MiSTer FPGA - Darius (ダライアス) [No Miss Proco A-C-F-I-M-S-Y] / Genesis (Mega Drive) [16x9]
11So lets discuss the elephant in the room here immediately: 16x9 stretch in retro games. Usually I am completely against this, and value sticking with the original aspect ratio. Darius MD is a special instance where I believe the port was intentionally made with 16x9 forced-anamorphic assets.
I have reviewed the game thoroughly in both aspect ratios and found a number of comparison points to back up my theory. It's not a perfect forced-anamorphic implementation, and I do not believe that it can be 100% perfect with the limited resolution of the Genesis and that this was a best-effort at retaining as much of the screen space as possible from the arcade version. If this theory holds true, it means that Darius MD is the first officially released Sega game for the Genesis with a 16x9 expected (forced-anamorphic) aspect ratio. I read that a couple sports titles on Genesis had this as an option previously, but to my knowledge no other game has this as a hard-coded default.
It makes sense to do this in Darius. It's a 3-screen Taito arcade game like Ninja Warriors that has a wild aspect ratio, that home ports have tackled in various ways. In early Darius home ports, you'll find the view is very restrictive compared to arcade, but it retains the aspect ratio (while zoomed) for the most part.
Compare:
-Portraits in intro 2:34
-Badge 2:53
-Power-ups are nearly spherical, not clearly oval 12:09
-'robot head' enemy width 4:07
-The orbs before boss fights nearly spherical 6:07
-The gear on the first boss' jaw is circular 6:15
-Boss shots spherical 13:10 / 26:59
-Ringed planet 3:23
-Darius arcade unit 28:14
Compare to the 4:3 videos I recorded previously, and it is pretty obvious which one is closest to source: https://youtu.be/iXEp7cHlSn4 , https://youtu.be/fodh2RaF2Z0 (full intro)
The PC Engine version is a good example for some of these comparisons in an early port, though it's also not exact ratio to arcade: https://youtu.be/j3yMvtllG1k
Perhaps the most telling, are the character portrait and badge aspect ratios during the intro @2:34. You can compare the portraits to Super Darius II on PC Engine CD: https://youtu.be/cJ9efbOg5-M?t=111
This example has the correct aspect ratio as it scrolls across the screen to show what would normally have been shown on the arcade's 3-monitor setup. Compare that to to what you see in this version of the game when playing in a 4:3 aspect ratio. They are highly compressed. When in 16x9 mode as is shown in this video, they are much closer to the original aspect.
Also, look at the ship sizes during the intro and how laughably squished they are in 4:3. (example: https://youtu.be/iXEp7cHlSn4?t=37 )
You can see an image of the sizing of the Silver Hawk ships in Super Darius II on PCE:CD, in the options menu: https://youtu.be/cJ9efbOg5-M?t=137
At 16x9 it is much closer to original.
Next, lets look at the HUD elements. Look at the shield in particular. It is supposed to have a larger horizontal stretch like the shield around your ship, but in 4:3 mode this is obviously compressed, as are the rectangles for all powerups. Again 16x9 wins here.
You'll have a hard time comparing to arcade with video footage from emulators, etc. Every single one of these videos will have a different aspect ratio than the arcade, for the simple reason that the ridiculous aspect ratio of the arcade originals is hard enough to fit on a normal sized screen, that doing a traditional 4:3 aspect stretch for each of the 3 monitors, would make things even smaller/harder to see. As a result, you see videos with uncorrected aspect ratios for the game almost exclusively on youtube, and indeed even the modern ports like on Switch, do not correct for this either, because it would be insane to make that play field even smaller than it already is.
This version actually does something no other early port was able to do, in giving the player closer to 1/2 of the normal arcade play area on screen, while previous early ports would be closer to a little more than 1/3 of the normal area. Again, the PC Engine port is a great example of this difference.
The person who made this port went above and beyond in many ways, and I now believe they leveraged the prevalence of 16x9 displays when making this, to bring the most accurate representation of Darius to a 16-bit console. Truly exceptional work, and it's obvious why Taito/Sega picked this fan-project up for what became the Genesis/Mega Drive's last official release, as of 2021.
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Genesis core 2-25-2021 build - Darius (ダライアス)
No Miss (No death) run with Proco on Normal mode, route: A-C-F-I-M-S-Y
Filter: Gaussian Sharp 05 // Gamma: 2.3 // Audio: Model 1 YM2612
Using Hori Real Arcade Pro VX-SA (w/ Seimitsu LS-62 lever) arcade stick, with 1ms USB polling.
Settings: Fullscreen scaled to 1080p w/ 16x9 stretch // HDMI to Datapath e1s capture card
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|:=-Timestamps-=:|
00:00 - Settings
00:33 - Title/Intro/Demo
03:41 - No Miss Proco A-C-F-I-M-S-Y
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