How do you set up a PAL PS2 in USA?
6 years ago
United States

Some games have faster PAL versions or are PAL exclusive. I am a mere USA-boy who cannot experience such wonders. How can I suckle on the teet of Europe?

Antarctica

Purchase a PAL PS2, a PAL game and a voltage converter if necessary so you can actually power the console (this is necessary for some older consoles, idk if it applies to PS2 so you’ll have to check)

Really not much to it. If your question is “where do I buy it?” then idk, eBay or something. Wherever you like to buy imports from. Just search around and I’m sure you’ll find plenty of sellers.

Edited by the author 6 years ago
United States

which kind of voltage converter would be needed?

Antarctica

It depends. For example, to use a Chinese iQue here in America I had to buy a converter that changed the 220V coming out of my outlet into 120V (or the other way around I don’t remember right now) so it didn’t fry the system. I bought it years ago so I’d have to refresh my memory but it wanted a different voltage and amperage to properly power on.

I don’t know if a PAL PS2 needs anything like that, you’d have to search online or find someone who has imported PAL before. Another runner of a game you’re looking to run will probably know if you need anything special.

Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany

definately need a voltage converter for ps2. howerver I had it the other way around and I needed to get one, otherwise my ntsc ps2 would have been fried by the mighty PAL voltage.

so you probably need a converter from 120V to 220V.

also there are games with faster PAL versions? what is this dude

Antarctica

I think Crash Team Racing is faster on PAL PS1. And I think that it’s usually played on a PS2 because a PS1 loads slow. Twilight Princess is also faster on German for what it’s worth.

I can’t think of others off the top of my head though, it doesn’t happen often.

Edited by the author 6 years ago
Scotland

Super Mario sunshine can also be run on pal because Italian some games are pal exclusive but not many games like Crazy Frog Racer emmm can't think of any more we also sometimes get games that came out in only Japan and pal can't think of any but you know yeah. :)

United States

Jinx was a PAL exclusive game that I really wanna get into. Jersey Devil has a PAL version that is very different from NTSC. Spy vs. Spy is PAL only (At least on PS2). There was an Xbox release but I don't own that console. Muppet Monster Adventure has some PAL exclusive glitches that make that version faster for one category. Crash Twinsanity is faster on PAL

That is all I can think of off the top of my head. Thanks for the help, guys. I really appreciate it. It's hard to get a good answer on these forums sometimes.

United Kingdom

Check with your games community before doing this I'd say, I've literally lost out on what were (at the time, they aren't even close now!) records because of disputes to the way 50hz PAL games run, and being relegated to a category with 0 other entries (or worse, rejected outright because the community doesn't want to maintain a PAL category) feels super bad. That was my introduction to the speedrun community lol, finding out that my PB for a game was a really fast time, excitedly capturing a run, submitting it aaaand then following up with rejection and months of drama.

So just make sure whatever games you want to run are cool with PAL and/or 50hz (not all PAL games are 50hz but all pre-PS2 era games are I think)

That said, I think the easiest way is to buy a PSOne (the slim thing with rounded edges) as you can just use a us power brick for it as there's no internal power converter. Unless you need a PS2 for things like fast loading, in which case again, the slim is an option (it's harder to modify if that's an issue, though) or for the phat you'll need to mess around with power, which I don't feel qualified to give advice on.

Oh you'll also need a TV that is cool with a 50hz signal. It should just work without issue unless the unit is really old, but there's a chance it'll display in black and white on an NTSC tv.

Edited by the author 6 years ago