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Stupid Moments In Gaming: 50Hz Gaming
Xavier | 9:04 AM on 01.01.2008 4 comments


As a PAL gamer myself there is nothing more annoying than waiting ages for the release of a game and when you finally get the damn thing it runs at 50Hz. Sometimes it's not too bad, it's full screen 50hz and it runs almost as nicely as 60Hz which is something I can live by even if I'm not too pleased about it. The real problem is when you get terrible 50Hz conversions, you know the ones that run much slower & feature huge ass boarders.



That's just a disgrace in my eyes, way to go Sega you've pretty much destroyed a classic by being so lazy. Speaking of Sega they were probably one of the worst companies when it came to 50Hz conversions yet interestingly enough it was Sega who started pushing for 60hz gaming for PAL gamers with the Dreamcast, thank god.
Not having a 60Hz is one thing but having crappy 50Hz is another, I don't care what generation or how many years ago it was.

Devil May Cry is another example of a great game killed by it's PAL conversion, it is in my opinion easily THE WORST 50Hz I have ever seen in my life and I've seen some real crap. (Wave Race 64) It's amazing how Capcom can put so much effort into making an awesome game only for the PAL conversion to kill everything they worked for.


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It's like running a long hard race only to trip right at the end, you still made it over the line but not how you intended. Oh Final Fantasy X also has a shit conversion too, you could be tricked into thinking you got an exclusive PAL only widescreen mode had the slow ass speed no given it away that's it's a crap 50Hz conversion.
Thankfully these days Capcom and Sega are very nice when it comes to offering 60Hz in their games, Square Enix I have no idea about since I generally don't play thier games.
You'd think 50Hz would be a thing of the past by now but no, someone is still screwing up, Nintendo.

Some people are angry that Nintendo does not update their Virtual Console games with better framerates or added online play and so forth.
Personally I'm not too annoyed, I'd rather have them focus on thier new games but what really annoys me is that we've had some real shit 50Hz conversions in the past so the Virtual Console could of been a chance to redeem the damage that was done in the past.
Well no, the virtual console games run at 50Hz just like they did before, Streets of Rage is just as slow as ever.

Good work Nintendo, you just missed out on some money because hell yeah I would of re-brought my favourite games on Virtual Console had they been 60Hz.
To sum up, bad 50Hz conversions is something that never should of happened and when it did it took too long to get sorted, many good games have suffered greatly because of it.



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4 comments | showing # 1 to 4

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Remo's Destructoid Blog
Since Ireland and the UK speak english we could have easily played the US versions at full speed. but we had to be bunged in with the rest of europe.
RivaOni's Destructoid Blog
It was down to the way TV's function in this country. If you notice on more modern TV's they have a PAL mode and NTSC mode, its the NTSC mode that allows us to use 60hz in games now.

I remember when PSO came out on the Dreamcast, it had servers for people playing on 50hz which were just for Europeans, and servers for 60hz where you could join the rest of the world with ease. I used to have to cart the Dreamcast downstairs to the lounge at my mums house as the TV in my bedroom was rather old and only displayed 50hz.

This was fine for any other game, but I weren't happy playing with a very small portion of people online because the TV in my bedroom was 50hz only.

However, borders aside, I've never personally been able to tell the visual difference between the two, maybe I'm just not that way inclined when it comes to the refresh rate of the screen I'm playing on.
PANZERDRAKO's Destructoid Blog
as a "pal to ntsc" patch gamer (mostly psx for the spanish option) i can understand you...

mostly playing action games...
not just the framerate, THAT FRIGGING BLACK LINES up n down of the screen..!!!!
Alanar's Destructoid Blog
I remember playing Mario Kart: Double Dash in 50Hz. It was the first and last time I did that. The game runs painfully slow and just isn't fun that way. Same goes for Mario Power Tennis where the characters voices during special shots are faster than the actual animation.

But Nintendo isn't alsways that sloppy when it comes to 50Hz adjustments. When I got Naruto: Clash of Ninja - European Version and noticed that a 60Hz mode is missing, I feared that the game would suffer from the reduced speed like Double Dash and Power Tennis. But surprisingly, the game's speed is even on 50Hz pretty much the same as in the original japanese version.

However, I still enjoyed for example Sonic the Hedgehog on my Mega Drive. Back in the day I didn't know that it was supposed to be faster. And I remember that the borders were blue... Or my memory deceives me.


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