Forums

Yeah. WTF?

So I just picked up Castle of Illusion for GG today and noticed when I put it in my with-BIOS GG that the BIOS screen was letterboxed in black and really flickery. I put it in my new older sans-BIOS GG and there was no flicker, but everything is still scrunched and letterboxed in the background color (usually black, except on the SEGA logo screen).

Castle is the only game I've seen do this. Is this... possible? I think this is the only time I've ever seen a cartridge dictate system region, and the only time other than a homebrew PAL switch on my Nomad that I've seen a portable try for more than one screen standard...

That's just an SMS mode GG game.

I have a Game Gear that flickers like mad in SMS mode, too. I never worked out why.

I've experienced a similar problem with a flat screen GG. Whenever I try and play Castle of Illusion or Chase HQ, the screen flickers (both of these games work fine on my other two GGs which have the usual dome shaped screen). Apart from this, my flat screen GG will play games perfectly well.

I am also unable to play the above mentioned games in Kega Fusion. The sound seems to be okay but the screen appears in bizarre blue/pink colours. This leads me to suspect that there is something in the way these particular cartridges were made that makes them incompatible with non-standard anomalies.

Anyone know more about this?

Again, they are SMS mode GG games. When playing them, the GG needs to scale the screen down, cut off the left and right edges and letterbox the top and bottom of the screen.

It seems that maybe some GGs have problems playing them; I'd guess it could be the same old capacitor problem that all GGs eventually come down with, this time affecting the screen scaling.

In an emulator, you have to treat these ROMs as SMS games (as in, change the extension from .gg to .sms). The cartridge had a pin connected to tell the system to use SMS mode; the ROM has to have the extension set.

Author	Message
LoneKiltedNinja Joined: 05 Jul 2009 Posts: 33	Game makes GG run in PAL?! Posted: Sat Jul 18, 2009 5:11 am
LoneKiltedNinja Joined: 05 Jul 2009 Posts: 33	Yeah. WTF? So I just picked up Castle of Illusion for GG today and noticed when I put it in my with-BIOS GG that the BIOS screen was letterboxed in black and really flickery. I put it in my new older sans-BIOS GG and there was no flicker, but everything is still scrunched and letterboxed in the background color (usually black, except on the SEGA logo screen). Castle is the only game I've seen do this. Is this... possible? I think this is the only time I've ever seen a cartridge dictate system region, and the only time other than a homebrew PAL switch on my Nomad that I've seen a portable try for more than one screen standard...

Maxim Site Admin Joined: 19 Oct 1999 Posts: 14759 Location: London	Posted: Sat Jul 18, 2009 9:33 am
	That's just an SMS mode GG game.

benryves Joined: 12 Apr 2005 Posts: 391 Location: London, United Kingdom	Posted: Sat Jul 18, 2009 12:02 pm
	I have a Game Gear that flickers like mad in SMS mode, too. I never worked out why.

English Invader Joined: 30 Aug 2009 Posts: 162 Location: Hertfordshire, UK	Posted: Sun Aug 30, 2009 5:34 pm
	I've experienced a similar problem with a flat screen GG. Whenever I try and play Castle of Illusion or Chase HQ, the screen flickers (both of these games work fine on my other two GGs which have the usual dome shaped screen). Apart from this, my flat screen GG will play games perfectly well. I am also unable to play the above mentioned games in Kega Fusion. The sound seems to be okay but the screen appears in bizarre blue/pink colours. This leads me to suspect that there is something in the way these particular cartridges were made that makes them incompatible with non-standard anomalies. Anyone know more about this?

Maxim Site Admin Joined: 19 Oct 1999 Posts: 14759 Location: London	Posted: Sun Aug 30, 2009 6:53 pm
	Again, they are SMS mode GG games. When playing them, the GG needs to scale the screen down, cut off the left and right edges and letterbox the top and bottom of the screen. It seems that maybe some GGs have problems playing them; I'd guess it could be the same old capacitor problem that all GGs eventually come down with, this time affecting the screen scaling. In an emulator, you have to treat these ROMs as SMS games (as in, change the extension from .gg to .sms). The cartridge had a pin connected to tell the system to use SMS mode; the ROM has to have the extension set.

Forums

View topic - Game makes GG run in PAL?!