So, PAL-gamers were you also "mad" in the 90s?

[Terrifying]

Were you also disappointed by the meager localization in Europe?

I understand why they would not risk certain games or, even entire genres. But was it for the better?

On the other hand, many companies could've taken risk as video games were booming again.

[moran]

But were people in those regions aware of what they weren't getting at the time?

[Terrifying]

Well, people like me, who were up to date through magazines, yes. Especially magazines like Super Play, EGM and countless of others...

EDIT: I also witnessed and played the vast library of games at the VHS rental. Super Valis...man, I cannot count the amount of import games I have played on the NES and Super NES...

[kaoru]

We got Terranigma, that made up for not having Chrono Trigger, Earthbound and Final Fantasy VI

I also pretty much didn't know about those anyways, since all I read as a kid was Nintendo's propaganda magazine, which only (mostly?) covered what we got instead of looking over the pond.

[Terrifying]

Yeah. We also got Gimmick, and a couple of other good games. But generally Europe was in quite a bad state when it came to software libraries.

You read Club Nintendo (Extra) I presume?

[ommadawnyawn2]

+ Alien Soldier, Super Fantasy Zone, and more. Not that I played any of the best exclusives back then.

I was somewhat annoyed at the end of the 90s, when i discovered emulation and tried Sonic 1 US. Before that I was happily unaware, but games like MM3 did have noticeable issues even then.

[kaoru]

Feb 25, 2015 14:37:24 GMT -5 Terrifying said:

You read Club Nintendo (Extra) I presume?

Yep. I also wasn't that big a gamer as an SNES-kid. A couple ones were enough for me back then. I think I mostly played Yoshi's Island, Terranigma, Secret of Mana, Harvest Moon, Sim City and Theme Park on repeat, some Pokemon and Zelda on the GameBoy too. I got more into games years later as a teen with the PlayStation. That's also when we started to get more stuff and importing was getting easier. Learning English didn't hurt.

[shelverton]

The only time I remembered being mad was when Secret of Mana 2 wasn't coming. At that time I was reading plenty of foreign video game magazines, especially UK ones like Super Play (which was great), Total and NMS. But also GamePro and other stuff. The swedish magazines focused more on what was actually coming here, but it had stuff like "RPG Corner" where I learned about the cool stuff from Japan and US. And they usually had pretty good coverage of that CES thing... SCES? It was the E3 of old days.

Anyway, I imported games like Final Fantasy VI and Chrono Trigger. I also imported the american Secret of Mana in 1993 cause I didn't know it was gonna come here in 1994, which it did.

In fact, it was easier back then cause all you needed was an adapter for your SNES, unlike 3DS of today for example...

[Terrifying]

Nice stories and comments people.

My best friend, who isn't really much of a gamer these days has almost a default saying when I mention "unlocalized 90s games"; "Of course they didn't localize that, why would have they localized the great games from Japan?". He got import copies of some Super NES games like Chrono Trigger and Super Mario RPG.

[shierusensei]

During SNES, PSX and PS2 I was importing most of my games from the US. Nowadays I do the same since games are more expensive in Europe

[DPB]

No, but I wasn't really aware that we missed out on so many games until I had a computer with internet access, which was about 1998 or 99, and I didn't realise that many games weren't running at the correct speed. It's hard to go back to PAL versions of games now.

I imported a lot of PSone games from the US, but by the time the PS2 came around most of the shops selling mod chips here were shut down by Sony. It wasn't until the PS2 era that living in PAL-land annoyed me, with games like FFX coming with massive black borders, as well running in slow-motion. After playing lots of 60hz games fullscreen without slowdown the difference was obvious.

[retr0gamer]

Yes it was pretty crappy being a PAL gamer. Games were ridiculously expensive compared to the rest of the world so it was rare that you got a game at all when you were a kid with no job. I would always listen to music in sound tests thinking 'if they only sped it up a little it would sound awesome, it's too slow'. Then Street Fighter 2 happened which was so slow compared to the arcade version and then I discovered why through magazines like Super Play, PAL 50 Hz games. By the time the playstation was out I discovered JRPGs with FFVII then discovered FF Tactics was never getting a release in Europe and from then on I started importing. Still, I have a huge collection of PS1 and PS2 titles that are all crappy 50 Hz versions that I would love to replace with the US versions. At least on the 8 and 16 bit consoles you can run most of the games in 60 Hz to play them perfectly.

And lets not forget that this wasn't limited to the 90's. It did being to change with the Dreamcast offering PAL60 mode for the Dreamcast and Capcom caused such an uproar over the disgraceful DMC1 PAL port that 60Hz NTSC was included in all their games from then on but Square Enix never did a proper PAL conversion or offered 60 Hz mode on the PS2, even late games like FFXII and Persona 4 (which they published in Europe) were stuck with 50Hz slowed down versions (although they fixed aspect ratio and border issues from KH2 onwards they were still slow at 50Hz). Persona 3 from Koei was the same. Even bullshit studios like alleged mafia money laundering company 505 Gamestreet offered 60Hz modes but the big guys didn't bother. We even got some Wii games that were ruined by not supporting 60Hz, Mad World being a pretty heinous example.

[elektrolurch]

No, I was very happy in the 90ies. Because I, excpet an Atari 2600jr i got in the mid 90ies (NEW) somewhere for cheap(and inherited tons of games through my uncle), I never owned a Console. I was a home computer gamer, and I think Europe was a very good place to be one,esp. with the Amiga in the early to mid ninties.

[Kid Fenris]

Feb 25, 2015 14:29:16 GMT -5 kaoru said:

We got Terranigma, that made up for not having Chrono Trigger, Earthbound and Final Fantasy VI

I remember when Terranigma came out in Europe and every RPG fan in North America stewed with envy for a good six months. Possibly longer, because by that point we weren't getting many RPGs anywhere.

[alphex]

Feb 25, 2015 14:29:16 GMT -5 kaoru said:

I also pretty much didn't know about those anyways, since all I read as a kid was Nintendo's propaganda magazine, which only (mostly?) covered what we got instead of looking over the pond.

When Super Mario RPG did not get released in the West, it was a rather UDSSR-esque moment when they acted like nothing about that game was ever mentioned before.