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Hello, are there are any differences between PAL and NTSC rom versions, is one better than the other? I am european so i'm inclined to go for PAL versions but i've noticed that NTSC roms of some games are easier to find and seemingly more recent.

50hz vs 60hz although most Dreamcast PAL provides 60 provided you're using VGA display signal

To this day I still dying to know Monaco On-line DreamPi if 50hz pitted with 60hz players does anything bad or if never tried

Pretty much what mista said - there's not much need to worry when you're collecting European games for Dreamcast, as all games with VGA support (which is most of them) will output 60Hz in that mode anyway.

Honestly I never really got the rage over PAL vs NTSC. The number of games that are ruined by a poor PAL conversion are relatively few, and I certainly didn't notice the difference when I was growing up. Nowadays though, games from all regions are pretty widely available, so you can easily go for either if you have a preference.

I think the PAL hate just comes from enthusiasts that have higher end CRTS 50hz can really hurt the eyes. As long as you are hooked up to a VGA monitor or a flat panel there's not really much of a difference between PAL and NTSC, but if you ever want to use a 15khz CRT it is definitely better to have the NTSC releases.

Thanks for the replies, i'll just stick with PAL copies then.

letsgome wrote:I think the PAL hate just comes from enthusiasts that have higher end CRTS 50hz can really hurt the eyes. As long as you are hooked up to a VGA monitor or a flat panel there's not really much of a difference between PAL and NTSC, but if you ever want to use a 15khz CRT it is definitely better to have the NTSC releases.

as good as every PAL crt since the 90's does 60hz natively, as long as you connect with RGB

Theres some mis information in this thread. And i found it through a google search so i need to correct it.

PAL Dreamcast games support 60hz in non-vga mode. Its called PAL-60, a format PAL regions introduced in the early 90s. It works through composite and rgb scart and maybe even rf, not 100% sure on rf though , never tried that one myself.

The VGA support in DC games is completeley seperate to the PAL 60 support.

PAL-60 is basicaly 480i resolution the same as NTSC, sacrificing the extra lines of resolution PAL normally had over NTSC (576 vs 480), but with 60hz refresh rate instead of 50hz, and using the pal colour subcarrier still, so with potentialy better colour reproduction than ntsc 60hz mode, if accounted for.

Whereas VGA mode on Dreamcast is 480p 60hz, which very few consumer CRTs ever supported in usa or worldwide, and not really until about 2000,after the DC launch. And usualy it was through component. Those were the last crts before flat panels came on the scene.

Hence why DC had the VGA adaptor so people could use their PC CRT's to play it. No one's home tvs could support that resolution and none had a VGA connection.

Now, the list of Dreamcast games with PAL-60 support might also tally up with the list that have VGA support (although im pretty sure there wil be at least some with pal 60hz and not vga though), but the fact remains, they are seperate video modes and you dont need vga mode in the game or a vga adaptor to use 60hz on PAL Dreamcast games. You can use any connection thanks to the PAL60 support of most Dreamcast games.
(any others can usualy be patched or have 60hz patches made for them already).
When you boot those PAL games with PAL60 support, they show a screen where you select 50hz or 60hz, and a button saying test and another saying confirm. You choose your video mode then click confirm and it boots in whichever video mode you chose. Once again, nothing to do with vga mode. VGA mode is ONLY 60hz so never needed such selection screens to activate. VGa mode is activated by a pin in the vga adaptor itself.

Some extra info:
Pretty much all new PAL tvs for sale by the time Dreamcast released had 60hz support, but higher end models had been supporting it for much before that as many movie buffs here in pal land preffered using NTSC vhs players and NTSC copies of movies because of the PAL Speedup issue

Our arcades here in PAL land were always just 60hz though. Arcade displays were pretty much the only ones with high resolution support too. Thats why Dreamcast carried it over into the home, it was basically naomi arcade at home.and in the arcade they used vga to connect those high res 480p screens to cabinets.So DC did too.