Games with resolution changes/odd resolutions?

[Wolf_]

I was wondering if there was a list of all the games with resolution changes in them or games that have strange resolutions somewhere or if anyone knew of 2-3 games per console that had them?

I'm testing out my switch/upscaling setup and going to be upgrading it soon so I'd love to have a list of "edge cases" to test.

[AndehX]

Chrono Cross, Ridge Racer Type 4 and Silent Hill on PS1, and Resident Evil 2 on N64 (with Xpansion pak) are a few games that come to mind.

[fernan1234]

Saturn has a ton too. Leynos 2 (title screen, stories before each mission), Panzer Dragoon (title screen [edit: 2/Zwei]) are two off the top of my head.

[qmish]

Plenty of ps2 games have different resolution in menu/options and in game itself.

Like, Armored Core Last Raven has bigger resolution in menu and hangar (640x448), which is changed to smaller during mission gameplay (512x448).

[Wolf_]

Thanks for all the info so far.

Does anyone have any examples on the dreamcast? Pretty sure that had a lot of funky resolutions although I'm not sure if it had resolution changes.

And are there any on the genesis(cd/32x included)/snes/xbox/wii/psp/gba/ds/tg-cd?

[parodius]

Sonic 2 on Megadrive/Genesis in 2 player mode switches to 480i.

[Wolf_]

Sonic 2 on Megadrive/Genesis in 2 player mode switches to 480i.

Is it just at the start of the game or is it at some points during the game?

[SamIAm]

When you say resolution changes, do you mean:

- Switching between 480i and 240p?
- Switching between 15KHz and 24/31KHz horizontal refresh?
- Switching between various dot-clock frequencies (i.e. horizontal resolutions like 256, 320, 512 etc)?

There are a boatload of 32-bit era games that are mostly 240p but feature 480i somewhere. On the SNES, RPM Racing uses 480i for the menu at the title screen. Virtually all of these are going to switch into higher dot-clock frequencies when they go into 480i; I don't actually know of any games that use a low dot-clock for that mode, even though it should be technically possible.

I think that there are a couple of X68000 games that change horizontal refresh frequencies mid-game, but beyond that you'll find next to nothing, I think. It's too unusual a thing to expect a display to be able to handle.

There are many interesting examples of games that use a constant 240p but change the dot-clock/horizontal resolution on the fly. Some SNES RPGs from Square like Rudora no Hihou change it mid-frame so that the text box can be high resolution while the actual game graphics are low resolution. Another good one is the port of Art of Fighting on the PC Engine CD, which switches between multiple horizontal resolutions as you play in order to simulate the full-screen scaling that the original had; every time you see the screen squeeze or stretch, the horizontal resolution has changed.

The Saturn has a very high-frequency dot clock it can use for 240p/480i. I'm not sure, but I think it may in fact be higher than what was used in any commercially released Dreamcast game not running in VGA mode. It's 704 pixels wide. Panzer Dragoon Zwei has a nicely detailed high-res title screen that I personally use as my "high-res SDTV" test screen, and Necronomicon Pinball uses high-res for everything except FMV and makes a good tester as well. Both of these are 704x480i.

Saturn has a ton too....Panzer Dragoon (title screen)....

IIRC, the first game has a normal-res title screen, while Zwei and Saga are high res.

Sonic 2 on Megadrive/Genesis in 2 player mode switches to 480i.

Is it just at the start of the game or is it at some points during the game?

It's anytime you see the split-screen, which is used for 2-player mode.

EDIT: It just hit me, this is an example of 480i with a low-frequency dot clock.

[SuperDeadite]

X68000 is probably the best stress test. Odd resolutions, in game 15/24/31khz changing, and even a few interlaced games.

[SamIAm]

X68000 is probably the best stress test. Odd resolutions, in game 15/24/31khz changing, and even a few interlaced games.

While it does have a variety of output formats, I wouldn't recommend it as a testing standard unless someone actually meant to play a lot of X68000 games. The OP mentioned that this is for a scaling setup; I'm assuming that only pure 15KHz software is going to be relevant to him, though he may not be fully aware of this.

https://pineight.com/mw/index.php?title=Dot_clock_rates

As long as we're in 15KHz/SDTV land, we really only need to worry about 5.37MHz to ~14MHz dot clocks. Saturn high-res is 14.3MHz.

OP, are you worried about the upper limits of your scaling setup, or is it that you want something that looks good even if the dot-clock changes mid-game? Or is it something else?

[parodius]

For PCE/TG16, Chris Covell's "Split-Resolution Demo" should do, and maybe some of his other creations. Don't remember any actual games.
https://chrismcovell.com/creations.html

[shroom2k]

Pretty sure the 240p Test Suite can specifically test for resolution change as one of its options.

On the Mega Drive,
'Tiny Toon Adventures - Buster's Hidden Treasure' has title screen in 256 px wide mode, while the main game is 320 mode.
'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - The Hyperstone Heist' does the opposite, with title in 320 and the game in 256.

[GojiFan90]

-Dino Crisis on Dreamcast has a different resolution for cutscenes.
-Majora's Mask on N64 switches to 480i when you open the bomber's notebook.

Honestly there are too many games to list with resolution changes.