Shadow of the Beast 2 Genesis (Black Bar Question)

[aorin1]

Last week I played Shadow of the Beast 2 for Genesis a bit, I remember playing this game in the real console back in the 90’s, what I do not remember is the black bar this game has in the bottom, like in this random video I found on youtube.

Does anyone remember this black bar in the real console back then? If it does exist, why would the developers leave that whole useless area of the screen?

I’ve found this video this guy is playing in the real Sega CD, this version doesn’t have that black bar:

[hunterk]

Looks like the Genesis version had it while the Sega CD version did not:

[aorin1]

He zooms in at this part and the screen gets all filled, I did this in Retroarch and saved a game override.

When he compares the 3 versions, the Genesis version doesn’t have the black bar at the bottom, maybe he cropped it when editing? Doesn’t look stretched, maybe a little taller?

I’ll try finding someone playing this in a real console and crt TV, it’s hard to believe a game was released like this.

[SkyHighGam3r]

I’ve seen some weird bars before, but this takes the cake. I’m half tempted to track down a genesis copy just to verify this haha.

Normally I assume it’s just the emulator not displaying the way a CRT would but WOW that is like 1/4th of the screen lol.

[aorin1]

Would be nice to see a real copy of this game on real hardware, I’m still not convinced it was released this way. I did play it with my brother at the time, but it would be too much to remember this.

One thing that we can notice, in the video Hunterk posted, comparing Sega CD, Genesis and Amiga versions, there’s a part both Sega versions are displayed, the Genesis fills the screen like in the Sega CD version, the potion has the same height and general aspect ratio in both versions, in the video I posted, with that huge black bar, we can see the potion is stretched.

Try this game there in your device and check this.

[hunterk]

I just played it on hardware and it looked exactly like genplusgx. However, it was at the beginning of the game where neither has big black borders.

Unfortunately, the game is hard af, so it’s gonna be tough for me to make it far enough to prove it. I’ll say this, though: in every case like this that I’ve investigated (Mischief Makers on N64, Symphony of the Night on PS1, a few others that I can’t recall at the moment), the emu has ended up being correct.

You’d be amazed at some of the compromises devs/customers put up with. I mean, Stunt Race FX only takes up like 1/4 of the screen with actual content and Hard Drivin’ runs at like 5 fps…

[SkyHighGam3r]

This is pretty true! I often refer back to Goldeneye as a great example of this.

• ~15fps in single player
• ~5-10fps in multiplayer

People would riot in today’s world lol

[aorin1]

So the black bar does exist. Anyway, I’m sure it’s not the same case as Stunt Race FX or other game the console couldn’t handle well and they had to make limitations. Genesis sure could handle a simple game like that full screen.

Anyways, thanks a lot for checking it in the real hardware.

Also, this game is one of those you’re totally lost and seems impossible to complete, but I remember playing with my brother back in the day, once you know where to go and what to do, you beat the game in less than 10 minutes.

[hunterk]

So the black bar does exist

Well, at the part I played, there weren’t any black bars on hardware or emulator, so I can’t really say.

[aorin1]

Somehow I read there was a black bar.

OK, I took screenshots from Genesis Plus GX, Pico Drive and Kega Fusion, the two cores are set to display the in core provided aspect.

Genesis Plus GX

Genesis Plus GX

Picodrive

Kega Fusion

[SkyHighGam3r]

I totally misread that too! I also thought you confirmed there ‘was’ a black bar in your post hunter lol My results are the same as Aorin’s, for the record.

[Alphanu]

Just thought I would add some information here for you guys. When we all played these games back in the day we were using CRT TVs.

These TVs all handled the porches ever so slight different. These porches were generated by the console to position the game image on the TV. So depending on the game you probably would not have seen these porches / black bars on your TV as these would have been scanned outside of the view-able area of the TV. Doing this is also what helps creates the correct 15khz signal for the TV to understand.

With that being said it should help you understand why in some cases black bars will exist in emulation. the core will emulate the true output video output which includes these porches seen as black bars. cropping overscan should remove these. In some cases the game may change resolution which means the porches would be different at that point in the game. So unless the crop overscan algorithm takes this into consideration again you may see black bars.

Hope this helps guys.

[SkyHighGam3r]

This is basically what I assumed was happening in a lot of these cases, I just lacked the technical knowledge to describe it haha.

By chance is this issue affected at all with your amazing CRTSwitchRez ? I haven’t been able to try it out myself past that initial testing - I’m just patiently waiting for the 31Khz compatibility lol

[Alphanu]

With CRTSwitch the original consoles resolutions are matched. Within Linux it’s nearly perfect so the black bars are all hidden within the porches as they would have done in the real hardware. Windows is limited to the resolution generated by CRTemudriver. So I can’t guarantee how accurate these are, there are many different options to install the resolutions. However, it is still quite close.

31khz is coming. I’m waiting on some menu options to be added first. Also I’ve just started a new job so things are a little busy ATM

[SkyHighGam3r]

oooo that gives me an incentive to try out some linux stuff. I haven’t done that in years. And no worries man - real life totally comes first! Thanks for the info!

[aorin1]

@Alphanu, what do you think of this game’s behavior in particular regarding that black bar at the bottom, as far as I remember, this is the only game that the emulator would “crop” so much game area, some Capcom titles do have some above and at the bottom, but isn’t it too much in this case?