Messages

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Post first impressions of TG-16 emulation -> 11.27.06: SSS, DE & Victory Run]

CrackTiger, your comparison page is awesome. You should submit it to some gaming sites. I'm pretty sure it'd be covered and would be a great way to apply pressure for an emulator fix. Even though suggestions aren't being taken seriously at the moment, you can bet at the first sign of VC download stagnation Hudson(?) will react to gripes.

It's sad that when I brought the issue up at the Hudson forums (in early december), it was ignored by the "official" people. It took someone writing a *massive* ass-kissing essay there to get a response...

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Post first impressions of TG-16 emulation -> 11.27.06: SSS, DE & Victory Run]

The filter type blur you all are refering to comes from running 2d graphics on more advanced 3d hardware with better filters.

It's not the hardware's fault: programmers have the choice of what filter to apply.  It's the fact the programmer engaged a filtering mode that was designed to help with scaling and rotation of textures: something that's not needed for turbo grafx emulation. I'm assuming the emulators use textured primitives to display the sprites. If your source images were meant to map 1 to 1 with the display, leave filtering off. Maybe they thought they were getting a free anti-aliasing effect. Whatever the case, it looks bad.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Post first impressions of TG-16 emulation -> 11.27.06: SSS, DE & Victory Run]

I received component cables and retried the virtual console (same standard def CRT tv). Moving from composite to component makes all virtual console games a little cleaner, but the TG emulator still lags behind the others in terms of crispiness. In SSS, bullets are definitely going underneath turrets on level 7 (still don't know if the actual console does that).

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Post first impressions of TG-16 emulation -> 11.27.06: SSS, DE & Victory Run]

I have Super Star Soldier on virtual console. My wii is hooked up to a standard definition CRT TV (if you get a wii you owe yourself a nice quality SD CRT for, if nothing else, the virtual console for nes!)

The nes virtual console games look awesome. It seems true 240p: each scanline is at the same location each frame creating the horizontal black lines that are always visible. It looks completely crisp and nice, even with wii composite video (I don't have component cables yet). It's how I'd imagine the original nes to look if it had come with component out. I love it.

The TG-16 virtual console isn't so nice : : (: (   It's either being emulated with blurred textures or else the output is interlaced: it looks a little blurry and no crisp scanlines. I was a little sad.

I do own the pc-engine version of super soldier but I haven't done side-by-side tests and I'm not totally familiar with the original from memory. The virtual console on level 7(?) sometimes had the attacking ships moving *under* the turrets of the big battlestation type thing that scrolls by as you progress through the level (while being shown *on top* of the battleship's body). I noticed it while pausing, but that's not to say it didn't happen while playing. It was an obvious depth/display issue (not related to gameplay). I don't know if the original does that or not.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Best music on a HuCard]

Best:
Splatterhouse
Legendary Axe
Aero Blasters
Super Star Soldier
Dragon's Curse
Gradius

Most Nostalgic:
Keith Courage

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / shadow of the beast...help.]

There's an item held by some statue in the lower left of that level...is that the gun you're referring to? You can defeat the rolling guy with that item without having to get close to him. I never found a wrench...maybe that's why I got stuck (and/or died repeatedly) not too long after. There's an option screen to increase your continues/health(?) as well...you might have to hit select to reach it.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / video quality question]

His question is, "Is it just me, or is composite video variable in quality between systems (ie: the Genesis and the PC Engine) irrespective of the innate video capabilites of each system.

Yes. Thanks for the nice paraphrase (and informative response).

The Genesis composite and RF output is much fuzzier than the Duo or SNES. It also has some sort of color frequency anomaly - colored pixels appear slightly longer horizontally than less/non saturation pixles ( white/black/grey). It's looks like 4:1:1 color artifacting but on a lower res. Some games take advantage of this and use it as a poor mans transparency effect.

I noticed this (the act of the genesis developer relying on the bad composite output to achieve effects) just the other day. Mickey Mouse Castle of Illusion (?) has nice looking translucent jello pools on the toy soldier level. The same scene on an emulator (and I assume with the RGB mod) reveals a checkerboard pattern of missing pixels.

It makes sense that game developers target the most likely video configuration of the consumer. In the case of the genesis (wherein the composite is especially bad and affects all games), I'd expect an RGB mod to expose cases in which the developer could get away with blocky edges and/or tasteless color combinations because the composite would just smooth it for them. Such things would look worse in RGB. Most things would look better (if it makes things brighter and gets rid of the vertical bars, the RGB mod would be worth it, drawbacks be damned).

Edit: Joe Redifer, while searching around for solutions I found your sega 16 article on video output. It's really informative. Sounds like s-video might be the best bet for my situation.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / video quality question]

no seriously now. when you talking about the composite, you mean the AV-signal from the system and not a RGB mod? since the geni provides RGB innately.

I'm talking about the yellow composite video output of each system (no mod on either system), and I'm judging purely by looking at the TV. Colors look "duller" with the genesis and seem to bleed more.

I guess it depends what game you're playing, but PCE games on the whole are generally brighter and more colorful than it's Genesis counterparts - even thru emulation.

I just noticed in the Fusion genesis emulator whites are coming out at 232,228,232 and in magic engine 255,255,255....but lo and behold the Gens emulator has whites at 255,255,255. Something must be wrong with the Fusion emulator (I don't have any filtering enabled), or does genesis not have true white and Fusion's more accurate (that seems silly)

That would be funny if the available genesis colors are relatively muted and the issue isn't related to the video output of the console.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / video quality question]

I'm curious why my duo and core grafx have such nice video output (composite) and the colors look so solid/nice compared to my sega genesis (gen 2) composite. I don't think this is related to artwork quality or the fact the PC Engine can have more simultaneous colors...everything is just brighter/cleaner. Is there a hardware reason for this?

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / midwest-games.com?]

I ordered a cable from them a couple weeks ago, and just got an email that it has shipped, so at least they do communicate.

By the way: hi, I'm goat. PC Engine Forevah!!!