| uKER |
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MAME Fan
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Reged: 06/25/07
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Wrong aspect ratio in 2D Mortal Kombat games
#394028 - 05/22/22 02:46 AM
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For the longest time, the 2D Mortal Kombat games (mk1, mk2, mk3, umk3) have been displayed in MAME with the wrong aspect ratio.
By default, MAME shows them as being 4:3, but the game seems to have an anamorphic pixel aspect ratio, as using 4:3 yields a picture in which everything's stretched vertically.
The easiest way to see it is looking at the dragon logo in MK1's character select screen, which of course, is expected to be round, or look at how much shorter the characters look when they're lying on the ground compared to standing (need to drop them by uppercut or knee strike so that they don't fall sideways).
The game's monitor seems to be 16:10 (8:5) as with that aspect the game just looks right.
For anyone using MAMEUI64, you need to go into the game's properties, go to the Screen tab, uncheck "Autoselect aspect", apply so that the input boxes are enabled, and enter 16:10 or 8:5 (exact same thing).
Note that while this fix works fine in MAMEUI64 v0.222, for some reason it seems to be ignored in the latest version of MAMEUI (v0.242).
Is there any chance that we can have this rectified so that this reconfiguration is not needed?
Edited by uKER (05/22/22 02:47 AM)
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Re: Wrong aspect ratio in 2D Mortal Kombat games
[Re: uKER]
#394029 - 05/22/22 11:36 AM
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The game used a 4:3 screen like almost everything else of the era.
Some of the art is just lazy and ends up squashed, you can see this on the flyers etc. too.
Any 'back in the day' video clips showing real cabinets operating will show them using a 4:3 display.
Some operators may have chosen to adjust their displays to stretch horizontally and clip some of the sides, but you can also do this in MAME if you want, there are slider controls to stretch and reposition the image within the 4:3 space, just as a decent monitor would have.
The video output on MK has fairly broad areas on the left and right that are generally safe to discard, and again use of that screen space was quite lazy in the first place, with the display not being perfectly centered (larger black bar on the right hand side of the mk1 title screen)
Either way, there's nothing wrong with how MAME displays them, it outputs the same as the PCB, you just don't like some of the design choices that were made or don't want to stretch / reposition the image the way operators would have done if they weren't content with the output on their 4:3 displays.
> For the longest time, the 2D Mortal Kombat games (mk1, mk2, mk3, umk3) have been
> displayed in MAME with the wrong aspect ratio.
>
> By default, MAME shows them as being 4:3, but the game seems to have an anamorphic
> pixel aspect ratio, as using 4:3 yields a picture in which everything's stretched
> vertically.
> The easiest way to see it is looking at the dragon logo in MK1's character select
> screen, which of course, is expected to be round, or look at how much shorter the
> characters look when they're lying on the ground compared to standing (need to drop
> them by uppercut or knee strike so that they don't fall sideways).
>
> The game's monitor seems to be 16:10 (8:5) as with that aspect the game just looks
> right.
>
> For anyone using MAMEUI64, you need to go into the game's properties, go to the
> Screen tab, uncheck "Autoselect aspect", apply so that the input boxes are enabled,
> and enter 16:10 or 8:5 (exact same thing).
>
> Note that while this fix works fine in MAMEUI64 v0.222, for some reason it seems to
> be ignored in the latest version of MAMEUI (v0.242).
>
> Is there any chance that we can have this rectified so that this reconfiguration is
> not needed?
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Re: Wrong aspect ratio in 2D Mortal Kombat games
[Re: uKER]
#394030 - 05/22/22 04:26 PM
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> For the longest time, the 2D Mortal Kombat games (mk1, mk2, mk3, umk3) have been
> displayed in MAME with the wrong aspect ratio.
>
> By default, MAME shows them as being 4:3, but the game seems to have an anamorphic
> pixel aspect ratio, as using 4:3 yields a picture in which everything's stretched
> vertically.
> The easiest way to see it is looking at the dragon logo in MK1's character select
> screen, which of course, is expected to be round, or look at how much shorter the
> characters look when they're lying on the ground compared to standing (need to drop
> them by uppercut or knee strike so that they don't fall sideways).
It really looked like that in arcades. Midway were lazy and didn’t consider aspect ratio when digitising the footage. You can adjust it by changing the view to use square pixels in Video Options, or making a tweaked layout file.
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There's more to it...
[Re: uKER]
#394032 - 05/22/22 05:09 PM
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A typical monitor used at the time for those Williams Games of the 90's (Mortal Kombat series, NBA Jam series, etc.), were Wells Gardner K7000 series.
The monitor came in a few sizes and native resolutions - most applicable here:
Standard:
19" 400x240 resolution
25" 560x240 resolution
Fine Pitch:
19" 640x240 resolution
25" N/A
As an example, Mortal Kombat II outputs 400x254.
The standard 19" monitor fits practically like hand-in-glove, especially when accounting for typical 19" standard resolution and overscan/cropping. Arguably though, the 25" variety was the most commonly leveraged for those cabinets.
If the monitor used is 25", or the 19" fine pitch variety, then, as mentioned, operators, especially then, may have tweaked the controls to fill the screen, or whatever other personal preference.
Another popular monitor used with such cabinets of the time is the Hantarex POLO monitor, which advises, per it's service manual "MONITOR CONTROLS" section:
"Adjustment of horizontal amplitude stretches the image..."
Both monitor lines are standard CRT, 4:3 screen aspect ratio.
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Re: Wrong aspect ratio in 2D Mortal Kombat games
[Re: uKER]
#394051 - 05/24/22 05:19 AM
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In addition to what others have said, if you go into test mode for the game (F2), go to diagnostic tests, then monitor patterns, then crosshatch pattern, you will see the game show a grid of squares, that properly show as squares when the image is fit to a 4:3 screen like the kind that came with the original game.
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| Dullaron |
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Diablo III - Dunard #1884
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True
[Re: Haze]
#394054 - 05/24/22 08:44 AM
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"Some operators may have chosen to adjust their displays to stretch horizontally and clip some of the sides."
They done this on some others too. Open the back of the machine and then turn the knobs. Colors and others.
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