3DS Virtual Console Games

[mariocaseman]

Have any of you fellow 3DS owners (particularly Ambassadors) noticed that the NES downloads like Zelda and Super Mario Bros. appear ridicliously small on the screen?  WTF!!  Is there any way to get rid of the black bars?  I called Nintendo and they say they don;t know what I'm talking about 

Anyone else having a hell of a time playing those so small?

[JDavis]

Um, no. They fill as much of the screen as they can at their original aspect ratio. They fill the screen vertically. The only way to make them take up more of the screen would be to stretch them horizontally, and that would just look terrible.

[mariocaseman]

Um, no. They fill as much of the screen as they can at their original aspect ratio. They fill the screen vertically. The only way to make them take up more of the screen would be to stretch them horizontally, and that would just look terrible.

But they fit my full 16:9 HDTV screen when downloaded from the Wii Virtual Console....  There must be some magic Nintendo can do to fix this, right?  If they could redo the ratio for a TV, why not a handheld?

[wiggy]

They fit because you tell your TV to force 16:9 (the Wii is so stupid that it won't display 4:3 properly on its own, you have to tell your TV to do so).

Why anyone would want to play classic games all stretched out is beyond me.

[Maben]

Um, no. They fill as much of the screen as they can at their original aspect ratio. They fill the screen vertically. The only way to make them take up more of the screen would be to stretch them horizontally, and that would just look terrible.

But they fit my full 16:9 HDTV screen when downloaded from the Wii Virtual Console....  There must be some magic Nintendo can do to fix this, right?  If they could redo the ratio for a TV, why not a handheld?

They "fit" most likely because you have your TV's and/or Wii's aspect ratio set to "wide" instead of "normal".  This will cause the image to take up the entire screen, but it will stretch it as mentioned.  

They fit because you tell your TV to force 16:9 (the Wii is so stupid that it won't display 4:3 properly on its own, you have to tell your TV to do so).

Why anyone would want to play classic games all stretched out is beyond me.

You beat me to it.  And yeah, I always change the ratio to the proper one for classic games.  I do love how Rare made a handful of N64 games available in widescreen though. 

[mariocaseman]

No I have it on Full Screen...  You mean you guys see black bars on your Tv's?!  If I play a old-school game on an old-school system the screen stretches and looks awful... Not on my Wii VC though, not at all.

[Dan-Fu]

Well isn't that a good thing then?

[wiggy]

No I have it on Full Screen...  You mean you guys see black bars on your Tv's?!  If I play a old-school game on an old-school system the screen stretches and looks awful... Not on my Wii VC though, not at all.

"Full Screen" on Sony and some other TVs means just that, FULL SCREEN.  Keep clicking through those aspect ratios...

[JDavis]

Okay, describing visual minutia with words is difficult. Here's a handy picture, using the display resolution of the 3DS.

On the left is the image being displayed in the original aspect ratio of an NES game, with black bars on the side.

On the right is the same image stretched to fill the entire 3DS screen.

First a familiar NES screenshot, then a couple images to illustrate why stretching is bad.



And yes, my font choices were entirely biased.