4:3 Resolution without Borders

[Sum Booka]

Does anyone have an old crt and can get Sonic Mania to display without borders with a 4:3 resolution?

[Cellardoor]

Why would you want to go back to the limited field of view? Mania isn't balanced around it like the old Sonic games.

[Benjamoose]

Yes and no. I've been playing with my old 13" CRT as a third monitor:
https://youtu.be/N0tUt-RWLkA

Basically, once your CRT is seen as a monitor on your PC, you set Sonic Mania to run in a window, but at a resolution that matches the vertical pixels of the desktop resolution you're running it at (likely a 4:3 resolution).

Then you grab the top of the window from a monitor that is next to the CRT and position it dead-center.

Several of the menus were clearly made initially with 4:3 in mind. The save screen being one, as nothing is cut off and fits perfectly.

In addition, other HUD items that have translated over from previous titles, such as Sonic 3's special stage counters, are still framed for a 4:3 aspect ratio.

The in-game cutscenes are framed for both 16:9 and 4:3.

Based on Christian Whiteheads Tweet before release, it seems that it was originally intended to support both aspect ratios but was scrapped at some point.

The gameplay is the same as Sonic 1-3 so you don't suffer anything from playing with cropped sides during normal gameplay.

Most of the bosses work fine, but there ARE a few that are 16:9 focused. One of the main ones being the Spider Robotnik boss fight. There are spike walls on either side that can only just be seen in 4:3.

That said, it's 90% playable like this for the most part.

Originally posted by Cellardoor:

Why would you want to go back to the limited field of view? Mania isn't balanced around it like the old Sonic games.

Sonic Mania, for the most part, is framed for 4:3. Characters never step out of the 4:3 framing when it matters during cutscene sequences, the gameplay is the same as Sonic 1-3 and most bosses don't depend on the 16:9 format.

Obviously 16:9 in HD is the optimum way to play, just not on a CRT, which is designed for 4:3, so it'd be nice to see some official 4:3 support, with the few problem bosses tweaked for said mode.