Did you grow up with PAL or NTSC Sonic?

Being here in the UK I had a PAL Mega Drive so played all the Sonic Games in PAL. I've noticed a Gameplay Speed difference in all the Sonic games for Megadrive (that might be down to the Emulators nowadays though)....Both Music tempo and gameplay speed.

 

Technically both because though I had Sonic Jam for the PAL Sega Saturn, the speeds were altered to bring it up to spec with the 60Hz NTSC version of the games.

Also NTSC isn't always the best way to play. Towards the end of the Mega Drive's lifespan games started to take advangtage of those extra 16 rows of pixels (Ristar I think did this, and 32X games such as Chaotix)

 

NTSC, I live in America!

 

I just checked using emulators and it seems you got Sonic 2 backwards: it plays slow, but the music is normal.

Now, as a programmer, I have to wonder what they did to fix S3K. Does anybody know what they did? Did they tweak the values used for physics so that everything would move slightly more every frame? Or does the game process an extra logic frame every 5 frames?

BTW, I always played the NTSC versions, and was shocked to discover how sluggish the PAL versions were. It even makes me laugh now when I read European magazines saying that Sonic is fast.

 

I played Sonic 2 on official hardware, and it ran with close to full speed, but with slow music. Living in Australia, I grew up with PAL, and when first introduced to emulation, I was wowed by the faster music (although I still prefer PAL format).

 

I get fine music and slow gameplay on my PAL MD2

 

I grew up with Brazilian <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PAL-M_(television)" target="_blank">PAL-M</a> Sonic :v:

It is basically the PAL system with NTSC's 60Hz

 

Maybe different revisions of the game behave differently?

Exactly. From the point of view of the software it makes no difference, it's the same as NTSC.

 

I grew up with the PAL versions, and when playing them on a PC noticed that they seemed to be too fast. Sonic 1 in particular, since I was used to the slow music, the correct-speed music just sounded... wrong!

I was under the impression that PAL games always run with borders and slightly slower than NTSC, at least on the MD. Sonic 2, 3, and S&K have a code that detects the region, and if it's E, speeds up the music tempo to compensate. Sonic 1 didn't have this, hence the music runs slow on PAL systems.

Now that I've got a modded MD2 that I can run at 60hz, I always prefer playing games in 60hz - even if I have to bypass the region lockout with a Game Genie! There are a couple of PAL games that just don't run at 60hz though - Virtua Racing (major graphic glitches) and Toejam & Earl 2 (picture rolling).

Someone should run S&K in 50hz and 60hz side by side, sync them up, and see if they truly have fixed the speed (or if it's just as slow as Sonic 2)...

 

I didn't even realise there was a speed difference, the only NTSC games I've played have been hacks.
Although I put it to you that Scrap Brain's music sounds better and scarier slow.

 

PAL 50hz on a MD 1.

So horribly slow. Since purchashing a Jap console I'd never go back to the ol' 50hz Sonic 1.

 

PAL, but when you don't know the difference apart from a game magazine saying it's slightly slower it effected nothing. Of course now that I have played the 60hz versions of the sonic games it's hard to go back.

It doesn't really matter with sonic 3 and knuckles as it ran at a correct speed in pal land.

 

I grew up in America, and never experienced the PAL gameplay. I do, however, own European Mega Drive copies of Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic the Hedgehog 3, which both play at full speed on my NTSC Genesis (which can be switched into PAL mode, but I don't have a TV that supports PAL....) I want to play with the slowdown to see it, but I have to get a better TV first.

It must be weird living in Europe and playing at 50Hz on Sonic 1 then getting Sonic 2 and seeing the speed up...it must be a crazy feeling.

 

I grew up with the PAL versions, and though I'd rather play the 60Hz versions now, I'm more nostalgic about the 50Hz music.

When I was a kid it confused me that Sonic was shown to be a super fast guy who could break the sound barrier in comics and the TV show, when the games didn't seem remarkably fast.

 

I played in PAL, Unfortunately my friend had a Sega genesis at the time and an American copy of Sonic 1, So I grew up thinking my Mega Drive was broken.

 

PAL Sonic 1 on an MD2 for about 6 years of my childhood. It's strangely weird how much more nostalgic the Sonic 1 music is to me when played in 50Hz as well, compared to the faster and correct speed of 60Hz. I do prefer to play in 60Hz though.

 

I had the same version of Sonic 1 when I got it for MD. Of course, playing the new games I did not realise back then about the slow music. But on other console or emu, it sounded speedy and now, when I hacked my own rom to do a gift for friend for a bday, I was like what the hell, why the music is so slow? Now I know why. Interesting to know, I thought something is wrong with the Emu.

 

Sonic 3 did not have correct speed in PAL mode.

 

Are you positive? I have the MD hardware here and sonic 3, an emulator on the PC plus various compilations (PS2, GC, PS3, X360). They all seem pretty equal to me.

My GC is NTSC by the way.**

 

NTSC, and some Pal-M games (Because of Brazil is near Uruguay). And I'll always love the 60hz.