Brian Dobbs

Bad Image From N64 on LCD Projector

I just plugged in my N64 to my LCD projector (resolution = 964 x 544) and the image doesn't look good at all. Is this because of the lower quality of the graphics? What's the best way to hook up a gaming system to a projector? Please share your stories and setups.

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Jeff Kleist

Yup, N64 is pretty low res. That's why the games looked like they had vaseline smeared ont he screen because of all the anti-aliasing

Ryan FB

The N64 will always look somewhat blurry due to the anti-aliasing, as Jeff said. However, the best image for a projector would probably be attained by using a good S-Video cable (these can be had about anywhere, and the Gamecube and N64 video connectors are the exact same so you can use a cable labeled for either) and feeding it into a scaler/deinterlacer.

Michael St. Clair

N64 runs most games at around 320x240 (PSX is the same). A typical data projector has below-average line-doubling (not really deinterlacing because we aren't talking about film here). Combine the resolution with the doubling and the scaling, and it's not going to look so hot.

Brian Dobbs

Quote:

N64 runs most games at around 320x240

this would seem to justify why the image looks bad, but how did you find this out?

Quote:

(not really deinterlacing because we aren't talking about film here).

i didn't think deinterlacing was dependent on film. what do you mean by this?

but just to clarify, there is a difference between deinterlacing and line doubling?

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Ryan FB

I don't think deinterlacing is dependent on film either, it's just dependent on an interlaced video signal, which is what the N64 puts out.
The technical difference between "deinterlacing" and "line doubling" is that line doubling (I assume scan line duplication is what is meant here) is just one method for deinterlacing (i.e. all scan line duplication is deinterlacing, but not all deinterlacing is scan line duplication). Dedicated deinterlacers/scalers usually can use more complex algorithms that will look better.
There are a few N64 games that are rendered internally at 640x480, but I'm not entirely sure if there's a comprehensive list anywhere (I know that the "expansion pak" was designed partially to address this issue, and if you have it, you can run a few games including Turok 2 and Rogue Squadron at 640x480 instead of 320x240).

Brian Dobbs

I do have Turok 2. So that's why it looks so much sharper? because you can run it at twice the resolution? interesting.

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Jeff Kleist

Games that use the RAM addon like the aforementioned can run at higher res

Mark Hedges

Most of the games released in the last year or so of the N64's life supported the expansion pak and a few required it, such as Donkey Kong 64 and Zelda, Majora's Mask.