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Sega Genesis Collection (PS2) autodetecting and forcing 50Hz PAL?

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    Sega Genesis Collection (PS2) autodetecting and forcing 50Hz PAL?

    I installed the NTSC version of the Sega Genesis Collection on the HDD in my UK PAL PS2.

    Now, it seems to me that the system is auto-detecting that it's PAL, and is subsequently forcing all the games to run in 50Hz PAL mode, with thick borders and fuzzy graphics. Despite this being the NTSC version of the collection (with the dog and ninja game).

    This utterly defeats the point of playing the damn thing. Does anyone have a clever (and hopefully easy) workaround for fixing this?

    FFS. It's the year 2018 and I'm still plagued with suffering 50Hz.
    Last edited by Sketcz; 30-07-2018, 18:25.

    #2
    Originally posted by Sketcz View Post

    FFS. It's the year 2018 and I'm still plagued with suffering 50Hz.


    I just read that the PAL version has a 50/60Hz option.
    Last edited by Leon Retro; 30-07-2018, 19:41.

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      #3
      PAL has prog scan, as well. I have it and it looks good.

      Does that 'hold triangle on boot' work?

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        #4
        There's no need to hold triangle. You can select prog scan from the main options menu, it's built in to the compilation.

        Why on earth would I want to do that though? I'm rocking this baby on a massive widescreen SD 60Hz 480i compatible CRT TV via RGB SCART. It does not like prog scan!

        When the game loads it's full screen and 60Hz in the menus (natch, since it's an American game). But the way the Genesis collection works is, every game inside the collection is actually a sort of PS2 conversion, since they're all converted ELF files on the disc, they are not ROMs being emulated. So while the title screen and menu are 60hz, once I select a game it loads said game as a fresh piece of software, whereupon there are borders and it's fuzzy and sluggish.

        Originally posted by Leon Retro View Post
        I just read that the PAL version has a 50/60Hz option.
        So, what you're telling me is, my buying the US version actually disadvantaged me?

        If I have the energy I will look into this. It might be if you are using the PAL version, and select the PAL 60Hz option, the games themselves are then forced into 60Hz mode.

        This stuff is so weird. It's so obscure and niche there's not really many people discussing it outside a few hacking forums.

        EDIT:

        I got hold of the PAL version and tested it. There's an option to manual select (and force) either 50Hz or 60Hz.

        I tried both, using Kid Chameleon as a test game.

        When forcing the PAL collection to run in 60Hz from its internal menu it actually looks exactly like the American Genesis Collection, with a thick border at the bottom. So obviously even at 60Hz it does not fill the screen. I had assumed before that it was running at 50Hz, but not so. It really was running at 60Hz.

        Then I tried it in 50Hz mode, and it was even worse! There was a border at the top of the screen AND the bottom!

        Then I tried PicoDrive for PS2 with Kid Chameleon and it filled the entire screen, and it was faster, and the pixels were all much crisper and more distinct. It looked like it should look - it looked correct. There was a bit of screen tearing, but enabling VSYNC corrected this.

        Frankly I'm a bit shocked. Digital Eclipse did a **** job with their official compilation. Why bother buying the official product when the graphics look like trash? They had one job to do! ONE JOB! Meh. I give up. I'll stick to fan emulators. The official Genesis / Mega Drive compilation is hot garbage, with squashed, fuzzy visuals. Terrible.
        Last edited by Sketcz; 31-07-2018, 13:35.

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          #5
          Originally posted by Sketcz View Post
          I installed the NTSC version of the Sega Genesis Collection on the HDD in my UK PAL PS2.

          Now, it seems to me that the system is auto-detecting that it's PAL, and is subsequently forcing all the games to run in 50Hz PAL mode, with thick borders and fuzzy graphics.
          Getting a PAL PS2 modded to play NTSC games isn't a great idea, as a number of NTSC games detect the region of the console and when they see it is a PAL console then boot into 50Hz. It will happen with more than just the Sega Genesis Collection. My modded PS2 does the same on some PS1 games as well. A lot of Square and Enix game will boot into 50Hz as a result.

          One way round it might be using the homebrew software Free Mcboot and a plug in for it like GS Mode Selector that allows games to run at 720p, 1080i and other resolutions on PS2. Haven't tested it out myself just yet as I was looking in it this weekend just gone, its not going to work with every game, but might be worthing checking out.

          50Hz isn't dead yet, just look at the mess Sony made with some of the PS2 retro releases on PS4.

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            #6
            Originally posted by Sketcz View Post
            Frankly I'm a bit shocked. Digital Eclipse did a **** job with their official compilation. Why bother buying the official product when the graphics look like trash? They had one job to do! ONE JOB! Meh. I give up. I'll stick to fan emulators. The official Genesis / Mega Drive compilation is hot garbage, with squashed, fuzzy visuals. Terrible.
            I'm not too shocked, because PAL land was still treated badly in those days. 50Hz-only games still lurked on the PS2. The PAL Xbox & GameCube didn't allow 480P, despite some people in Europe being able to use Prog Scan. I had a 32" JVC television with Component input, and when I evenutally softmodded my Xbox for 480P, I was amazed at the new clarity in games like OutRun 2006.

            There have been subsequent Mega Drive compilations for the 360, PS3, Xbox One, PS4. So I would think they offer a 60Hz full screen image with perfect sharpness etc... Well... I hope so.
            Last edited by Leon Retro; 01-08-2018, 06:36.

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              #7
              Originally posted by S3M View Post

              50Hz isn't dead yet, just look at the mess Sony made with some of the PS2 retro releases on PS4.

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                #8
                Wow, I had no idea that the PS2 was capable of something like this. Glad I went out of my way to get an NTSC unit now, though that was mostly for PS1 support at the time.

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                  #9
                  Originally posted by S3M View Post
                  One way round it might be using the homebrew software Free Mcboot and a plug in for it like GS Mode Selecto
                  I use McBoot for the HD Loader.

                  Yeah, I tried GSM, both the standalone version and the one built into OPL 9.3.

                  The built in version causes crazy screen glitches (tearing, double screen ghosting, white transparent blocks), while the standalone one... Well, it's difficult to describe. It does not actually output a proper NTSC 60Hz signal, instead it just, sort of squashes the screen horizontally to make it thinner, thereby making everything look like crap. Was hoping for great things with GSM, but the two versions I tried just were not up to scratch. I grabbed the latest public release for both. Maybe the newer beta versions work better, but meh.

                  In the end I gave up. I got the compilation specifically because I did not want to screw around with settings, and homebrew, and ELF files, and self booting, and recompiling USB data trees, and all that other stuff when it comes to emulators. But then I ended up doing just that, trying out a dozen different options and homebrew solutions. And the best result? The homebrew PicoDrive emulator.

                  Might as well not even have bothered. Both the official Genesis and Mega Drive compilations are complete tosh.

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