DC VGA adapter and a widescreen lcd?

[Dyne]

my somewhat new display is a widescreen 19" Viewsonic LCD. i was going to get another VGA adapter for my DC but wasnt sure how the display of the DC would show up on a widescreen display. before i used a regular 17" CRT and everything worked fine (no distorting, displayed fine).

[Joe Redifer]

If your LCD has a VGA input, it should take up the normal 4:3 space on your wide screen. There are some Dreamcast (and Saturn) games that are actualy programmed in widescreen (Toy Commander, Panzer Dragoon Zwei, etc) and will fill the whole screen, but you'll have to tell it to stretch because the DC and Saturn do not send out the 16:9 flag in the video signal.

[Dyne]

so would the games have black bars on the sides of the screen them? and the few that ARE ws, would have to be flagged in the games options right? (i dont believe i have any such options in my monitor settings). it's quite nice because this unit has one dvi and one vga input so i don't NEED to seach for a pricey vga adapter with passthru (since i have my pc on the dvi chain). the only problem now is figuring how to split the speakers (simple logitech 3.1's) between the pc and dc so i dont have o keep unplugging them.

[Joe Redifer]

Yes, 4:3 games would have black bars on the sides. No big deal. I'd rather play them with black bars than stretch them and make them look like ass. And yes, you will find an option in the "options screen" of most 16:9 games. Note that when you change it, you usually won't see a change right away. You'll have to tell your TV to stretch (usually via the remote) and then the game will look fine once you get into the gameplay.

Dreamcast games that have widescreen options are:
-Donald Duck's Quack Attack
-F355 Challenge
-Metropolis Street Racer (16:9 is an unlockable feature for some odd reason)
-NASCAR Thunder
-Rayman 2
-Star Lancer
-Test Drive V-Rally
-Tokyo Highway Challenge 2
-Toy Commander
-Toy Racer
-Trickstyle
-Wacky Races

Saturn games presented in widescreen are:
-High Velocity
-Nights
-Christmas Nights
-Panzer Dragoon Zwei

32X games presented in widecreen:
-Virtua Fighter (first 16:9 home game EVER)

Nintendo 64 games in widescreen:
-Banjo-Tooie
-Donkey Kong 64
-Goldeneye 007
-Jet Force Gemini
-Perfect Dark
-Space Circus Fever
-Turok 2: Seeds Of Evil

Playstation 1 games in widescreen:
-Ghost In The Shell
-Ms. Pac Man Maze Madness
-Pac-Man World
-Wip3out
-Wip3out: Special Edition

There are tons of widescreen games available for the Gamecube, Playstation 2, and especially Xbox. Every Xbox360 game is in widescreen.

[ndoneshn]

Saturn:

Tounge: King of Spirits 2 (3rd option down)
All Japan Pro wrestling featuring virtua

Dreamcast:
Ginat Gram: All Japan Prowrestling 2
Giant Gram 2000: All Japan Prowrestling 3

[Joe Redifer]

Tounge: King of Spirits 2 (3rd option down)
Isn't that High Velocity?

[ndoneshn]

Touge: King of Spirits 2 was not released stateside. But maybe #1 was High Velocity. Anyone know?

[sonictonic]

Hey Joe,

I appologize in advance for bumping such an old thread butit's a new issue for me and your post came up in a Google search :)

I was wondering where you got your list of widescreen Dreamcast games from? And is that seriously it? Those're the only ones that support widescreen on the awesome Dreamcast? Also, any idea on HOW the HECK to unlock the widescreen mode in MSR? I've searched the internet high and low and can not find a single person who knows, and it's not even on GameFAQs or anything! This baffles me. Can ya help me out with more info?

Would you mind citing your info too? Thanks in advance!


Yes, 4:3 games would have black bars on the sides. No big deal. I'd rather play them with black bars than stretch them and make them look like ass. And yes, you will find an option in the "options screen" of most 16:9 games. Note that when you change it, you usually won't see a change right away. You'll have to tell your TV to stretch (usually via the remote) and then the game will look fine once you get into the gameplay.

Dreamcast games that have widescreen options are:
-Donald Duck's Quack Attack
-F355 Challenge
-Metropolis Street Racer (16:9 is an unlockable feature for some odd reason)
-NASCAR Thunder
-Rayman 2
-Star Lancer
-Test Drive V-Rally
-Tokyo Highway Challenge 2
-Toy Commander
-Toy Racer
-Trickstyle
-Wacky Races

[Joe Redifer]

The list comes from www.HDTVarcade.com (feel free to visit the site). And yep, that's it! Widescreen TVs weren't very prolific back in those days so very few games supported the feature. That's why HDTV Arcade was originally created, to let people know which games were in widescreen, 480p, etc etc etc.

As for MSR, I don't know. That is just what I read and that seems really weird to me, too. Have you checked GameFAQs? Maybe they have a save with "EVERYTHING UNLOCKED" you could download and try. I doubt too many people would mention the option as most people play the Dreamcast in 4:3.

[David J.]

There was a Nascar game on DC? I swore there was no Nascar game on DC.

[Christuserloeser]

640x480p60 is what the VGA mode outputs in compliance with the VGA standard, and that's 4:3. To offer a widescreen mode the games had to be squeezed horizontally within that resolution so that they could be stretched out to 16:9.

[sonictonic]

Hey thanks Joe! Yeah, no info on GameFAQs or anywhere which I find so damn weird. As far as game saves with everything unlocked, I don't think I can try that either (at least not with a ton of effort) since I have no dial up phone line, no broadband adapter, and I have a Mac (from what I can tell you need a Windows PC to do some of this on the computer).

Anyways thanks though.


The list comes from www.HDTVarcade.com (feel free to visit the site). And yep, that's it! Widescreen TVs weren't very prolific back in those days so very few games supported the feature. That's why HDTV Arcade was originally created, to let people know which games were in widescreen, 480p, etc etc etc.

As for MSR, I don't know. That is just what I read and that seems really weird to me, too. Have you checked GameFAQs? Maybe they have a save with "EVERYTHING UNLOCKED" you could download and try. I doubt too many people would mention the option as most people play the Dreamcast in 4:3.

[Joe Redifer]

640x480p60 is what the VGA mode outputs in compliance with the VGA standard, and that's 4:3. To offer a widescreen mode the games had to be squeezed horizontally within that resolution so that they could be stretched out to 16:9.

Yes, anamorphic 16:9, just like all 16:9 games in SD or 480p.

Sonitonic, I will PM you.