Mixed Bag Of Questions

[Dark Helmet]

I don't know the first thing about tech stuff, I'm just a happy gamer. So I was hoping some of you more tech savy guys could answer some of my questions..

Here goes..

1. How come some emulators plays full screen on the gp32, as in, utilises the whole gp32 screen, like the c64 and atari st emu. Where others don't, like the nes or snes emu?

2. It also puzles me that the screen in the snes and nes emu have the dimensions they have.. like the screen seems too square to me. Not like the television screen which is moore like 3:4 or whatever.. But games still look allright when I play them though.. Can anybody shed some light on this?

3. I have also found that in the pcengine emu, R-type plays full screen, but every other game I have tried out, only uses some of the screen, like in the snes and nes emu. Why?

Thanks in advance

 

[trooper]

It is all down to the original screen resolution of the original console being emulated.

NES had a screen resolution of 256x256
Pcengine had a screen resolution of 256x216
Snes had a screen resolution of 256x224 and 512 x 448

As you can see, The Nes had a resolution that was the same horizontal as it was vertical, So you end up with a square screen. It is also lower res than the GP32, So you end up with blank borders either side of the screen (unless scaling is involved, Which can slow things down and may not look right).

As for the Snes and Pcengine, Look at my previous paragraph and you should be able to work those out.

Trooper

 

[Blah]

What he didn't tell you is the gp32_console's screen is 320x240.
Oh, and on the TV, nes screens had a border, so its nothing unusual.
And if you hate borders THAT much, most emulators have an option to stretch
the screen up to full screen, but it will decrease the speed by up to half.

 

[Axeman]

It's also to do with pixel shape I think... The pixels were rectangular on a tv, whilst on the gp. they're square....

So it renders the same thing as a slight;y different shape (I think...!)

 

[Dark Helmet]

Thanks for the answers, I appreciate your help

 

[EvilDragon]

It's also to do with pixel shape I think... The pixels were rectangular on a tv, whilst on the gp. they're square....

So it renders the same thing as a slight;y different shape (I think...!)

​

Yep, you were thinking correctly

 

[kknd_cf]

It's also to do with pixel shape I think... The pixels were rectangular on a tv, whilst on the gp. they're square....

So it renders the same thing as a slight;y different shape (I think...!)

​

Yep, you were thinking correctly

​

do TV's blur pixels together. I just wonder how they can make a NES game appear clear and nice when the pixels are stretched so much.

 

[Delsabre]

3. I have also found that in the pcengine emu, R-type plays full screen, but every other game I have tried out, only uses some of the screen, like in the snes and nes emu. Why?

Thanks in advance

​

I have noticed this too. Some games play full screen while others only use part of it.

I am thinking that the pcengine actually had the capability of 320x240. Can anyone verify this?

 

[EvilDragon]

It's also to do with pixel shape I think... The pixels were rectangular on a tv, whilst on the gp. they're square....

So it renders the same thing as a slight;y different shape (I think...!)

​

Yep, you were thinking correctly

​

do TV's blur pixels together. I just wonder how they can make a NES game appear clear and nice when the pixels are stretched so much.

​

Yeah, most TVs blur pretty much.
TV resolution is 720x576 - much lower than most PCs nowadays.

The pixels are a bit higher than wide, so the games appear on TV a bit more strechted in height than on a GP32.

 

[DaveC]

It's also to do with pixel shape I think... The pixels were rectangular on a tv, whilst on the gp. they're square....

So it renders the same thing as a slight;y different shape (I think...!)

​

Yep, you were thinking correctly

​

do TV's blur pixels together. I just wonder how they can make a NES game appear clear and nice when the pixels are stretched so much.

​

CRT TVs could display slightly variable horizontal scan rates causing the pixel width to vary depending on the systems scan rate. Since TVs are not fixed pixel and are analog it is fine. With LCDs they are fixed size pixels causing pixels to always be the same shape. If you scale them you get some distortion because you can only add or subtract whole pixels.

The Genesis has the closest res to the GP32 at 320 x 220.