How to play PAL games on NTSC console ?

Cecilmax · Jul 4, 2022

Hello everyone,

I have sega cd ntsc console and already know how to region patch games. I just wonder if I need to change anything else ? do I need to change the console Hz from 60hz to 50hz somehow ?

I have the same question for Sega Saturn, once I have region free console and the game is running, do I need to change anything else to run PAL games on NTSC console ?

hippy dave · Jul 4, 2022

I can't talk for Sega CD, but for Saturn it's possible to fit a switch internally to toggle between 50Hz and 60Hz. It depends what games you want to play as to whether it's worth it - the majority of PAL releases for Saturn weren't optimised for 50Hz so they are best played at 60Hz anyway. The games that got the best optimization for PAL releases were first-party Sega games, if you specifically want to play the PAL versions of these (for language support maybe?) then they'd be ideally played at 50Hz, otherwise they'd run a bit too fast and be stretched out off the top and bottom of the screen. If you have specific games in mind you can probably find out if they were optimised for PAL or if you're better off running them at 60Hz anyway for the full screen/full speed experience.

Cecilmax · Jul 5, 2022

hippy dave said:
I can't talk for Sega CD, but for Saturn it's possible to fit a switch internally to toggle between 50Hz and 60Hz. It depends what games you want to play as to whether it's worth it - the majority of PAL releases for Saturn weren't optimised for 50Hz so they are best played at 60Hz anyway. The games that got the best optimization for PAL releases were first-party Sega games, if you specifically want to play the PAL versions of these (for language support maybe?) then they'd be ideally played at 50Hz, otherwise they'd run a bit too fast and be stretched out off the top and bottom of the screen. If you have specific games in mind you can probably find out if they were optimised for PAL or if you're better off running them at 60Hz anyway for the full screen/full speed experience.

Indeed, I already found that for Saturn, now I wonder if Sega CD have the same ability to switch ? I found nothing official on that yet.

hippy dave · Jul 5, 2022

Cecilmax said:
Indeed, I already found that for Saturn, now I wonder if Sega CD have the same ability to switch ? I found nothing official on that yet.

I checked the googles, you don't need to do any modification to the CD add-on but can modify the Megadrive/Genesis console to switch between 50/60Hz. Sounds like fairly basic soldering to fit a manual switch, or you can buy a little board to fit inside the console to use the reset button to change the refresh rate if you want a fancy switchless mod (such things exist for the Saturn too, I recall).

Cecilmax · Jul 5, 2022

hippy dave said:
I checked the googles, you don't need to do any modification to the CD add-on but can modify the Megadrive/Genesis console to switch between 50/60Hz. Sounds like fairly basic soldering to fit a manual switch, or you can buy a little board to fit inside the console to use the reset button to change the refresh rate if you want a fancy switchless mod (such things exist for the Saturn too, I recall).

aah ok! so the switch belong to the genesis and not the cd add-on unit itself, thats explain why I didnt found anything lol

I wonder if I need to change my tv too to support PAL ? I dont have any idea if my tv support it, I have a Sony flat tv CRT model no KV-32FS120

Deleted member 194275 · Jul 5, 2022

I don't know the specifics of those consoles, but usually just cutting/soldering the circuit traces will not do the job the right way, the crystal oscillator is something that usually has different specs from a region to another, other components may or may not be changed too. Either way is usually easy to do, but you need to do all the steps.

hippy dave · Jul 5, 2022

Cecilmax said:
aah ok! so the switch belong to the genesis and not the cd add-on unit itself, thats explain why I didnt found anything lol

I wonder if I need to change my tv too to support PAL ? I dont have any idea if my tv support it, I have a Sony flat tv CRT model no KV-32FS120

When you use this switch on an NTSC console, it won't literally be outputting a PAL signal, because that's a different colour encoding system. What you will get would be called NTSC-50 - an NTSC-encoded signal at a refresh rate of 50Hz rather than 60Hz. In terms of the era of CRT televisions, some TVs would happily switch between the two refresh rates, and some would only work with that of the expected region, but in general the later the TV was made the more likely it would be to work, and I'd expect positive results with a Sony Trinitron. No personal guarantees from me tho.

Again, a significant proportion of PAL region games would benefit from being run at 60Hz anyway, I know this is especially true of the Saturn library, and from what I've read it will apply to some Megadrive/Genesis/CD games too, tho I don't know what proportion.

JaapDaniels · Jul 5, 2022

See: https://www.consolesunleashed.com/guides/sega-mega-cd-region-free-multibios-install-guide/
It's the first result when googling on sega cd region mod.
This will make you play all games and you don't have to patch them.
Picture is based on pal sega, but instuctions are for all versions.
Sadly you'll need to patch your genesis and the MegaCD.
if you've got an eeprom programmer see: https://mmmonkey.co.uk/downloads/ and go to the section of BIOS Files to flash your own region free bios.

How to play PAL games on NTSC console ?

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