Hi people, new here, wanted to share a preset for GOLDEN AXE NeoGeoCD

[Obsolete]

I’ve decided to test the great NeoGeoCD port of this classic by Hoffman et al (not sure I can link that but it’s on itch.io).

Using CRT Guest’s advanced shader, I tweaked parameters to compensate for the desaturated tones of arcade oldies like Golden Axe or Contra, that had black levels meant for specific arcade screens back in the days. I think the preset makes the game look night and day, literally.

https://youtu.be/-bLqZEt9LjM

Comparison is made with the shader applied on the left and raw pixels on the right.

Here’s the file .slangp file (16-02-2025) : https://mega.nz/file/vQgFlDhS#edivOXl0Z5ii7ihhNkRHBh4T2I1GXpJRypCEUb05Ihs

Any feedback on this would be appreciated… Does it look similar to how it did in the arcades back then?

[Cyber]

@Obsolete

Any feedback on this would be appreciated…

It looks great! Like a cool mod!

@Obsolete

Does it look similar to how it did in the arcades back then?

However, the Arcade version looks closer to the colours in the raw pixels comparisons on the right. It’s really kinda dull, pale and dreary, rather than dark, damp and dreary.

Best viewed in HDR or on a bright SDR display. Zoom in until it looks good.

[Obsolete]

@Cyber

However, the Arcade version looks closer to the colours in the raw pixels comparisons on the right. It’s really kinda dull, pale and dreary, rather than dark, damp and dreary.

Best viewed in HDR or on a bright SDR display. Zoom in until it looks good.

Thanks, I use your shaders a lot on Win10 where my HDR screen is supported. They’re gorgious. However, this one I tweaked booted in linux on SDR (HDR support I’ve not yet managed to take the time to install on that OS).

The key parameter I tweaked was “raised black levels”. I got inspired by some promo material so it’s totally unreliable photos of old screens, and I wanted to get the colours closer to the amiga port.

[Cyber]

@Obsolete

where my HDR screen is supported. They’re gorgious.

Thanks very much. You do know that all of my presets work on SDR displays as well, right?

[Obsolete]

@Cyber

Thanks very much. You do know that all of my presets work on SDR displays as well, right?

No I didn’t knew that, I thought they were optimized for HDR. I think my display lacks a bit in nits output and doesn’t put enough oomph, even with the backlight set to full brightness. So usually I tend to tweak Guest’s shaders by adding more magic glow and halation for bright pixels to bleed and alleviate the effect of the slot mask in bright areas of the screen. Maybe also the reproduce some of that arcade’s cigarette atmosphere of my foggy memories… XD

That said, even with a somewhat dark screen, or any screen really, I always felt the arcade version of some oldies the like of Golden Axe and Contra had raw grey pixels that where far too bright for undertones. It seems it doesn’t make sense graphically, to put grey pixels in shadows that somehow look almost brighter than the colored ones.

I remembered having a preset where I tweaked a boolean “linearized gamma output” option to replay Contra a few years ago that would do color correction the same way I’m attempting to do here. Maybe a previous glsl version of Guest-Advanced or in a Hyllian shader, doesnt seem to find it back now… So I just applied the preset without getting the scanlines vertical for tate on a non-rotated display. Also tweaked the size of the masks for 1080p: https://mega.nz/file/nNRgQBTD#RhoVHR6AuPzNd-0f29w7MfOj4O_tke8-humW82deRSk

[Jamirus]

I remember a thread over at shmups.system11.org (unfortunately, most pics are down) many years ago, where people where talking about MAME HLSL settings, and somebody also laid out his thesis about Japanese games having specific settings for certain periods, and games benefitting from corrections. Super Contra was given as an example of a corrected game, if you look at e.g. intro graphics, they look rather strange and un-movie like.

[Obsolete]

Yeah Super Contra on MAME looks so weird compared to the home ports. I don’t have any insiders arcade technical details about the screens specs of the time tho, only vague childhood memories and having stumbled upon promo materials with old lowres photos of the screens from back then… So I wanted to know what presets you guys would use for those games.

[Jamirus]

For gaming, I would definitely use something corrected along your lines (I generally don’t use other people’s presets except as basis to further customize occasionally, everyone has it’s own screens and preferences after all)

For authenticity, you’ll obviously need some point of reference. There is sometimes footage out there taken from the real PCBs, but not necessarly played with the original screens and similar calibration. I was looking e.g.for Konami’s Violent Storm, and there is a bit of a mix out there, often bad quality. This one looks like it could use the the original screen.

[Obsolete]

@Jamirus

For authenticity, you’ll obviously need some point of reference. There is sometimes footage out there taken from the real PCBs, but not necessarly played with the original screens and similar calibration. I was looking e.g.for Konami’s Violent Storm, and there is a bit of a mix out there, often bad quality. This one looks like it could use the the original screen.

I’ve replayed Super Contra yesterday, it looks really good IMO with that “raise black level” parameter set to around -60. Thanks for the link, it’s very interesting. I’ll comment and ask the creator of the video if he could share some more info. It’s so weird, for arcade games of this period it’s like discarding gamma information and getting the image’s undertones darker reveals more details… XD It also seems the rare digitized images of games of that time also benefits from it.

Example with Konami Aliens here, and this guy playing it on the PCB with a 2004 CRT. https://youtu.be/x7P9rHqByyg?t=875