Streets of Rage 2 - Runs Slow WTF?

[Sega_MegaDive]

Just signed up to the forum today as I need some advice re Streets of Rage 2. I buy Retro Gamer almost every month !

Ok so Retro Gamer inspired me to relive my childhood and buy a Mega Drive off ebay a while ago. John Madden 92, the NHL games and Smash TV have been the only games I played on it and they run just as I remembered.

I decided to buy some old beat em ups and received Streets of Rage 2 in the mail today. However its running very slow. Not at all how I remembered and I cant figure out why. Ive looked it up on Youtube to see how it runs for other people and the character movement is just how I remember. But on mine Axel is walking and jumping really slowly. I cant really describe it any better than this.

Im running it on a widescreen CRT tv at the minute until I can find a 4:3 but surely this cant be anything to do with it. The other games run normally.

Just wondered has anyone else experienced anything at all like this?

The Mega Drive is a mark 1 Pal version.

Edit: The intro scenes and music are normal.

[Sega_MegaDive]

Im going to answer my own question here because Ive just tried it again and I think it is actually to do with my TV. Its making the game feel different.

On a hunt now to get a decent 4:3 CRT.

[Shinobi]

There’s Input lag on most new TV’s. I have a decent Sony Widescreen with scart socket and game mode. It just looks a million times nicer on my Sony CRT 14 inch

[outdated_gamer]

Also, it's good to keep in mind that PAL versions used to be worse than the NTSC ones in those times, running considerably slower and often with black borders. PAL Sonic The Hedgehog looks almost like it's running in slow motion compared to the NTSC version for example.

[Matt_B]

I wouldn't want to resurrect the whole PAL vs NTSC debate as it's quite a complex issue, but for a game from Japanese developer on a Japanese system it will almost certainly have been designed with a 60 Hz TV set in mind and will seem noticeably slower when running on a 50 Hz PAL system. That'll only account for about a 20% slowdown though, so if it's more than that you've got some other issue going on.

If you're already using a CRT television it's almost certainly not anything to do with input lag though because - with the exception of a few very rare high end sets that you almost certainly won't have - there's absolutely no buffered image processing going on. You might have to put up with a stretched picture or letterboxing, which is why 4:3 sets are preferable for systems from that era, but that's as far as it'll go.

[batman877]

You might have to put up with a stretched picture or letterboxing, which is why 4:3 sets are preferable for systems from that era...

Matt_B is definitely right about the lag not being a problem.

I just wanted to add that all widescreen TVs have a 4:3 viewing option (check your TV manual if you're unsure)... so a stretched picture should never be an issue for anyone. I've never understood why some gamers prefer to play in 'stretch-o-vision' - it just looks awful.

[Sephiroth81]

I thought the PAL 50Hz was probably TOO obvious a problem to point out here, since the OP did make the point that the speed of the other games were fine, and the intro music of SOR2 sounded normal.

That said, if you're going to compare it to SOR 2 footage on youtube, it could likely be comparing 50hz to 60hz, which as already pointed out (in the era where most games were unoptimised for PAL regions), is a significant difference.

[Matt_B]

You might have to put up with a stretched picture or letterboxing, which is why 4:3 sets are preferable for systems from that era...

Matt_B is definitely right about the lag not being a problem.

I just wanted to add that all widescreen TVs have a 4:3 viewing option (check your TV manual if you're unsure)... so a stretched picture should never be an issue for anyone. I've never understood why some gamers prefer to play in 'stretch-o-vision' - it just looks awful.

I'd always go for letterboxing myself, but some people seem averse to having blank space on their TV sets for some reason. Anyway, every widescreen I've ever had TV has given me the option and there's typically a button the remote that'll cycle through the modes too.

[Antiriad2097]

Not hugely relevant to the topic at hand, but I have a TV that won't go to 4:3 for its VGA input. Shame as its a great screen for gaming otherwise with no noticeable lag or ghosting, but that is a pain if emulating via PC or using Dreamcast VGA. I can't abide a distorted image, 4:3 stretched images are a real bugbear of mine.

[Sega_MegaDive]

Out of interest are many Retro gamers in the UK getting NTSC Mega Drives hooked up or is everyone sticking with PAL ?

How do I get my mega drive or another one running @ 60Hz? Can I just hook up a Jap/USA one to my TV? My original in 1991 was actually a Jap import and worked with no probs, but it may have been modified somehow in the store.

[learnedrobb]

I stick with my PAL system.

Its how I remember the games from my youth, so its how I want to replay them now.

[RetroBob]

Out of interest are many Retro gamers in the UK getting NTSC Mega Drives hooked up or is everyone sticking with PAL ?

How do I get my mega drive or another one running @ 60Hz? Can I just hook up a Jap/USA one to my TV? My original in 1991 was actually a Jap import and worked with no probs, but it may have been modified somehow in the store.

Firstly, welcome to the forum!

No need to buy a separate Mega Drive/Genesis... I had several Mega Drives modified. If you are comfortable with soldering (I am not) then you could do it yourself. Mine were done by Andy at Console Passion. You can easily switch between 50Hz, 60Hz as well as NTSC-Japan, NTSC-US and PAL.

http://www.consolepassion.co.uk/modification-services

[Megamixer]

I have switch-modified Mega Drive and it's great. Many games will change between the English and Japanese versions using the region switch though this obviously doesn't work on games like Streets of Rage 3 which were intentionally censored/altered for the West.

[Sega_MegaDive]

Just a little update. I was not having any luck with modding my PAL Mega Drive so I sourced a Japanese one on ebay but it turned out not to be the real deal, so had to return it. It had been modded down to 50hz. Most seem to be like this.

On the bright side I once again tried modding my PAL MD and after many attempts and playing about with various jumper combinations I got it working today with my brothers help! Been playing Streets of Rage 2 in 60Hz and it really is a huge difference (to me anyway). Happy days.

[RetroBob]

Did you not hear back from Console Passion?

Japanese Mega Drive that was modded to 50Hz could actually have been an Asian Mega Drive which was always 50Hz.