MiSTer FPGA Forum

It may come to your attention that there is a patched Lotus Esprit Turbo Challenge for the STe.
https://github.com/jonathanopalise/lotus-ste

Whenever I hit a tree or a car and a sound effect plays, graphical glitches appear. Can you reproduce? If not, how do you configure your Mister?
Mine: 4MB, STe, Blitter, 1.04 US, stereo

I have no issues with 1 MB, TOS 1.62 PAL downloaded the game here:
http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-st ... 37660.html

Solved it:
1.62us = bad
1.62uk = good

NTSC vs PAL?

Yeah everyone says "just use US bios" but it turns out soo many games were more optimized for PAL.

On the ST using the US Bios doesn't make sense as the games that supported 60Hz usually allowed you to switch to 60Hz ingame.

FoxbatStargazer wrote: ↑Mon Apr 12, 2021 1:50 pm Yeah everyone says "just use US bios" but it turns out soo many games were more optimized for PAL.

Both the Amiga and ST were far more popular in the PAL markets for gaming. For those using them 20-30 years later it is something to bear in mind. Unlike a lot of systems where the PAL market got screwed with less or inferior content, for the 80s-90s home computers its generally the other way around - PAL was the dominant market for a lot of them.

So yeah, expect more compatibility issues, glitches, etc. with NTSC on them, even if MiSTer is/was emulating the original hardware perfectly.

I've a feeling the UK/European markets were more computer centric.. where as the US market was more console driven.

On the European market the NES never became as successful as it was in the US In Europe's main markets the 8-Bit computers were dominant for several reasons.
First, some of them originated in Europe (Amstrad, Sinclair, BBC and to lesser extense Oric) or where manufactured in Europe (Commodore in Germany which was always an important factor, so important that the Amtrad was released in Germany under the Schneider Brand and marketed as a German computer).

Second it was possible to release games on these computer without the need to acquire a license by Commodore, Atari, Sinclair or Amstrad, you didn't needed anything but the machine. Bedroom coders (often kids then) wrote their first game on the ZX Spectrum and send a tape to one of the many publishers to get their games out.

In the US there was already an established console games market coming from the 2600 days with programmers being hired right after they graduated from university and the main computer games manufacturers also had many programmers that where often much older then their European counterparts. Activision, EA, the whole Arcade market didn't rely on young programmers without a formal education as the European market did.

When the 16-Bit computers arrived the shift from European hardware (or hardware built in Europe) shifted away to US developed/built hardware but the mechanisms of the software industry stayed the same.

Because of these aspects Computers where king in the kids bedrooms in Europe and not consoles.

bazza_12 wrote: ↑Sun Apr 18, 2021 3:54 pm I've a feeling the UK/European markets were more computer centric.. where as the US market was more console driven.

Exactly that until the megadrive and super nintendo kinda overtook the Amiga and atari ST and PC's started to become the norm.

As a kid I had Atari 2600, BBC Micro, ZX Spectrum, C64, Atari ST, Amiga in that order before i was old enough to buy my own stuff.

In my experience it was more the Playstation (and N64), combined with the PC that overtook the Amiga and ST, they couldn't keep up with the 3D gaming revolution.

One more rather prosaic reason was that we (and our parents) had less income to spend in Europe, so pirating games was a big factor responsible for the microcomputer's popularity.

On Amiga it is worth trying either looking for native NTSC versions, or forcing it, because PAL ones often have terribly squashed AR. Forcing is a hit and miss, can produce glitches or too fast music/gameplay, but often works fine. I play all the adventure games this way.

On ST it's not as bad regarding AR, but might be worth trying as well, in some cases at least.

Regarding the aspect ratio, just look for an old RGB CRT monitor, they allowed you to stretch and move the picture in every direction with the turn of a knob.

That is one option, but I'm too addicted to my big Trinitrons