Living in the console gaming backwater that is Europe, Nick Ferguson has come to a conclusion: PAL sucks! NTSC roolz! What the hell is this PAL vs. NTSC thing, and who gives a crap anyway?
If you’re well versed in the differences between the two TV systems, skip the next few paragraphs and head for the rant. Don’t say I didn’t warn you! NTSC is the TV encoding signal used in the US and Japan, PAL is the signal used in Europe and Australia. Here are the important differences: a. NTSC operates at 60 Hz (i.e. 60 frames/updates-a-second) with a vertical resolution of 525 lines. b. PAL operates at 50 Hz with a vertical resolution of 625 lines. Essentially, PAL provides a more detailed display than NTSC but it updates less frequently. The upshot of all this is that (since almost all games are written primarily for NTSC systems) when pure NTSC game code is run on a PAL display the screen has to account for the missing 100 lines (resulting in ugly black borders at the top and bottom of the screen) and runs almost 17% slower due to the difference in Hz. Yeuch. Thankfully, most software houses make an effort to optimize game code for a PAL release this is the reason most often giv
