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I am using an old PC as an emulation system, and I hooked it up to a TV by S-Video. I've now realized that not a single one of my emulators can seem to put out a signal that matches the console they emulate, when in full screen. For example, I want an NES emulator that can put out 256x240 for the NTSC games, and that is WITHOUT the overscan pixels cropped, since the TV should do that for me. I don't want any of these computer resolutions like 640x480 and such.

Can someone list some emu's which support this? I thought ZSNES did, but when I try to switch to 256x240, the emu crashes.

Mozgus wrote:I am using an old PC as an emulation system, and I hooked it up to a TV by S-Video. I've now realized that not a single one of my emulators can seem to put out a signal that matches the console they emulate, when in full screen. For example, I want an NES emulator that can put out 256x240 for the NTSC games, and that is WITHOUT the overscan pixels cropped, since the TV should do that for me. I don't want any of these computer resolutions like 640x480 and such.

Can someone list some emu's which support this? I thought ZSNES did, but when I try to switch to 256x240, the emu crashes.

Your video card probably only supports outputting S-Vid at 640x480,800x600, and maybe 1024x768. I don't know of any emulator/pc hardware combination that can do what you are asking. AdvanceMAME with an Arcade monitor is the closest I can think of.

neohx_7 wrote:

Mozgus wrote:I am using an old PC as an emulation system, and I hooked it up to a TV by S-Video. I've now realized that not a single one of my emulators can seem to put out a signal that matches the console they emulate, when in full screen. For example, I want an NES emulator that can put out 256x240 for the NTSC games, and that is WITHOUT the overscan pixels cropped, since the TV should do that for me. I don't want any of these computer resolutions like 640x480 and such.

Can someone list some emu's which support this? I thought ZSNES did, but when I try to switch to 256x240, the emu crashes.

Your video card probably only supports outputting S-Vid at 640x480,800x600, and maybe 1024x768. I don't know of any emulator/pc hardware combination that can do what you are asking. AdvanceMAME with an Arcade monitor is the closest I can think of.

Yeah I would have to agree its probably more of a video card issue.
Are there video cards that will display that low of resolution anymore?

neohx_7 wrote:Your video card probably only supports outputting S-Vid at 640x480,800x600, and maybe 1024x768. I don't know of any emulator/pc hardware combination that can do what you are asking. AdvanceMAME with an Arcade monitor is the closest I can think of.

Well it did 320x240 fine. I would know, because the pull down menus were freakin' huge. But still, 320x240 left some huge black borders on the screen. The s-video is constantly putting out roughly 640x480 the whole time. It just resizes the video signal to that set size, before exporting out through the s-video connection. Even if you set windows to do 1024, it's still being resizes again down to 640, before you see it.

I find that the best result I can get is using the highest resolution possible in the emulator, like 1280, setting no filtering, and just let the TV naturally filter it. For example, the Megaman life meter doesn't look as mangled when I do this.

it is the video card. Most video cards don't support below 640X480.

This is because most main stream video cards are for gaming on standard monitors. Usually Nvidia and ATI cards. There are other cards that support weird off market things (Matrox GPUs are optimized for 2D capabilites and multi-monitor support for instance). Do some research and hunt down a video card that supports very low resolutions.

Good luck though as it isn't something many people look for so they probably have thrown the idea out the window years ago.

lordofduct wrote:it is the video card. Most video cards don't support below 640X480.

This is because most main stream video cards are for gaming on standard monitors. Usually Nvidia and ATI cards. There are other cards that support weird off market things (Matrox GPUs are optimized for 2D capabilites and multi-monitor support for instance). Do some research and hunt down a video card that supports very low resolutions.

Good luck though as it isn't something many people look for so they probably have thrown the idea out the window years ago.

You aren't listening to me. I know the card forces everything to 640x480 on the s-video line. I REALIZE that. But I did play games just fine in 320x240 resolution, which obviously was being doubled to 640x480 AFTER the image was processed, but BEFORE it reaches the s-video line. This still sucked because I had thick black borders, since the games were running at 256x240 (512x480 on the s-video line.)

Some emulators do -- ZSNES, for example, will do so -- ESPSX is another. They are out there.

Your best bet is to allow emulators to simply run at the native resolution of your GUI, full screen, but tweak the video card settings to output the desired resolution. With many emulators, this will give you the results you want: full screen image without black borders. This assumes that the emulators will ignore window geometry -- many of them will. Just because it's not an option in the standard drivers, doesn't mean it can't be done.

Here is a FAQ I found relating to MAME and custom resolutions. The key software is called PowerStrip -- http://wiki.arcadecontrols.com/wiki/Cus ... s_(Windows)_-_Powerstrip

I run most my stuff on Linux, but actually dual booted a system simply to get the custom vid modes to properly configure X output at 1080i. I did the same thing for another system, once hooked to a TV -- simply to achieve exactly what you are try to do: get games to play full screen without borders.

If this thread is still alive...

There is a video card called ArcadeVGA primarily for mame cabinets. There are special versions on gens(gensavga) and some other emulators that support running those games at native resolutions. You need a monitor that does 15khz RGB(arcade monitor) and it would not work using svideo (although the card does have svideo out). I have the old radeon 7500 based one and it works well. 3d performance is completely terrible but mame is awesome - MK2 + KI at native resolution. www.ultimarc.com is the site to order from.


Also I've have found that turning off flicker filter in your video card settings when using the PC on a TV makes the emulated games look less blurry. That's how I currently play the emus. I hope this helps.

I know for a fact FCE ultra (NES) will play it at a custom resolution, so you can choose 256x240. Another thing you have to remember is that there are various resolutions may be used. For example, SNES can be between 256×224 and 512×448, usu 256×224, 256×240, 512×224

The nes is 256x240, but usually the developers used only 256x224, though you may already know this since you were talking about wanting it to be before overscan.

Also take note that sometimes the screen can look wonky cuz your TV has funky geometry. I'm guessing you are using this on an older TV to recreate the NES feel, so there may be some distortion on the TVs part.