18th April 2011, 4:06 PM
So about my Sega Saturn: http://www.tcforums.com/forums/showpost....stcount=20
I found out that it's actually perfectly fine, it's my TV that's the issue. After doing some research, I found out that the Saturn, as it couldn't do true transparency effects simply simulated it with texture "stipple" patterns, making use of the "interlaced" nature of TVs to simply switch the stipple back and forth with each half-frame drawn, which produced a very nice transparency effect. I confirmed that in each the games with "ugly patterns" in place of something that should be there, it was always something that was supposed to be transparent, such as the big globes of water in Nights or the shadow under my character in Panzer Dragoon Saga. This knowledge in hand, I hooked my Saturn up to my old TV and noticed everything looked exactly as it should, and knowing what to look for also noticed a little bit of a visual "flicker" on those transparent objects. It's a very nice illusion, which is why I barely recognized it when it was gone.
It seems on my current TV it automatically "deinterlaces" a lot of feeds (I had previously noticed that in SMB2, my characters weren't flashing correctly when I crouched, instead appearing with locked colors, this is probably related to this). Since interlacing was used and abused to make a lot of game effects back then, I'll probably notice a few more if I start looking around. I've also read that this is a common issue, and that many modern TVs do have a fix in the hidden "repair" menus to disable deinterlacing. I'm going to try and find out how to get to that menu for my model in a bit to see if I can do this for my own TV. If so, then I'll also see if that fixes the light gun issues (this could affect the timing issues as well, but it could be more fundamental, so maybe not, worth a try though).
I also got D in today. Good condition, but disk 1 is chipped along the edge. The edge is used in Saturn games to store the copyright protection, so the end result is I can't even start the game. I'm contacting the seller about this, but in the end I may still be in luck. Every now and then you get some incomplete single part on eBay sold way below normal price, and I found a "disk 1" for D all by itself for about $5. I'll probably end up getting that if the original seller doesn't have a replacement.
Oh, just to add to it, I also got Duck Tales for the NES, another instant classic, with the manual which explains to me for the first time what all those treasures are actually supposed to be. Turns out that hunk of cheese is a hunk of cheese, OF HEALING!
I also found Chip and Dale for NES, which isn't as well known as Duck Tales but I still consider it a classic.
I found out that it's actually perfectly fine, it's my TV that's the issue. After doing some research, I found out that the Saturn, as it couldn't do true transparency effects simply simulated it with texture "stipple" patterns, making use of the "interlaced" nature of TVs to simply switch the stipple back and forth with each half-frame drawn, which produced a very nice transparency effect. I confirmed that in each the games with "ugly patterns" in place of something that should be there, it was always something that was supposed to be transparent, such as the big globes of water in Nights or the shadow under my character in Panzer Dragoon Saga. This knowledge in hand, I hooked my Saturn up to my old TV and noticed everything looked exactly as it should, and knowing what to look for also noticed a little bit of a visual "flicker" on those transparent objects. It's a very nice illusion, which is why I barely recognized it when it was gone.
It seems on my current TV it automatically "deinterlaces" a lot of feeds (I had previously noticed that in SMB2, my characters weren't flashing correctly when I crouched, instead appearing with locked colors, this is probably related to this). Since interlacing was used and abused to make a lot of game effects back then, I'll probably notice a few more if I start looking around. I've also read that this is a common issue, and that many modern TVs do have a fix in the hidden "repair" menus to disable deinterlacing. I'm going to try and find out how to get to that menu for my model in a bit to see if I can do this for my own TV. If so, then I'll also see if that fixes the light gun issues (this could affect the timing issues as well, but it could be more fundamental, so maybe not, worth a try though).
I also got D in today. Good condition, but disk 1 is chipped along the edge. The edge is used in Saturn games to store the copyright protection, so the end result is I can't even start the game. I'm contacting the seller about this, but in the end I may still be in luck. Every now and then you get some incomplete single part on eBay sold way below normal price, and I found a "disk 1" for D all by itself for about $5. I'll probably end up getting that if the original seller doesn't have a replacement.
Oh, just to add to it, I also got Duck Tales for the NES, another instant classic, with the manual which explains to me for the first time what all those treasures are actually supposed to be. Turns out that hunk of cheese is a hunk of cheese, OF HEALING!
I also found Chip and Dale for NES, which isn't as well known as Duck Tales but I still consider it a classic.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)