Nanao MS9 Resolution: Cave PCBs

[soupbones]

I recently read that the Nanao MS9 monitors have dual resolutions. Clearly I have not done my research on the cab I own, but I got a hint that something was off when I saw Ibara and Mushihimesama running in my cab and I had to scale down the picture to get it to fit in the screen using the H and V dials.

I always thought the Cave games look a little like ass compared to older games like Dogyuun, Battle Gareega, etc.

So... few questions here:

- DO Cave games run in a higher resolution? Is that the issue I'm having? Or do I just not like the chunky look of Ibara?

- How do I change the resolution if that's the case?

- If I do change the resolution, what happens to how games that looked great in the older resolution? Do I need to change it back?


Thanks guys!

[system11]

They run at a standard low resolution, it can't be changed. They DO look like ass compared to a lot of older games, but look especially bad if the output drive amplifiers have failed which seems common. You can't change your monitors resolution either, it will simply pick based on the picture frequency generated by the PCB.

[soupbones]

Interesting - is there a reason why I need to scale Cave games down so much just to fit within the monitor then? Other games fit with very little tweaking, but the 2 Cave games I have always require much more.

Thanks for the reply!

[soupbones]

but look especially bad if the output drive amplifiers have failed which seems common.

Is this on the PCB side or the monitor side (I assume the PCB side)? How can you tell for certain this is the case?

[system11]

Interesting - is there a reason why I need to scale Cave games down so much just to fit within the monitor then? Other games fit with very little tweaking, but the 2 Cave games I have always require much more.

Thanks for the reply!

I think that's just your monitor to be honest, cave games have a very slightly larger picture than normal but it's not huge - if I adjust mine so that Mushi is nearly filling the screen and put a Taito game in, I'd say there's about half an inch size difference on the horizontal.

As for the other question, refer to:
http://blog.system11.org/?p=355

It would look kind of washed out.

[soupbones]

Thanks man - and awesome blog btw!

[StarCreator]

Just to try and clarify things: the switch you've heard of is probably that the MS9 can be switched between 15KHz and 24KHz horizontal synchronization. The horizontal synchronization rate controls what resolutions are possible; in general, 15KHz is for resolutions near 240p, 24KHz is 384p, and 31KHz is 480p. The resolution the games output can vary and generally aren't user-selectable, and rely on the monitor being able to work with the horizontal sync rate in use.

All of Cave's games are 15KHz, aside from Akai Katana Shin (HD, so completely out of scope of this discussion) and maybe Deathsmiles II (probably 31KHz, but it's possible it has a 15KHz output mode for compatibility). As for output resolutions, SH3 games actually outputted -lower- resolution than the PGM games (SH3 games, along with the games running on hardware predating PGM, run at 240x320, whereas the PGM games actually sacrificed a few lines for a much larger vertical resolution, running at 224x448 which needed to be adjusted to 4:3 on the monitor end).