Emulators- why is the window so small?

[murfj]

OK, this is probably a stupid question but I have been curious. I have used a few different emulators for NES games (the one I currently use is JNES), and I am curious why the window is so small for these- is there a reason why they cannot be full screen, or close to it?

[Flojomojo]

Because your monitor is running at a much higher resolution than the old system you're emulating. I don't know about JNES, but most emus have a fullscreen option. Read the documentation!

[Video]

Many of the older systems ran in the 300x200ish area of resolution. On your monitor, that will show up as very small if your running say 1200x800 or higher, like most people will now.

 

Most emus will run full screen, if your emu window has the box in the upper right, try clicking that to maximize the screen, this useually works, but sometimes just makes the window full screen while the picture stays the same.

 

Go into the emus options and there is probably a full screen option in it's video settings.

 

If not, you can do something else, like drop your monitor resolution to 640x480 while playing the game, but it shouldnt' come to that.

[murfj]

The option to maximize the window is not there as you'd see in windows within most other applications. From looking briefly through the documentation I didn't see any options within JNES to make it full screen (and I don't mind that and I'm sure I will find a way to force it to full screen, I guess "how" to do it wasn't really my question)- after using this and other emulators I was just curious why they are designed by default to run that small instead of at full screen. The explanation of 300x200ish resolution on the older systems makes perfect sense, I guess I should have considered that I was looking at software designed 20 years ago on a modern system. :-)

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Did you try ALT+Enter?

[Jess Ragan]

That usually works pretty well, but it takes control of the computer away from the user. I prefer to just resize the window; double or triple it. That way, I can play my games, then switch over to another task whenever I like, without having to exit out or resize the window.

 

JR

[rockman_x_2002]

For the latest available version of Jnes, in particular, here's what to do:

 

Enter / Exit Full-Screen mode: Alt + Enter or "Options" -> "Fullscreen"

 

Change video resolution: "Option" -> "Video..." -> "Display" Tab -> choose resolution options here and click "OK" to save.

 

Note that only certain resolutions are available for windowed mode as to preserve the original aspect ratio of the NES. You must choose between the resolutions listed. Experiment and you should find one suitable for your viewing needs.

 

Other emulators feature similar option settings. FCE Ultra, for example, allows you to change windowed resolutions by simply dragging the borders, or by maximizing the window as normal. Fullscreen can be entered via the same Alt + Enter command. Check the documentation for your particular emulator. It should contain information about how to alter video resolution, and the steps are actually probably quite similar.

[murfj]

Thanks for all the replies. The only way to get the actual game (not just the window) to be full screen is through the steps that rockman mentioned. And mine must be buggy, because it will go full screen, but the video is choppy and the audio stops and goes. I do have the older version of Jnes so I'll download the newer version tonight, maybe also try out FCE Ultra- I've heard a lot of good things about that one.

[JB]

Thanks for all the replies. The only way to get the actual game (not just the window) to be full screen is through the steps that rockman mentioned. And mine must be buggy, because it will go full screen, but the video is choppy and the audio stops and goes.

That sounds like a hardware limitation.

What sort of CPU and video setup do you have?

...

I guess it's also possible that it's designed to VSync without buffering. That generally blows things up regardless of system.

[murfj]

Thanks for all the replies. The only way to get the actual game (not just the window) to be full screen is through the steps that rockman mentioned. And mine must be buggy, because it will go full screen, but the video is choppy and the audio stops and goes.

That sounds like a hardware limitation.

What sort of CPU and video setup do you have?

...

I guess it's also possible that it's designed to VSync without buffering. That generally blows things up regardless of system.

 

 

I have a 2.4 GHz Celeron processor, about 760MB RAM, and the standard on-board video card (with I believe 32 MB memory). Not at all bad, I believe, for this emulator or any like it. I'll be trying some others this weekend to see if I have better luck.

[Video]

The intigrated Video Is most likely your problem. Integrated stuff sucks, it's fine for surfing the web, but not for playing games.

 

My old computer with like a 233 Mhz Processor ran many of my emulators better than my newer computer with a 1.1ghz processor and 256 memory. Every problem I can track down leads to the same place, in my case, a built in sound card that is the problem. Next time I build a computer I'm going to have all dedicated stuff where available. I would advise anybody buying, or building a computer to do the same.

 

I may get a new soundcard for my computer, I think that will solve a lot of my problems. A new video card, even a cheap dedicated one will probably solve your problems too.

[murfj]

The intigrated Video Is most likely your problem. Integrated stuff sucks, it's fine for surfing the web, but not for playing games.

 

My old computer with like a 233 Mhz Processor ran many of my emulators better than my newer computer with a 1.1ghz processor and 256 memory. Every problem I can track down leads to the same place, in my case, a built in sound card that is the problem. Next time I build a computer I'm going to have all dedicated stuff where available. I would advise anybody buying, or building a computer to do the same.

 

I may get a new soundcard for my computer, I think that will solve a lot of my problems. A new video card, even a cheap dedicated one will probably solve your problems too.

 

 

It could have been that, or at least with a bug in how JNES works with my integrated video or audio card. It only worked in the small window, even if I set it to the next larger size, it went nuts. I downloaded the newest version with the same problem. However I downloaded the FCE Ultra emulator, and even at full screen it works perfectly- so I guess I have found the one that I'll stick with.