PAL roms run faster...What a hoax

[wildonrio]

The rumor that European PAL roms run faster than American NTSC is, in my opinion, totally false.

I just spent hours looking for European PAL roms and finally found some, just to test their speed. I loaded a CDR with sets of ROMs, each set having a PAL version and an NTSC version of the same game. Results? PAL was for sure never faster than NTSC. In fact, in just about every game, the NTSC version was noticeably faster.

I am willing to change my opinion if someone here can tell me that I wasn't using real PAL roms. My roms were renamed by GoodGen and the ones I assumed were PAL were the ones that ended in (E), like so:

Game (E).smc <----------- PAL
Game (U).smc <----------- NTSC

If that is right, then PAL roms are indeed slower. If that is wrong, then someone needs to show me how to recognize a true PAL.

Has anyone else had a similar experience with PAL being slower?

[Juan]

Yes, most of the PAL versions are slower. And I agree, PAL roms don't get a better performance in DSNES.

[nogginthenog]

It depends...

PAL games can be faster in an emulator because there are less screen updates per second. It's easier to emulate, simple as that. So if a game is emulated at 90% speed the chances are that a PAL version will reach 100%.

However, on original hardware NTSC games are normally faster as consoles tend to use the video refresh as a timer. e.g. the screen scrolls at 1 pixel per frame.

[Christuserloeser]

Yeah, most PAL games do run slower than their NTSC versions. However you'll get at least less frameskip than with the NTSC versions in DreamSNES.

Exceptions would be games by European developers like e.g. Rare which do run exactly as fast as the NTSC versions but still with less frameskip.

[Juan]

I understand the theory - In practise, if there's even a boost it's hardly noticeable. PAL versions are somewhat "more playable" because of the fact that they are, almost always, slower.

I say it'd be fair to rename this topic... At least get rid of the "100% Full Speed".

[Christuserloeser]

Any idea what I should call it then ?

[Juan]

A Small Checklist To Improve The Emulation Speed With DreamSNES

[Matisfaction]

The rumor that European PAL roms run faster than American NTSC is, in my opinion, totally false.

I just spent hours looking for European PAL roms and finally found some, just to test their speed. I loaded a CDR with sets of ROMs, each set having a PAL version and an NTSC version of the same game. Results? PAL was for sure never faster than NTSC. In fact, in just about every game, the NTSC version was noticeably faster.

I am willing to change my opinion if someone here can tell me that I wasn't using real PAL roms. My roms were renamed by GoodGen and the ones I assumed were PAL were the ones that ended in (E), like so:

Game (E).smc <----------- PAL
Game (U).smc <----------- NTSC

If that is right, then PAL roms are indeed slower. If that is wrong, then someone needs to show me how to recognize a true PAL.

Has anyone else had a similar experience with PAL being slower?

Don't forget that Pal SNES games (50hz) run at about 17.5%? slower than NTSC games (60hz).

The theory is not that PAL games run faster but are better emulated under DSNES.

Obvoiusly DSNES runs some roms better than others, so it certinly does depend on what roms you're using as well.