Larian Studios Forums General Chat RPG Chat Can a PC game be NTSC or PAL? or is it universal?

You see i really want Planescape Tourment, but if i buy it in england, it usually sells for around £15!

I can get versions from the US for under $5!!!

BIG difference.


I am confused tho, you see the ones in the US are labelled as NTSC.. but surely all PC games run on windows XP regardless where you are.. i thought PAL and NTSC were only relevant on consoles?

Is is eBay just being a fanny when labeling items?

please help.. i dont want to spend £15!

Without knowing anything about labelling: it's worth it <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />.

Übereil

If you are talking about the budget re-release of Planescape Torment bundled with Soulbringer (that I recently got new on eBay for CAN$10), the box itself doesn't mention anything about NTSC. eBay (or the seller) most likely automatically fills in NTSC or PAL based on the region the game was produced, without differentiating between PC games and consoles.

Even porting a console game to PC, which is not the case with PS:T, I can't see keeping a video standard designed for TVs.

yey <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> cheap torment for me <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

PS:T was ported to consoles ? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

No Alrik, the other way round, and he said [color:"orange"] which is not the case with PS:T, [/color]!!!

So what's the point about a PC game being NTCS or PAL ? I don't get it. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

Nope Al, it is about Console's that plug into the back of yer TV where that would be relevant, our friend Ab has prolly seen "a" game that said NTSC and it was most certainly a console game, so He wondered if that was the case with PCF games loosing temporary track of the facts <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

I was highly confused.

seach ebay for torment.. all the games that are from the US/canada area are listed as NTSC games.



Its just ebay being stupid.

heres one

Description Seller assumes all responsibility for listing this item

Item Specifics - Video Games
Platform: PC
Genre: Action, Adventure
Rating: E - Everyone
Sub-Genre: --
Condition: New
Format: NTSC (US, Canada)

Sheesh Thanks for that Ab, I really didn't think that had any relevance since here in Australia we use PAL and I have imported quite a few Games from the US and played them with no problem on my PC, which as far as I know is neither PAL or NTSC ... totally completely foncused as to what a TV format has to do with a PC (aside from having VIVO) Anyone can shed some light on this?


Edit: I suppose I am in the same boat as Alrik now <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />

HA ! HA ! I KNEW IT !!!

<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/delight.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ROFL.gif" alt="" />

By the way, why don't you ask ebay ? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />

because im happy being the middle man, importing them to the UK for retail over here <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/evilgrin1.gif" alt="" />

As far as I'm concerned, all PC games are in RGB format. if you play it on a TV, your computer converts it to NTSC or PAL.

Yes; that's the point that is confusing me so highly : The PAL or NTSC thing has absolutely NO IMPACT on the game at all !

It is only important when you plug a TV into the PC, so to say !

WOW RGB format? RGB is colorformat has hardly anything to do with NTSC or PAL. All tv's are RGB, all print is CMYK. The console will prolly be ntsc or pal. DOn't know much bout consoles.

It just says NTSC because ebay doesn't make a difference in console and pc games, so it just says NTSC, just ignore it.

Okay I get it it is just an ebay thing it is not actually printed on the box (heaves a sigh of relieve of not having to dig up game boxes to check)

IOW we wasted like a good hour talking about something that makes no difference whatsoever .... because ebay has a faulty script page *groans* <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ouch.gif" alt="" />

All monitors and TVs use RGB to present the graphics, but the data in sent to them with different encoding. Different types of encoding include PAL, NTSC, RGB and more. Your monitor or TV needs to be able to understand the encodig to display the graphics properly.

I think console games have the graphics saved to the disc in PAL or NTSC format, or they have specific converters in the software. I'm not entirely sure why it is done this way. Since PC games are assumed to be played through a monitor, the graphics is saved in RGB format.