Best shumps on mega drive/genesis that run in full res

[andykara2003]

As people here will know, the NTSC genesis can run games in 320x224, which is higher than the max res of the SNES (256×224).

I'm just learning about this now, but apparently many multiplatform games from that generation run on the genesis at the lower SNES resolution of 256x225, presumably as it's easier to port between platforms.

What are the best megadrive/genesis shmups with pretty graphics that run in the full 320x224?

The reason I ask is because I love the look of the console on my Loewe CRT & want to gawp at higher res pretty graphics while playing a great shmup or two :)

Edited - title misspelling

[Fudoh]

The majority of MD titles run in 320px mode.

Here's firebrandx's list of those running in 256px instead: http://www.firebrandx.com/downloads/Gen ... e-List.txt

[andykara2003]

Brilliant, thanks Fudoh. long time no speak; I'd love to see you doing an interview with My life in gaming or other showing us your kit but I've long since given up on that :)

[Sumez]

As people here will know, the NTSC genesis can run games in 320x224, which is higher than the max res of the SNES (256×224).

Probably irrelevant here, but just to prevent the spread of misinformation, that is not the max resolution of the SNES.
It does both 512x224 as well as interlaced 512x448 video.
(and you can also enable overscan mode, which uses the full 240p or 480i vertical resolution, it was just rarely used because you shouldn't expect NTSC consumer TVs of the time to have those lines visible)

[andykara2003]

It does both 512x224 as well as interlaced 512x448 video.

Love that - are there examples of games running in these resolutions?

[Sumez]

Strangely not! A few original games uses 512 wide for menus and stuff (the Seiken Densetsus both do IIRC), but the interlaced mode is super rare, and I think was only used for gameplay in a single isometric racing game that's not very interesting or good looking.

I'm surprised interlaced isn't at least used more often for title screens at least. I played around with it on a test ROM I made myself, and it's very easy to use, so that's no excuse. Best reason I can tell it's not used much in gameplay at least is that the ROM data requirement is immediately four times bigger. Same goes for video RAM as well of course (which is a hard budget limit), so you gotta reuse tiles a lot, but you can definitely work around it with a talented artist. I've talked to a guy who's working on a shooter using the 512x448 mode which looks quite good (graphically at least).

[BrianC]

RPM Racing used the interlaced mode. The only interesting thing about the game is that it's a precursor to the far superior Rock 'n Roll Racing. I noticed that the SD2SNES uses a higher resolution mode (not interlaced) than most SNES games use (if any).

Sonic 2 on the Megadrive uses an odd, interlaced resolution for the two-player mode.

[Ms. Tea]

This blog post mentions all the SNES games using nonstandard resolution. Like you mention, the SD2SNES runs in the 512x224 non-interlaced mode. Aside from RPM Racing, the only interlaced mode stuff I've seen on the SNES is for static menus, like this from Bishojo Wrestler Retsuden. It's a cute trick but probably too tricky and resource-intensive to be worth it most of the time.

[Sumez]

That's the thing, it's not tricky at all. I thought there was some catch to it, but after trying it out myself I found out there was barely anything to it. One might guess it could have been poorly documented at the time, but at the same time, how poorly can you document enabling two bits on a register?

Like I said, the biggest tradeoff would be video RAM, but if you're still relying on tiled video game style graphics I don't see that as a big setback. You could literally have a game looking like Super Mario World or Mega Man X, except zoomed out 2x, with the same RAM budget. And for stuff like title screens it would be a non-issue.
The second tradeoff would be having to deal with either a 30fps framerate or visible interlacing, but that stuff was common on PS2 games, and most people didn't care.

That said, this is really off-topic, especially in a thread about the MegaDrive. But I guess the same question stands, if the MegaDrive had a similar interlaced mode. I'm not up to date on how Sonic 2 did it.