Jump to content
IGNORED

Weird Superman Issue (Alternating Colour / B & W)


Jstick

Recommended Posts

When playing Superman on my 4-switch woody, the game will alternate between normal colour and "black & white".  The "black & white" has a lot of thin vertical lines running through it.

This is NTSC via RF.  I've never seen this issue with any other game.

 

I had always assumed my cart was faulty, but I get the same result with the game using a Harmony Cart.

 

Any guesses as to what the problem might be?

 

 

Edited by Jstick
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Try some other early VCS titles (pre-1981, generally) - if you see similar problems you might have a B&W/Color switch that’s going bad, or potentially a damaged RIOT chip (which reads that switch position on one of its I/O pins). Many early games actually switched to B&W output with switch position. Later games merely shift the colors for better contrast on B&W displays but don’t actually go monochrome. Other later games use the switch for game features (Starmaster, etc).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, DrVenkman said:

Try some other early VCS titles (pre-1981, generally) - if you see similar problems you might have a B&W/Color switch that’s going bad, or potentially a damaged RIOT chip (which reads that switch position on one of its I/O pins).

 

Hmm, I've been using this same setup for a few years, and haven't seen this issue on any other game (I've probably tried several hundred different titles).

 

The B/W switch seems to work as expected for games that switch the colour on / off.

 

The weird thing is that the issue for this game is consistent, so it will always start off in colour, then switch to b/w, then entering a specific area back to colour, then exiting that area b/w, etc.

 

If it was a faulty chip or switch, I would expect the problem to manifest randomly and intermittently...

 

(I did notice that there is a "fixed" version of Superman for the Harmony Cart, is it possible this game is doing something nonstandard, like pushing the boundaries of video timing or something that causes my TV to interpret the signal incorrectly in certain areas?)

 

 

Edited by Jstick
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...