Homebrew Wii 240p emulators

[Denjin-Ken]

The wii isn't the most accurate way to play retro consoles.
But it is the cheapest way to play many retro consoles in 240p.
Outside of N64 and a few others, it plays fine for my needs.

When some consoles need to be modded to output 240p, not to mention buying $30+ cables for each console, the wii is a very welcome alternative.

 

[Sticksandstones]

I thank God every day that homebrew emulator developers have added 240p support to their emulators. It's the same video mode used by pre-N64 consoles, so instead of upscaling to the standard Wii resolution of 480i, the game looks exactly the same as if I hooked, say, a Genesis to my TV.
Progressive scan is generally nicer to look at, and it's not possible to do 480p on them. I personally prefer the nostalgic appearance of 240p in ANY possible scenario instead of 480i, which is why I wish Nintendont would add an option for it (it IS entirely possible, just not ideal for most, and not at all for HDTV users), and the fact that support for 240p is removed from most HDTVs is why I love my CRT. That means your NES, SNES, Genesis, some N64/PSX/PS2/GameCube games won't work on your nice wide HDTV. This is why us old-schoolers love the Wii so much.

 

[GreyWolf]

There wasn't any progressive scan when the NES/Genesis was out. Everything was interlaced.

 

[GerbilSoft]

There wasn't any progressive scan when the NES/Genesis was out. Everything was interlaced.

On the contrary. Most consoles prior to MD and SNES were exclusively progressive scan. It was 15 kHz progressive scan (aka "240p" or "288p"), not 31 kHz ("480p"). This was accomplished by leaving out the half-line at the end of the frame. (The half-line is characteristic of interlaced images, though it's not in the visible area, so you can't easily see it without an oscilloscope.)

Both MD and SNES do have interlaced video modes, though they aren't the default setting. On MD, it's only used in a few titles, including Sonic 2's 2P mode. Most titles didn't use interlaced due to various limitations, including VRAM limits and flickering.

Interlaced only became widely used starting with the Dreamcast, and later Xbox and GameCube. (PS2 I think still had a lot of titles that used "240p".)

 

[stol1]

I use Wii on a Sony Trinitron CRT TV with RGB scart. So 240p looks brilliant, much better than 480p any day. Those fake scanlines filters on modern screens are rubbish most of the times.

 

[XC-3730C]

How can I connect a Wii to a Sony PVM in 2017/2018? Also, what controllers are you guys using? I considered a Raspberry Pi + a
Pi2Jamma or other SCART solution, but a Wii sounds more appealing to me.

I may be getting my PVM-2030 out of storage soon, and I wanna set up a Wii just for old school 240p gaming, and even GameCube and WiiWare games.

 

[Denjin-Ken]

How can I connect a Wii to a Sony PVM in 2017/2018? Also, what controllers are you guys using? I considered a Raspberry Pi + a
Pi2Jamma or other SCART solution, but a Wii sounds more appealing to me.

I may be getting my PVM-2030 out of storage soon, and I wanna set up a Wii just for old school 240p gaming, and even GameCube and WiiWare games.

You're gonna need this cable:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Female-RGB...492633?hash=item2f11774759:g:wR0AAOSwsN9XBXbA
Then you need to buy a scart cable for your Wii.
THEN, you might need to buy new speakers because that cable uses a separate audio connection.

I do not recommend the one on retrogamingcables.
It works, but it isn't built very well.
The heat-shrink wrap came off on mine in the audio connection, resulting in mono audio.
I had to open the housing and fix it myself.

Personally, I use the wiimote or classic controller.
In the future, I am going to hook up my arcade stick.
The great thing about the Wii is the fact you have so many controller options.
So whatever you prefer might be an option.

 

[XC-3730C]

My bro up north just offered me a PVM-1954Q that has BNC connections for RGB and even component. To get 240p on this monitor with my Wii, could I just use component video?

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

 

[95Grunger]

I've had the Wii hooked up to a Sony Trinitron CRT for a while with the 240p setting on and I'm sorry but I have to say, it sucks. It just doesn't look anywhere near as authentic as a real retro console. I wanted it to be good but it's not. Better off getting an Everdrive type thing for a real console for retro games than bothering with the Wii.

 

[Denjin-Ken]

I've had the Wii hooked up to a Sony Trinitron CRT for a while with the 240p setting on and I'm sorry but I have to say, it sucks. It just doesn't look anywhere near as authentic as a real retro console. I wanted it to be good but it's not. Better off getting an Everdrive type thing for a real console for retro games than bothering with the Wii.

