Can anyone confirm if Sonic 2 spitscreen is still interlaced mode?

ciper

May 1, 2007
2,008
41
▐▄█▀█▄▌
I heard that Sonic 2 is one of the new VC games. If anyone has downloaded can you verify that the split screen mode is using the original interlaced video output mode? Or did Nintendo modify it somehow?

For those that don't understand what Im asking - Sonic 2 split screen was special because it switched to an interlaced video mode to get higher resolutions. The split screen mode was like two copies of the game networked together and squished to fit on a single screen.
Regular video 320x224
2 player mode 320x448
 
The resolution technically doesn't change. The split screen is going to behave exactly as it did before.
 
ALL old school vid games are interlaced. There was no progressive scan TVs back then. The only options you had back then were PAL and NTSC and they were dependent on your region.

What you mean is that the console composted the two images side by side to increase the apparent resolution, however it is still displayed at the standard NTSC or PAL resolution.

But to answer your question, per Nintendo, all VC games run exactly as they did on their original consoles.
 
  • Thread Starter
  • Thread starter
  • #4
Maleko said:
ALL old school vid games are interlaced. There was no progressive scan TVs back then. The only options you had back then were PAL and NTSC and they were dependent on your region.

What you mean is that the console composted the two images side by side to increase the apparent resolution, however it is still displayed at the standard NTSC or PAL resolution.

But to answer your question, per Nintendo, all VC games run exactly as they did on their original consoles.

Old TV's display an interlaced image but the console is normally using a 240p image. The 240p are not interlaced by frame but rather stretched and stacked to create a field.

This is why Sonic 2 on 2 player mode was hard to emulate and why you can't play any water levels in split screen mode.

This is the same with Video CD players. I know for sure that most Playstation games were 240p although a few did run in 480i


Edit: Interesting enough I was looking for information and I found information regarding the Wii and VC on Wikipedia. I don't know how reliable it is though because it doesnt cite the source but this is what is written in the LDTV document
"Similarly, the Nintendo Wii, if using a composite cable, switches to a 240p mode in the Virtual Console for games designed for it, excluding the N64, for which games are rendered in 480 lines. Over component cable all Virtual Console games are rendered and output in 480p."

This is why I asked the question. A few users have problems with the VC on the WII because their tv doesnt support 240p NTSC or 288P pal. Sonic 2 in split screen 2 player mode was one of the very few genesis games to output a 480i signal so I bet those users could access this mode and verify the issue.
 
Last edited:
I would guess that the Wii scales it to 480i unless you're using component. Thats my guess.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top