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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Gaming => Topic started by: Jono on June 11, 2005, 04:43:42 PM
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I have been thinking about getting a scandoubler so that I can play games on hooked up to the same monitor I use on my graphics card to save some desk-space.
The games I tend to play are Super Skidmarks, Goal! and Cannon Fodder. Anyone tried these on an Amiga with scandoubler and were the results ok, i've heard that some games don't always work too well with scandoublers.
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I've had Cannon Fodder work perfectly well through my scandoubler. I'm pretty sure Skidmarks worked aswell.
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Thanks for this info. it's good to know.
Does anyone know of any other games that don't work via the scandoubler. I heard from a friend that Ruff N'Tumble seems to have problems.
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Ruff'n'tumble works flawless here with my SD/FF
I've had problems with Evil's Doom, Slamtilt and Worms DC
just some flickering and small gfx corruptions....might be overheating problems with my DCE SD/FF
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Possibly overheating - Slam Tilt and Worms DC work fine here with my SD/FF.
Oh, it's internal btw, I don't think there'll be a difference betweem ext or int, but I thought I'd mention it anyways.
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Flickerfixed interlaced screens show artifacts when things are moving on screen, like the mouse pointer, on my A2000. But not many games used interlaced mode, so that shouldn't be a problem! :-)
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Is your FF/SD an external one and have you done anything to cool it like adding a fan?
The FF/SD I will be getting is the external one, the only reason for this is because my Dad is giving me all his old Amiga equipment so I won't be paying for it. Since his A1200 died :-( he went out an bought a PC and is happy using this instead :-(
Rgds
Jonathan
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I have an external ScandoFF from DCE. I play lots of games and I don't have any problems with it. Also consider a bigger PSU, because it need very much power to scandouble the screens.
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Have a 250w PSU here made by Micronik
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just make sure that your monitor can display the output from the SD/FF.... after i upgraded to a flatscreen, my DCE SD/FF stopped working :(
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I've tried two internal SD/FFs, in the A2000 video slot. The first one was an old one, so I got an A2320 (which isn't quite as old... ;-)), because I thought that might work better. The result was the same, though. Might be different with AGA FFs, but then again, most games don't use interlaced screens anyway.
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Thats' ok, I'm using a Dell 15" Ultrascan 800HS monitor which isn't TFT but gives a very good picture from a PC and from the Voodoo card.
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Regarding heat, my external SD/FF (MV1200 http://www.amiga-hardware.com/showhardware.cgi?HARDID=355) gets insanely hot, and heat is rarely considerered a good thing.
Also, since the resulting frequencies (and resolutions with PAL) are slightly odd, not all montitors appreciate them.
In other words, YMMV
-Paul
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There is a very good thread about scandoublers around here somewhere. as for games not working I can not see why a game would not work. If the scandoubler would stick to what it has been payed for it should just double the scan output. Ofcourse the game must use a video mode the scandoubler can handle.
alot of scandoublers won't do the superhighres stuff (1280x512).
I have not seen any game not working because of my scandoubler. They do look very VGA. Games look alot better on 1084's I think. You'll miss the scanlines and blurring and such.
Also my border seems not blankable anymore. I guess the borderblanking is done using electronics downstream from where my scandoubler taps in (internal).
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I don't see why you can't do the borderblank. I remember still being able to blank the border using my SD/FF.
It's been a while since I used it though (now BVision) so I can't remember how, but my border was definitely black.
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Well I have the SD/FF it's the External one that Power supply. All seems to work well, the display is clear and yes does look a little VGA like (as I would expect), but after a short period of use, you get some graphic trashing. I also saw this in Workbench as well as in the games.
I checked the SD/FF and it feels a little warm but certainly not hot. Apart from sticking a fan onto it (which I have seen some people have done), is there anything else that could be causing this?
Rgds
Jonathan
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Vincent wrote:
I don't see why you can't do the borderblank. I remember still being able to blank the border using my SD/FF.
It's been a while since I used it though (now BVision) so I can't remember how, but my border was definitely black.
Well my guess is the blanking is done outside the chip. Since the internal scandoubler of my A1200 gets its data from the digital rgb outputs of the chip the blanking circuitry is bypassed. But this is just a guess.
If I connect an 1084 simultaniously it displays a blank border while the VGA monitor doesn't.
Could there be something defective about my scandoubler?
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Re: Playing Goal! and Cannon Fodder on SVGA via Scandoubler
just make sure that your monitor can display the output from the SD/FF.... after i upgraded to a flatscreen, my DCE SD/FF stopped working :(
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I Had that issue as well when i decided to hook up my scandoubler to my new 19" LCD. Seemed it didnt like PAL signals. If i ran NTSC modes then they would show up on the screen, although a little blurry as it was just on the edge of the monitors supported range. The blur hides the pixels pretty well though so I think it was a win win allround ;) Have to force whd to load all games in ntsc too.
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As long as games stick to 320x256 or 640x256 (320x200 or 640x200 NTSC) then you'll be bypassing the flicker fixer. It's the FF that often makes fast moving objects seem gritty.
Also, with my Eyetech EZ-VGA Plus external scandoubler/FF I get a much better display in NTSC (PAL gives me tiny horizontal lines through the display).
Not many games will use 640x512 or 640x400 as even AGA was never designed for this - it's far too slow. You can play Napalm in Hi-Res Laced but don't expect super responses from your units. For RTG games it's best to stay well clear of Multiscan:Productivity as that has a 31KHz horizontal refresh which drains performance.
I'm wondering if games like Myst work on AGA and if so do they use 640x512 (not much movement in that type of game anyway).
My scandoubler gets ridiculously hot too and when I used PAL it would often squeak and crash the Amiga. Not so in NTSC. I'm thinking this was to do with the potentiometer or a capacitor not quite getting along with the video out.