A question for those that emulate old games

[Pierce Dalton]

Do you prefer using the original screen format (4:3) with black bars, or stretch the image to fill your whole screen?

[Pierce Dalton]

I also prefer the original 4:3 format, but the black bars kinda drive me crazy. Think I'll get a 4:3 monitor just for that

[ṼṏẌṏḭḊ]

Really old, like SNES I'm happy to play with the old 4:3.
I really like the PSX widescreen fixes now though and I'll play my old PS games in widescreen at the highest resolution they'll go.

[bad_fur_day1]

If by emulation you mean like the official sega genisis collection or something, I don't mind the stretch.

[Pierce Dalton]

Origineel geplaatst door ṼṏẌṏḭḊ:

Really old, like SNES I'm happy to play with the old 4:3.
I really like the PSX widescreen fixes now though and I'll play my old PS games in widescreen at the highest resolution they'll go.

It's funny that you can play Metal Gear Solid in Duckstation with non-stretched widescreen, but Konami's official emulation from the Master Collection uses stretched widescreen

[Angel]

I prefer black bars as I find it disorienting stretched.

[inpurpleshadows]

I usually play emulated games in their original aspect ratio with sharper visuals. Though at times I use a CRT filter when given the option.

[Masque]

I haven't emulated any 4:3 games since 4:3 was standard.

But I probably would prefer it to not be stretched.

I seriously burned myself out on emulating, to the point where I felt I'd seen it all. Everything from Commodore 64 to NES (*literally* every game made for USA), SNES (*same, and quite a few translated*), Genesis, N64, PS2 -- I have no desire to see any of these old games ever again. And if I did, I'd just watch YouTube videos of them.

Actually, the only one I would consider revisiting would be SF Rush 2049 on N64.

The rest can be remembered fondly, but left in the past. Like the Beatles.

[sage2001]

native resolution (which is typically 4:3)

[ṼṏẌṏḭḊ]

Origineel geplaatst door Pierce Dalton:

It's funny that you can play Metal Gear Solid in Duckstation with non-stretched widescreen, but Konami's official emulation from the Master Collection uses stretched widescreen

It's frightening that a few broke hobbyists can put a multi-billion company like Konami to shame without even altering the original product in any way.

[AlienTestosterone]

Fit to screen plus 4x resolution and shaders.

[SMIFFY]

People that stretch the picture to fill a widescreen deserve a slap, it's infuriating.

[Midnight Sky ✨🌙✨]

Original ratio over stretching, though if it's something that works for the game in question then I'd rather make it properly widescreen.

[Sixtyfivekills]

I hate stretching.


Even enabling the game to have a proper widescreen is a hit or miss because in most cases the HUD is going to be stretched out or look bad, and if by some miracle it looks normal, render distance is all over the place. Try playing Crash 1 in widescreen and look at area around you disappear.

[Daenoxiis]

It depends on the game, for me.
Some games, look aged no matter what you do to them.
Other games handle the stretch better.

Obviously I'd prefer with the stretch because that's how the native 4:3 experience was, but I get that sometimes the stretch sometimes just does not do the graphics any favors.

Depending on the Emulator, some have plugin adapters for the rendering, experimenting around with those and the settings can help. Some just work better than the others, you've gotta FAFO with it a bit.

[Kweeb]

The black bars never bother me one bit. It's better than either stretching the image or zooming in losing some of the top and bottom of the image like how most old movies do.... Which is the bane of my existence