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Thanks for looking at it guys. The game has an internal word list of approx 3,800 five letter words. If the word you make is not in that internal list then it won’t be found. Most common words are there and quite a few obscure ones too but it is not 100%. Only words in the internal list can be ‘daily’ words or even found as ‘other’ words. I culled the list deliberately to avoid negative words or potentially offensive words being part of the words chosen for the puzzle but maybe i need a secondary list to identify all the others as ‘other’ words only.

There is program that can remove watermark - https://winaero.com/download-universal-watermark-disabler/

It works on windows 10 version 10.0.19045

I use my daily PC to power my arcade setup, is there anyway around crtemudriver test mode? Otherwise I have to reinstall it literally everyday due to games with easy anti cheat.

This is one reason why getting a second PC to run your arcade is a pretty good idea. It doesn't need to be very new or expensive.

Failing that, if you want to push on with using the same PC for everything, you could consider setting up a dual-boot arrangement for your PC. If you want "desktop", choose "1" (installs standard video drivers). If you want it for arcade games, choose "2" (installs CRT_emudriver).

This is possible because the HD 4000 family uses the ancient driver interface that didn't have a low resolution check. With newer cards, you can't add low resolution on stock drivers (unless you use this method).

Very interesting.

Do you which model is the most powerful and also uses that "ancient driver"?, HD 4890? HD 4830?

I just wanna get the best model out there, without the need of restarting into Test Mode.

Also apologies for necroposting, just thought the answer would be useful for peopel who are in the same boat as me.

HD4XXX cards are a massive PITA to get working right with CRT_emudriver - it is much easier to install with the HD5XXX+ cards that support EDID.

They are also literally massive compared to cards a bit newer like the HD6XXX cards, with which CRT_emulator installs always seem to go smoothly with a few clicks.

While you can't remove the test mode text, it is possible to edit it so that nothing is visible, or to at least change the message to something more appropriate.

How exactly do you input video into your TV? Home-made SCART cable? How do you create the composite sync?

Your zigzags may be a symptom of poor sync. This is particularly an issue with "smushy sync", where the H&V wires are simply twisted together, possibly through a resistor. It leaves a lot of "junk" in the vertical sync period, which is what tells the TV when to start drawing a new frame. Now the TV has trouble locking onto the vertical sync. After a few more confused microseconds the TV works it out anyway, but that short time where it is left floating leaves you with a zigzag.

The issue with the top/bottom getting cut off is mostly to do with overscan and your TV vertical size settings. Both of these can probably be adjusted via the TV service menu, very little can be achieved via CRT_emudriver. Entering service menu usually involves performing some arcane, codified ritual with the original remote control, and is different for every manufacturer and for most model families too. Search online, I hope you have the original remote.

It is possible to get 288-line vertical games (like Galaga) to display on a horizontal TV, but you'll probably always lose at least some lines and the game will be playing at 50hz (rather than the original's 60hz). You can use the sliders built into MAME to cut a few lines out, if you need to.

You can also get 256-line and 240-line games to fill the screen, possibly with no missing lines, if you *force* them to display in a 288-line video mode. These vertical games will/can be "pixel perfect", except for the scan lines running the wrong way (you will always have scan lines running the wrong way if you display vertical games horizontally). Fortunately, with Groovymame working it's magic and automatically adjusting the game speed for you, you might not even notice the mismatched frame rates. If you squint a little then maybe you won't notice the scanlines.

Vertical games will always look better if you rotate the monitor 90 degrees, and set appropriate rotation options within MAME.

At one point in today’s puzzle, I had two “other words” lined up at the same time and only got credit for one of them.  The non credited word was pacer or paces.  Don’t recall the one I got credit for.  Stood out because I’m like, “uh… that was a word…” and then later when I was brute forcing it, got credit for it.

I had a quick look, and found a word, but it wasn't the word it was thinking of. I am not the right person to give feedback though, as my brain doesn't work how society expects. I'm kinda like Ted Bundy, but without the murder and mayhem 😄

If You have two CRTs I recommned to get 2 CRTs setup - one for vertical games and one for horizontal games. While overscan allows to play games with 256 lines visible area in most cases is far too limited. You can't see scores, lives, bombs etc.

NamcoS23 driver is currently marked as not working (though You can play game as I can see). Still on 10600KF speed drops to 88% in Time Crisis II. Some games barely gets 40%.

According to http://geedorah.com/eiusdemmodi/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=1016#p1016

Test mode is also required for legacy driver.

Besides legacy cards are tend to slowly switch resolutions and there are problems with plenty video resolutions installed if I remember correctly. Better to stick with newer models.