16 bit Game Converters
No PAL of mine
While UK gamers still tend to get the short end of the stick when it comes to game release dates (New Super Mario Bros for the DS is a good example of a recent offender released a full month in the States, before it’s end of June release here) things have vastly improved from the good old days during the 16 bit era.
The UK (and by extension Europe) sometimes felt like an after thought to our lofty Japanese publishing masters. American gamers complaining about missing out on particular Japanese games and franchises should have walked a mile in our shoes. There was a definite pecking order; Japan, America and then, at some point when they got round to it, the UK.
We not only received hand me downs from their hand me downs, but were expected to wait and pay extra for the privilege. To add insult to injury due to the technical differences between regional television systems, PAL games suffered from running at slower speeds. Instead of being re-coded, most PAL games were simply slowed down from 60Hz to 50Hz, resulting in 17% slower game play and sound effects.That was why we could never beat American gamers times in racing games!
Please Sir, can I have some more?
It’s worth remembering that the Super Nintendo only washed up on British shores in June of 1992, a year after the US launch and almost two years after the Japanese got their hands on it! It was a time gap that Nintendo never really addressed until towards the very end of systems life. Nintendo and Sega often used the excuse of ‘localization’- translating games from Japanese- as the reason. This didn’t sit too well with us, given that American players were still playing happily months before we did and they spoke our language.
We could wait as long as a year for high profile titles to even make an appearance in the UK. Remember Street Fighter 2? It took over a year before UK gamers got their hands on a PAL version of the legendary fighter. No self respecting games player could endure waits this long. Especially with games magazines doing import reviews, and smugly announcing that ‘X’ game was the most amazing experience of their lives BUT we would only share in that joy six months hence.
Converter £50. SF2 £70. Playing it before you could ? Priceless.....
