PC-FX Specs errors

[ruinatokyo]

1) The resolution. It's repeatedly reported as 640x480 (704x 480, 736x 480, etc.). However, no game or any software whatsoever for the system (though I haven't tried a photo-CD but I doubt it) uses any of these high-resolution modes. As the system is Japan only, it probaby doesn't even do the higher vertical (512) resolution. I believe the max to be 320x240 (and whatever overscan is required for full tv display). A few sites make mention of this. Then there's the hdtv bomberman thing, but Assembler seems to say this was on hardware very different from the actual pc-fx.

2) 9 hardware scrolls (parallax). However, I've been told from a reliable source that the well-documented GPU for backgrounds this is simply not capable of that. IIRC, that number was 4 scrolls. Perhaps including some software tricks it could happen, but that wouldn't then be hardware scrolls. Even if the overlay from another chip is used and we can include 1 layer from the fmv hardware and 2 from the HuC6270, that would be 7 involving some heavy hardware banging. Can we then get 2 more from the use of sprites? I think probably Zeroigar has the most layers of any software, being probably 3 or 4.

[Keranu]

Good points, it's nice to see stuff like this cleaned up. I think Last Imperial Prince appeared to have more than 4 layers, but I would have to load it up again to see. Probably faked some if it did then.

[Mednafen]

Playing the first battle in Last Imperial Prince:

BG0 - Text
BG1 - middle scroll layer
BG2 - back scroll layer
BG3 - not used?

VDC A BG - not used?
VDC A Sprites - Sprites
VDC B BG - front scroll layer
VDC B Sprites - Sprites

Rainbow - not used?

FYI, the rainbow layer can be scrolled fairly easily(and is the frontmost layer in Zeroigar, used for atmospheric effects like clouds).

Also, some games use a special FX VCE mode that can combine data from the first VDC and the second VDC on their bg and/or sprites, effectively bringing down the number of layers to 7 or 8,

[Kaminari]

The PC-FX has two screen modes: 256x224, used by 100% of the released games, and 320x224, which is the resolution of the GA module. As for Hi-Ten Bomber Man, I know from a friend who saw it "on location" that it was running on a custom hardware only used for Summer Carnivals.

[Keranu]

Very interesting...

[Mednafen]

Angelique Tenkuu no Requim uses the 320-pixel-wide mode, as does Tekipaki Working Love and maybe Nirgends(IIRC).

The PC-FX has two screen modes: 256x224, used by 100% of the released games, and 320x224, which is the resolution of the GA module. As for Hi-Ten Bomber Man, I know from a friend who saw it "on location" that it was running on a custom hardware only used for Summer Carnivals.

[CrackTiger]

It may not have had 9 layer scrolling on the fly built into the hardware, but it would have had no problems doing 9 or more layers.

Vasteel has 20 layers of "whatever you wanna call it" (it's parallax to me)scrolling, lots of PCE games have more than 2 overlapping layers and the system 'technically' could only do one.

[esteban]

The PC-FX has two screen modes: 256x224, used by 100% of the released games, and 320x224, which is the resolution of the GA module. As for Hi-Ten Bomber Man, I know from a friend who saw it "on location" that it was running on a custom hardware only used for Summer Carnivals.

Hey Kaminari, is this a reliable / knowledgeable source about Hi-Ten Bomberman?

[TurboXray]

Vasteel has 20 layers of "whatever you wanna call it" (it's parallax to me)scrolling, lots of PCE games have more than 2 overlapping layers and the system 'technically' could only do one.

That's different. I call those "paper scrolls" They can not overlap like individual scroll layers can (as you probably already know).

9 layers - 2 sprite layers, 6 BG layers, and 1 transparency BG layer.

BG0 - Text
BG1 - middle scroll layer
BG2 - back scroll layer
BG3 - not used?

VDC A BG - not used?
VDC A Sprites - Sprites
VDC B BG - front scroll layer
VDC B Sprites - Sprites

Rainbow - not used?

[Kaminari]

Hey Kaminari, is this a reliable / knowledgeable source about Hi-Ten Bomberman?

I hope so! This comes from my friend AdorU (professional reviewer, everlasting traveler and crazy collector since a longass time ago).

I call those "paper scrolls" They can not overlap like individual scroll layers can (as you probably already know).

While I understand what you mean by "paper scrolls", you'll find out that some PCE games do actually have real overlapping parallax layers (without relying on any sprite trick). Check Gate of Thunder for example. For a system that has hardware support for only one layer, that's not too shabby

[CrackTiger]

Hey Kaminari, is this a reliable / knowledgeable source about Hi-Ten Bomberman?

I hope so! This comes from my friend AdorU (professional reviewer, everlasting traveler and crazy collector since a longass time ago).

I call those "paper scrolls" They can not overlap like individual scroll layers can (as you probably already know).

While I understand what you mean by "paper scrolls", you'll find out that some PCE games do actually have real overlapping parallax layers (without relying on any sprite trick). Check Gate of Thunder for example. For a system that has hardware support for only one layer, that's not too shabby

This was pretty much my point, if the PCE can put out multi-overlapping-layers of backgrounds and such, the PC-FX should be able to do pretty much anything with multiple bg's under the right programming.

Although I think that the PCE wasn't pushed as far as often as the MD & SFC, I think its so much more so the deal with PC-FX.

Who knows what kinds of technically impressive 2D games we might've seen if more people made them and the system lasted for years longer and/or was a contender(to motivate developers to try to do crazy stuff).