Gameboy normal screen resolution

[Binary]

Hi all,

Nice easy question: are there any gameboy emulators that you can change the screen to the normal screen resolution? I know that the actual GB screen looks postage stamp sized these days, but the fullscreen stretched image just looks wrong to me (i always put GBA emulation to it's natural rez as well). I've looked through the store but they all mention stretched images but not the ability to play as nature intended.

Feel free to mock my old fashioned ways 

 

[Asmo]

Is it not the correct aspect ratio you want (so not stretched, just scaled up to best fit, leaving borders left and right)? Most of the emulators support that IIRC.

Actual GB resolution would be almost microscopic on the Pandora Screen!

Same with GBA, you can keep the correct Aspect Ratio, but still have it almost fill the screen, just with a small amount of border either side.

EDIT: If the graphics look a little 'soft' when scaled up, disable any filtering. GBA looks pin sharp that way in Gpsp.

 

[Binary]

Aspect Ratio! That'll do! I'm using GnuBoy but that doesn't seem to have any options in regards to display at all. Most ones i found have "Features: Fullscreen (Stretched)" on the description. That's not a feature as far as i'm concerned - that's a drawback! I'll continue shopping around for something better.

I'll try messing around with the filters on GBA as well - thanks for the tip!

 

[CocoCreekFisherman]

did you try Gambate or Mednafen?

 

[moxie]

So far, anything that I've seen with the feature "Fullscreen (stretched)" has this as an option. That is, it allows you to, against all that is holy and against all good taste, distort the screen until it is properly ugly if you really, really, for some unfathomable reason, wants to. It doesn't force you to.

This means that even those emulators are usable for men and women of good taste and breeding, who wants their aspect ratios unskewed. So, as long as you don't want to make a statement of boycotting emulators with this misfeature (although that might be understandable), you can do quite well with most of the emulators on the repo. Personally, I'd recommend gambatte - Plays anything I've thrown at it, including known difficult games, and can be used in original resolution, doubled and tripled (still with the correct ratio, of course). It even allows for filters, to which I've recently succumbed. 

All in all, highly recommended. 

If someone might conclude that I have a strong opinion on how I want my aspect ratios, you might be correct

 

[CocoCreekFisherman]

So far, anything that I've seen with the feature "Fullscreen (stretched)" has this as an option. That is, it allows you to, against all that is holy and against all good taste, distort the screen until it is properly ugly if you really, really, for some unfathomable reason, wants to. It doesn't force you to.

This means that even those emulators are usable for men and women of good taste and breeding, who wants their aspect ratios unskewed. So, as long as you don't want to make a statement of boycotting emulators with this misfeature (although that might be understandable), you can do quite well with most of the emulators on the repo. Personally, I'd recommend gambatte - Plays anything I've thrown at it, including known difficult games, and can be used in original resolution, doubled and tripled (still with the correct ratio, of course). It even allows for filters, to which I've recently succumbed. 

All in all, highly recommended. 

If someone might conclude that I have a strong opinion on how I want my aspect ratios, you might be correct

didn't i say gambatte too?? :unsure:

 

[Ian J]

Hi all,

Nice easy question: are there any gameboy emulators that you can change the screen to the normal screen resolution? I know that the actual GB screen looks postage stamp sized these days, but the fullscreen stretched image just looks wrong to me (i always put GBA emulation to it's natural rez as well). I've looked through the store but they all mention stretched images but not the ability to play as nature intended.

Feel free to mock my old fashioned ways 

GpSP supports the feature you want.

You can have the screen at 1x(like a stamp), 2x or 3x with correct aspect ratio.

 

[moxie]

 Personally, I'd recommend gambatte - Plays anything I've thrown at it, including known difficult games, and can be used in original resolution, doubled and tripled (still with the correct ratio, of course). It even allows for filters, to which I've recently succumbed. 

All in all, highly recommended. 

didn't i say gambatte too?? :unsure:

Yes, you did? Nothing wrong in recommending it twice?

 

[CocoCreekFisherman]

 Personally, I'd recommend gambatte - Plays anything I've thrown at it, including known difficult games, and can be used in original resolution, doubled and tripled (still with the correct ratio, of course). It even allows for filters, to which I've recently succumbed. 

All in all, highly recommended. 

didn't i say gambatte too?? :unsure:

Yes, you did? Nothing wrong in recommending it twice?

yes? is that what they call being ninja'd ? h34r:

 

[moxie]

Nah. Ninja'd is what happens when two people write a comment more or less simultaneously, and one happens to get it in before the other. This one here I wrote four hours after yours, or something

 

[Binary]

Well a big thank you to both of you. Gambatte is every thing i ever could of dreamed off from an aspect ratio point of view! It looks much better and i can now play GB games without thinking i've fallen into some distorted version of reality.

Stretched displays definitely come under the "just because you can doesn't mean you should" banner. i still shudder when i think of the Williams Arcade compilation on the PSP where the developer couldn't bear to not use the whole of the screen - thus wrecking an otherwise lovely handheld version of Defender.

I also now know what Ninja'd means as well - bonus!

 

[Asmo]

i can now play GB games without thinking i've fallen into some distorted version of reality.


Stretched displays definitely come under the "just because you can doesn't mean you should" banner.

We in the Original Aspect Ratio Appreciation Club (No Riff Raff) salute your appreciation of aesthetics, geometry and correct parabolic trajectories in gaming.

 

[mcobit]

+1


But nothing wrong with having the option to stretch to fullscreen.

 

[Binary]

I just don't see the point. All the artwork and graphics were designed to fit a set space. All stretching does is distort someone else's work. Can you imagine if someone made the Mona Lisa in a widescreen format? That's going to be the only time i ever get to compare a piece of art worth millions with a copy of Gargoyle's Quest, so please forgive me i just couldn't resist it.

 

[FaeMinx]

^ I'm not as technical or sharp as most of the peeps around here, so up until very recently I was seriously 'put out' that all my GB games were having 'colors' applied to them! Ick! ... I don't want colour... I never owned nor desired a GB Color, so to have my beloved Zelda in anything other than delicious nostalgic greenscale was an affront!

Thankfully a couple weeks ago I figured out how to change the palette for each game  (though in my mind greenscale should be the default for every game unless the user specifies otherwise).

Now all that's missing for perfect GB emulation is for someone to write a filter that simulates the 'shadows' cast by the dot matrix pixels.

I'm really surprised that nobody has done this yet.   Doesn't anyone else miss that truly authentic experience?

C'mon... is it really that hard to do? Why is no-one interested?

 

[mcobit]

I think I saw something like this in an online emulayor somewhere but I can't remember where...

 

[ZXDunny]

I set all my emulators to stretch to use the entire screen. Looks lovely!

D.

 

[Asmo]

Since we're talking the pursuit of visual accuracy..

One of the reasons I'm looking forward to 4k (and beyond) resolution screens and projectors, is that it should then be possible to create a very accurate simulation of a CRT display's appearance - not just scan lines, but also the actual look of a shadowmask with it's tiny RGB dots.

I can see emulators supporting 4k having a selection of emulated screen types.

It might even become socially acceptable to use an LCD screen in a Mame cab.

 

[FaeMinx]

^ Really hope things develop as you predict.

 

[ZXDunny]

^ Really hope things develop as you predict.

I'd say there's a very good chance. Don't forget that in order to drive a 4k display you're going to need much faster graphics hardware, which will help enormously with CRT simulation - currently it's a very demanding task even running as shaders on newer cards. The current drive to get ever higher resolutions will in turn drive production of more capable graphics processors....

And that can only be a good thing

D.