Hacking Patches to convert PAL 50hz games into PAL 60hz (Nintendont Compatible)

[Amuro-san]

Hi. I hope this is the right section to put this.

Silly story of why the heck I did this:

Spoiler

Pretty much since the days were the Gamecube was the latest Nintendo console released, I've been always bothered that here in Europe had to deal with the awful PAL 50 format. I really hate how we had to conform with inferior versions of games that ran faster in other places (And don't get me started on bad PAL conversions...). Even more when the prices were higher than in the US most of the time.

Yeah, nowadays you could play games from the US and be done with it, but the languages from PAL versions are most of the time not included. And in other cases there are differences that make the PAL version superior (Although that's not common).

Not so long ago I started to look at my PAL collection of games, and quite a few are "Only PAL 50". Was then when I decided to try and see what I could do.

I saw several Action Replay / Wiird (Gecko) codes floating around, made by an user named Ralf@gc-forever. But they didn't work on Nintendont, as it shifts data around and such, so I thought "maybe I could write them ON the iso itself!"

And that's what I've been doing.

I'm writing this post to share a few patches that will convert some of the previously PAL 50 Only games to PAL 60 (480i) games, recovering their original speed and resolution.

Important note: Credits go to Ralf@gc-forever for creating the wiird codes that gave me the possibility to do this.

Each game has 2 patches, one IPS and one xDelta. I did this because if you have another dump of the game, or you have an shrunk iso, the xDelta patch will give you problems. The IPS won't (I tried it myself). The changes themselves are very small as far as the ammount of bytes modified goes.

It also includes a small txt file that points the changes in case you want to hex edit yourself.

Games with "!!" Are PAL exclusive, or have something important on the PAL release.

Click here to expand the list:

Spoiler

Luigi's Mansion !!

Spoiler

https://www.dropbox.com/s/5uma5eus2re5ds3/Luigi's Mansion PAL 60hz Patch.rar?dl=0

Works on Nintendont. It will start at 576i; but at the Title Screen will ask you about changing to "Progressive Mode". Just press A and it will go into 480i (Or 480P if you have "Force Progressive" option in Nintendont turned On).

Pal Version is the superior version content-wise because the Hidden Mansion mode has many more changes and it's more of a challenge. Also seems to be less glitchy than the US and Japan versions.

Mario Party 4

Spoiler

https://www.dropbox.com/s/uwtt5ulp138vdzs/Mario Party 4 PAL 60hz Patch.rar?dl=0

With the patch, this game boots up at 480i without any help. Can be forced to 480P, seems compatible, I played a couple of hours with no problem.

Mario Party 5

Spoiler

https://www.dropbox.com/s/fae11zlbuu7dnx6/Mario Party 5 PAL 60hz Patch.rar?dl=0

With the patch, this game boots up at 480i without any help. Can be forced to 480P, seems compatible, I played a couple of hours with no problem.

Mario Party 6

Spoiler

https://www.dropbox.com/s/4e80jqo6igy9ifh/Mario party 6 PAL 60hz Patch.rar?dl=0

With the patch, this game boots up at 480i without any help. Can be forced to 480P, seems compatible, I played a couple of hours with no problem.

Mario party 7

Spoiler

https://www.dropbox.com/s/cbtyil1khtqefxs/Mario Party 7 PAL 60hz Patch.rar?dl=0

With the patch, this game boots up at 480i without any help. Can be forced to 480P, seems compatible, I played a couple of hours with no problem.

Mario Golf TT

Spoiler

https://www.dropbox.com/s/2ou9yufzwbza5we/Mario Golf TT PAL 60hz Patch.rar?dl=0

With the patch, this game boots up at 480i without any help. I haven't tried 480P.

Wario World

Spoiler

https://www.dropbox.com/s/mp9ve76nmwai1qa/Wario World PAL 60hz Patch.rar?dl=0

With the patch, this game boots up at 480i without any help. Seems compatible with 480P, it boots fine and I ran around the first level.

Pikmin 1

Spoiler

https://www.dropbox.com/s/7kjte6flziiukoc/Pikmin 1 PAL 60hz Patch.rar?dl=0

With the patch, this game boots up at 480i without any help. Seems compatible with 480P, it boots and I walked around the first map for a while with no problems.

Doshin The Giant !!

Spoiler

https://www.dropbox.com/s/z5l0r1qtsathc8c/Doshin The Giant PAL 60hz Patch.rar?dl=0

With the patch, this game boots up at 480i without any help. Can be forced to 480P, seems compatible, I played a couple of hours with no problem.

This game was never released in the US.

Skies of Arcadia Legends

Spoiler

https://www.dropbox.com/s/jee1hwmapu267p0/Skies of Arcadia Legends PAL 60hz Patch.rar?dl=0

With the patch, this game boots up at 480i without any help.

