Donkey Kong C64 – PAL vs NTSC compared

Donkey Kong by Nintendo on the Commodore C64 runs much slower on PAL systems than on NTSC systems. In this video I’ll show you both running side by side. PAL and NTSC footage have been resampled to the same frame rate and are true to real life speeds experienced by yours truly.

Retro PAL systems often have issues running NTSC software at the correct speed. Often that’s due to lazy ports resulting in 20% slower performance. On certain consoles even black bars on the bottom and top of the screen as a result of not upping the resolution 20% for PAL TVs. PAL software on NTSC machines can end up running 20% too fast.

On the C64 quite a few titles exist with separate European and US ports of the same game developed by different teams and sometimes quite different in execution. Also quite a few games sense which machine they run on and adjust themselves accordingly. When the differences in processing / clock speed are taken into account and timing of the software is done correctly PAL or NTSC shouldn’t make a difference.

After the 8, 16 and 32 bit gaming era the difference between PAL and NTSC disappeared with consoles offering 60Hz settings on PAL units resulting in the same game speeds. With the modern PS3, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS4 systems the difference has basically disappeared. Most systems default to 60Hz standard.

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