Hi everybody (in a Doctor Nick sort of voice)

Been a while. I was just wondering, does anyone know how to get rid of that utter blackness on the bottom half of the screen when you use any resolution under 640x480 in XP?

Just press the button on the left.

There is no button on the left. Is it an option somewhere? I need more information.

Well, obviously there's no button on the left.
It would help if you were kind enough to educate us what game/program you are talking about.

Oh, I thought it was a consistent thing for evry program that changes to ttose low resolutios.

OK, that old game Croc and a gameboy emulator called SMYGB. Those are the most recent occurrences. I've tried everything in the compatibility tab.

Could be seperete reasons. Emulators often have a fullscreen mode but still displays the game at a lower resolution. (so your monitor is still set to say 1280*1024 while showing a the game at 640*480 in the middle)

Croc might just might have some strange old graphics code that your graphic drivers don't like. I don't know. It could be something entierly different.

OK, that old game Croc
It must be your computer. Croc works fine in 640x480 on my XP.

DUH it works fine on 640x480 myself. I said anything LOWER THAN. Oh also Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine. I put that down from 640 to 512 and the problem occurred.

DUH it works fine on 640x480 myself. I said anything LOWER THAN. Oh also Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine. I put that down from 640 to 512 and the problem occurred.

Whait, why do you want to play it lower than that? If I hade Croc installed I would try to hack the game and get it running at 1280*1024

Luckily I have a Croc CD that I borrowed from my cousins some 8 +/- years ago.
*installs it*

Have you tried messing around with your monitor's settings (the Menu button that most monitors have)?

Also, some modern monitors (LCDs particularly) don't support older resolutions (below 640x480) very well.

Oh, I thought it was a consistent thing for evry program that changes to ttose low resolutios.

OK, that old game Croc and a gameboy emulator called SMYGB. Those are the most recent occurrences. I've tried everything in the compatibility tab.

Croc! Oh, how sweet is the sound of that very name! Ah, the memories. Well, I suggest in Croc you just use a larger resolution...there was no way to fix the blackness of low resolutions in Croc.

Wow... I thought only I knew Croc. :)

I wouldn't try to play it now though. It's probably a bit rubbish...

Wow... I thought only I knew Croc. :)

I wouldn't try to play it now though. It's probably a bit rubbish...

Nonsense! Put the game cd in a cd player and listen. You won't hesitate to install it =P

Wow... I thought only I knew Croc. :)

I wouldn't try to play it now though. It's probably a bit rubbish...

Nonsense! Just put the game cd in a cd player prepare for nostalgia.

Oh noes! Xinos did a double post!

Oh, I thought it was a consistent thing for every program that changes to those low resolutions.
And it looks like it is. I now have 7 examples:

Sonic 3 & Knuckles
Croc
Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine
SMYGB Gameboy Emulator
Gex by Microsoft
Ignition by Virgin Interactive
G-Police by Psygnosis
Will bring you more soon.

I would have a lot more, but I'm but it's hard enough to find games that will run on XP and a 512 resolution or lower.

Do you think it's just something with my hardware? You guys don't seem to have this problem. So just in case, here's my DXDiag diag.

And it's not my monitor BTW. It worked perfeectly on my Win98 Pentium Machine

And it looks like it is. I now have 7 examples:

Sonic 3 & Knuckles
Croc
Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine
SMYGB Gameboy Emulator
Gex by Microsoft
Ignition by Virgin Interactive
G-Police by Psygnosis
Will bring you more soon.

I would have a lot more, but I'm but it's hard enough to find games that will run on XP and a 512 resolution or lower.

Do you think it's just something with my hardware? You guys don't seem to have this problem. So just in case, here's my DXDiag diag.

And it's not my monitor BTW. It worked perfeectly on my Win98 Pentium Machine
On Sonic3&Knuckles, I do get black at the top and bottom of the screen; but that's only the resolution balancing out so that the pixels remain square.

SMYGB Gameboy Emulator

Why not get the GBA Emulator? IE: Visualboy Advance (version 9, I think)

Why not get the GBA Emulator? IE: Visualboy Advance (version 9, I think)

Exactly, get with the times!

On Sonic3&Knuckles, I do get black at the top and bottom of the screen; but that's only the resolution balancing out so that the pixels remain square.
No, that's still different. The whole bottom half of the screen is black (See attached image).

Why not get the GBA Emulator? IE: Visualboy Advance (version 9, I think)
I'll do that when you tell me how to get rid of the black, which seems to be never at this rate.

I'll do that when you tell me how to get rid of the black, which seems to be never at this rate.

She just told you how to fix the black on the emulator.

why exactly do you want to run them at such low resolutions?

She just told you how to fix the black on the emulator.
No, she didn't. She referred me to another emulator. My emulator worked fine on my 98 machine. Has anyone examined the DxDiag file yet?

Tell me this: I want 2 things out of an emulator:
Support for Gameshark cheats
Control for speed settings, both faster and slower than normal speed
Does your emulator have that? I'm not saying mine does, but if yours does, then I will flock to it.
why exactly do you want to run them at such low resolutions?
I don't. I wish they could all go at least 640 (for obvious reasons!:)).

EDIT: Strange thing happened: in the Sonic startup screen, there was an options button. Inside the options window, there was a checkbox labeled: "Check this box if you experience graphical problems." I checked it and it worked. No black. What the hell?

P.S.
I love these new forum features. Friggin hell, there's even an option for a signature picture! And it's limits are even better than those of the avatars in the old days!!!:D

OMG! No idea if anything on this GBA emulator was what you were looking for, but hey! This is what's it's like!

Well I'll see for myself what it's got. Where can I get it?

Here:
CLICK ME (http://www.emulator-zone.com/doc.php/gba/)

Yes. VBA has GS and slowdown/speedup. And no black bars for me.

I don't think emulation is a proper topic in a game producer's forum. :p

Yeah... but this is a special case cuz XxDangerxX made my avatar :p