Asterix & Obelix XXL !!

Spoiler

https://www.dropbox.com/s/3er472q5kjj8blm/Asterix & Obelix XXL PAL 60hz Patch.rar?dl=0

With the patch, this game boots up at 480i without any help. Can be forced to 480P, seems compatible, I played for a while with no problems.

This game was never released outside Europe.

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles

Spoiler

https://www.dropbox.com/s/w0zi8ia26x7ow0w/Final Fantasy CC PAL 60hz Patch.rar?dl=0

With the patch, this game boots up at 480i without any help.

Metal Gear Solid - The Twin Snakes

Spoiler

https://www.dropbox.com/s/aj1oh2ofmmjls6k/MGS Twin Snakes 60hz Patch.rar?dl=0

With the patch, this game boots up at 480i without any help.

Baten Kaitos - Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean

Spoiler

https://www.dropbox.com/s/59ya6gwslbfl76z/Baten Kaitos PAL 60hz Patch.rar?dl=0

With the patch, this game boots up at 480i without any help.

Yu-Gi-Oh The Falsebound Kingdom

Spoiler

https://www.dropbox.com/s/e9fnphei3hesq0k/YuGiOh TFK PAL 60hz Patch.rar?dl=0

With the patch, this game boots up at 480i without any help.

Turok: Evolution

Spoiler

https://www.dropbox.com/s/z2auqvwb4jqwexm/turok evolution pal60 patch.7z?dl=0

With the patch, this game boots up at 480i without any help.
The NTSC US version has problems to run properly on Nintendont, so with this people should be able to play it at the correct speed and video formats, and take advantage of Nintendont's Frame rate boost.

I'm sorry to say that are several games where I wasn't able to do this (Tales of Symphonia or Animal Crossing, for example.). I'm not experienced or knowledgable enough in how gecko codes work. If someone wants to try it it could be great.

Also, I wanted to ask, is there a patch format that is not so annoying (read: do checksums) for small changes such as the ones these patches do?

Lastly, I'd like to give thanks again to Ralf@gc-forever for his codes.

Update: Added Metal Gear Solid - The Twin Snakes, Baten Kaitos 1 and Yu-Gi-Oh The Falsebound Kingdom... For some reason.

Is there no way to do Resident Evil Code Veronica X?

 

[Cosmyc]

Just tried the patch for Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles, the intro sequence when starting a new game plays too fast, the song gets cut in the middle at the end of it because screen visuals aren't tied anymore with the intended video/audio match design. Is this patch intended to work like this? This doesn't happen on PAL50 or NTSC original versions.

 

[Maeson]

Entirely depends on how the PAL version of the game was set up. Some PAL conversions left cutscenes and such untouched, games like that one altered them for the lower PAL 50hz frame rate. When you change it back to 60hz, the changes made to cutscenes for the lower speed still apply causing that desync. This happens to Skies of Arcadia too, for example.

It's "intended" in the way that what the patch does is simply make the game run at 60hz, whatever alterations were made for the PAL release like the one you mention, will stay the same. This can also be observed on official releases of games between NTSC and PAL games where cutscenes or timed animations weren't tweaked for the change in framerate.

Random example but to name one, in the ending of the European version of Adventures of Lolo III there's up to 14 seconds of waiting for the game to catch up to the NTSC version in total silence because of the difference in speed.

 

[Cosmyc]

Understood, still worth the tradeoff in my book and at least now we have three options to choose from, NTSC, PAL50 or patched PAL60.
Thanks for your effort, very appreciated!

 

[Amuro-san]

Understood, still worth the tradeoff in my book and at least now we have three options to choose from, NTSC, PAL50 or patched PAL60.
Thanks for your effort, very appreciated!

I got another patch and this one works, if you want I can upload my iso

 

[Cosmyc]

I got another patch and this one works, if you want I can upload my iso

That would be really appreciated!

 

[Amuro-san]

That would be really appreciated!

That would be really appreciated!

https://www.mediafire.com/folder/2er1q4svjmm92/Final+Fantasy+NGC
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/5qdld4dfhn1na/Tales+of+Sinphonya

Post automatically merged: Jan 7, 2024

Tales of Symphonia is in undub, I just don't know if undub is in other languages, but in Spanish it is undub and the game is in 60hz, the patch here doesn't work, I hope they make it someday for RE Code Veronica X and Animal Crossing

 

[Cosmyc]

Just tried Mario Party 4, 5, 6 and 7. All of them works except Mario Party 5 which after trying to boot it up through Nintendont the console shut downs inmediately. Tried to boot it on Dolphin on my PC and works fine. What's happening?

Edit: nevermind, it was Nintendont that wasn't up to date on my part.

Also, why the "Patch PAL50" option then if in this thread we are fixing ISO's?