YouTube has been showing me videos from a channel called CoCo Town lately. This one, posted recently, focuses on emulators not getting the CoCo screen’s aspect ratio correct:
I noticed that the recent XRoar emulator also changed its aspect ratio. It just felt “wrong” to me since I have basically only used XRoar for the past few years. Also, my CoCo 3 has been using a VGA monitor via the Cloud-9 FPGA VGA adapter. I have no idea how accurately it represents the CoCo output, but I know it is recreating it and making it fit on the VGA monitor.
With that in mind, I have a favor to ask. Can someone out there with a CoCo 1 or 2 hooked to a TV set send me a photo of what it looks like on your TV set? A front view of the startup green screen would be ideal.
Likewise, I’d like to see what the CoCo 3 looks like on an analog RGB monitor like the CM-8. I recall the CoCo 3 was very off center using the TV output, but if you can get a picture of that too, I’d appreciate it.
Thanks, much!
I definitely interested in seeing this as well!
Another thing I wonder… I used a TV with my CoCo 3 initially. Then I got a monochrome composite Magnavox monitor for crystal clear 80 columns. I did not get a CM-8 until later when I got one used from Ron Bull at a PennFest. I wonder how the RGB output looks compared to TV/composite.
The answer you are looking for is answered in a youtube video.
Channel: Coco Town
Video: Mame Coco Aspect Ratio Showdown!
A real Coco is connected to a large TV set to validate actual aspect ratio.
Yes – I’m wondering how different it was on various TV sets and such. I doubt any of us had very well calibrated TVs back then.
Oops! I think I read too fast and somehow didn’t realize your post actually starts with the Coco Town video. Isn’t this video proof enough that the actual aspect ratio is now correct, although not being 4:3?
Back in the 80’s when I had a Coco 1, aspect ratio didn’t matter much, since the TV set I used had knobs to adjust for Horizontal Size, Horizontal Position, Vertical Size and Vertical Position, so I tweaked them to maximize the image on the screen anytime I used the Coco. (Of course I had to retune the knobs when switching back to TV mode.)