Strat-O-Gems - bottom of screen runoff...?

[buddyguy2]

Hello! I'm wondering - I just downloaded the rom for Strat-O-Gems onto my Harmony SD, and tried playing it... the bottom of the screen runs off my TV, so that I can't see the bottom layer of gems when I play. Anyone have any ideas about why this might be happening? I don't have the same problem with any other game (for example, when I go from room to room in Adventure, the bottom of the screen is exactly where it should be).

 

btw, sorry if there's a specific subforum for this kind of question - I'm a noob, and couldn't figure out what subforum this question would belong in...

[Thomas Jentzsch]

The ROM available here at AA is a PAL ROM, which displays too many lines for your NTSC TV.

 

No idea why this one was upload, maybe ask Al if he can add the NTSC version too.

[cvga]

BTW - Welcome to AA!

[+Nathan Strum]

I seem to recall that the ROM auto-detects on consoles and loads the correct binary, but Stella always loads it as PAL. Could be mistaken.

[Dauber]

The actual cartridge works fine, at least on my 7800...could be an emulator issue...

[+stephena]

I seem to recall that the ROM auto-detects on consoles and loads the correct binary, but Stella always loads it as PAL. Could be mistaken.

 

I'm not sure about the ROM in question, but Stella assumes everything is NTSC unless/until it see PAL scanline patterns (currently, a certain percentage of the frames contain scanlines above NTSC rates). I'd be interested in knowing exactly how the ROM auto-detects a console.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

But he is trying on Harmony, so it can't be a Stella problem.

 

Also, AFAIK it is not possible for the ROM to detect if the console is NTSC or PAL. I remember we had a discussion about this on Stella or here at the forum, exchanging ideas. But in the end we agreed it doesn't work.

 

I just verified the down loadable ROM. It clearly displays 312 scan lines and displays much more scan lines than NTSC could ever handle. Also I found no options to switch it to NTSC and the disassembler shows no branches for different timings too. So it must be a PAL ROM.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

We had the discussion before, but I still do not think the ROM is switchable.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

And here is John confirming.

 

Probably he never contacted Al.

[BigO]

[deleted - crossed posts with TJ]

Edited January 28, 2013 by BigO

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Meanwhile, here is a link to the (probably) final version. Hold select on startup to get into the option screen.

 

Me spamming the forum...

[+stephena]

We had the discussion before, but I still do not think the ROM is switchable.

 

That's what happens when you're losing your memory ...

[Thomas Jentzsch]

That's what happens when you're losing your memory ...

You are not alone.

[+Nathan Strum]

Ah... I knew both versions were in the final ROM somehow. Just wasn't sure of the triggering mechanism.

[buddyguy2]

Thanks all... I followed the link to the final version of the rom, and that works fine. I can see the bottom of the screen now... great game! I guess I did try using the PAL version - I always thought that would prevent me from seeing anything, not just run it off my screen. Well, thanks again!

[Christopher Tumber]

 

Also, AFAIK it is not possible for the ROM to detect if the console is NTSC or PAL. I remember we had a discussion about this on Stella or here at the forum, exchanging ideas. But in the end we agreed it doesn't work.

 

 

Wow, I remember that, that's a loooong time ago. IIRC I was trying to abuse the Kool-Aid man bug which turned out to not be a PAL artifact but a TIA version issue.

 

Yeah, here it is:

 

http://www.biglist.com/lists/stella/archives/200211/msg00098.html

 

Based on the archive search, it looks like this discussion has been had several times.

 

If only there was a VSYNCH equivalent to WSYNCH then you could just setup the timer to see how long between frames...