9 replies to this topic

[Random Terrain]

I recently found out from stephena that there is another way to keep track of the scanline count that is faster and easier to use, so I updated the Timing section on the bB page:

www.randomterrain.com/atari-2600-memories-batari-basic-commands.html#timing

You might need to refresh the page or clear your cache to see the new changes.

[yuppicide]

Should also update the information because 262 is not the magic number for our friends.. I mean, PAL's overseas.

[Random Terrain]

yuppicide, on Mon Mar 22, 2010 6:41 AM, said:

Should also update the information because 262 is not the magic number for our friends.. I mean, PAL's overseas.

They don't count.

[yuppicide]

I am totally with you on the "they don't count" thing. I am one hundred percent with you on that, but for sake of programming completeness I thought of it..

But that does bring up a question.. let's say my game is a good 262 scanlines and I want to make a PAL variant for sale, will doing SET TV PAL 100% work or
has there been times it hasn't converted properly and needed some adjustment?!

Random Terrain, on Mon Mar 22, 2010 10:22 AM, said:

yuppicide, on Mon Mar 22, 2010 6:41 AM, said:

Should also update the information because 262 is not the magic number for our friends.. I mean, PAL's overseas.

They don't count.

[Philsan]

Random Terrain, on Mon Mar 22, 2010 10:22 AM, said:

yuppicide, on Mon Mar 22, 2010 6:41 AM, said:

Should also update the information because 262 is not the magic number for our friends.. I mean, PAL's overseas.

They don't count.

[Random Terrain]

yuppicide, on Mon Mar 22, 2010 12:07 PM, said:

But that does bring up a question.. let's say my game is a good 262 scanlines and I want to make a PAL variant for sale, will doing SET TV PAL 100% work or has there been times it hasn't converted properly and needed some adjustment?!

You'll have to ask somebody like batari or SeaGtGruff.

Philsan, on Mon Mar 22, 2010 1:03 PM, said:

Random Terrain, on Mon Mar 22, 2010 10:22 AM, said:

yuppicide, on Mon Mar 22, 2010 6:41 AM, said:

Should also update the information because 262 is not the magic number for our friends.. I mean, PAL's overseas.

They don't count.

It's the 21st century. Time for you to upgrade to 60 frames a second and better colors.

[Philsan]

We have PAL60 but I agree on limited palette.

[SeaGtGruff]

yuppicide, on Mon Mar 22, 2010 12:07 PM, said:

let's say my game is a good 262 scanlines and I want to make a PAL variant for sale, will doing SET TV PAL 100% work or
has there been times it hasn't converted properly and needed some adjustment?!

SET TV PAL won't make it a PAL game as such, because it isn't just the number of scanlines that make a video signal PAL or NTSC or whatever. In fact, NTSC, PAL, and SECAM are really more about color signals than about line counts-- that's why it's okay to talk about PAL/60, because it uses the PAL color signal but has a 262 (or 525) line picture. So if you want to make a PAL version of your game, the simplest way is to just change the colors so they'll look correct on a PAL Atari and TV. That would be a PAL/60 version, of course.

If you use SET TV PAL, it will give you 312 lines with bB's kernel, but the colors will still be from the NTSC palette unless you change the colors, too. If you're using a custom kernel, you'll need to modify the timer values for the overscan and vblank periods to get 312 lines.

As far as the colors, an approximate correlation would be as follows:

NTSC $00 = PAL $00
NTSC $20 = PAL $20
NTSC $30 = PAL $40
NTSC $40 = PAL $60
NTSC $50 = PAL $80
NTSC $60 = PAL $A0
NTSC $70 = PAL $C0
NTSC $80 = PAL $D0
NTSC $90 = PAL $B0
NTSC $A0 = PAL $90
NTSC $B0 = PAL $70
NTSC $C0 = PAL $50
NTSC $D0 = PAL $30

Those are the hues. The luminance settings would be the same-- for example, NTSC $44 and PAL $64 should be fairly close to each other.

There are no unique correlations for NTSC $10, $E0, and $F0, although you could use NTSC $10 = PAL $20, NTSC $E0 = PAL $30, and NTSC $F0 = PAL $20.

Michael

[yuppicide]

Yeah, in my post I forgot to mention colors, although I did know about them.. I was only wanting to cover scanlines here. Thanks!!

[SeaGtGruff]

yuppicide, on Tue Mar 23, 2010 6:59 AM, said:

Yeah, in my post I forgot to mention colors, although I did know about them.. I was only wanting to cover scanlines here. Thanks!!

I'm not sure how you handled the problem with the timer values in the custom grid kernel, but you could make them the same as whatever bB's standard kernel uses. You could also put in compiler directives so the custom kernel will output either a 262-line or 312-line display depending on the SET TV setting (the way bB's kernel does). And you could even modify the color definitions so the color names will map to either NTSC or PAL color palette values depending on whether you're compiling for NTSC or PAL.

Michael