from any format I send to it.

[Ze_ro]

If you guys are serious about the CD³², you can do what I did, add a physical 50/60Hz Switch

I don't really see the point in this. If you can can view a 50Hz signal, then you might as well just leave it on 50Hz all the time.

--Zero

[Neb6]

Cool. I'm glad I'm not the only long time Amiga user here.

I've never noticed any issues with colours, but I'm using a 1084s. I also have an NTSC CD32, which is hooked up through s-video to the 1084s, and the colours are fine there as well. Unfortunately, the CD32 has the same issue with screen cropping in many PAL games. I have those compilation CDs, and I often have to use the startup menu to enable PAL not only when I start the disc, but also when I start the games themselves. Even then, some games are still cropped. A few others give out of memory errors in PAL mode.

The CD32 did get released in Canada, but I don't think many made it to store shelves in the U.S. because of Commodore going under.

What exactly does Degrader do? I was under the impression it was a software hack for reverting to old Kickstarts. It's my understanding that NTSC Agnus chips simply can't render the full 256 lines of resolution that PAL mode is supposed to have, although they can handle more than the standard 200. I believe the Akiko chip in the CD32 has similar issues.

I've also never had any problems with colors between PAL and NTSC. I also use a 1084 monitor.

Degrader is a software program that works with machines that have a 1MB Agnus chip. It allows you to boot in either PAL or NTSC mode. So if you have an Amiga 500 or 2000 with a 512K Agnus and can find a 1MB Agnus, just pop out the 512 and install the 1MB chip. I recommend leaving in the 1.x ROM for best compatibility (the 2.0 ROMs don't work with as many titles). Alternatively, you can use the simpler utilities called "PAL" and "NTSC" on this site (just throw them into your C directory):
http://www.blitter.com/~nebulous/utilities.html

If you want to hard-lock an OCS NTSC Amiga as a PAL machine, place some tape over the appropriate pin on the 1MB blitter. I'll have to look up which pin that is. This will force it into PAL mode as the default. And yes, it will display full PAL resolution.

As for a list of NTSC-compatible games... there are tons. Unfortunately I don't have a list handy. Quite a few games were released in two different boxes (one for PAL and one for NTSC). And quite a few PAL games actually just leave the bottom of the screen blank, so they work quite well on NTSC machines. Others won't start up at all. And a few have slight music issues due to the timing difference.

For more info and a partial list of PAL games that apparently work on NTSC (it's not my list, so I haven't tested it), see this page:
http://eab.abime.net/hardware-mods/3...-possible.html

[ccovell]

There are no colour problems... that's only if you use a PAL machine in North America, for example, AND only use the composite video output at that.

There should be lists somewhere online, but here's mine when I was testing out my Minimig in NTSC-only mode:

NTSC OK:

Agony
Anarchy
Burning Rubber
Cannon Fodder
Cool Croc Twins
Crazy Cars 3
Disposable Hero
Dizzy Collection
F40 Pursuit Simulator
Fire Force
Giana Sisters
Indigo
JetSet Willy 2
Jim Power
Manic Miner
Myth
Rodland
Rubicon
Second Samurai
Silkworm.
Sword of Sodan
Suburban Commando
SWIV
Treasure Trap
Trex Warrior
Tubular Worlds
Turrican II
Turrican 3 Beta


These were PAL only for me:

Assassin
Assassin SE
Fire & Ice
Flood
Future Shock
Globdule
Mr. Nutz
Risky Woods
Sky High Stuntman
Snapper
Tony the Tiger
Traps 'n Treasures
Turrican 3
Wizball
Wiz Kid
Woody's World

Of course, lots of games had NTSC versions (but have never made it to .ADF format, so...)

[blue lander]

Highly recommend modding the CD32 to PAL mode especially if you have access to an RGB monitor. Then you can play all those "100 amiga games on a CD" compilations.