After working on bringing the decompiled versions of the classic Sonic mobile ports, to the Nintendo Switch @heyheyitsjoeway has a new project that's just released. It's a fork of the Genesis Plus GX emulator, with a rather cool experimental function: widescreen. The emulator takes Genesis/Mega Drive games and outputs them at a 16:9 ratio. The emulator is currently available on RetroArch and is on a handful of platforms, including the Nintendo Switch, Android, Windows, 3DS, and the PlayStation Vita among others. Certain games such as Gunstar Heroes and Ristar work nicely, but others will require custom patching in order to display correctly. Heyjoeway has an autopatcher that works with Sonic 1, with support for Sonic 2 on the way soon.

First, make sure you update the Core info files. To do this, go to Online Updater, and select ‘Update Core Info Files’.

There are two ways to install and/or update the Genesis Plus GX Wide core: a – If you have already installed the core before, you can go to Online Updater and select ‘Update Installed Cores’. b – If you haven’t installed the core yet, go to Online Updater, ‘Core Updater’, and select ‘Sega – MS/GG/MD/CD (Genesis Plus GX)’ from the list. It will then download and install this core.

Source

 

[Kwyjor]

If only someone ported sonic R to ANYTHING. PSP, 3DS, Android. Whatever you want, just give me an excuse to play it once more

You're aware of the original Windows port and of Sonic Gems, right?

I wouldn't really expect anything beyond that; it seems people really didn't like that one very much. (And Jon Burton's videos on Youtube suggest that it was really complex under the hood.)

 

[placebo_yue]

You're aware of the original Windows port and of Sonic Gems, right?

Yes, i actually only played it on PC, back in 1997 or so. And again every.. several.. years. Last time was 2019 i believe. It's getting harder to run on newer windows but its still possible

 

[slaphappygamer]

While this is cool I prefer to play games at their original resolution.

Agreed. They can look no better than 4:3. Anything else would bug the shit out of me and I just couldn’t continue to play.

 

[eriol33]

how's this technically possible? intriguing

 

[CaptainHIT]

Looks great, tried it on a few games. Would be great if the core patched the games on the fly.

 

[DarthDub]

Yes, i actually only played it on PC, back in 1997 or so. And again every.. several.. years. Last time was 2019 i believe. It's getting harder to run on newer windows but its still possible

There's a rare 2004 version that came out in Australia and the version in Sonic Gems Collection is based off it. I think it works on modern Windows too, but I'm not fully sure.

 

[MadMakuFuuma]

Too bad sega doesn't like selling the game gear sonic titles.

too bad, for me, for the master system tittles =(

 

[Tomy Sakazaki]

Just emulate it and as far as i know emulators have always let you set your resolution and screen size.

It's not the same thing. The options on emulator of older consoles just get the same image and upscale it after it's rendered (and if you change the aspect ratio the images will get distortion). These patches/new emulators try to render more of the same game on the sides so you can use on widescreen ratios without introducing aspect ratio distortions.

 

[Luke94]

Why remastered Sonic 1&2 circa Anno Domini of year 2013 mobile ports were not ported on pc Steam?

 

[MadMakuFuuma]

Just emulate it and as far as i know emulators have always let you set your resolution and screen size.

 

[Medveitsi]

Agreed. They can look no better than 4:3. Anything else would bug the shit out of me and I just couldn’t continue to play.

This is true widescreen so the games will look better than 4:3

 

[RupeeClock]

This is true widescreen so the games will look better than 4:3

Not always, it can expose things that you were never supposed to see in tileset data.
It's pretty evident when playing Gunstar Heroes like this, there's a lot of junk data displayed outside the 4:3 boundaries, like seeing the top of the pyramid in the first stage doesn't have tile data in the middle.

The 3DS 3D Classics version of Gunstar Heroes is still the best version of the game thanks to additions like being able to swap between fixed and free shot on the fly.

 

[Dust2dust]

While this is cool I prefer to play games at their original resolution.

I agree 100% ! I know this is an achievement, but if someone has nostalgia for playing old games, they should get the total experience, including the 4:3 aspect ratio, the way these games were meant to be played.

 

[raxadian]

I agree 100% ! I know this is an achievement, but if someone has nostalgia for playing old games, they should get the total experience, including the 4:3 aspect ratio, the way these games were meant to be played.

There is also the fact that it changes the gameplay to see the game in widescreen in games that weren't originally made for it. For example Sonic Mania levels may be based on Sega Genesis games but they were programed to have widescreen in mind.

 

[placebo_yue]

There's a rare 2004 version that came out in Australia and the version in Sonic Gems Collection is based off it. I think it works on modern Windows too, but I'm not fully sure.

wasn't aware of that 2004 version. But i can play the original 90s version! if anyone wants to, it just takes downloading some other software that takes care of all the shenanigans for you, you just point it to the sonicR.exe and it makes it run on Win10. It might take some fiddling with some setting or whatever, but for anyone on this forum it'd be a piece of cake.

I'll stop talking about sonic R for the time being, it doesn't have much to do with the thread's topic

 

[NoNAND]

You know how Sonic fans are. They aren't comfortable if Sonic 1 isn't ported and available in a variety of playable ways on every platform to ever exist since the dawn of mankind.

I hate sonic.

 

[Medveitsi]

I agree 100% ! I know this is an achievement, but if someone has nostalgia for playing old games, they should get the total experience, including the 4:3 aspect ratio, the way these games were meant to be played.

I dont play old games beacuase of nostalgia. I olay them because they are great games and this is a good way to make them even better

 

[Deleted member 323844]

https://i.imgur.com/ja9BxUV.gif

Subterrania on 3DS Genesis Plus GX Wide. Unfortunately it has many artifacts on the sides. I guess it could be patched.

 

[Isegrim]

Awesome news! I take it Good luck with the project.

Despite it's a very promising project and I'm love seeing progress in this regard, I feel like SNES Emulation on lower end devices / handhelds would benefit even more from 16:9 patches. Don't know if this could achieve.

 

[Spandaman]

How many times can you replay the same game, right?

THOUSANDS!! lol

Still playing nes, snes, psp, psx, n64 here

Amazing how many secrets you learn even now. Also shows my kids what real games are lol.