Provocator and Zelanites Running on Arculator 2.1

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wmd
Posts: 111
Joined: Thu Feb 04, 2021 1:02 am

Provocator and Zelanites Running on Arculator 2.1

Post by wmd »

Here are two short video captures I did of Provocator and Zelanites running on Arculator 2.1:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyyityK_qdw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQaiIkrK2XQ

Can anyone with real hardware and / or Raspberry Pi check the performance to see how they compare to Arculator? My A3020 is still out of action so can't test on real hardware. I don't remember these games being as jerky as this when I originally played them on my old A305 back in the 90s. The player ship horizontal movement in Zelanites looks jerky to my eyes in the video, as does the scrolling in Provocator. I have a Raspberry Pi 400 stored away that I can setup for use with these games if the performance issues are related to Arculator, but wanted to double check before I waste any time doing that.
JonAbbott
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Re: Provocator and Zelanites Running on Arculator 2.1

Post by JonAbbott »

Arculator is quite accurate at emulating Arcs. What you might be seeing is frame drops or micro-stutter if your display isn't running at 50hz.

For a modern equivalent on real hardware, you can configure your Pi to a 50hz TV resolution and use ADFFS to get the games running. A good test is to download Pacmania via the PackMan source and confirm its scrolling is smooth. When you then run other games, you'll know they're running as originally intended.

Ensure you've configured the Pi as per the requirements in the latest ADFFS download post, in particular enabling GPU scaling (by disabling GPU mode change support) so legacy modes are hardware upscaled.
wmd
Posts: 111
Joined: Thu Feb 04, 2021 1:02 am

Re: Provocator and Zelanites Running on Arculator 2.1

Post by wmd »

I have my PC connected to an old Samsung plasma TV that supports 50Hz and 60Hz. I tried changing the Windows output to 50Hz, but the stuttering in Arculator actually seemed worse than when it was set to 60Hz.
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