I have noticed something similar from using my Sega Saturn in 240p. The Saturn just looks a lot more bright and has a better quality picture overall.

There is some good news though.
There's a mod called WiiDual that attempts to improve the 240p analog output, along with adding HDMI support.
It hasn't been released yet, so I don't know pricing info.
It could still be cheaper overall than buying a single console setup with a flash cart.

 

[niuus]

My bro up north just offered me a PVM-1954Q that has BNC connections for RGB and even component. To get 240p on this monitor with my Wii, could I just use component video?

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

You can. It looks and plays really great in 240p.

 

[XC-3730C]

I will probably do the MiSTer instead...

 

[niuus]

I will probably do the MiSTer instead...

It's is a good choice, too. RPi3 users can also use 240p, for those that have one lying around.

 

[notimp]

Some subjective impressions of RA-HEXAECO in use with an OSSC:

First you should enable point filtering, which at least disables bilinear filtering, but the resulting image still isnt as crisp as it would be out of a MiSTer f.e. Next you can enable "Trap filtering", which reduces color bleeding from pixel to pixel, and just produces an overall cleaner look on all pixel art games, and systems.
After that, you can turn on Deflicker and Dithering.

Deflicker, even with a progressive output signal, has an effect similar to what a (slight) sharpening filter would produce, where even with scanlines on to op it, the image after having turned it on doesnt blend as well (you still see something akin to edge sharpening). But if you then turn on dithering, it 'blurs' the resulting image just enough, that Deflicker and Dithering on is an option to play with. On Chrono Trigger (SNES) overall the resulting image looked better with those two enabled, on Snatcher (Sega CD) it looked worse.

 

[N7Kopper]

No stretching. Beautiful pixel art at its native resolution. Scanlines. These are the benefits for gamers that play retro consoles on real CRT TVs like it was intended.

False. False false false. Old fashioned CRTs always stretch and squash the image. Not only that, most games don't account for this, resulting in - for example - Samus' Morph Ball in Super Metroid being an oval rather than a sphere, due to an 8:7 image being stretched to 4:3. More modern displays and techniques (techniques that can easily account for the few games designed around the stretch) can properly display the native resolution.

I can't be the only retro enthusiast who looked at a Trinitron with high quality cables and thought "yeah, the nanoseconds of display lag are nice, but you only need less than a frame. I can't see the appeal of this over a HDTV." Then again, I also hate scanlines with a passion for slicing every sprite into stripy ribbons.

 

[niuus]

False. False false false. Old fashioned CRTs always stretch and squash the image.

False and ignorant counter-argument you have made. CRTs adjust the console's image which was already made in one way, like the 8:7 ratio from the SNES, to be finally compensated by the display to the correct 4:3 ratio. There is no "ztretchimg-zquazhimg". It was made to be compensated by the good ole' TV, they always had that into account.

Not only that, most games don't account for this, resulting in - for example - Samus' Morph Ball in Super Metroid being an oval rather than a sphere, due to an 8:7 image being stretched to 4:3. More modern displays and techniques (techniques that can easily account for the few games designed around the stretch) can properly display the native resolution.

LOL. If you have a CRT TV with geometry problems, then that's your problem, and something YOU need to fix. I never had problems with any of the TVs i have since my childhood (i still own and use my 20" first TV, in which i finished Super Metroid and many other countless games), specially with my more recent 14" and 20" PVM monitors. You think creators made games to be "properly displayed" 30 years in the future?

I can't be the only retro enthusiast who looked at a Trinitron with high quality cables and thought "yeah, the nanoseconds of display lag are nice, but you only need less than a frame. I can't see the appeal of this over a HDTV."

You're the only one. Whether you like lag, interlaced video, you hate scanlines, it's your preference, even if it's horrible, i don't mind.

Then again, I also hate scanlines with a passion for slicing every sprite into stripy ribbons.

Scanlines were the proper way to display pixel graphics made at the time, there's no denying, discussion, or negating that fact. Among others, the OSSC was created to do integer upscaling of 240p content, plus adding beautiful artificial scanlines for modern displays, which is a testament on the necessity of them to properly enjoy the 2D pixel art. Even Retroarch has dedicated people creating shaders to emulate CRT television's scanlines and the physical screen curve. That alone speaks for itself.

Why should i care about what you "hate"? Why are you quoting me over a 2017 post to address your issues with scanlines? Not sorry, but i don't care.