Purpose of galaxian hack

[haynor666]

Some time I've noticed that galaxian hack restores original resolution for this driver but with price of badly draw starfield. Some stars are now too big/bold. I've decided to disable this hack to bring back intended mode 768x224@60,606 and so far I didn't spot any problems using this mode. Even starfield looks good now. The only downside is that you have to change monitor from generic_15 to arcade_15 to get 60,606 Hz.

What is the purpose to restore 256x224? With 768x224 everything works fine and looks identical (apart from starfield mentioned above). Are there any problems on linux with such resolution ?

[Calamity]

The galaxian/frogger hack was originally in CabMAME, we inherited it, although we rewrote it later. It only makes sense for horizontal monitors. It makes it possible to run those games at 256p on a horizontal monitor. If you use a vertical monitor then it means no benefit, and it degrades the starfield. I guess I'll remove this patch in future versions, or just make it optional.

[haynor666]

I totally forgot about monitor horizontal position. Indeed for those people it makes sense. Thanks for explanation Calamity.

[haynor666]

Calamity, any chance to re-add hack as option?

[Calamity]

Thanks for reminding this to me. I'll definitely look into this for Switchres 0.016.

[haynor666]

Just a small remind 

[CharlieFar]

Great work Calamity on GroovyMAME and supporting drivers. It really is amazing looking (and playing) on a proper CRT. Unfortunately, I'm having the same issues with the stretched starfield on my vertical monitor setup. What do I need to do to correctly display galaxian (and games that use the same hardware), or do I need to wait for switchres 0.016?

[Calamity]

You can revert the change (check the galaxian related files in groovymame's diff) and compile your own build. I guess this change will be done in 0.016.

[CharlieFar]

Thanks for the reply
I'll look into compiling when I get back from my holidays

[sean_sk]

If I were to remove this hack manually for myself, what effect would it have running Galaxian and Frogger on my horizontal CRT monitor?

As it stands, I'm running them at 256 lines and forcing the correct refresh rate using pstrip option (due to using an AVGA) in each game's config ini.

[haynor666]

3x 256 so You have to use stretch option. Image will be a bit blurry with filter.

[adder]

here's also hoping that this hack can be officially removed (or optional if Calamity has time )

[haynor666]

New mame version is out so maybe it's time to make this hack optional. Calamity, could You make it as option or separate diff, please?

[Calamity]

I've removed it in 0.169.

[haynor666]

Thanks Calamity