Retro Japanese Computers and Forced Wide-Screen Modes

[SuperDeadite]

Split off from the FM Towns topic.... in the old days there were no wide-screen monitors. However, many games still run in resolutions that are not 4:3. To make them appear properly, you need to manually lower the horizontal size of the monitor, giving you black borders at the top and bottom, but giving you the proper aspect ratio.

For example, Cotton in low-res mode runs in 448x240.




This is not 4:3 ratio, hence if you run it full screen, it's streched:



But if you lower the horizontal screen size, then it looks proper (notice the black borders):



Here's some closeups of the moon:

Full screen (bad):



Proper shrunken screen (good):




And for kicks, here's Darius on X68K, sadly it's just a demo, game was never finished:

[Ed Oscuro]

My question from earlier is whether any of the modes supposed to be run had a 1:1 aspect ratio (or any other aspect ratio lower than 4:3).

[Obiwanshinobi]

See the moon. I always look for supposedly round things when I try to work out which aspect ratio is correct.

[null1024]

Modes like that in the pre-widescreen area are usually intended to be shown at 4:3 fullscreen [think about the CPS2's super wide 384x224 resolution that's still intended for 4:3 display], but that is still dependent on the art being formatted for non-square pixels.

This being a port of a game that originally had square pixels [running at 320x224], they didn't adjust the graphics at all.
So manually changing the aspect to make the pixels square again is correct, if a bit nasty.

Also, 448x240 is really wide, jeez. I know a few PS1 3D fighters run at something like that [so they look a bit more hi-res without running in interlaced mode]

[Ed Oscuro]

Don't know if anybody's replying to me, but I mean a 1:1 screen aspect ratio, meaning the mythical "square screen" resolution. I don't think it exists or that any games intended to use it.

[speedlolita]

This would explain my KX-14CP1 having V Size on the side but not H Size.

[SuperDeadite]

Modes like that in the pre-widescreen area are usually intended to be shown at 4:3 fullscreen [think about the CPS2's super wide 384x224 resolution that's still intended for 4:3 display], but that is still dependent on the art being formatted for non-square pixels.

Also, 448x240 is really wide, jeez. I know a few PS1 3D fighters run at something like that [so they look a bit more hi-res without running in interlaced mode]

Actually I'm quite certain these games are meant to be run in widescreen mode. More modern Japanese TVs allow you to letterbox them for wide-screen display automatically with a push of a button, they can even auto-detect.

Here's two shots on my cheapo 4:3 $20 Panasonic. I had never seen this feature on any TV I'd ever used in the USA, but seems quite common here in Japan. Quite certain this is how Nights on Saturn was really meant to be displayed as well.

[hermit crab]

This "squeeze the image into a widescreen black-bordered box" is very common on consumer TV's sold in Europe during the last 20 years or so as well. Never understood what it was supposed to be for, very few people would connect Japanese computers to them here that's for sure.

[Ed Oscuro]

The late Sony models in the US (like my Trinitron) have a "16:9 enhanced" mode which also does exactly this as well. It doesn't auto-detect anything, though.

Can everybody stop ignoring my question, by the way? Are there any games out there that are meant to be displayed in a square area onscreen? I'd like to put the "X68000 games are square" myth to bed if I can.