PAL Cube, Freeloader, and prog scan

I've owned a PAL Gamecube since near launch and have been very happy with it. I've recently purchased a progressive scan plasma display and, epsecially after seeing how good progressive scan is on a modded XBox, would like to receive the hghest possible quality output from my Cube.

To get to the point, how reliable is a PAL Cube running US games via Freeloader? AFAIK, it's the only feasible way I'm gonnan get prog scan from the Cube, other than simply getting a US machine. Is there any known games that refuse to work via Freeloader? With the impending release of FZero GX, I'm considering going for the US version rather than having to settle for 480i. I suppose my biggest concern is that I'm going to shell out for Freeloader and an import game, only to find it doesn't work how I expected.

Any advice or help is much appreciated. Thanks.

[mattsimis]

For some reasons there is confusion over whether PAL Cube consoles support PS when playing NTSC titles (Im going to update another thread as well).

I have the Panasonic 5 series and the NTSC Version of Animal Crossing on a PAL cube. After forcing the game to PS mode (with the "b" button) I checked the Service Menu and confirmed that the PAL Cube was outputting 525p, as expected.

Therefore Im confident all NTSC titles that support PS also do so on PAL Cubes (via Freeloader).



Matt

[Erpland]

I think its down to the equipment receiving the signal from the Gamecube, why? I dont know, but there are some strange reports, but none of it is helped by all the 'rumours' that have flown around about the PAL Gamecube having Progressive scan disabled, or the Digital port is inactive or even not really a Digital port.
Why would Nintendo spend time doing that?
Dont forget that the Component cable is an official PAL product.

I have an early model Gamecube and it works in Progressive scan mode, with Metroid Prime, Animal Crossing, Burnout 2, via Action Replay, they are all automatically detected by my Projector, but on a non Prog Scan TV I can still get the selection screen by holding down red button, if I select 'yes' then the picture goes all wonkey as expected but the game is still been played by the Gamecube.
To be honest on my projector, Prog scan mode doesnt seem to make a lot of difference, I expect the difference to be clearer on a Plasma or CRT computer monitor though.

OK, sounds good so far. Thanks for the responses, guys. Is there any US games known not to work properly with Freeloader? I'm particularly interested in FZero GX and Viewtiful Joe. I remember reading somewhere that FZero had problems -- can someone please confirm if this is true or not?

[Erpland]

It was the JAP version of F-Zero that had problems with the menu's not being displayed, the US version is apparantly ok, it seems the majority of games work fine, see this helpful site:
http://www.chrismarshall.net/freeloa....php?format=UK

And see this one for Progressive scan, Dolby, and 16:9 games:
http://www.hdtvarcade.com/gamecubelist.htm

Have you already purchased Freeloader? you might want to consider Action Replay, if there is a Problem it will probably be fixabable with a code.

[t-force]

Certainly there are no problems playing the US version of F-Zero with the Freeloader, as it runs absolutely fine on my machine. I'm currently waiting for my component cable to arrive, as I've now got a Prog Scan compatible TV.

The Japanese version, when run using the Freeloader, didn't display all the screen text, for some reason.

General concensus is that many PAL Cubes can output prog scan, but some of the very early ones can't.

Thanks again, guys. I'll put in an order for US FZero today along with either Freeloader or Action Replay. I'm assuming the Action Replay costs more because I'm pretty sure they're both made by Datel. I might still just go the Freeloader because I have no interest in cheating in games.

[keyser]

I originally bought the freeloader because I don´t cheat. But the freeloader didn´t work for Zelda but the action replay did, so I traded.

[Erpland]

I got the Action Replay so my kids could play the so called 'kiddy games' on the Nintendo, until then the kiddy machine in our house was the PC