Castlevania III European PAL Version Glitching

[chimaera]

When trying the PAL version of Castlevania III - Dracula's Curse, I notice that there are graphical glitches.
The cross selector at the title screen and Trevor Belmont praying in front of the big have graphical errors, and the first level are a complete graphical mess and the background doesn't move.

I have verified that the ROM indeed are a PAL version (it says PALCOM on the title screen), and that the iNES header are version 2.0.
The ROM are verified with the NoIntro DAT Nintendo - Nintendo Entertainment System (Headered) (20230710-041933).dat.

The NES core version are: NES_20230223.rbf

If I switch mode in the core from PAL to NTSC, the game will play without graphical glitches but with sped up music.

Does anyone else have this problem?

[lagerfeldt]

I only have Castlevania III - Draculas' Curse [USA] ROM to test, and it plays fine as NTSC. Any reason why you want to play the PAL version specifically?

[chimaera]

The reason for wanting to use the PAL version is that i am from the PAL region and I grew up with PAL games.

I am interested to know if anyone else has this problem with an verified good dump with iNES 2.0 header, if so, then it should be reported as a bug.

iNES header i am using is (in HEX): 4E 45 53 1A 10 10 50 08 00 00 00 00 01 00 00 01

The ROM I use works perfectly in Mesen v2.0.0, Nestopia UE vx.xx and FCEUX 2.2.3

Here's an image of how it looks in the core:

20230725_222514.jpg (1.37 MiB) Viewed 8601 times

[DevilHunterWolf]

I just tried my flash cart compatible copy of the PAL version and I'm getting the same thing. No proper scrolling in the intro or in game. The odd thing is it's only if the system is set to PAL. PAL version of CV3 on NTSC system? No problem. NTSC version on PAL system? Same graphical issues. Doesn't appear to be related to the ROM but just if you're trying to play the game at all on a PAL system.

The only common point I could figure is that it's an MMC5 mapper game being played on a PAL system. It's a bit difficult to test "correctly" as it looks like Castlevania III was the only MMC5 game to come out in the EU. Most of the games that used it appear to be Koei strategy games that weren't brought over to PAL regions. But any of the NTSC games I tried with the core set to a PAL system all had bad graphical glitching or just missing graphics entirely just like with Castlevania III. MMC5 on PAL seems to be the issue.

[chimaera]

Ok thanks for verifying! Seems to be a timing issue with MMC5 on PAL?

I have posted an issue on the github

https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/NES_MiSTer/issues/359

[roundy07]

I’m having the same issue with the PAL version running in PAL mode on the NES core too

Interestingly too the PAL version is slightly different to the US NTSC in that enemies do less damage, so it’s kind of like a hybrid of Akumajo Densetsu and CV3, it puts the game in an odd category where each region’s version plays differently!

[chimaera]

Seems like there already is a fix for this, i guess it'll come in the next update: https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/NES_MiSTer/pull/360

thank you roundy07 for testing. I did not know that about CV3, maybe they thought us europeans couldn't handle the difficulty so they lowered it

[roundy07]

Ah that’s awesome, great news!

The TCRF has a nice little write up on the regional differences with the European damage explained at the bottom. I think this was the only Castlevania on NES where they did PAL optimisation too

https://tcrf.net/Castlevania_III:_Dracu ... ifferences