Phase Zero display

[krupkaj]

Wow, finally I was able to play Phase Zero. I managed how to create encrypted image for my EPROM cart with great tool from Curt! The game lis very nice and it is pitty that it is unfinished.

 

But I want ask another question. The game does not cover all screen area. There is thick black strip at the bottom of the screen. Do somebody know what is the reason of this? It is not the first game which is diplayed this way. My Raiden is the same. I have PAL Jaguar.

[Shamus]

My completely uneducated guess is that Phase Zero was designed as an NTSC cart, hence the large black bar at the bottom of your screen.

 

But, of course, I could be completely mistaken since I haven't really looked all that closely at it...

 

If this is indeed the case, then it wouldn't be the first. I think that SD's Asteroids demo was coded strictly for a PAL Jaguar. Care to weigh in Sinigord?

[Sinigord]

If this is indeed the case, then it wouldn't be the first. I think that SD's Asteroids demo was coded strictly for a PAL Jaguar. Care to weigh in Sinigord?

 

It's not really a case of being developed for PAL. Just wasn't tested on NTSC at the time. It probably used an early version of the Atari standard video config routines which were not perfect. I actually found the source code for Asteroids a few months ago, it had been missing for several years

 

It was the first thing I coded on the Jaguar and could certainly be improved upon now. It was a useful exercise in finding out how powerful the jaguar was. One of these months I'll tidy it up and put the sound in.

 

Regards,

 

Gordon

[Gunstar]

PhaseZero is somewhat "letterboxed" on NTSC screens too, although not nearly as bad as that picture shows, Raiden on NTSC screens is not. My guess is that it was done merely as a performance increase to the frame rate or something, you'd be suprised at how much smoother a 3D engine can move just by making it slightly less than full screen. On NTSC screens, as I said it's less noticable and easily forgotten that it's not completely fullscreen once you start playing, it's barely letterboxed, with about a half-inch(about a centimeter and a half) tall black bar at the top and bottom(on my 20-inch screen), basically 90% full screen. But then your screen looks a lot worse, with a MUCH larger black area at the bottom and uncentered like that!