naishou

I bought a PSII a few weeks ago. It came with Final Fantasy X and I noticed for the first time this morning that the game has big black borders top and bottom. Call me observant It turns out that this is only on the PAL version of the game and has something to do with our higher resolutions and the capability (rendering speed) of the console.

So my question is, can an Australian purchased PSII play Japanese or American game discs? The manual would appear to suggest not, saying they need to display the PAL logo, but I know it can play region free NTSC DVDs (on an NTSC capable TV), so it must have the capability to output NTSC. Anyone a game console guru?

AusS2000

The Aus PS2 can't play US games. Just like DVD's, this has less to do with encoding and more to do with regional protection schemes.

On the original PlayStation you could do a couple of hacks and make the Playstation accept foreign and copied discs. I expect there is or will be similar hacks for the PS2.

As for the black bars, I expect that is more to do with the move towards wide screen (or short screen as I like to call it) formats. Both PAL (768x576) and NTSC (640x480) are 4:3 ratio so that shouldn't make a difference.

AusS2000

Did you recently mention you'd become a house husband? Formula Ford, PlayStaion 2 and not working! Care to share your secret?

Iggy_Type_R

As far as I know there are a few places in Melb that hack PS2s... I'll find for sure tho. If they're in Melb, then they're in Syd too!

AusS2000

Come to think of it there's a games shop in Chatswood that mods PS2's. It's about 50M directly east of the Victoria St/Archer St intersection in an arcade. You can't miss it. There's an asian supermarket downstairs that is always interesting to have a look around.

AusS2000

I saw Electronic Boutique have X-boxes for $295 (or there abouts) if you trade in 8 PS games. Looks like they are having trouble selling them. No wonder my MS shares are taking a beating.

naishou

Perhaps widescreen is more common in Europe and hence the PAL version is widescreen, but the NTSC version definitely isn't. I found a discussion about the PAL version of this particular game on a gaming site and everyone there seemed to think this commonly happens during PAL conversion of the original game due to higher resolution. If they run it in (fake) widescreen mode then there are fewer pixels to render. Apparently PAL games are often slower than their NTSC counterparts for the same reason.

I just sold an S2000 I used to work very hard and had a good job. Nonetheless I need to find an income producing occupation soon. Nothing like being unemployed to change your perspective - I now look out for specials in the supermarket and buy generic brands Still, nothing was going to stop me getting the FF, I considered part of the S2000 to "owe" it to me and you only live once. The PSII? I talked the buyer out of $500 more than he wanted to pay Then I was feeling frivolous that afternoon.

AusS2000

Damn, thought you might have stumbled across a MLM that actually worked and I could get in at the ground floor. Retire at 30 (whoops, too late).

AusS2000

So, have you got GT3 or is that just not up to scratch when you own a Formula Ford?

naishou

Actually that's what I bought it for. It's pretty good but car racing games frustrate me because there's no feedback, especially if you don't get one of those force feedback wheels.