Mental Vortex Posted February 15, 2005 Share Posted February 15, 2005 I picked up a copy of Desert Falcon some years ago at a video games exchange store. While it works, the screen keep scrolling up the screen and I can't seem to stop it. My guess is that this is a PAL cart and not an NTSC cart, or it's just broken. Does anyone know if a PAL version exists, and if so is this what I have? Thanks for your help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mental Vortex Posted February 15, 2005 Author Share Posted February 15, 2005 Oops! Of course I meant 2600 DF. Sorry! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sku_u Posted February 15, 2005 Share Posted February 15, 2005 It's probably PAL. Rolling is a common problem with PAL titles. Is there a square shaped P sticker on the back of the cart? Atari put P stickers on a lot of the PAL red label carts, although the lack of a sticker doesn't mean it couldn't be PAL. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mental Vortex Posted February 15, 2005 Author Share Posted February 15, 2005 I'm pretty sure there's not a "P" sticker on the cart but I'll have to check. I'm just kind of surprised to find a PAL copy in the U.S. without having to jump through too many hoops to find one. And of course, it's the ONLY copy of Desert Falcon I've ever found through all my years of rummaging through flea markets, thrift stores, etc. and I can't play it! Figures. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted February 15, 2005 Share Posted February 15, 2005 A PAL Desert Falcon doesn't show up in the guide (?) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted February 15, 2005 Share Posted February 15, 2005 BTW the rom here of it (NTSC only) outputs 281 scanlines. So it's probably just touchy. NTSC carts will do this if they are more than 262. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sku_u Posted February 15, 2005 Share Posted February 15, 2005 A PAL Desert Falcon doesn't show up in the guide (?) Since when has that meant anything when it comes to PAL games? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted February 15, 2005 Share Posted February 15, 2005 search 2600 -> Desert Falcon -> all regions = no PAL listing. The 281 scanlines pretty much nails the answer IMO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mental Vortex Posted February 15, 2005 Author Share Posted February 15, 2005 Thanks for the info. Soooo....what do I do now? I can't really play it at this point since the screen keeps scrolling. I've tried it on my 7800 and my wife's old Sears Tele-Games console and I get the same result. I can't remember if I've tried it in my Atari Jr. yet or not. Also, I'm not familiar with the 281 scanlines issue. Do other carts have the same specs? I have a few later red label releases but this the only one that does this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted February 15, 2005 Share Posted February 15, 2005 It's not the console's problem, it's just how the game was programmed. It's either outputting too many display lines inside the kernal or wasting too much time outside of it. Since the game fluctuates between 280 and 281 when fighting the boss character, I'm leaning toward the "too much time" theory. There's not much you can do (other than try a different television, I believe). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sku_u Posted February 15, 2005 Share Posted February 15, 2005 search 2600 -> Desert Falcon -> all regions = no PAL listing. The 281 scanlines pretty much nails the answer IMO. I know how to use the rarity guide. :wink: Albert never bothered adding PAL entries for games that are more or less identical to NTSC listings for most carts. There are at least 600 games that do exist as PAL carts that do not show up in the db for that very reason. Your scanline idea makes sense, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sku_u Posted February 15, 2005 Share Posted February 15, 2005 Do a PAL search for Combat to see what I'm talking about. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mental Vortex Posted February 15, 2005 Author Share Posted February 15, 2005 Hmm, well this is at least the second TV that's done this, but I can try another one sometime. Do ALL the 2600 versions of this game do this, or did I get stuck with a dud? I appreciate all the information about this. I've wondered about this for years! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted February 15, 2005 Share Posted February 15, 2005 The rom code shouldn't be different from cart to cart (except in the case of different regions). It would have been very costly to stop a program that is in production. And I doubt that the binary here is a dump of a PAL cart (because colors would not show up unless an even number of scanlines are used). Do a PAL search for Combat to see what I'm talking about. Albert's a slacker...Al-bert's a sla-cker... (runs away) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mental Vortex Posted February 15, 2005 Author Share Posted February 15, 2005 Man, what a mess this became! Well, I'll take a look at this again tonight. I know the game isn't that great, but I'd still like to play it if I can. I'll see if the cart itself has any more information on it that may help identifying it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lost Monkey Posted February 15, 2005 Share Posted February 15, 2005 I bought mine new at retail.. and it rolled on a few of the TV's I've tried it on. Essentially, the TV's that it would roll on were old enough to have the manual "hold" adjustment - any newer TV's I've tried it on haven't rolled.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted February 15, 2005 Share Posted February 15, 2005 Desert Falcon (PAL?) 284/286 scanlines only desert_falcon__1987___atari___pal_____.zip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sku_u Posted February 15, 2005 Share Posted February 15, 2005 Desert Falcon (PAL?) 284/286 scanlines only So there's only a difference of a few lines Does this mean Desert Falcon was made for a European audience and changed slightly at the last moment so they could also sell these in the US? Are there any other games you guys know of where the difference is that miniscule? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted February 15, 2005 Share Posted February 15, 2005 Does this mean Desert Falcon was made for a European audience and changed slightly at the last moment so they could also sell these in the US? Then it should have ~312 lines. Many games were developed by using an intermediate scanline count. Maybe they thought at the time it was released it would work on both systems. Or it is just lousy programming. Are there any other games you guys know of where the difference is that miniscule? Nope, but you could check other Atari games from that time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mental Vortex Posted February 16, 2005 Author Share Posted February 16, 2005 There's not much you can do (other than try a different television, I believe). DING DING DING DING!!!!! That was the problem! I tried it on the Telegames console hooked up to our main TV in our living room (circa 1996) and it worked fine. Kind of a bummer as this means I can't play it on the TV where all my game systems are hooked up to, but at least I know what the problem is. Thanks again for all your help! And BTW - great avatar. I've had "Jones Crusher" in my head all day because of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dionoid Posted January 3, 2019 Share Posted January 3, 2019 I picked up a copy of Desert Falcon some years ago at a video games exchange store. While it works, the screen keep scrolling up the screen and I can't seem to stop it. My guess is that this is a PAL cart and not an NTSC cart, or it's just broken. Does anyone know if a PAL version exists, and if so is this what I have? Thanks for your help. Yes, you probably have a PAL version of Desert Falcon. I'm in Europe, and it seems there are only NTSC versions of the game here; I've bought three of them already, and every one of them is NTSC (using 281 scanlines in the start menu, so showing black & white only on my PAL TV) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rom Hunter Posted January 3, 2019 Share Posted January 3, 2019 Yes, you probably have a PAL version of Desert Falcon. I'm in Europe, and it seems there are only NTSC versions of the game here; I've bought three of them already, and every one of them is NTSC (using 281 scanlines in the start menu, so showing black & white only on my PAL TV) 2005... You saw that, right? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dionoid Posted January 3, 2019 Share Posted January 3, 2019 2005... You saw that, right? Finally after 14 years the OP got my answer! However his last visit to AtariAge was also somewhere in 2005.... Basically I was surprised to find out that Atari in US probably mixed up the PAL and NTSC versions of this game, and shipped the wrong ones to Europe. I kind of like these kind of stories. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chewy Posted January 6, 2019 Share Posted January 6, 2019 (edited) i also like desert falcon and this Edited January 6, 2019 by chewy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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