As a Sega Genesis gamer, do you care about stretched aspect ratio?

[Black_Tiger]

Probably because their arcades were generally 320px wide… as well as a lot of other systems out there (which in many cases did have 1:1 pixels, as they weren't bound to TV signal restrictions). In particular System 16, which they were trying to match. It just wasn't the norm on consoles yet.

EDIT: forgot, did PC Engine support a 320px wide mode?

The PC Engine can do any horizontal resolution between 256 and 512 in incerments of 8(?) pixels. It looks like many ports from 320 pixel wide source material used 320, but I've been trying to get a consensus from experts on the video hardware of how to confirm each games true resolution. Even mednafen is inconsistent with screenshots, but emulated games spit of screenshots in several resolutions between 300 - 380.

If I had any free time I'd capture footage of some of them and count the pixels.

[Pyron]

One game that's do it right in both plataforms is Blackhole Assault to Pc Engine / Sega CD

PCE - Sega CD

[Gentlegamer]

I try to play in the authentic aspect ratio of 4:3 when possible, even where the graphics weren't designed for it, since that's what I'd be seeing on a period TV.

What I don't do is add filters to the display to make it blurry or add scanlines; just pure crisp pixels.

[Vludi]

The stretch only bothers me in very limited cases, such as Twin Cobra MD (why the hell didn't they use a hud there?). Generally it's up to the developers to mind the stretch or not, EWJ on SNES is a good example, first one looks cramped and lazy while the sequel is totally fine.
As for the PCE, a bunch of vertical shooters support the option to add a black space to play at the right aspect ratio just like the MD. As for horizontal shooters some seem to support higher than 256, but a few arcade ports have a big black hud and vertical scrolling.

[Flygon]

The PC Engine can do any horizontal resolution between 256 and 512 in incerments of 8(?) pixels.

How does that actually work? I always assumed the PC Engine only had four or so resolutions to set to!

[Black_Tiger]

How does that actually work? I always assumed the PC Engine only had four or so resolutions to set to!

Yeah, Chris Covell made an app/rom that lets you change the resolution in realtime. I just checked it and you can change horizontal by increments of 8 and vertical by increments of 1.

It's also been common knowledge for many years that the TG-16 version of R-Type has its resolution shaved down a bit. So games definitely used more than the main 3 horizontal resolutions, but I'm trying to find out how to confirm a games exact resolution.

[midnightrider]

What I don't do is add filters to the display to make it blurry or add scanlines; just pure crisp pixels.

Personally, I'd rather see the shapes as they were intended, instead of square eyeballs and the like.

Other than that, I guess I've never been nerdy enough to notice the rest . Actual console and TV these days, I hardly bother with emulation as much anymore, anyway.

[Black_Tiger]

Personally, I'd rather see the shapes as they were intended, instead of square eyeballs and the like.

Other than that, I guess I've never been nerdy enough to notice the rest . Actual console and TV these days, I hardly bother with emulation as much anymore, anyway.

Something to keep in mind is that even in a resolution that is close to 4:3, developers still rework assets to fit efficiently within the building blocks of tiles and sprite sizes. So even the games in resolutions like 320 x 224 that aspect ratio fanatics assume is perfect, are full of artwork that has been distorted and they don't notice either.

For games like beat 'em ups, the difference between sprites using unaltered artwork or reworked for sprite blocks can mean the difference between one or two extra characters on-screen.

[Allard]

You haven't played Shining Force, Shining in the Darkness, Wonder Boy?!

I did play Shining Force for a bit, never beaten it. Shining in the Darkness is not my genre and I just never got around to play any of the Wonder Boy games, though WB3 and MW4 do look like something I'd enjoy.

1) Tiled graphics are square
2) Cost/benefit imbalance - takes more effort to do well and most people never noticed back in the day

Well, perhaps. Guess I give the developers too much credit then. Even so, a purist in me sees no point in playing them in pixel-accurate aspect ratios if they didn't display that way on TVs. Everyone's entitled to play the way they want, but claiming that pixel-accurate AR is the way it should be... feels like rewriting history to me.