Overclocking your NES

[nightwulf]

http://www.epicgaming.uk.ro/nes_oc/howto.php

That's fascinating. I'm constantly amazed by the things people continue to their NES, despite it being out of production for over 10 years.

Would this make a difference in RBI Baseball? Possibly. I've noticed some sluggishness in drawing the proper frame when a ball is hit far into the outfield very quickly. Someone try it out.

Nightwulf

[Gantry]

Soldering and I do not get along...   Fast NES is fun, the NesterDC emulator on the Dreamcast lets you play a super-speed mode.  On that note, pick up a Dreamcast for $20

[nightwulf]

Not the same thing though. Overclocking in this manner doesn't make games play faster, as they're synced to the refresh rate of your TV (60 Hz in the US and Japan).

Nightwulf

[Gantry]

Don't make me read the fucking article...  What's the point of overclocking if it doesn't speed up gameplay?  To reduce flicker?

[nightwulf]

Oh go read the article.

I browsed through it quickly, so this is kind of a cross between their FAQ and my knowledge of the hardware, but I think this is the concept. NTSC NES's (USA/Japan) run at 60 frames per second. There is a very short period of time, called VBLANK, which is when the electron gun in the TV has finished drawing the bottom scanline and is returning to the top of the screen. Any changes to the screen must be completed during VBLANK. If they're not, the PPU (Picture Processing Unit) will end up re-drawing the previous frame for whatever updates were not completed in time. This is easily noticed in situations where the screen scrolls very quickly while other things are going on.

By overclocking the CPU, the calculations required to draw each frame can complete before VBLANK. This should eliminate screen "tearing" and jerkiness during moments of heavy on-screen action.

Nightwulf

[Gantry]

Ninja Gaiden comes to mind...   I thought a lot of that jerkiness with a bunch of shit on screen is a result of the programmers drawing the characters/sprites on every other frame, due to a limit of how many objects you have on screen at once...

Fine, I'll go RTFA - stupid nightwulf trying to make me learn...

[nightwulf]

Unfortunately, I can't think of a good game to demonstrate the problem. The best I can do is the attached RBI ROM. In this ROM, the power of every batter on California is cranked. Start up a game and bat as California, and it should be pretty easy to see what happens when the NES can't possibly finish "drawing" each frame before VBLANK ends.

To answer your next question, yes, I know that playing on an emulator and a real NES are entirely different things. Remember though that the goal of (most) emulators is to provide *accurate* emulation, and not better or different performance. What you'll see while using this ROM is a good indication of what will happen on a real NES.

Nightwulf

[Flood]

heaven vs. hell is a good example...it can't even begin to handle that shiznit.

[Bonny]

Soldering and I do not get along...   Fast NES is fun, the NesterDC emulator on the Dreamcast lets you play a super-speed mode.  On that note, pick up a Dreamcast for $20

does this work on a stock DC, or is it more of that mod chip shit?

[nightwulf]

does this work on a stock DC, or is it more of that mod chip shit?

If your Dreamcast was manufactured in or after (maybe just after, not sure) February 2000, it'll need to be modded. The date is printed on the bottom of the console. Prior to that, it's just a matter of burning the disc correctly.

Nightwulf