So I went to the mall out here...and saw Championship Manager. Yeah, too bad it's all in PAL. Darn near every game is. Total suckage. I hate it!

Forgive my ignorance, but what the heck is PAL?

I'm not sure...but I think it's some type of copyright junk to keep me from buying XBOX/PS2 things outside of the United States.

I didn't think CM4 was even available on the consoles yet :confused:

Ah, the ones I saw were two different versions...not called CM4, but something else...like season 2002/03 or something.

PAL is a video language that most of the world uses. The US and a few others use NTSC (the French use their own called SECAM). If your TV is PAL and your VCR (or the video tape) is pal then the picture will be in black and white. Actually in most parts of the world, you can get TV's, VCRs and DVDs that are both, but not in the US:(. So all of my movies that I have collected over the past 7 years while living here I will not be able to keep when I leave this summer:(

PAL stands for Phased Alternating Lines. It's basically a form of video resolution, not a lockout device. To my knowledge, PAL is used pretty much exclusively by the UK and Australia. Asia and North America use NTSC. Europe proper I'm unsure of, but PAL is certainly a possibility.

Bottom line, the lockout is separate from PAL - usually the developers of games that are expected to be imported will include both the 50 Hz and the 60 Hz options so that the game in question can be played on either NTSC or PAL TVs. Stuff that's just in PAL you'd need a VGA box to play, though. Dunno if Xbox is compatible with one of those, and that ignores the problem of getting an import game to play on an Xbox without using a modchip.

Josh

Thanks SackAttack!

You know, I used to really like Garbage Pail Kids...

Originally posted by stkelly52
PAL is a video language that most of the world uses. The US and a few others use NTSC (the French use their own called SECAM). If your TV is PAL and your VCR (or the video tape) is pal then the picture will be in black and white. Actually in most parts of the world, you can get TV's, VCRs and DVDs that are both, but not in the US:(. So all of my movies that I have collected over the past 7 years while living here I will not be able to keep when I leave this summer:(

I've got some good news for you.
There is a video player in the states that can play/convert your PAL format videos to NTSC and plays them clearly on US TVs.
Its a Samsung SV5000W (there are others that do the same), but this one is relatively cheap and does work - I have one to play the videos I brought with me from the UK.

Hope they sell that stuff out here!

It does seem like that US companies are over sensitive to having their stuff converted. I don't understand why X-box doesn't sell a console version that could adapt to both (you could chip it..illegally) it would sell more games. Lord knows when I visit the fam in England I get depressed at the soccer titles I see over there that I can't bring back to play.