Why always 4:3?

[DeV]

Why do Hidden Object games always use this obsolete aspect ratio, even if the games themselves are (seemingly) new?
So they could run OK on very old machines?

[MrRhexx]

Is there a way to even change the resolution? Cause there's nothing on the options menu

[zombiworkshop]

I think it might have to do with them being built with multiple formats in mind. Particularly mobiles and tablets which have the 4:3 ratio. Though, you'd think an easy option to please the 16:9 audience is to do the original art in that format, and have other ratios able to scroll left/right to see the full screen. I don't think it would change too much of the game, and would be better than just filling the boarders with filler art or something, right?

(P.s - I still have a 2x 4:3 monitor setup at the moment anyway, so it's not QUITE obselete yet. :P)

[erretter]

I´ll clear this.

Those games are for old people. Very... very old people.
Old people -> old hardware -> 4:3 CRT screens

/thread

[sfnhltb]

It is probably because they are largely based on fixed graphical assets - i.e. lots of background images that are in a certain ratio. So they have the choice of making 4:3 and either leaving blank or non-interactable content down the sides for widescreen users, or making widescreen and leaving 4:3 users in a letterbox (or again adding some non-interactive content to the top and bottom of each background), or creating two sets of graphics for the two aspect ratios (and probably nearly doubling the cost of the graphics part of the development of the game).

Given the limited benefits I guess I can see why they don't tend to support different aspect ratios, so then it just becomes a case of which one to choose.

3D games, and 2D sprite based games don't have the same issues as they normally can use the same graphical assets for both aspect ratios, with the engine dealing with the details of where everything goes which is obvious much easier and cheaper to do than having two versions of all the graphics.