Hey i live in germany and im a speedrunner. Sadly, most of the consoles / games that are good for speedrunning are on NTSC so i have to import them from the US which most of the times is quite expensive. Is there like nothing i can do about that and im totally fucked or is that the sad reality ?
Unless you want to compete with a world record for a game, you don't have to speedrun with the optimal equiptment, just use what you have for fun.
But yes, as with any game, in order to compete with the best times you will need to buy the hardware everyone else is competing on.
[quote=Thehealbus]Unless you want to compete with a world record for a game, you don't have to speedrun with the optimal equiptment, just use what you have for fun.[/quote]
This guy is right.
Depending on the game, PAL 60 is a thing (basically, same speed as NTSC, but since it's PAL, it has better graphics, even if it's not THAT better).
Like, i know this is a thing for some Gamecube games atleast. Most of the time though, yeah, you will need an NTSC console and an NTSC version of the game...
Still, it depends if you want the WR for NTSC or not. I've seen peoples separating PAL and NTSC for some games (don't remember the names though), wich makes 2 WR then, one for PAL, one for NTSC.
You'll have to check if that's the case for your games.
Also, like Thehealbus said, no one forces you to use the optimal equipment from the start, most peoples starts with what they have at home, and then, when they feel the need to, import NTSC or other things.
Speedrunning and going for WR, it's cool, but if you don't have fun while doing it, it's not worth it, even if you use the optimal equipment.
PS : about PAL 60, you'll have to check a bit about it, sometimes it is not allowed because it doesn't work properly (Sonic Heroes is a good example, because PAL 60 makes it run at 120% speed instead of 100%)
PAL is not slower anymore for new games and some stuff in the 6th Gen, as others have mentioned. For PC and handheld, it doesn't matter at all.
But even importing NTSC isn't that expensive, depending on what games you want to run. I got an NTSC N64 pretty cheap, together with some games - the seller was even nice enough to include a European power supply so I didn't have to worry about that!
What console are you interested in?