PAL/NTSC Conversion

RARE ELEMENTS

Pal4U2000&Patcher
PalPar
GameShark CD
Import Boot Disk

Introduction

I have described 3 methods here, One uses a Game Enhancer cartridge, one a boot disk and the third changes the code in the disk image to convert it to PAL or NTSC. Being in the UK I'll mainly talk about NTSC to PAL - but the principles are the same for PAL to NTSC (if you can't work it out you probably wouldn't have got it anyway)

Game Enhancer Codes

PalPar is a DOS program that will detect the display code and produce the Game Enhancer codes required to change the display. it can be used either on the game executable or on an image of the disk. I find that it is more reliable to run the program on a disk image (CDRwin .bin file) as some games have more than one executable file. the syntax for the program is simple enough:
palpar <filename>
e.g. to run it on the image TR.bin: palpar c:\tr.bin
to run it on Tomb Raider III (Euro PAL) executable: palpar d:\Sles_016.49

either way the results should look like this:-

it will obviously take longer to search a disk image than a executable, so maybe you want to try that first?
So now we have the codes to convert our PAL version Tomb Raider III to NTSC output:
50093B00 0001
00093B00 0000
If it had been an NTSC version converting to PAL we would have used
50093B00 0000
00093B00 0001

OK - All we need to do now is load the codes into the Game enhancer, If you co not have a game enhancer, or have a 900x series PSX (or the PSone) you can use the Gameshark CD and save the codes to a memory card.
At the menu screen go to the "Select Cheats" menu (wording varies on diferent cart.s), Add new game (unless TRIII is already there), add new codes, now name the code (i.e. NTSC convert) and add the two lines of code.

Now when you are starting the game enable the 'cheat' and "Start Game With Cheats", by magic the game apears in colour.

I have been deliberately vague about how to input the codes, as with so many versions around it is imposible to cover all variations, check your instruction booklet.

Import Boot Disk by Paradox

This disk will NOT eliminate the need for a ModChip, or Game Enhancer to start imported games.

Firstly you'll need to disable the door switch on the PSX (button at the back right under the lid), a suitable spring or a lump of "BlueTac" or "Plastacine" should do the trick.

Instead of your game disk insert the "Import Boot Disk"
A short menu screen will appear and the disk will stop spinning, you can now insert your game disk.

Select the display mode you want, PAL or NTSC. You can also enable anti modchip or Game Enhancer detection for protected games - but that doesn't concern us at the moment.

Thre is an option to correct the "Y position" (you 'll see that the screen is slightly out of position during the game) but for all I played around with this I couldn't get any improvement (perhaps someone from Paradox would like to comment).

Now start the game. Clever Stuff I say!!

PAL4U by Vezz

This Utility will not work for every game, but I've had a high success rate with it.