Conference hydra::amiga_v1

If you're not in any kind of hurry, you'd probably want to wait for the
ECS.  The new abilities are discussed at length elsewhere, but one of the
new features is the ability to do either PAL or NTSC.  Software selectable,
I'd guess.

This ECS is demoing in the new Amiga 3000, and will hopefully be available
for us 2x00/500 owners in the near future (couple of months?)

Steve

    The Super (Fatter, 1 Meg, etc.) Agnus does this now.  One of the recent
    Fish disks (331-340) includes some programs to switch between NTSC and
    PAL modes.  All new Amigas are shipping with this version of Agnus chip
    now, so you should be OK.
    
    There's probably a jumper someplace on the new mother boards to select
    PAL mode by default...?

    Re .2:
    
>   The Super (Fatter, 1 Meg, etc.) Agnus does this now.  One of the recent
>   Fish disks (331-340) includes some programs to switch between NTSC and
>   PAL modes.  All new Amigas are shipping with this version of Agnus chip
>   now, so you should be OK.
    
    It's on FF331 in the NTSC-PAL drawer.  There's an NTSC program to set
    NTSC mode and a PAL program to set PAL mode.  If it doesn't find the
    "Fatter Agnus" (not sure which way it reckons this), the program tells
    you to go out and buy one!
    
>   There's probably a jumper someplace on the new mother boards to select
>   PAL mode by default...?
    
    The other two executable are BootNTSC and BootPAL.  I presume you'd put
    the appropriate one into your SYS:s/starup-sequence file.  (I haven't
    read the accompanying files.)
    
    Returning to the original question, I think you'll be able to do what
    you want.  Have a pleasant visit.

    
    re: that NTSC-PAL stuff
    
    I tried it, nice.  Just need to type "PAL" to go into PAL mode, "NTSC"
    to get back.  I used it to fix Tetris (I think that is what it is
    called - the one on the recent fish disk that flips the screen into
    PAL mode if you have the fat agnus chip.  The problem is that on exit
    it doesn't restore NTSC mode correctly - my monitor goes into a
    vertical roll, which I can't fix since there is no vertical hold
    control on the monitor.  So I changed the icon to run a 2 line script,
    containing:  Tetris
                 c:NTSC 
    
    Works fine now.  Since both programs came with source, I took a look at
    it, NTSC does a lot of things that Tetris doesn't to do the mode flip.
    
    -Dave

Re: .0, .4

Yup, the functionality is here already and future OS versions will also allow
a switch of display modes on the fly via software control

Dave writes:
>    Works fine now.  Since both programs came with source, I took a look at
>    it, NTSC does a lot of things that Tetris doesn't to do the mode flip.
If it's the same Tetris we're talking about (the one with all the "enhancement
ideas" and plain insults vs. nearly all other software authors), I'm glad that
my setup survived the one and only time I started this crap.
The author of this "game" obviously has no idea what OS compliant programming
is.

<CB>

    
    Great to hear that the OS allows the switch between PAL and NTSC, but
    the question that remains is, is the software PAL or MTSC or both.
    According to my brother in Holland (Amiga owner), most software is
    available in a PAL and in a NTSC version.
    Is this true, or is the software independent of the TV system, and it
    is the Amiga Hardware that 'makes' the output NTSC or PAL.
    
    	Ben
    

Re: .6

The (game) software these days uses either NTSC or PAL resolution, but more and
more items appear with the ability to change that from within the game.
Good software automagically selects the Preferences settings for it's display
(including overscan and positioning) _and_ allows customization.

However, with a Multisync monitor and the new Agnus, you can go and get 
whatever program you want, it'll work. Since the PAL versions use more 
scanlines, you might prefer those, if available...

<CB>

    Those PAL games do run on NTSC systems, but you can't see the bottom
    of the screen, how bad that is depends on if they put anything useful
    down there, like things you need to click on.  NTSC games on a PAL
    system have a empty area at the bottom of the screen due to the higher
    resolution of the PAL display.
    
    How do I convince the 1.3 NTSC WORKBENCH that it should run in PAL
    mode?  (If I do that "PAL" flip before a Loadwb, I end up with a
    PAL screen with a NTSC Workbench that won't let me access the bottom
    of the screen.  Is there a special PAL workbench?
    
    -Dave

    I may be too late on this, but I have a game or 2 that refuse even
    to boot on my PAL machine because they are NTSC-based. Apparently
    the protection scheme gets confused. So, there could be additional
    hiccups, depending on the software you want to run. One of these
    games is "Dragon's Lair", the other I don't recall... shows how
    much time I spend on games lately.
    Frank.

    I believe Dragons Lair uses strange techniques to either alter the
    speed or track layout..
    		.. It maybe your drive is just not up to it !!
    
    
    			- Pete -
    
    Try it on a friends Amiga