Annnnd here's how it looks on a real Sega Genesis, connected to a real television set.
Oy gevalt. The Genesis wants to give you a sharp, pixel-perfect image, but the display technology of the late 1980s prevents that from happening. What you get instead is composite, which was only barely passable when the Genesis was first released and is downright grotesque on today's HD televisions. Clearly something has to be done to fix this.
Right now, I'm trying to upgrade my Genesis to S-video, from the standard ass-video you get out of the box. That hasn't been going so well! So far I've only succeeded in ripping a voltage regulator off the motherboard and the wires from the red LED that glows when the system is turned on... which means it no longer does that. (D'oh.)
The folks at Console5 who sold me the S-video chip have been extremely helpful, offering tons of tech support, but I'm nevertheless coming to the conclusion that I'll have to go the clone console route to get an acceptable picture from my Genesis games. On the down side, Gamerz Tek's Minigen HD doesn't offer stereo sound and it can't interface with the Sega CD. On the plus side, I get to keep my sanity rather than sacrificing it on frustrating mods. I'm pretty sure that counts as a net gain.
I've been griping about this a lot so let's switch gears. Microsoft is currently running its Ultimate Xbox Sale until the end of the month. Calling this sale "ultimate" is a check even Bill Gates can't cash, but there are nevertheless some pretty good deals on older Xbox One and 360 titles. I'm thinking about triple-dipping on Rayman Legends, since I don't want to drag my Playstation 3 out of retirement to play it and the touchscreen features in the Vita version make it more frustrating than fun.
That reminds me... there are still a lot of Vita games (and other games) in my collection I haven't reviewed yet. I should get right on that... it would probably be more fun to read than yet another post about trying to wring a quality picture out of my Sega Genesis.
Aw Jess, hearing you gripe about retro gaming is why I'm still reader.
ReplyDeleteSeriously though, I hope your mod is an eventual success, as it would give me hope with modding one of mine in the future.
Of course, I do have an OSSC and one other device that allows SCART signals, but prefer to use tube TV's whenever practical.
I really should comment more on your stuff, as I still find most of your gaming endeavors interesting.
It's been a long, strange, annoying trip, trying to get a decent picture out of my Genesis. My current plan is to connect it to a television set with a built-in SCART port. I've been reading reviews of the TV I bought and it seems that even with SCART, the picture is slightly blurry. SIGH.
DeleteI'll be giving the set, a Syncmaster 910MP, a look right here on Kiblitzing once it arrives. Stay tuned for the disappointment and rending of garments!