jagged zelda lines

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nesgrpx
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Joined: Sat Dec 05, 2020 4:10 pm

jagged zelda lines

Post by nesgrpx »

I'm getting these jagged lines around the items in the A and B boxes, the red hearts are misshapened too, as well as the "- Life -" icon, but the white hearts are the correct shape. It's on a PAL NES with a PAL version on a CRT. I'm getting the same image if I hook it up to a HD tv. And I also get the same image on both TV's if I use an NTSC version of the game. Does anyone know why this displacement of some pixels occur? It doesn't seem to take place in the rest of the games graphics. And any suggestions on how to fix it?
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lidnariq
Posts: 11429
Joined: Sun Apr 13, 2008 11:12 am

Re: jagged zelda lines

Post by lidnariq »

No, that's a side effect of how the NES generates video. You can see it on the Super Mario Bros. title too.
NewRisingSun
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Joined: Thu May 19, 2005 11:30 am

Re: jagged zelda lines

Post by NewRisingSun »

The PAL NES console has more visible jagged vertical lines than the NTSC NES. The NTSC NES alternates between two jagginess positions, making them almost average out over time. The PAL NES has the jagginess locked in-place, so it is more visible.

With a few exceptions, the jaggines pattern is a function of the console, not the game, so it does not matter whether you use an NTSC or PAL version of the same game in the same console.
tepples
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Re: jagged zelda lines

Post by tepples »

As lidnariq said, this is perfectly normal. The NES PPU takes shortcuts when generating the luma (brightness) signal and the chroma (color) signal. They're mixed in a cheap way that creates jagged vertical edges, without the filtering that later consoles do to keep the two signals separated in the wire.

There exist modification boards that can be soldered into an NES Control Deck to remove this quirk of video output. Look up NESRGB and Hi-Def NES. The NESRGB mod can send luma and chroma on separate pairs of wires (S-Video) or send the red, green, and blue signals on separate wires (SCART RGB).
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