PLAYING US NTSC GAMES ON MY PAL DC

[unclecuddles]

I have recently bought some US NTSC games for my UK Pal DC and they don't seem to work. I use Utopia to boot them but it freezes then kicks me out to the DC boot screen.

I have had US NTSC D2 and Samba De Amigo for a while now, and they both work fine. However, I have recently bought Sega Smash Pack, Atari Anniversary Edition, Centipede and Alone in the Dark and none of them work (Alone in the Dark boots up but crashes when I select the character).

I anyone aware of any problems? Does Utopia not work for all US games or do some US games just not work on UK DCs?

 

[Csaba]

Use DC-X, is this the ultimate solution to play imports. Better than modchips.

 

[unclecuddles]

Is CD-X the one made by GameShark? I have V3.3 and when I use this it boots them up but the display is shifted a third of the way down the screen. The only one that works properly is Alone in the Dark which does the same but allows me to select 60Htz which fixes the problem. The other games don't have this function as it is only usually found on Pal games to optimise the frame rate.

 

[racketboy]

Have you had any successes using Utopia on your machine?

I know in the US, later DC machines were made so burned discs, like Utopia, can't be used.

Do burned music CDs play on your DC?

 

[unclecuddles]

Yes I have used Utopia and it does work for booting some US games, however it does not work with the four games I have recently bought. Anyway, I have come to the conclusion that two of them won't work at all because they have small scratches near the outside edge of the discs. I understand DC discs are notoriously delicate when it comes to scratches.

I have not tried a cdr music CD...hang on...yes that works fine.

 

[racketboy]

Originally posted by unclecuddles@Oct. 24 2002, 4:06 pm

I understand DC discs are notoriously delicate when it comes to scratches.

Yes they are

 

[unclecuddles]

I have seen Blaze CD-X on the net - is this the same as the Gameshark CDX? Or are there any other versions (Pal specific)?

 

[Mowgli]

I believe the Blaze disk will solve your problems. I have a PAL unit too, and I use both Utopia and the Gameshark demo for different games with different effects. The affect of the screen moving down about a third (rendering the game useless to play) seems to be to do with true NTSC output (as oposed to PAL 60hz).

All Windows CE based titles seem to lock up with the Utopia disk.

The bad news is, I have no idea where to find the Blaze product now. I've been searching for a while, and I can't find it 🙁

 

[poff]

These threads should help you:

http://litespeedcomputers.com/sx....;t=6596

http://litespeedcomputers.com/sx....;t=6456

 

[Csaba]

No its not CD-X its something different. DC-X is playing only imports and nothing else. See the IGn review at this link:

http://gear.ign.com/articles/59232p1.html

 

[Mowgli]

Here is the official Blaze UK site -

http://www.blaze-gear.com/page1.htm

And the DC-X page -

http://www.blaze-gear.com/dc_004.htm

I've emailed them to see if the items is still available, since it's out of stock everywhere else. I'll post the results here.

 

[unclecuddles]

CDX - DCX - I see the subtle difference!

I have tried seaching on ebay - no luck with the DC-X, but you can get the CDX. However, if you live in Germany there are about half a dozen available for shipping to Germany only for about 15 Euros.

I will ask the seller if he is prepared to sell to the UK.

 

[Mowgli]

Good news. ChipsWorld UK have confirmed they have the Blaze DC-X in stock and can be bought online here -

http://www.chipsworld.co.uk/detProd.asp?ProductCode=3485

 

[segasonic]

Cheers Mowgli, I just ordered one

I've been after one for ages to play NTSC stuff full-screen 60Hz on my PAL DC. I hope it arrives quickly, Ikaruga is crap at 50Hz

 

[Mowgli]

Agreed! I've been playing Ikaruga with the CD-X demo through the VGA box (CD-X doesn't work on a TV for most of my imports) and turning the monitor side ways... 60hz + VGA + full screen = great fun!!

 

[unclecuddles]

I have just ordered it - lets wait and see.

 

[segasonic]

Mine has arrived! I'm going to pick it up in an hour from the post depot

 

[unclecuddles]

I got it today and it works great. It booted up most of my NTSC games no problem but on a couple I had to change the settings to force Pal. It auto detect on most games but if it doesn't work you can mess around with the settings - you can set it to force Pal or NTSC, and/or force the cable output as VGA, Scart or Composite.

It booted up one of the games I thought was too scratched to work. The only one which didn't work was Centipede. Is this not compatible with it?

 

[segasonic]

At last! Sega Rally 2, F355 Challenge and Bust-a-Move 4 at 60Hz!

It doesn't fix Pop'n Music 2 to work with SCART, but I'm still impressed.